Project XT 1 Chapter 1     It was a long drive up the mountain, The road seemed to have been heavily used but out here in the middle of nowhere there was no traffic. Security was heavy but unseen. Every mile or so there was a check point with a perimeter fence that seemed to stretch for miles with cameras every 50 yards. A chipmunk couldn'tget through with out being scrutinized. The mountain itself was a long dormant volcano that from the air, nothing unusual could be seen. Great pains had been taken to hide or camouflage anything out of the ordinary. As we came to what looked like the end of the road, a sheer granite wall, there was another check point, after which we seemed to pass through solid rock. I had heard of hologram technology and knew that there were some advances in it but not to this scale For years I had flown militaryy transports and was the caption of Air force1 for about ten years which had given me the top clearance rating in the country. I had even gone through Astronaut training as a back up pilot for the moon shuttle missions. The night before, I received a call from a confidential source and was told that I had been picked for a special project that even he didn't know about. I jumped at the chance, kissed my wife good buy, who was going to be busy with a project of her own, and was flown out that night, which brings us up to now. We were about a mile inside the mountain before my limo came to a stop. At this point we received our security passes and papers plus a code name, mine was camper. Strange name for a pilot I thought. Behind another hidden door, we boarded a sleek monorail that glided effortlessly through a tube like it was on a cushion of air. As we traveled, you could see the lighted wall flash by at frightening speeds. It only took about a minuet and when we stopped I was greeted by a good looking red head with a southwestern accent and taken to my quarters and that I would be contacted in the morning You would of thought I was a king or something. My quarters were spacious, decorated in my favorite colors, Pictures on the walls and a computer work center with all the bells and whistles. There was no kitchen due to there being a 24 hr room service. Finally the bed, you would not believe what I had for a bed, king size, silk sheets, and so soft it was like sleeping on a cloud and of course you know I would be out like a light as soon as I lay down. Seems I no sooner laid down than room service showed up with breakfast, Cream of wheat? Were going to half to do something about that. 7:30 and the boor bell rings again, " come in " I said , The door opens and there stands an attractivewoman in a tan jump suit. " Hi " she said " Im Tweety, i'll be your guide for the next two hours, here's your ajendaa, are you ready?" " Sure am " I replied. Down the hall and to the right was the monorail tube where my ride waited. The driver was wearing a blue jump suit with a patch that said Rosie, " Mornin Rosie" "Good morning Caption" Rosie fires up the turbos and we glide on down the tube. I check the agenda and our first stop is the security center where I meet Lieutenant Redbead. Security personall can be identified by black jump suites with silver trim according to rank. Here my palm print and retina scan was taken and fed into the computer along with a level 10 clearance. There would be no door I couldn't go through including the ice cream locker. The next stop would be orientation, Here I received a half dozen silver jump suits with black caption insignia trim, maps of the base and my scheduals for the next month which started that afternoonn with a briefing. Also there was a hand book with rules and regulations plus keys to the color coded levels, transport tubes and jump suite identification LEVEL 1 ENTRANCE-BLACK This is where most of the security was located and housed LEVEL 2- BLUE Transportation service and maintenance LEVEL 3- GREEN- Hydroponics and food service LEVEL 4-TAN General workers and housing LEVEL 5-ORANGE Medical LEVEL 6-YELLOW Administration LEVEL 7- RED Operations, control room LEVEL 8-PURPLE Machine shops , fabrication and electronics LEVEL 9-WHITE Clean room LEVEL 10 HANGER DECK, LAUNCH AREA Back in my room, I slipped into a pair of my new duds, silk? or something close, then headed out to do some exploring. Since it was almost lunch time I headed for level 4 to check out the lunch room. This is where I met Lieutenant Chim who offered to take me on the grand tour. Advances in hydroponics, gardening and a few other areas allow for the production of 5 times the food crops. There were fish tanks, poultry, sheep, pigs, and goats. Every thing but cows. Ten years ago, a major epidemic of CWD had wiped out all but around 200 cows world wide and these were being watched closely in a sealed environment back east. To top it off, they had fruit trees, everything from bananas to apples. The most amazing thing about this was the fact that while some trees were blooming, others were being harvested, all due to constant climent control so a constant supply of fresh fruits and vegetables was always available Two O'clock rolls around and I take the VTT ( vertical transportation tubes ) to level 6 and my briefing. I was taken to a room where a few other people were already seated at desks, each with several manuals stacked neatly in the corner. A distinguished looking gentleman enters the room and we all snap to attention " Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, My name is General Gray. Im sure you are wondering what your doing here and why these silly code names instead of your real names. I assure its for special top security reasons. Each of you has been chosen as to your special abilities and will be flying in a uneek craft. As you know, we have been flying to the moon for some time and have sent unmanned craft to mars and beyond. For the last 40 years we have been working on some new technology that will put us out there. Your assignments will be as Caption, Camper,-- first officer, Codger,-- Engineering, Bigguy,,-- electronics specialist, Traper,--Science officer ,Rico-- Medical tec, Suger mags,-- Navagation, Hunter,-- Communications, Eddie,---Helm, MeWolf and Dan,--- Cook will be Charlie, each of you have manuals, some general and some specific,, For the next six months you have a lot of studying to do, get to know your team mates and your ship, good day " Once again we snap to attention as the general leaves the room Six months, wow I thought, what am I going to tell my wife. Just then the door opens and in steps trina, my wife " Ice cream anyone" she announces . Being in the food service, her code name " farm gal" fit her to a tee.   