Martha, Max and the Bean.

Early, Idea.

The slightly rusting metal gantry Max was perched on creaked as it shook and the tremors even made it sway gently, he cradled his eyes against the glare as the noise of the rocket motors washed over his vantage point. He looked at the scene for as long as he could before he had to turn away. Looking down he saw Martha as usual was totally oblivious to what was going as she ran around the low walkway, but as she was only nine it was what Max expected. Bean was there leaning against one of the pillars, casually brushing off flakes of rust like snow as they fell from the metalwork above their heads. Abruptly the noise stopped and Max looked back at the scene, as the clouds of vapour drifted away he could now see the massive rocket perched on the pad. The old Launchpad they were playing on was strictly off limits but Max knew the way around the wire and he wanted to see this particular event. The railings creaked as Martha sat down next to him.

‘That’s the last engine test’ he said,

‘how long now then, she replied.

‘if there’s been no problems, countdown will begin in two weeks I guess’, Martha looked across at the rocket and sighed ‘well that’s it then’.

Just as the sun started to dip the flashlights appeared and the sound of the old dog barking and coughing drifted across.

The battered security truck pulled up in front of the pad and 2 security guards got out of the vehicle and on old dog jumped out of the back and walked over to bean and promptly sat on him.

‘right you two, down here now’ shouted the larger of the two guards,

‘Chip, Chip the other ones over here, gums has got him’ said the second

‘Ok Brent’ Chip said, looking over to where the viciously fierce Gums was laid on his back having a stomach scratch from Bean.

Max and Marth clambered down from their perch to be greeted by the two guards shining their flashlights directly at them.

‘How many times have we told you guys not to be in here’ Chip asked.

‘Come on, Chip I really wanted to see the last test, and we are not allowed in mission control’ Max replied.

Max was always amazed how Martha managed to curl her bottom lip and make her eyes wet with tears and look like she was about to fall apart so easily, she played this card knowing that Chip having 3 daughters of his own was a sucker for this play. Seeing this he said ‘ok ok, no need for that, just get in the truck and we will drive you home’.

They climbed into the rear cab of the truck, Brent went off to rescue Gums from Bean who was now scratching behind the fearsome hounds ears.

Chip picked up his radio and keyed the talk button, ‘I’ve got them Mr Millcroft’ he shouted into to the mouthpiece. ‘Copy’ crackled the response.

Bean squeezed in next to Martha as Brent lifted the now nearly comatose Gums in the bed of the truck. The truck bed door slammed shut and Brent jumped in, Chip pulling down on the gear stick jammed his foot on the accelerator and simply said ‘Home’.

The truck pulled up outside a row of very similar looking houses, similar cars outside each house, similar looking gardens. The children spilled out of the back, Bean walking across the road to his house and Max and Martha up the driveway towards a man with a stern look on his face, arms folded.

‘Hi Dad’ said Max sheepishly

‘Inside’ was the reply.

They both trudged up the steps into the house. Inside the slightly darkened house another angry looking adult was sat on the sofa.

‘I guess I don’t need to ask where you were’ asked their mother Max replied ‘they wouldn’t let us in to mission control and I wanted to make sure the test went ok’

‘Linda, Bean is safely home’ said the man, ‘Ok, Glenn’ she replied. ‘Max was just telling me that they wouldn’t let him in mission control’, ‘well you know we are only a few weeks away from launch and everyone and everything is on lockdown’ Glenn shouted across the room.

By this time Martha had climbed into her mother’s lap and had curled up and was quietly falling asleep. Linda carefully stroked Martha’s hair, looked at Max and said ‘you know we will have to go into isolation next week, your grandparents fly in on Saturday to take over’. Max looked up ‘I know, I know, it doesn’t make it any easier’ he said.

‘Right, Bed’ Glenn said lifting Martha, ‘Ok, pop’ she said. ‘you too Max, school tomorrow’. Max stood up and grumbling he trudged off to his room.

