The Freedom Or Soviet Space Story

THE FREEDOM OR SOVIET SPACE STORY

DISCLAIMER

Dear reader,

Please consider this book a pamphlet. It describes a future world, a possible future. You will see many conflicts including wars and future empires dividing the Earth. Please note that I intended not to discriminate any ethnic group and anyone. Everything I wrote here comes from a single question: what if?

The action does not occur in a specified time. You will find only one clearly shown date: the year 0, which everything is connected to. The year 0 is the birth of the New Soviet Empire. Consider the year 0 to be roughly 80 years from now, where now is the moment you start reading this novel.

Best whishes,

Abida – Cemis (Ana Imfinity).

PART 1 – HOW IT ALL STARTED

“Who is Iosif Leonov?”

“He is the Supreme Soviet”.

“And who are you?”

“I am his only daughter, Ana Leonova. The purpose of my existence is to explore the cosmos”.

THE THREE CRISES

What if everything you know will one day change? If you take a knight from the Middle Ages and show him the world that existed 100 years ago, with electricity, with cars and television, he will hardly accept it and very hardly adapt to it. The same will happen if you take someone from 100 years ago and show him the world we live in today. All the things people took for granted at that time, today no longer exist.

Iosif Leonov, Windows To The Past.

So many things changed in the last hundred years. The elders can still tell us about their youth, about an era when democracy was the hope of anyone. In that time, people had plenty of fossil fuels. The climate was different. Everyone was seeing that the world was heading to globalization, a single world federation ruled by many governments and by international laws.

How surprised people from that time would be to see that everything they believed turned apart. Some people warned that this is going to happen. Many analysts, but also people pretending to have the gift of prophecy, warned the world that many things will change beyond our imagination.

It was the year –50, when the world was hit by a major crisis. At that time, states were borrowing money to pay their debts, which resulted from the many social programs they started. Politicians did this for votes. As time passed, their states and governments could hardly pay their debts. World economies tried to help each other, but at some point it was useless. Some equilibrium still existed until the largest economies in the world could no longer support the massive debts. Banks wanted their money back. They wanted their own governments, their own controlled states. In a desperate attempt to take their states back, politicians took the last solution: hyperinflation, printing money to pay their debts. But it was too much. World economies collapsed almost instantly. Before this, a cup of coffee costs in the USA 5 dollars. After only a few months, it costs over a billion.

This caused all currencies to be useless. World trade came to a halt. Goods could no longer be shipped to the places where they were needed. Soon, famine took over the world. A billion people died of starvation in that period.

But, people came with new solutions, like using gold again as a currency. World economy recovered, only that this time nobody cared about the environment any longer. Nobody tried to limit carbon emissions and pollution.

Well, things did not last like this for long.

Around the year –40, a new crisis stroke the world. This time, Mother Earth was fighting against everyone. The glaciers started to melt at an alarming rate, flooding coastal cities. Massive storms, hurricanes, droughts, hail storms and fires, devastated the land. The Nile ran dry and the Danube was one time larger then the Congo. Another billion lives were lost. Desperate, world governments tried everything. They diverted massive rivers for irrigation and built huge dams to stop the floods. China and India went on war for water. It was a brutal war, which destroyed both states and broke them in small independent provinces.

Finally, world climate reached a new equilibrium state, but people did not understand that they caused all this evil.

Then, around the year –30, a third crisis emerged. This time, it was the fossil fuels that went out. The world tried to survive by using all natural resources that could be extracted: tight oil, shale gas, inferior coal that can be transformed into gas, anything. But soon, people found out that even these resources were exhausted. There was no more fuel for agriculture, no more fuel for transportation and no more fuel for heating homes. Another billion lives were lost.

It was time to find a new solution. Luckily, Mother Earth provides us with alternatives. Still, many rivers were not dammed. Still, there was enough room for wind turbines. The oceans also have tides and waves. Nuclear fuel still is enough and will be enough around us for many centuries. The world needed time to find alternative solutions and to be reborn… for the third time.

THREE DEMONS FROM THE PAST

I see three demons sent by Satan to conquer Earth. They are the reincarnation of evil spirits that ruled empires before we were born. They spread terror all over the world and they will do the same. Now, they are at our world’s door, beating and waiting to get in. Behold, world! The crisis you’ve seen so far are nothing compared to what is to come. They will all three meet in our times and destroy what little is left. A prophecy from the year –23.

Economists warned that violent incidents are possible in the near future. As many states were drawn to anarchy and corruption rose to unprecedented levels, the rise of tyrants is not of question of it, but of when.

In the year –21, the first tyrant came to our world. His name was Samuel Rosenstein. He was a Jew and took power over Israel. He was very young, only 22, but had a strong vision of defeating anyone that ever attacked or discriminated a Jew.

Once in his life, he went to a hypnosis regression. There, he found out that in his last life he was Adolf Hitler, that he spent all the time in hell, paying for his cruel actions. He never believed it and sworn that he will punish all Germans for all the bad they did to the Jews.

Rosenstein started a crusade against all Muslim states surrounding Israel. His actions were of extreme cruelty. All he did, was just the way Hitler did a long time ago. Even more, he was strongly against Christian, Jewish religion and Islam. His religion was more idolatry. Even the Jews hated him, but they followed their charismatic leader.

He annexed all the Middle East, as far as Afghanistan. He conquered the Northern Sahara and Turkey. At that time, the USA and Europe accepted the situation, since many terrorists came from the Muslim World. They thought this will end terrorism.

Then, Rosenstein started a second crusade, against anyone and any state that ever discriminated and tortured Jews. His main target was Germany. But to get there, it was a long way. The first and most violent fight was to conquer Romania, which supported Hitler in world war II. It was a bloody fight, as all states in Western Europe fought against Rosenstein. But still, many European states did not send troops, as they all knew the atrocities committed by Nazi forces against the Jews. Millions died on the battlefield, but, nevertheless, he won. After this, he annexed Hungary and Croatia, which also helped Hitler. Then, he conquered Austria and Germany. There, what he did, is nothing else but a genocide. He killed all Germans in detention camps, using the same methods the Nazi used against Jews.

He did not stop yet. Other states that joined Hitler and to pay the price: Italy, Spain, Ukraine, which killed its Jews to gain support from the Germans, Sweden and Finland, all were conquered. And in all territories, Rosenstein made large scale massacres, killing sometimes 40% of the population. It seems that nobody could stop him.

Then, he heard that Stalin sent all Jewish defectors back Nazi Germany. Rosenstein wanted to teach the Russians a lesson… and so, he tried to conquer Moscow. It was a failure. The Red Army managed to stop him. Just like Napoleon and Hitler, Rosenstein was defeated by a cold winter. Still, he destroyed all cities on the way. Finally, he targeted Argentina, which protected many fugitives from Nazi Germany. This time, the Argentinean government agreed and gave him all German descendants in exchange for peace. After this, he conquered China and India, which were no longer two large states, but a multitude of small provinces.

