Read Voyage for Free Online

faster you get there. Although –’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Although he did put in a fourth option, where we give up manned spaceflight altogether.’ Priest stared at the road ahead. ‘We’re just going to have to see, I guess.’
    ‘Agnew is an asshole,’ York said mildly.
    ‘Maybe, but he’s an asshole who likes spaceships and astronauts,’ Mike said, leaning forward from the back. ‘And that makes him my kind of asshole.’
    ‘Going to Mars is a beautiful idea,’ York said. ‘But it’s science fiction. Isn’t it?’
    Mike squeezed her shoulder. ‘You’ve seen the XE-Prime. We can build this bird. All we need is the money.’
    ‘How much money?’
    ‘It’s not outrageous,’ Ben said. ‘Probably not as much as Apollo, in real terms. The whole program is going to be modular. A few basic components, used in different combinations for different missions. You’d have a Space Shuttle to get to orbit cheaply, a nuclear rocket for long-haul missions to the Moon and beyond, and cans – space station modules – you could assemble in different configurations. You’d put together your Mars ships using space station cans as habitation modules, and nuclear boosters –’
    York felt like arguing, trying to get the unease out of her system – she had been shaken by what she’d seen at the test station. ‘But what’s it all for? More footprints and flags, like Apollo?’
    ‘No,’ Mike snapped.
    There had been an edge of impatience in his voice since they’d left the Flats. She sensed her response there hadn’t been what he’d hoped for.
    He said now, ‘Haven’t you been listening, Natalie? Agnew’s presented a great vision. We could be on Mars by 1982. And by 1990 we’ll have a hundred men in Earth orbit, forty-eight on the Moon, and forty-eight in a base on Mars –’
    ‘Oh, sure,’ she said, bristling. ‘Yes, actually, I have been listening. And I hear that Agnew gets booed when he talks in public about going to Mars. People don’t want this, Mike; the war is fucking up the economy too comprehensively.’
    Ben, gratifyingly, looked startled to hear her swear.
    “Well, I doubt Nixon’s going to buy it all anyhow,’ Ben said.‘The word is he’s leaning a little toward the Space Shuttle, as the one element in the STG proposals to preserve over all the rest. Because it promises low-cost access to space. On the other hand, Nixon likes heroes …’
    ‘But he’s backed into a corner, by what Kennedy said to Armstrong and Muldoon in July,’ Mike said. ‘And by the pro-Mars statements he’s been issuing ever since.’
    York grunted. ‘Nixon hates Kennedy. Besides, Kennedy’s just another opportunist. Do you really think
he
would have continued pumping funds into Apollo the way Johnson did, if he’d not been invalided out of the White House back in ’63? If he’d actually had to
pay
for any of the things he was able to call for, from his wheelchair?’
    ‘Johnson was a genuine space enthusiast,’ Mike said. ‘You’re too cynical, Natalie.’
    ‘Johnson was interested in his own advantage. Why else have you got so many NASA centers in the south?’
    ‘Does make you think, though,’ Ben said. ‘What if Kennedy hadn’t taken those bullets in Dallas? Or – what if they’d killed him, instead of his wife? Without him as a cheerleader on the sidelines, maybe the whole program
would
have got itself canceled.’
    ‘Anyway,’ York said, ‘I just hope that whatever happens this time around they make room for a few scientists among all you
av-i-at-ors.’
    ‘Don’t listen to her, Ben,’ Conlig said. ‘She’s playing it cool. Guess what she keeps on the wall of her bedroom in her mom’s house.’
    ‘Shut up, Mike –’
    ‘Pictures of Mars.’
    Priest looked at her, evidently intrigued.
    ‘Hell, I was just sixteen. For a while I got caught up in all that showbiz about Mariner 4 …’
    Mariner 4 was a NASA space probe which reached Mars in July, 1964. Mariner hadn’t carried the fuel