Chapter 7

The three meters of water on the SE1, Solar Explorer One, made an excellent radiation barrier. With gravity back on, and the microG sex over, we were headed into Mars orbit. With a Me, and a Val, already on Mars, there was no need to land, but from a polar orbit at about 150km, I could scan the entire planet.

Now that we were accelerating at 1G, I started adjusting the craft based on what we were learning. The two meter telescope door was overkill for our needs, but was useful, so I replaced it with a set of two on either side of the door. The screw plug door was interesting, but we really needed an airlock so we could enter and exit.

I reforged the plug, keeping the interior and exterior surface, and the screw threads, but hollowing the space out. Leaving a single support beam between the 1 meter walls, it was now shaped like a dumbbell. I attached a guide, and motor to the inner side of the door, and piped a water line from the tank behind the door to the space inside the door.

I filled the door with water from the tank using a new electric pump. Now if I needed an airlock, I would pump out the water, and screw the bolt inward. The space would open, and I could climb inside. Then the motor would screw it so it moved outward. The door would screw shut behind, and then open out the top. It would be slow, and hard to fit more than a couple people at a time, but it would work, stay sealed, and be impossible to accidently open to vacuum.

My next upgrade was improving the solar cells in the exterior, and adding landing lights, as well as navigation lights. Exterior radio antennas, and radar range finders were all added to the craft. Much of the technology I was taking straight from the Dragon 2 spacecraft, including the new control thrusters. I had located it using my new probe to travel the distance from where I conjured it in New York, to Hawthorne California.

I dropped pearls at various cities as I traveled, creating a series of points that I could conjure to and from. My big score was a just completed Raptor engine ready to transport for testing in Texas. I also snagged a pair of Merlin 1D’s, one sea level and one vacuum variant.

I added storage to the bottom of the craft, and filled tanks, adding nine vacuum engines, the required turbo pumps, and other equipment. Filing the LOX was easy, but it took a detour to a nearby Vandenberg to get a sample of RP1. I filled the engines, then using my power, started them up.

The thrust produced was miserable. My craft, with all it’s water shielding was simply too massive, even for nine engines, putting out a total of 8.8 million newtons of thrust. I fired them until the fuel ran out, which only took a minute. With the tanks empty, I just left them attached. They looked cool, and if I ever had to land the craft on Earth, it would look impressive.

After testing, I went back to adding thrust myself. It did make me realize that I probably needed to greatly increase the fuel tankage of the sixteen attitude rockets I had installed, or just keep them as ornamental. They were going to have the same issue. Once in orbit I could use my power to exactly measure my altitude, making sure I had a nice circular orbit.

The search for life proved empty. Everywhere I looked there was no sign of past or present life. I met with the group around the table at the base, and explained what I had found. “Captain Val and I are in orbit of Mars, and have completely scanned the surface, down to a thousand km deep. There are no signs of life. Past or present.”

“Does that rule out panspermia?” Big T asked.

“Not a clue. I detected no life, or DNA in the stellar wind either. I’ve never liked that theory for the origin of life anyway. Life as a seed pod floating between stars, somehow surviving the dangers of space, while replicating, and not evolving further, working upstream against the solar wind, floating down and still able to replicate in a brand new environment, and only then evolving. Not a fan.”

“So what’s your theory?”

“My theory is that we are here, what’s next is what matters,” I said.

“So is there water on Mars?”

“Gigatons and gigatons,” I conjured and forged a meter wide sphere of diamond, marking out terrain, mineral deposits, water and ice deposits, and other notable features, including the repaired and warming core. I set it on a stand to the side.

“You can check that out later. Mars Val and I are in a nice little house I made at the top of Mons Olympus. We have room for two more guests to help with gardening, and base design before I expand the facilities there.”

That caused a commotion, no one had expected that, as Val hadn’t mentioned it. I connected up my phone to a screen and showed pictures of the house, and the area around it that I had taken.

Doris had her hand up and waving, “Me! Take me.” Konrad was doing the same thing, which made it even funnier.

“Do you want to go as a pair?”

“That’s not fair!” Big T started.

“She’s not going to Mars without me,” Benjamin said.

“I guess we will leave it to couples for now, it’s just a two bedroom house, but they have king size beds.”

“Still not fair!” mumbled Big T.

“I’ll go with you when there’s more room, it’ll be fun.” Amy told him with a sexy wink. He smiled big, but his face fell a bit when he remembered she was part of Odin, and a fully functioning herm. I could see the resignation in his face, as he realized Amy was the only available girl to partner with. As all the Val’s were wearing a copy of my ring now, something Nora and Em had insisted on.

“Can you send me as a twenty year old? That way I won’t feel like the mom of the house?” Doris asked.

“Sure,” I said, conjuring a couple burgers on the table in front of her, and immediately surging my power through her, rewinding her age to a very pretty and pert 21.