As many Jews wanted to, Rosenstein tried to rebuild the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Work started, but, without explanation, everything that was built, crashed in less then a day. This lasted for about 10 years. No scientist could find a solution. Rosenstein himself went to the building site and executed all the workers twice. The third time he visited the site, everyone could hear all buildings collapsing and a voice saying:

It is not to be in your time. The temple will be rebuilt, but not now.

Rosenstein, after this, turned against God and towards idolatry.

The second important figure took power in the year –9. He is Leonard Bohr. He was chief of the US military. At that time, it was clear that the democracy in the US was falling apart. The richest people requested that the president should be replaced with a dictator, able to take fast decisions and build an army strong enough to face the Jewish Empire. He was around 34 years old and with a strong temper.

Leonard Bohr went once to a hypnotic regression and he found out that he is a tyrant from ancient Rome. In his last life, Rome gave him absolute powers to stop the barbarians from attacking the city. He never believed it.

The president ordered a referendum. 89% of the population, afraid of an invasion, agreed to give absolute powers to Bohr. After this, the president resigned. Bohr was official recognized as the dictator of USA. Elections were supposed to happen after four years, but that never happened. Soon after this, Canada, Mexico and all states in South America joined the US and accepted Bohr’s authority. The same happened around the Pacific, where Australia, New Zeeland, United Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Taiwan joined the US dictatorship to protect themselves. What remained independent in Europe, the British Islands, France, Norway and Poland, joined the US too. South Africa and Namibia also joined the dictatorship. Antarctica, which now lost almost all its glaciers, was annexed.

Bohr quickly established a new political regime. He removed all social politics, all ecological organizations and all ONGs from power. He did anything to stimulate the economy grow fast and the army to get tougher.

Many people understood loud and clear that this is the end of democracy.

Then, in the year –2, a meeting occurred between Samuel Rosenstein and Leonard Bohr on a military ship at the North Pole. There, the two signed a peace treaty, dividing the world in two. The Jewish Empire was to control almost all Africa, Asia and Europe, while the American Empire was to control both Americas, small territories in Africa, Europe and Asia, Australia, Antarctica and the Pacific. This treaty left almost all the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans under American sovereignty and the Indian Ocean under Jewish sovereignty. Also, almost all of Africa and the Northern Asia and Europe were sentenced under Jewish sovereignty. Later, Bohr wanted the Northern Siberian tundra and got it on paper.

The American Empire started to build military bases on the oceans. Ocean cities started to form. It conquered states like the Philippines or Fiji, which wanted to remain independent. On the other hand, the Jewish Empire annexed Africa without problems. The only territory which remained disputed, is Botswana. After many negotiations, it was split in two and annexed by both empires.

THE YEAR ZERO

There is nothing like the scream of freedom. Not famine, nor a deadly plague or money or anything else can be compared with. Freedom is the most important thing and is the call that made us all wake-up from our deadly sleep. Iosif Leonov,Windows To The past.

The year zero is the moment when a third demon came from the past and the birth of the New Soviet Empire. At that time, the Jewish Empire was advancing from South and the American Empire was invading from North. They already drew borders, not caring about local population. A long time ago, this land was known as the Soviet Union. Over time, it fragmented into many parts.

It was the year zero, in January, just after the Orthodox Christmas, when a man came with a group well prepared for this task and took control of the Kremlin. This man is Iosif Leonov. Not much is known about his past. His father was Adge Leonov, an important figure from Northern Caucasus, Muslim, who liberated the Northern Caucasus from Russian domination. His mother was a beautiful Russian woman, Daria Leonova, which had many connections with neo-communist organizations and the mafia. She was a convinced Orthodox Christian and requested all her children to be baptized.

Iosif Leonov took power by killing the president and forcing all important political figures to resign. It took only a few hours. Then, he stood in front of television cameras, at the Lenin memorial, telling everyone:

Long ago, we had a glorious name, which sent waves of fear to our opponents. We were Soviets. Nobody dared to fight with us. At that time, we took the tzar out and released ourselves from his chains. We took our future in our own hands. We reversed history and tried to build a powerful union, where every single human and every nation can live in freedom.

It was Lenin who teached us the way to build a glorious future. Many of us still proudly learned at school about Lenin and his vision of the world.

Where is the Soviet dream? Where did we go wrong? And why are the enemies trying to conquer our homelands? The answer is that we abandoned the dream, the vision which Lenin made us follow. We shall repair the past. We shall rebuild our world, but avoiding the mistakes we did in the past. People should no longer be used as slaves in the gulag. There will be religious freedom and every nation shall have its right to self-government itself. It is now time that we take our future in our own hands again. We shall free ourselves from the imperial forces that try to conquer our homelands.

People from all over the world, unite and stop the imperialism of those who try to exploit you! The mighty Lenin is twisting in his tomb, looking at us. We shall make him proud of us! We shall make him feel that we are his disciples!

On that day, January 11th, year zero, the New Soviet Empire was born. It was a very small state, covering only the city of Moscow.

What is also known about Leonov, is that, during a hypnosis regression, he pretended to be the reincarnation of Trotsky, the man Lenin chosen to be his successor. Unfortunately, Stalin took power and later killed Trotsky. Leonov took this very seriously. He wanted to avoid all mistakes from past and rebuild the Soviet dream.

Leonov united the surrounding states around Moscow, which seen him as their only hope to stand against the invaders. He did not exploit those who joined him. He considered people from these territories as friends. This way, he united a lot of small states, from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean.

Then, he was asked for help from places that once were part of the Soviet Union. People from South Volga Basin requested his help to stop the Jewish Empire from advancing. The same happened in North, where the Ob an Enisei rivers flow into the ocean, to stop the American Empire. Leonov proved himself to be an excellent military leader. He avoided to fight face to face. Instead, he usually planned to burn the land and poison the sources of water, then to attack behind and cut down supply lines. When the American Empire tried to conquer Norilsk, he evacuated the town, letting the enemy to enter, then sieged it.

His military tactics were very efficient, forcing his enemies to surrender or suffer massive losses.

Later, people from South-East Europe plains asked for help. He accepted and went to an offensive campaign. Again, his success was beyond question. He liberated and annexed Ukraine, the whole Caucasus and Aral Sea Basin. The people from the Balkans asked for help and he accepted it. The Jewish Empire seen Soviet troops reaching Southern Greece and were unable to stop them. His liberation campaign continued in Mongolia, Tibet, the land of Uighurs and Manchuria.

Fighting with the American Empire, he wanted to secure the Arctic Ocean, which he managed easily. Then, he advanced and annexed Alaska, because people there requested his help. Even more, he tried to liberate Germany, but found it to be completely destroyed. He kept Poland.

But this was enough. He realized that there is no way he can continue the fight.

At that time, Samuel Rosenstein started to go paranoia. He was no longer the charismatic leader he were, but a ruthless dictator who was equally torturing his own people. Still, the power of his empire was getting stronger. He ordered many nuclear warheads to be built. In the same time, Leonard Bohr planned to fortify his power, building more and more military bases at the borders of his empire.

The Jewish and American empires almost started a nuclear war for Africa and their control over Western Europe. Iosif Leonov realized that the atomic race will start again. Even worse, he understood that the Soviet Empire will be a target if both empires decide to fight together, side by side.

IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE

If you cannot learn from the past, it means you will have no future. If you cannot think for the future, it means you had no past. Finally, if you don’t take into equation both the past and the future, it means you have no present. Iosif Leonov – A declaration in year 9.

Iosif Leonov tried to fortify his empire in a different way. His idea was something between communism and capitalism, something like in Lenin’s time. He chosen never to repeat the errors of the past. The whole territory of the Soviet Empire was divided into republics and each republic into autonomous regions. He guaranteed internal freedom to ethnic groups and complete religious freedom.

Then, he did something else. He tried to heal the wounds of the past. Who destroyed the Soviet dream? The answer is Stalin. What Lenin started, was like a dream. Lenin was a visionary, but Stalin was a murderer. Stalin sent to gulag millions of innocent people. Many died from his orders. Many more starved to death or lived in fear. Entire ethnic groups were departed… and many of them, never returned even to this date. This is something that Leonov decided to change once and forever. He stated that very clear in a new law:

Everyone shall have the right to return home. Every people must have the right to return to its homeland. The Volga Germans, the departed Koreans, the Tatars, they are all free to return to their homeland. Those who live outside our borders are also free to return. All Circassians, Abkhaz and Nogai people are welcome to return. Nobody will be allowed to stop them. Except for some military facilities, they shall all be allowed to return. Anyone who tries to stop them from returning, is guilty and will face punishment, possible including deportation.

After this, millions came. Not only descendants of former departed people, but many immigrants decided to come. The Supreme Soviet ordered new villages to be built, land to be given and even towns to be constructed.

This was not seen with good eyes by the other two empires. Leonov received many warnings. For him, it was clear a war is becoming inevitable.

THE NIGHT THAT CHANGED HISTORY

If you ask people what do they know about the old Soviets, they will tell you two things: gulag and spaceships. If you ask a historian to tell you a few words about the old Soviet ideology, he will tell you short: a freedom that turned into slavery. This is the bitter truth. The old Soviet Union was formed for the people, for the workers and the farmers, but ended-up as a place of torture and famine. It is really shocking how they did the opposite of what they were supposed to do. Ana Leonova, writing in her diary.

It is late night. Iosif Leonov, the Supreme Soviet, recovered an old statue of Lenin and ordered it to be placed in the Red Square. He wanted no parade, saying that we must not repeat the mistakes of the past. But now, he cannot sleep. He looks at the world map, now clearly divided into three empires. Even the oceans are divided. He moves a finger over the map, to West, to where once Germany was.

“What is wrong, dad? You cannot sleep?” asks a voice.

It is Ana Leonova, his daughter. She is only 18, but very smart. People commented about her unusual outfits. She likes to look pretty. She wears long white thigh boots, long gloves and a shiny dress. Her blonde, long hair, flows over her shoulders.

“You know many Germans came here to save their lives”, says the dictator.

“I know”, she answers. “And I know what message you’ve got from Rosenstein”.

“Give them back to me or face an invasion”, he answers. “But now the Jews have atomic weapons. And the Americans want back Alaska. I don’t want to give them what they want. Even if their forces are growing, we must not look weak. We must answer in their language. If I give up, they will ask for more”.

“Don’t give up, dad!” she says, holding his hand. “Remember Lenin, how much he suffered until he gained power. We must find a way to prove the world that the Soviet dream is not dead”.

“This is what I am thinking”, he says. “We need something to prove them that we are powerful. But what?”

Ana takes a pack of cigarettes from a pocket and lights one.

“I told you many times that you should stop smoking”, he says. “This is what killed your mother”.

“No, she got cancer from atomic radiations”, she answers, short. “I am not going to die from this”.

“There is a man, which defected here from the American Empire”, he continues to say. “He was a chief scientist at NASA. He worked at nuclear rockets. Bohr wants me to bring him back”.

“Don’t do that!” she says, looking in her dad’s eyes. “They will kill him”.

“I won’t”, he says. “Even if they offered me a hundred times his weight in gold”.

Ana looks surprised. Her cigarette almost falls from her gloved hands.

“He is now a Soviet citizen and deserves our protection, like everyone else here”.

Ana gets closer to the map and blows smoke towards America. Then she looks around and finds a blackboard. There, her dad uses to draw pans. She takes a piece of chalk and draws the moon, the sun, Saturn and a few stars. She returns to the map. She puts her cigarette on the map, just above Moscow, then takes it to the blackboard and moves it around the stars.

“What is it?” he asks, looking surprised.

“Remember when the Old Soviets launched Sputnik?” she says. “The whole world watched it. Now, I know what we need to make the others respect us”.

“What?” asks her father. “Launch a new satellite?”

“No, dad”, she says, taking the cigarette to her mouth. “We need to go to the Moon, to the planets, to conquer space!”

The Supreme Soviet looks to his daughter, not understanding.

“Do you think that will work?”

“It worked in past”, she says. “Now, there’s been over a hundred years since the last man walked on the Moon. We should go to Mars or Venus”.

“Do you think we can do that?” he asks, looking her daughter carefully.

“Dad, just open the internet”, she says. “Type old Soviets and see. The first two topics you will find are spaceships and gulag.

“Gulag”, he whispers. “I know. Mainly because of that monster, Stalin. He invented the gulag”.

“You said that we shall never do the mistakes of our past”, she says, playing with her cigarette. “We should continue what is good and repair what is bad. Are these not your words, dad?”

“Yes, they are”, answers the dictator.

“Many teens, take myself as an example, ask why we never went back to the sky. The former International Space Station, which we built, lies abandoned in the cosmos. Dad, listen me. This is the way”.

“My child”, he says, “I will try. Tomorrow, we will start this. But, since you insist, you will be in charge of it. You will supervise the project. Try to make our comrades proud of you”.

“Thank you, dad”, she says, putting the cigarette in an ashtray.

At that night, Iosif Leonov decided to invest less in military and divert a part of state’s income for space exploration.

But who is Ana Leonova? Many people know nothing about her, only that she is becoming to have a more important role in the New Soviet Empire. Her mother was a Volga German, a Lutheran Christian. She was very smart and worked all her life in a nuclear power plant. Between her and Iosif Leonov, it was a very powerful love. She died of cancer and he never got married again. He grew his only child alone, with his own forces.

Ana lost her mother at the age of 11. Then, at the age of 13, she witnessed another tragedy. She was the victim of a sexual abuse. For over an year, she could not live a normal life. At that time, she had endless nightmares. She could not support to be touched by a man. She could not support the smell of men sweat, even of her father’s. Later, she recovered, but never completely. She remained a sfenist, a person unable to sustain sexual relations. Her personality changed. She became unconventional, very cautious with men and always trying to fight her own way.

Unlike the Old Soviets, Iosif Leonov never forced people to follow a certain way of living. He gave religious freedom. His mother was an Orthodox Christian, his father a Muslim and his wife a Lutheran. He declared himself an atheist, but showed respect to all religions. He went to the Orthodox Christmas, to the Chinese New Year and to the Muslim Biram, showing his respect to the people.