Max walked into his room and looked around, to anyone else they would think it was a shrine to space and space travel, models everywhere, posters and signs stuck on his wall. Scattered across the floor, bits of paper with news reports he had printed out. He landed with a thump on the bed and grabbed his binder. The title scrawled across the top ‘MARS MISSION’ jumped out at him, ‘Martha had been at this with the glitter pens’ he thought. Flicking through all the information he had collected. There were plans of space craft, lists of equipment, charts with incomprehensible math on them, photo’s of his parents getting awards from the President, a pull out photo of all fifteen of the Mars mission crew, including his parents. There it was, the headline he had printed out, the days the news broke naming all the mission astronauts and scientists. The subheading was ‘World leading astrophysicist and astrogeologist to leave children behind for 3 years’ he hated that line. By the time the headline had come out they had already been told and had time to get used to the idea. His parents had been chosen as not only were they the world leaders in their areas, but they were the right age and through endless triathlon training physically ready for the mission. There had been tears and Martha had thrown some spectacular epic tantrums but once the parents explained some of the secret reasons behind them being chosen reluctantly they had accepted it.

He was just starting to get a little sleepy when his new computer started to blurt out fart noises. He looked across and on the screen was a message from Bean. He walked over laughing like most 12 year olds as his computer continued to fart finishing off with an epic ripping noise that Max thought could not have ended well for the person who did it. He opened the message, ‘Sheila and Manny are cool, just worried that we got too close again, see you at school .B.’

Max thought about Bean, nobody knew why they called him that, he always did because he had a bean shaped birthmark on his neck, somebody had said it was because Bean always had a slightly strange colour to his skin and it reminded them of a lima bean. Whatever it was the name stuck. Max and Bean had been friends for the last year at school after he had moved in with foster parents across the street. Sheila Fernandez a programmer and Manny Fernandez an engineer had no children of their own and had fostered Bean. Nobody knew where he was from and who he was before, he had the name Joe but who had given that name was kind of a mystery. Whatever Max had found Bean been picked on at school by some football players and had stepped in and since then they had become firm friends. Max although smart and strong and fit wasn’t a brain like Bean and although he didn’t want to admit it he needed the help. For his age Bean was a bit of genius with computers and electronics, he had been given an older laptop and some bits of things when he moved in with Sheila and Manny and had promptly reworked and reprogrammed everything to make them run faster, he had even somehow got the screens to project on his glasses. Bean had helped Max so much on his midterms and he had set his new computer up with all sorts of apps and programs. The fart noises being one of the tweaks Bean had put in. It also had a livestream of the cameras from the launch pad, which somehow Bean had managed to tap into. Max replayed the last few hours of the camera footage looking at the rocket test until the camera was obscured. He didn’t really know what he was looking for, there were many, many more smarter people than him looking at it to check for problems or anomalies as the techs like to call them, but it made him feel better. Crawling into bed Max didn’t think he would get to sleep as his mind was racing with thoughts of rockets, fire, red planets, space ships and missions……

A few days later the first set of grandparents arrived, the house was in pandemonium, people everywhere, neighbours popping in, Max’s grandfather Larry was a famous astronaut and still had a lot of friends at mission control and there seemed to be a steady stream of them visiting today. Max headed across the street to see Bean as another truckload of visitors pulled up.

Bean as usual was neck deep in wires and bits of computers in the basement, the Fernandez’s old tv was on in the background with a paused video game waiting for the player to return.

‘can I carry on’ asked Max, Bean with a screwdriver in his mouth mumbled ‘yea it’s on level 3’, max picked up the controller and pressed start and played the game, he wasn’t into them as much as Bean unless it was a shooter or sports. Bean like roleplaying games and often lost himself for several hours creating characters and playing endless quests. Bored after a few minutes he wandered over to see what Bean was working on.

