Chapter 5

I had to add a reflective coating about five minutes later, as the phone was overheating in the unfiltered sunlight. I also added a small fimbulwinter cooler to the flying sphere. With the take off of the spacecraft delayed for another 20 hours, I conjured a big fluffy recliner, and set it in the corner to get some shut eye.

About every 45 minutes, I had to adjust the vehicle’s direction, until finally I had cancelled out most of the thrust vector generated as I had circled the planet, looking for Mars. At 10 am they had gathered all the remaining equipment for the craft, so I spent some time getting it installed. Ben had joined the project, spray painting a Swiss flag onto the craft.

It didn’t look good, so I erased it, and redid it using a layer of colored diamond. I spent some time creating a telescope within the entrance door, the 83 ton diamondium door was 50% denser than regular diamond. I wondered about creating an airlock of some kind. This was primarily an exploration vehicle, once I screwed the door in, I couldn’t imagine needing to open it again, when I could conjure things, like myself hopefully, in and out.

At lunch time I held a naming contest for the spacecraft. Solar Explorer won, so I etched that name in, and filled it in with white diamond. I spent some time after that adding a bathroom that would require gravity to operate. The lid sealed shut, so it wouldn’t spill in micro G, but would also only open if there was a force sufficient to hold down an inner spring. I was pretty happy with my design. The water tank for the system ended up being a two meter thick water wall behind the door.

The bathroom, and a small set of bunk beds for six were all downstairs, along with the power room, all reachable by ladder. In the upstairs flight deck, I placed 6 zero gravity chairs, all with their own big screen, and connected tablet. They were all positioned with the heads centered, and the feet facing the outer walls. A double ladder went up to the observation deck, where the window, and the mounted camera were.

I conjured Val, and handed her a uniform. She excitedly tore off her clothes and slid into the outfit I had forged. The maroon and black jump suit looked great on her form, made of a soft but warm wool, with an interior layer of cyclo18, it was cut proof. I added 4 gold pips to her collar. She gave me a happy salute, then a big hug, and a bigger kiss.

She hurried up the scaffolding to the top of the craft, and then dropped down the ladder into the interior. I lifted the giant screw, made sure the threads matched, and spun it all the way down. The bolts slid in, locking it in place.

I headed back to the control room. Mars was getting big on the screen, the camera was doing a great job showing the red planet as the probe moved ever faster. The 21 hour mark passed, and I cut acceleration. Everyone did their final checks to communicate with the craft, and then I stored it. The probe was aimed just past the approaching horizon, I conjured a pearl in space and felt it leap away from the probe, movement being relative. I pulled my senses back, and sent them thru to the new pearl.

I could sense it’s relative velocity, it was much slower than the probe, but it had some movement. It felt like it was in orbit with Mars around the Sun, but it would take closer measurements to be sure. I returned my awareness to the probe, watching as the planet was rapidly getting larger now. A new countdown timer was running, when it reached the end in just under 20 minutes, I would conjure Val and the Solar Explorer One.

The time clicked over, and the Val sitting next to me reported, “Sending pictures of Mars now.”

A moment later, “No change in apparent size. Motion is halted relative to Mars.”

“How’s being weightless feel?” Doris asked.

“Do you have a distance estimate?” I asked her, overriding Doris’s curiosity.

Konrad was measuring the photo, based on the size of Mars, he was calculating the distance, as closer is bigger, and farther is smaller. He called out the answer, “Somewhere around 5.5 million kilometers.”

“Not close enough,” I said, and I removed the ship, storing it again. I waited five minutes. Then conjured it again. “Give me a new reading on distance.” I ordered.

“3 million kilometers,” Konrad reported.

I stored the ship again, and waited five more minutes, then conjured it for a third time. “Under a million kilometers, hard to be specific,” Konrad reported.

“That will do,” I said, my power flowed out in all directions to it’s limit. No signs of impending collision. I stored my probe, leaving a single pearl flying off at about 27 million kph.

I sat in front of the camera to talk to Captain Val, “Are you ready for acceleration?”

“Secured and ready. What’s my flight time?”

“I’m beginning acceleration at 1G. Turn around in 2.5 hours.” The camera shifted as I turned the craft pointing straight down at the dawn line. “Let’s see if we can identify any surface features. Are there any Mars mapping websites that show the current area in daylight?”

“Marsclock says it’s 3pm, at the prime meridian, but I don’t know what that means,” Big T announced.

“We have a couple hours till landing, so see if you can spot any features.”

“Well, that’s obviously Hellas Planitia,” Doris said, pointing at the screen.

“How long until Mons Olympus rolls around to daylight?” I asked.

“About six hours. Why?”

“I want to perform the self conjure on the east side of the mountain. If there is a blast, it will deflect much of it. The SEO can either land, or stay in orbit on the opposite side of the planet.”

“If this really is a valid concern, so much that you are doing your experiment all the way out there, she should be in orbit on the opposite side of the planet, or even back at Earth!” Big T said.