Leonov always was against people with uniforms, as he called the way of dressing of the old Soviets. He always worn a costume, but his daughter was always allowed and even encouraged to be beautiful and wear what is the fashion of the moment. However, he never had mercy to her when it was about working. From a young age, he started to prepare her, to give her responsibilities. Even at her young age, he gave her many things to do in the state. And not only to her. Leonov likes to hire teens in important positions. He always said: They are our future. They will see the Soviet Dream with their own eyes, while we will not live to see it fulfilled.

Despite this, Ana Leonova lacks the vanity one would expect. She never considers herself superior to other people. Her father explained her many times how things are: We are here for the people. We are here to help them and not to help us. We are to build them a better world and to stop the others from destroying our world. They, the people, are the important ones, not us. This is how she grew-up.

The next day, on February the 1st, year 10, the Supreme Soviet has an important meeting and talks about a future space program.

PART TWO – BACK TO SPACE

What is worse? To be lied in a democracy or to be forced by a dictator?

FIRST SPACE COUNCIL

A puppy must get out from its shelter and explore the world. Bees leave their hive and explore the world for flowers. Wolves send scouts out of their pack. In the same way, us, humans, must go beyond. If we just sit here on Earth and watch the sky, we are doing nothing. It was time to go to the cosmos over a century ago. Now, it is high time that we go back. Iosif Leonov, speech to the space council.

Iosif Leonov, the Supreme Soviet, had a speech with all his generals about a future space program. It happened behind closed doors. He explained them loud and clear that this appears to be the only way to make the other empires think before attacking. At the meeting was also present Ana Leonova, his daughter. Another guest was Alan Green, an American defector, which Leonov highered for the project.

Most generals were optimistic about the project. They saw in this the reborn of the Soviet dream.

“We should walk on the Moon”, said one general.

“This will boost the moral of all our citizens”, said another one.

“But what if the other empires will join in a space race?” asks a third general, a woman. Leonov gained freedom to women to gain political positions, equal to men.

“In this case, we have to be one step ahead of them”, said Leonov.

“And who will be in charge?” she asks again.

“We have here two people which are ready to start working”, said the dictator. “One is Alan Green, which I want to say a word to you all right now. Please, come in front of us and tell us all what you have to say”.

A 60 years old man comes in front of everyone. He is a bit shy, but, nevertheless, he steps in front and says:

“It is an honor to be in front of you all. I am not a politician, but a scientist. When I was a teen, I hoped that America will finally start a manned mission to Mars. It was my parents’ and my grand parents’ dream. They also worked for NASA. But this never happened. The American Empire wanted me to build ballistic missiles against you and against the Jewish Empire. I could not do that. The purpose of my life is not to kill innocent people. Because I refused, they wanted me executed. I ran to you, hoping that the Soviet dream will inspire you to go back to space. As a child, I loved to read about the first Soviet rockets. Now, I am here to help you. I will dedicate my life, my knowledge and my resources for space exploration. You accepted me and gave me Soviet citizenship. Now, I am one of you. We will show the American Empire that we are stronger and we will go to the stars before anyone else!”

People applause him.

“You see”, continues the Supreme Soviet, “he is ready to do anything he can”.

“There is only one thing”, says Alan Green. “I am a scientist, not an entreprenour. I need to build a team. We need many things. To build a spaceship, we need to build a rocket, to produce fuel for it, we need a factory, we need parts for scientific equipment and we need to test them in an environment similar to space”.

“Comrade, I have the person you need”, says Leonov. “My daughter, Ana. She will help you build a team. She is very good in organizing. She will get you the men you need and help you build everything needed. From now on, I place my daughter Ana Leonova as commander of the New Soviet Space Program. Does anyone have anything to say?”

Nobody answers. The only person who looks surprised is Alan Green. He doesn’t trust a teen in command of such a large-scale operation. Leonov realizes this and says:

“Everything that was discussed today, is because of her. She came with this idea. I tell you this not because she is my daughter, but because her idea could make the other empires think twice before attacking us. I agree to divert 5% of state budget to space exploration. The military will have its funds reduced from 25% to 20. I know what you will say, but in case of a nuclear war, nobody will win, including us”.

There are some rumors among the generals. Not everyone is pleased with this decision. However, it is clear for anyone that only this way an invasion can be delayed. Well, delayed, not stopped.

HOW TO…

Everything made to last must start with a good planning. Quotes from Lenin.

How to build something from zero?

Ana Leonova takes Alan Green to her office, to discuss the project in details. The American scientist is not pleased to be around this young lady. He has no other ptions. This is the only way to get the project done.

Her office is not a luxurious room one would except. By far, not. It is a large room with simple furniture, a large screen and a blackboard. There are two desks, a few chairs and a coach. Nothing more.

“Winters are much colder here then in America”, says Alan Green, trying to heat his hands.

Ana takes off her fur coat and smiles. Now, she appears like a naughty girl, with a black shiny dress, thigh boots that vanish somewhere beneath her dress and long gloves. Alan can see on her dress, written with red, shiny letters: I am not for your entertainment, in English, Russian and Hebrew.

“Coffee?” she asks, lighting a cigarette.

“Yes, thanks. I am freezing”.

“That’s how you walk in America?” she asks. “Here, you need other kind of clothes. Just a second, your coffee will be ready. I have a coffee machine behind the desk”.

She waits a bit, for the scientist to feel more comfortable, then she sits on her desk, saying short:

“What do we need?”

“For what? To go to cosmos? How far are you planning to go?”

“How far do I plan to go?” asks Ana, playing with her boots. “As far as possible. How about this: a ship to Mercury, a ship to Venus, one to Mars, one to Jupiter, one to Saturn, one to Uranus and one to Neptune, then one to Ceres, one to Pluto, one to Eris and to Sedna, then another one to the Moon, then one to the Sun and… just keep doing that”.

Alan watches her talking, very surprised of all he hears. That is his life dream, to explore the cosmos.

“You mean, a ship to each planet?” he asks, with his voice almost shaking.

“Yes”, she answers, lighting a new cigarette. “You heard it loud and clear. What do we need to make that possible?”

“First of all, you need rockets”, he says, finishing his coffee. “We need to build rockets, at least one for each destination… And you just sayd… at least ten destinations”.

“At least ten destinations”, she says, mixing her words with smoke. “Manned and unmanned missions”.

“You mean, a manned mission to Mars?” asks the scientist, pointing Ana in her green eyes.

“Yes”, she answers. “But not only to Mars. How about a manned mission to Pluto?”

“Are you serious?”

Sure I am”, she says, a bit disturbed. “So, what do we need to make these missions possible?”

Ana goes to the drawing board and starts writing.

“These are the missions I planned”.

“When?” asks the scientist.

“Since I was a child. I dreamed about it. I will write them here”.

She starts writing, one after another, then adds a few new ones:

Sun mission Mercury mission Venus mission Moon mission Near Earth asteroid mission Mars mission Ceres mission Jupiter mission Trojan mission Saturn mission Uranus mission Neptune mission Pluto mission Haumea mission Eris mission Sedna mission.

“There will be unmanned and manned ships”, she continues, “to each planet, major moon and major asteroid. In each mission. Now, you have to tell me what do we need”.