The next six months seemed to drag on forever. Endless hours in the classroom and simulators, learning new technologies, memorizing and drilling , practicing any situation you can think of that might arise. It was an exciting time too, getting to know the crew and the anticipation of flying the most advanced ship the world has ever seen, given the chance. The day was fast approaching when we would board the XT-1 and take it on its maiden voyage. It was always a thrill to open the door on level 10 and step into the room where she awaited. It was circular shaped, three stories high, 300Ft. across and light gray in color. I could scarcely wait to get behind the controls and feel the mighty nuclear powered electromagnetic pulse engines spring to life. Only one more week of fine tuning our skills in the simulators, a day of R&R and then the big day. There is one more small detail about the ship that I left out due to security. Its capable of interdimentional travel or as we call it, folding space. To understand how this works, take a piece of paper, draw a dot on one end and another dot on the other end. Instead of moving one dot across the paper to meet the other one, which takes time.simply fold the paper so the two dots are together. To make a long story short, a trip that would take days, months, or even years would take only seconds Today is the day, excitment is running high with every on making final preperations for launch. We all show up at the breffing room as a group and were met at the door by General Gray "Come on in everyone, make your selves comftrable. Today we are going to make history, nothing fancy, but for the first time we will travet to the moon and be back in time for supper, heres the plan At 10AM ,you will lift off and take it up to a stationary orbit where for the next hour you will moniter ships opperations. If all is well, you will make the jump to the moon where you will deliver a new oxygen generator to our base there. When thats done , you jump back to earth orbit and bring her home. Any questions?"   The general accompanied us as far as opts where we continued on up to the launch bay. We were tingling with excitement as we walked up the ramp and took the turbo lift up to the bridge. What a layout that was. The bridge was 25 Ft. across with all the controls and work stations in the center laid out in a semi circle facing outward. Around the outside was a 360 degree holoscreen that when turned on, you could see everything around the ship " OK, Stations everyone, lets see if this crate will do what they say it will, Power it up Bigguy". Bigguy punches in his security code, a few more buttons and throws a main switch. The consoles lit up like Christmas trees and the holoscreen flickered on showing the surrounding launch bay. " Raise boarding ramp" " Ramp up sir" " Engage engines" Bigguy throws a few more switches and we watch as the graviton meter sinks to 0 gravity and there is a distinct increase in a humming noise. " Raise landing gear" The gear comes up and the ship is free floating " XT 1 to control, all controls operational and ready for departure " " Copy that XT 1, opening shy plate"------------" you are free for flight" "OK Dan take her up." Dan slowly eases the joy stick forward and the ship rose out the top of the mountain. Once clear, the ship accelerated to speeds unheard of in the space program. Within minuets we had circled the Earth and were parked in a stationary orbit 200 mi. up. For the next hour we monitored ships systems, did a few experiments and took in the sights. " MeWolf, time to warm up those jump engines, Charlie, break out the ice cream, any one else hungry?" " XT 1 to control, all systems are go for moon jump" " Rodger XT 1, proceed any time your ready" Hunter punches in the coordinates for the moon orbit and MeWolf throttles up the jump drive. For a few seconds , everything seemed to go black. When the lights came back on, there on the holoscreen was the surface of the moon five miles below us. " XT 1 to control, the jump is complete and all systems are go " " Control to XT 1, where have you been! You've been missing for a week. Better get down there, Moon Base Alfa is having trouble with life support and is in need of that oxygen generator. we'll be in contact in three hours, over" "Copy that control, out" " OK Dan, lets take her in" The space dome was already open as we made our approach and Dan gently set her down as if on a pillow. Five minutes later, atmosphere had been restored and a crew was ready to unload the new generator. Before disembarking, we down loaded all our flight information to Earth base for analassis.   As we left the ship there was another surprise. Our guide was none other than the famous Sunshine Holiday who had designed Moon Base Alfa. We received the grand tour after we had taken our things to our quarters and then on to the debriefing. During the video conference with Earth Base, they indicated that they found something but not sure what it was yet. They also decided that we should stay there until the problem was solved At Moon Base Alfa we were treated like royalty but the big question that was on everyone's mind was why was five seconds to us, a week to everyone else? " OK crew, While Earth is working on the problem, we will be working on it from this end, so any Ideas will be taken into consideration                             Chapter 2  http://groups.msn.com/canoing/yourwebpage15.msnw