Bean looked up ‘got 3 of these networked together now, should be able to boost performance by 30 percent’ he said. ‘Why’ Max replied. ‘projects’ Bean said. This was Beans standard answer when he wanted to splurge out technical terms but knew that Max wouldn’t understand them. He picked up the old-fashioned brick remote and flicked across the tv channels looking for a ball game or some sport to watch when he came across a reported stood outside the gates of the base. Flicking the sound up he heard

‘the Mars mission astronauts, quarantine time has been brought forward and extended due to an outbreak of measles at a local high school where a lot of base workers children go’ the reporter said,

‘Bean come and take a look at this’ he shouted. Bean looked up but was instantly distracted by a wire that he had somehow connected through the pocket in his hoody to a computer across the room.

‘So all astronauts and mission specialists will go into isolation tonight, also the 5 reserve crew have already been isolated at their base down the coast just in case’ said the reporter.

Before the reporter had finished the last sentence Max was sprinting up the stairs and out of the front door back across the street.

Streaking through the door barging past the various visitors that had turned up, Max looked for his parents, his mother caught his eye as he moved through the living room to where his dad was stood talking to Mike Kelly the flight co-ordinator and Steve Beck the flight director. She tried to head him off but was too late.

‘DID YOU KNOW’ shouted Max ‘IS THIS WHAT THE PARTY IS ALL ABOUT’, Martha bounded up ‘what’s up Max’ she cried ‘everything’s is being brought forward, they are leaving tonight’ he replied. Martha looked across at her parents as the party started to fall silent, Max noticed his grandparents had started to circle around to them as well.

‘DID YOU’ he shouted again questioningly.

Glenn crouching down said ‘we only found out ourselves today, the measles outbreak at the school has got the whole base in turmoil as a lot of specialists and other missions might be affected’

Max looked down at his feet ‘ I don’t care about anyone else, I had two more weeks, two more weeks’ he had started crying at this point and Martha had joined him.

Linda asked everyone to leave and give them some space. Their grandparents were busying themselves making some tea and trying to look like they weren’t listening in.

Glenn and Linda sat down next to Max with Martha stuck to him like glue. They spent the next half an hour explaining everything that was going on and why, but Max wasn’t really listening, over 2 years from tonight before he would see them again was all he could keep thinking. After a while and a lot of hugging Max went into his room and closed the door, he knew the reasons why his parents were chosen to go and he knew that all the space agencies had done everything they could to make the mission safe but he could not shake the bad feeling in his stomach. His computer screen was flashing a simple message from Bean ‘U OK?’, max was glad he had a friend like Bean as he was struggling to cope with all that had happened that day. He had a little space in his closet where he stashed his most treasured possessions, he crawled in there pulled an old NASA blanket over him and looked at the trinkets, an old NASA identity pass, a flashlight from the emergency kit on the space shuttle, a pair of spacesuit inner gloves, these were a modified pair that had never been used with experimental wiring in them but had been not been developed further and given to him by the controller of NASA for helping with showing visitors around mission control one summer. There were some clippings, a medal from a race he had won and a couple of old fashioned instant photos of the four of them taken when they were in Peru when his mom was collecting rocks. Even though at twelve he was supposed to be a tough young man Max cried and when he thought he couldn’t he cried some more.

Probably an hour or two later there was a knock on the door and his grandfather peeked into the room ‘Max, can I come in’ he asked ‘Yes Ok’ Max replied. His grandfather came and with a bit of a struggle sat on the floor next to where Max was laid.

‘Listen Buddy’ he said ‘You have every right to be upset, the mission being moved forward was not expected, but it’s got to be done’

‘Why’ Max asked

‘I can’t tell you the details but the mission is much more important than is widely known’ Max looked up and with a sort of quizzical look on his face said ‘What do you mean’

‘Why do you think that all the space agency’s suddenly put all their different agenda’s aside and came together to get this mission of the ground’ his grandad said, ‘there’s something very important on Mars that your parents have to get to see and report on’

Max thought about this and thinking about American, Russian, European, Chinese and Indian space agency’s all working together he began to see a bigger picture appearing.