“Shouldn’t we start with unmanned ships?” asks the scientist. “I think this is better for a beginning”.

“Ok”, says Ana, lighting a new cigarette.

“What do we have?” asks the scientist. “Is there anything left from the Baikanour cosmodrome?”

“It is used for commercial launches now. We should build a new one”.

“Ok, but where?”

COSMODROME

You cannot have trains without railway stations and you cannot have sea navigation without ports. A quote from Lenin.

In the days of the Old Soviets, space exploration was kept secret. Only when a mission was successful, it was made public. The same should apply now. But where to build and where to launch a rocket? Before even going to space, you have to build the needed infrastructure to actually construct a spaceship. Ana Leonova found the best place: the former Aral Sea. The sea is almost completely dried, with only a few border lakes that are used for fishing. All the rest is a salt-covered desert, filled with deadly chemicals.

Actually, this location is not far from the old cosmodrome, but it is much safer.

In the center of the sea, there was an island, Vozrozhdeniya. People call it shortly, There, the Old soviets had a research facility which they used for biological weapons. Now, all is abandoned. Nobody lives within 100 km radius. To the North, at roughly 50 km, another former island can be seen. It’s Barsa-Kelmes. A few lakes still are around it. Some of them are filled with fish, while others are filled with salt and deadly chemicals. Not far, to North, at only 60 km, lies another former island, Kokaral. This one is encircled by manmade lakes, which restored in part the former sea. And 80 more km to North-East, lies the former port Aralsk, which also has a railway connection.

Ana’s first decision was the construction of a railway and a highway connecting Aralsk with the three former islands. Her decision is to build a city at Kokaral, all the needed factories at Barsa-Kelnes and the cosmodrome at Voz. Both the railway and the highway run parallel for 200 km, through a salt desert.

The new railway is made for trains to travel with 100 km/h:

Aralsk – Kokaral Space City: 79 km, time to travel: 52 minutes Kokaral – Barsa-Kelmes Space Factories: 64 km, time to travel: 43 minutes Barsa-Kelmes – Voz Aral Cosmodrome: 57 km, time to travel: 39 minutes Total length: 200 km, time to travel: 134 minutes.

Then, Ana found another major problem: the lack of water. All available water is scarce and highly polluted. An alternative source is needed. The only possible solution is the construction of a long pipeline, bringing water from Siberia, from Irtysh river. Only then, construction of the city, the factories and the cosmodrome could start.

It is winter. The Aral is not Siberia, but still winters are cold. Even if the climate is no longer as it were in the 2000’s, snow still falls. No matter the costs, she wants all to be done and fast. She orders the railway and an unpaved road to be built first. Concrete will come to the road later in spring. Rail tracks come assembled and ready to be laid. She does not tolerate any delay. In spring, access must be ensured. The water pipeline is also being built fast. 200 km of railway and 600 km of pipeline are ready within two months.

But this is by far not enough for her. Just as the tracks reach Kokaral, she orders construction of the city to start. People will live in apartment blocks. And how do you design a city from nothing? She decides to copy an existing one… or at least part of it. She copies a part of Norilsk, but adapted to the environment of the Aral. The strong winds are a problem, so she decides to plant a forest around.

The same happens at Barsa-Kelmes, where she starts building the facilities. Alan Green came with some ideas, but Ana takes them beyond the limit. For example, he adviced that building ships on an assembly line is cheaper. She takes the idea further and plans factories for this task.

At the former Voz island, not much is done yet. There, one can see only a rail terminal and a few buildings. Where launching platforms will be, one can now see only large holes, waiting for cement.

As spring comes, work is in progress. The factories and the town will need energy. Many wind turbines are built in the desert, around the remaining West Aral Sea. Without fossil fuels, we only have to use what nature provides us with. Building spaceships is far more difficult then in past. The only available fuel is liquid hydrogen and the only oxydizer is liquid oxygen. In past, spaceships used hypergolic propellant. Now, this is no longer an option. Hydrogen, even liquefied, has a low density. Fuel tanks need to be very large to host it. A large fuel tank means high friction forces with the atmosphere, which means that a lot of fuel will be lost to push the ship to cosmos.

ANA’S WARNING

Scientists are very good on finding solutions, but sometimes, you need someone without much knowledge to give you an idea. Alan Green

Spring is approaching. Ana Leonova decides to visit the working places, not telling anyone about her visit. She heads to Aralsk by plane. The town sleeps, waiting morning to come. From the airport, she takes a taxi to the railway station, taking the first train to Space City. Only people with an access permit can go there. She waits to get to the train, just like all workers do. Nobody has any idea who she is. When the guards see her access permit, they simply accept her, not realizing who she is.

The train starts moving in the night, rolling over the desert. As morning comes, the landscape becomes visible. It is an endless dry steppe. Suddenly, the land becomes green, as the North Aral Sea appears. The train is not crowded and people are taking a nap on the journey. Everyone might be sleeping, but not her. She watches how the train passes over two long bridges over the sea and looks at the concrete road that is built along the railway. Bridges are large, allowing for the railway, the road and the water pipeline to pass together.

The train arrives at the Space City just in time, with no delay. Ana steps out and lights a cigarette. Wearing a workers’ fur coat, she looks like all the workers crowding around. She starts walking by foot. The city is almost completed. People will live in concrete blocks, which are aligned all around on parallel streets. Streets are completed. She walks for an hour around. Minor finisages are still being done. Everything looks just as she planned.

She even goes to a shop, to buy something to eat, making sure that everything is functional, that people have their food and prices are not skyrocketing.

Then, she takes the train further away, to the Space Factories. Now, it is already day. The train reaches its scheduled speed. The city is surrounded by 10 km of planted trees, which will form a forest. Then, she sees the new lakes, which will bring some life to the desert. Here, not many plants can be seen. The area is a desert, covered with salt. The road and the water pipeline are completed. Then, as the train reaches former Barsa-Kelnes island, salt vanishes. Soon, the train stops. Here, almost all workers leave.

Ana gets down from the train and starts looking around. A cold, winter wind, blows around. Behind the station, there is a large concrete boulevard, with a few buildings on. She starts walking around. The only completed factory is the one that will provide fuel, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Behind it, fuel will be stored underground in large tanks. This factory will produce fuel from water hydrolysis. There is not much else built around. Instead of building factories, workers are building streets, institutions and parks.

Not satisfied with this, Ana returns to the railway station, waits nearly two hours and takes the train to the last stop, Aral Cosmodrome. Now, the landscape changes dramatically. It is all a white, flat salt desert. The mighty Aral Sea is long dead here. No plant can grow in this wasteland. The railway stretches over salt, together with the completed concrete road. There is also another railway, very large and solid, that will carry rockets to the launch platforms.

Then, the train arrives to former Voz Island. There is no more salt here. Plants grow in the flat steppe. It is the last railway station. But, as Ana finds out soon, there is not much around. The road ends here, together with the water pipeline.

During the Old Soviet Union, here was a research facility for biological weapons. It is said that the land is contaminated with anthrax spores. The old town where scientists once worked, is still visible.

The wind is stronger here, cold and blowing salt. You can almost taste it. But, Ana is not bothering with the wind. She is upset that there is nothing built here. She can see no space platform, just a few office buildings.

She goes directly into the main office building, takes off her fur coat and goes directly to the door where cosmodrome director should be. She opens the door and finds a few men talking.

“Where is my spaceport?” she asks, lighting a cigarette.

Everyone looks scared.

“Who is in charge here?” she asks again. “I thought we will have a launch in this spring”.

“We are waiting for technical specifications to build the first platform”, answers someone.

“So, the platforms are not designed yet?” she says with anger.

“We are waiting for the first rocket to be conceived, so that we can build the first platform”.

“Why is the project lacking?” she asks again. “We must go to space soon”.

“We are just builders”, answers the same person. “We are waiting for a project to start working. Without a project, we don’t know what to do”.

“So, this is it!” mumbles Ana. “You have no project. I will come with one, even if that means that I will draw it personally”.

Ana Leonova heads back. She takes the train and goes to Space Factory, where the scientists should be working. As she travels over the white salt desert, she writes in her diary:

The Aral Sea. In the 1960’s, it was a sea in all aspects. The Old Soviets diverted its feeding rivers for irrigation. The sea is long gone. We destroyed it. Now, all what is left is salt, an endless desert. Nothing else. The sea is dead, except for a few fishing lakes that could be saved with what little water flows in. My father said that “we shall never repeat the mistakes of the past”. The space project will bring water and prosperity in a zone that is economically dead. But until we reach that point, there is a long road that we have to walk on.

Ana arrives at the Space Factories. She directly goes to the science directorate, where all scientists should be discussing about how to build the next ships. She knows the place well from drawing maps. And yes, where the conference room should be, she hears noise. People are talking inside. She comes close to the door and listens. They are talking on, it is almost like they are ready to start a fight. She wants to enter and shout at all scientists, asking them why the projects are not ready and why the work is not finished.

“No, Ana”, she says to herself. “Just calm a bit. You need a different approach”.

She goes to another room, to a wardrobe. There, she changes to her usual clothes. The guard is shocked to see Ana Leonova in person, without any personal guard and without any announcement on her visit. She comes out wearing black thigh boots, black gloves and a knee-long green dress. Not saying anything, she goes to the conference room and enters.

As she appears, everyone gets silent. She carefully looks at all of them. Professor Alan Green is at the main desk, with a blackboard filled with drawings. At other desks, she can see a lot of figures which she knows more or less. Two of them are scientists from Baikonour, rocket experts. She closely looks at the blackboard and examines the drawings.

“Why is the program delayed?” she asks, loud and clear.

“We don’t come to an agreement about the ships we need to build”, answers Alan Green. “Soviet technology is different from American technology”.

“Is it so?” asks Ana, lighting a cigarette and sitting directly on professor’s desk.

“In America” says the professor, “we do a lot of calculations before building a rocket. It might take years”.

“You are not in America any longer”, says Ana, short. “What do you want? Feasibility studies? Money spent on tests? Answer me! All of you!”

“Supreme comrade”, tries a scientist to say…

“I am no supreme comrade”, answers Ana with anger. “The people are watching us. They want us to go to space. It is their money you are using, not mine! When I was a child, I used to play with computer space games. Why can’t you do your job?”

“It is all far more difficult then that”, answers someone else.

“First of all, to get to space, we need rockets”, continues Ana Leonova. “I see no rocket built. I see no launch platform ready. Why is it so?”

Ana turns to Alan Green and blows a cloud of smoke in his face.

“Remember the Old Soviets?” she continues. They built a rocket to launch a ship to the Moon. If it failed, they examined what went wrong and built another one. A second failure? No problem, they tried the third time. Let’s come with a rocket design that would work, then start launching space probes with that one”.

“We have some models ready”, says a rocket scientist.

“Show me!” orders Ana, squeezing her cigarette between her teeth.

“It is an updated model from the old Proton rockets”, continues the scientist. “At that time, we had other fuels. Now, we only have liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Hydrogen is very light, so we need a much bigger ship for the same results”.

“Come to the blackboard and draw it!” orders Ana, almost forcing the scientist to come.

He starts drawing the rocket.

“The first stage is helped by four boosters”, he explains. “The first two boosters detach soon after launch, the other two after some more time. The first stage falls back to Earth. Second stage pushes the ship further away into orbit. Third stage could push a ship to Venus or Mars”.

“And how much cargo can we send to Venus?” she asks.

“About a ton”, the scientist answers. “We can send 10 tons to low Earth orbit with this rocket”.

“Well”, says Ana, “that sounds good. Good, but by far not enough”.

“Nobody sent anything beyond Earth orbit since decades”, says another scientist. “We are going into a territory where nobody went since before the Supreme Soviet was born”.

Ana looks at them, sits more comfortable on the desk and starts playing with her heel. She blows a cloud of smoke, shaking her cigarette in her gloved hand. She looks at all scientists.

“Venus or Mars”, she says. “But what about Saturn?”

Nobody answers anything.

“In the old times, people were experimenting with ion engines”, says Alan Green. “They are good for long flights, since they use far less propellant. If we use a ion engine, we could send one ton of cargo to places as far as Neptune”.

“And why aren’t you building them?” asks Ana, angry.

“Because these engines need time to build”, continues Alan Green. “I asked all scientists here, they don’t have them. The only thing I found was an old nitrogen ion engine”.

“That sounds good”, continues Ana. “A nitrogen ion engine”.

“But, we need different rocket designs for each planet. And this will take time”.

“You know what?” she says, letting some ash fall on her boots. “Build a rocket design and test it. I don’t care how you do it, but if that rocket is not designed within ten days and not launched within a hundred, you will all end-up in a gulag. You have ten days to come with a rocket design able to send one ton of cargo leaving the Solar System”.

Everyone looks at her, not saying a word. She goes to the blackboard, cleans it and starts writing, while she is saying:

“A ton of cargo leaving the Solar System! Three stages, one with four boosters, the second with no booster and the third with a nitrogen ion engine. The first stage will fall back to Earth and must be recovered. Keep this in your minds, the first stage must be recovered, with all its boosters included. The second stage will push the ship to the border of Earth’s Hill sphere. The third stage will push our ship on a Sun escape trajectory”.

“That is not feasible”, says a scientist. “How do we make the boosters and first stage to land?”

“Use parachutes”, answers Ana, with a smile. “You are scientists, you know better then me what to do. Start building the factories needed for this task, build the launch platform, everything. There is no time left”.

She leaves the room and smashes the door.

Inside, Alan Green says to everyone:

“Now, we don’t need to talk much. We have our specifications, we have to work on it”.

FIRST ROCKET

Why Soviet engines were some of the best of the world?

Because they built them by experimenting, instead of using many simulations and calculations.

But why did they lose the space race?

Because they lacked on resources.

A newspaper, 1992

After only four days of hard working, the scientists came with a project. The new spaceship is designed, according to Ana’s specifications, to take one ton of cargo away from the Solar System. And just as the design is ready, the needed factories get finished on the drawing board.