‘It still doesn’t change the fact we won’t see them for two years’ Max said, ‘True’ replied his grandad ‘but we will be here, your other grandparents will be here from time to time and you’ve got about a thousand aunts and uncles in the complex to look out for you’

Still not convinced Max got up ‘I need a drink’ he said, ‘Help this old man get up and we will go and get one’ his grandfather said. Max clutched his grandfather’s hands and helped him get up, as they both stood up Max put his arms around his grandfather and buried his head in his chest, his grandfather put his still strong arms around Max and laid a comforting hand on his head, ‘it will be ok’ he said as Max started to cry again.

About ten minutes later they both walked into the living room, Martha was quite happily playing on the floor and seemed to be ok, she leapt up when she saw Max and ran and gave him her patented flying bear hug. Both his parents came over and a large group hug started soon they were all in on in it.

‘Right’ said the ever in charge Shirley ‘These children need feeding, you guys need to pack, NOW’ and with that Max and Martha were ushered into the kitchen and the noise of the plates and cutlery started to be heard.

Larry, looking at Glenn and Linda said ‘he will be fine, it was just a bit of a shock’, both of the parents were looking at the children busy in the kitchen. ‘We got this, now go and get ready’ Larry said.

So the whole family sat down to a meal, the laughter was a little forced and there were some long silences but everyone was trying and that was all that Max cared about. About eight o’clock there was a knock on the door, Glenn opened the door and an agent was stood there, ‘it’s time’ he said. Max looked at him and wondered why they always wore sunglasses, even at night. So after talking about it at dinner, they had decided that it would be a quick goodbye as they would be able to see them in week, but not allowed to get close. So quick hugs all around and off they went. Max and Martha stood on the porch as the black SUV drove away, Bean was stood across the street and waved.

So that was it, Martha yawning was escorted to bed by her grandmother, Max trudged wearily to his room, fell into his bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

The next few days went by in a blur for Max, he couldn’t really focus, he did his best to avoid the constant news reports but it was news all over the world. The Enterprise was on its pad approach after all the stages were successfully attached. The rocket test for the Endeavour the supply and support ship was in final construction. The Endeavour was taking longer to set up as it was unmanned but the top module was the Explorer which was to be used as the planetary shuttle. Max had read about how NASA was going to use the Orion capsule but since the scope of the mission had been scaled up it had been decided to use a combination of NASA design, Chinese engineering a Canadian thruster design and Russian engines and the Explorer was born, Max had plans, books, websites, apps, printouts about the ships and the lander and was fairly confident that he knew his way around all the ships and the especially the Explorer. His dad had explained the mission very early on, the bit’s that weren’t classified anyway and now as sort of watched a news reporter outside one of the hangars he remembered the details.

Already in orbit were six massive supply modules, two strips of three in these included the habitat that was to keep all the crew alive when they finally got to Mars, the habitat had been designed by a Inuit engineer called Paula Yakone who had won a competition after building a full size habitat in the northern reaches of Canada, once the NASA and other engineers had been to see it and saw how it worked they immediately commissioned Paula to create and build a spaceflight and Mars capable version, this habitat soon got the name ‘The Igloo’, when it was finished a large contingent of Inuit elders came down to commission the habitat and gave it the name Uukkarnit with meant ‘calved ice’ but most people called it the igloo. There was also a crew module for the trip, living quarters, orbital station in strip, supply module, robotic pod and fuel station in the second strip.

The Enterprise would take off first with the overall command module containing all the crew, scientists and medical personnel dock with strip one, deploy solar panels, antennas, dishes, a field of scientific instruments and basically be set up as the main vessel. Two days later the Explorer would blast off and dock with the second strip, then assuming all had gone to plan, the two ships would dock together and become one large vessel and then fire the main engines and speed off to Mars. Max had built at least 3 different scale models of the various ships including one massive one his father had got for him that was at least 4 feet long.

He laid on his bed now looking at that model and his eyes lit up, an idea was forming but he need to run it past Bean to see if it was possible.