Ana came a few more times and supervised the project. Her specifications for the ship are very clear. She wants it to be built entirely on an assembly line. All parts must be designed so that they can be built in bulk.

Her father, the dictator Iosif Leonov, came with a proposal, that the new rocket should be named Lenin. This will boost the moral of everyone. Ana renamed it Lenin 1, thinking that future ships will also be built. She first examines a final 3D model of the rocket.

This ship is huge. Technical specifications are as follows:

First stage size: 46/6 m First stage mass: 300 t Fuel carried: 255 t Engines: 1, with a power of 3000 kN Engine model: RS-4 The two large boosters: 5/34 m, with a nose cone 6.25 m high Large booster mass: 150 t Large booster fuel: 127.5 t Large booster engine: 2, with a power of 1000 kN each Large booster engine model: RS-3 Small booster size: 14/2 m Small booster mass: 10 t Small booster fuel: 8.5 t Small booster engine: 1, 300 kN Small booster engine model: RS-2 Total speed gained (delta-v): 5.513 km/s Thrust to weight ratio (TWR): 1.346

Second stage size: 10/4 m Second stage mass: 28.84 t Second stage fuel: 21.313 t Second stage engines: 1, RS-1 Second stage engine power: 100 kN Total speed gained (delta-v): 7.276 km/s

Third stage size: 2/4 m Third stage mass: 3.643 t Third stage fuel: 2.732 t, nitrogen Third stage engines: 1, NI-1 Third stage engine power: 0.0003 kN Total speed gained (delta-v): 15.003 km/s

Payload: 1 t.

Iosif Leonov chosen to take as payload a statue of Lenin, weighting exactly a ton. The statue, made of bronze, was built on demand. Nobody knows if the rocket will work properly, so the statue might not fly at all.

FIRST LAUNCH

The Lenin I rocket was designed in a record 4 days. The factories needed to build it, were also designed within other 4 days. Once the projects were finished, workers had to go to work as fast as possible.

With so close dead lines, workers had to build parts while the factories were being built around them. The nitrogen ion engine, the most complicated of all devices, was first built. The 3rd stage also has a fuel tank filled with nitrogen, solar panels and orientation tools. It has its own flying computer and radio antenna. The flying computer is a far upgraded version of the Old Soviet Buran project.

The second stage was then finished. It is a large tank filled with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Its engine was finished a bit later.

Ana insisted that a new generation of engines should be built, the RS series. She took the letters from English, from the initials of Reborn Soviets. She wanted this new ship to be a prove to the world that the New Soviets are far stronger and reborn from the Old Soviet legacy. She planned the new engines to be as follows:

RS-1: 100 kN RS-2: 300 kN RS-3: 1000 kN RS-4: 3000 kN RS-5: 10000 kN RS-6: 30000 kN.

However, for this rocket only RS-1, RS-2 and RS-3 had to be built.

The small boosters were then finished, followed by the large boosters. Finally, the first stage came the last. The upper fairings, covering the payload (Lenin’s statue) were built separately.

As all parts came together, they were all assembled into a large rocket. Then, they realized that they don’t have a transport vehicle to take the rocket to Aral Cosmodrome. So, a large vehicle had to be built. They had the railway, but not something to move along it. This delayed the project a few more days.

The rocket is shipped slowly from Space Factory to Aral Cosmodrome, where it is placed on the launch platform. It is 67 m high. The first stage is 6 m wide, the upper part is 4 m wide. It also has two big boosters (5 m wide and 40 m high) and two small ones (2 m wide and 17 m high).

But then, they found out that a very important day is coming: the first of May, a very important day for the Old Soviets. Unlike in the old times, there will be no large-scale parades. Still, Iosif Leonov, the Supreme Soviet, wants this day to be special. Because of the delay, a second Lenin I rocket was built and shipped to Aral Cosmodrome. With the factories functional, a new rocket can be built in two weeks. The launch window occurs soon after midnight, at 2.35 AM. If all goes ok, the launch will be shown on TV today. In case of a failure, the second rocket will be launched tomorrow at 2.41.

Ana Leonova is at the cosmodrome. She wears her thigh boots and long gloves with a red dress. She painted her hair in red. Even if she looks pretty, everyone knows how dangerous she is. She pushed the project to its limits. All scientists know very well her ambition and are afraid. A failure and… she will get very angry.

In the launch tower, they all watch as the rocket gets prepared and the seconds are passing. At T minus 40, there is no way to stop the clock. So, all scientists try their best to make sure everything is ok. They found a few minor problems. Just hope everything goes ok.

Soon, they have to wait just a minute until launch. And then, 40 seconds. There’s no turning back now. The launch sequence is automated. A red flash warns everyone to move away from the launch platform. The engines are checked again and at T minus 5 they start to operate.

Ana symbolically pushes a big red button. The system is automated and there is nothing she can do to start a launch or abort it. She just confirms that the launch will happen. The engines start burning, with a big flame and a lot of smoke. Well, it is in fact water vapor. The sound can be heard from the launch tower, where all scientists are watching it. It is a big, powerful sound. The light from the engine fire is much stronger then all light projectors combined. A thick cloud of smoke fills the platform and nobody can clearly see the rocket, which then rises above the cloud.

“It’s working”, says one scientist.

The rocket start climbing to the sky, on top of a trail of smoke.

“Just hope nothing bad will happen”, mumbles Ana, looking through the window.

At first very slow, then faster, the rocket rises to the sky. And soon, it is no longer visible except as a bright light.

At exactly 125 seconds, the two small boosters detach. A computer screen confirms this. The rocket is already a few km high. Then, at 281 seconds after launch, the other two boosters separate. Computers confirm a successful separation. The first stage continues to fire its engines, increasing speed to the havens. Finally, at 367 seconds, the first stage finishes its fuel and detaches.

At that moment, the second stage ignites its hydrogen-oxygen engine.

Radar image confirms that the four boosters are returning to Earth. After they stop ascending, they deploy their parachutes, to slowly land on the desert and be recovered. So does the first stage. It falls and then opens its parachutes to slow down. That was the plan, to make lower stages reusable.

The second stage burns fuel for around 15 minutes, with a much smaller engine, a RS-1. But there is no need for massive force. The stage is already out of Earth’s atmosphere. Now, this engine burn takes its cargo to a Moon flyby. Moon’s gravity will take the payload out of Earth’s Hill sphere.

Ana anxiously waits 15 minutes, smoking two cigarettes. Nobody can do anything but to wait and watch radar data. The rocket is going up according to plan. Well, there is a small deviation, of a few meters. This is acceptable.

After 15 minutes or 941 seconds, the second stage exhausts its fuel. The fairings covering the third stage and the statue, are detached. The second stage also is detached. Third stage opens its solar panels and points its antenna to Earth.

All scientists look at the data. Flight path is set to a Moon flyby. Third stage has a camera, which it rotates, to show that the statue is in place. Earth is behind and Moon is at one side of the statue.

After the Moon flyby, which will occur in 10 days, the third stage will turn on its nitrogen ion engine and increase speed. This engine is much slower, but highly effective. It will burn for 2244 Earth days and increase speed to a Sun escape velocity.

Still, engineers conduct one engine ignition for a minute, to make sure everything is ok. They have confirmation. All is working as it should do. The Lenin I rocket is a success.

Ana contacts her father. It is 3.17 AM here. At Moscow, it is 1.17 AM. He should be sleeping. The phone rings, then a voice answers.

“Who is it?” he answers.

“It’s me, Ana. We have a successful liftoff. The statue is on its way to a Moon flyby!”

“Well done!” he answers. “I knew you can do it. Tomorrow, this will be on the news all over the world”.

Now, the scientists are watching what is happening with the boosters and the first stage. They can see on the radar. Yes, they are going down ad will land just as planned, on the former Aral Sea. First come the small boosters. Radar confirms that they opened the parachutes and are going down slowly. Then come the large boosters, which also successfully open their parachutes. It looks like a malfunction still occurred at one of them. Each booster has ten parachutes, while the core has fourteen. They are placed inside the chassis and will open when a command is triggered.

It is getting morning. The first dawn light starts to appear over the cosmodrome. Finally, the first stage opens its parachutes, but somehow it appears they are not working correctly. The stage is going down faster then expected.

Scientists know that impact with the ground and air friction will affect them. They hoped that the first stage and the boosters can be refurbished in order to be reused. Well, now they will find out if and how will that be possible.

As the first stage approaches ground, scientists realize that they don’t have a vehicle to carry the stage and the boosters to base. They don’t even have something to travel through the desert and examine them.

“It’s back to the drawing board”, says Ana. “We have to design a wheeled transporter”.

“With a crane to handle the parts”, adds a scientist.

“You heard the order”, continues Ana. “The guys who built the rail transporter to bring the rocket here, should be able to built a desert vehicle to bring parts back from the desert”.

One of the scientists makes a call.

“But now”, continues Ana, “we need to go and see the parts. Well, we don’t have any available car. We need to find something”.

She starts calling and asks scientists to call at the Space City and at the Space Factory. Nobody has anything. Then, one scientist thinks about a military unit that is not far from here. They contact the military and request an SUV.

THE DESERT

It is said that Allah made the desert inhospitable so that He can enjoy it himself. Sayings from Sahara.

The Aral Sea. Once, this was a majestic lake, an inland sea in the desert of Central Asia. Its waters provided fish for the locals and for many species of birds. Now, all what is left, is an endless desert, covered with salt. During spring, small brine swamps can form in some areas, but until autumn, nothing is left from them. No plant and no animal can be seen all around the vast desert, only a thick crust of salt.

Trying to protect the villages and towns that still exist around the former shores, people planted saxaul, a desert tree which likes this environment. The same is happening around the space facilities. This tree can survive with little water and once planted can grow in salt. But the saxaul forests are only up to 2 km wide. Everything else is desert.

The ground is slippery, making access difficult. Even an SUV finds this terrain to be hard to cross. A tank would be better.

It takes all day to find the boosters. They seem ok, not much damage is visible. However, the first stage is damaged. It is no longer cylindrical. The impact affected it. Ana sends pictures and the scientists understand what happened. Heat, caused by air friction, made some parachutes to melt before they could be deployed.

Compared to the vastness of this desert, all rocket parts look like nothing. Still, they took the first statue of Lenin into space.

In about twenty days, the new, wheeled vehicles, are ready. They travel the desert to pick-up parts and ferry them back to Space Factory.

THE NEWS

If you want everyone to know something or if you want to start panic, just handle the news to an important television. A well-known newspaper, 1998.

The third stage is climbing through the sky. At every four hours, it sends back to earth a status report. It is heading to a Moon flyby, just as the scientists expected. Lenin’s statue is attached to its top and shining in the light.

All televisions in the Soviet Empire started to transmit the news. Space telescopes turned on, to take a snapshot of the third stage and its statue. Lenin goes to space is the title of an important newspaper. The launch was recorded and now is being streamed on the news. Until now, most people knew nothing about the Aral Cosmodrome. Now, it becomes known to the world. The Aral is back to life! A cosmic city is built in the desert, says on the news.

Teens go out and look at the sky, trying to see something. In schools, teachers talk to their students about the rocket launch. It becomes the news of the month. Even more, a television asks people on the street what do they think about.

“It looks like we are back in space”, says someone.

“The space race is back”, answers someone else.

“We did it! We shown the world who we are!”

But, while the New Soviets are enjoying the moment, over the seas, people are also hearing the news. In the Jewish Empire, the news is not well received:

The soviets show their weakness. Instead of strengthening their empire, which already is very week and affected by a chronic lack of resources, they spend huge amounts of money on building a rocket. It was not a ballistic missile, but a space rocket. It did nothing else but sent a statue to orbit. Believe it or not, it is the statue of Lenin. The purpose of this launch cannot be anything else but propaganda. The Soviets try to rise the moral of their people by launching propaganda rockets.

The American Empire is also unhappy. Here is a quote from an important news channel:

Believe it or not, the Soviets think the space race did not end a century ago. Today, they launched a rocket carrying a statue of Lenin. It is not an espionage satellite or an orbiting ballistic missile, as all of us were expecting. It is just a statue made of bronze.

In an interview with our defense chairman, general Thor Anders, he answered us that “I don’t understand the purpose of this statue, other then propaganda for their own people. The Soviets must be having problems. Such a propaganda action certainly means that they are lacking credibility to their own people”. Asked if this is a thread to us, he answered loud and clear: “We can launch the Statue Of Liberty, ten times higher then it is now, in only a couple of days. If they want a new space race, be sure they will lose it even before the start”.

While people are celebrating, Ana Leonova is not. She spent the whole day looking for boosters and lost parts. As she returns to the cosmodrome and hears the news, she says it short, loud and clear to all scientists:

“Now, build a rocket able to take three tons of cargo out of the Solar System. We must be ahead of the other empires. We started the space race. Make sure we win it this time”.

The third stage sent other images from space, every four hours. It is now clear that the statue is going to a Moon flyby and then it will escape Earth’s orbit.

As the third stage completes its Moon flyby, third stage starts thrusting and increasing speed. The statue will go to Pluto. All over the world, this is again on the news:

Lenin is really going out of Solar System!

Ion engines burn for many days, slowly changing orbit, until they exhaust all fuel. At that point, the third stage detaches and the statue is free-floating on a hyperbolic trajectory, getting out from the Solar System.

NEXT STEP

I never imagined how many problems are and how hard is to build a space program. With every success, I had to face more challenges, some of them I never thought about. Ana Leonova, in her diaries.

The statue of Lenin is moving away. It is orbiting the Sun, but the nitrogen ion engine is pushing it away faster by the day. The third stage is sending a report at every four hours, but when it is on the other side of Earth, there is no way to hear it. Also, as distance increases, quality of signal decreases.

Scientists built powerful antennas around the Space City, to pick-up the signal. They are also working on another project: to build the next rocket, Lenin II. They know well that time is on the essence. Before anyone else launches another spacecraft, they have to come with something new. The Lenin II, once developed, will send into geosynchronous orbit three relay stations, which will facilitate communications between space probes and Earth.

Alan Green comes with a plan that will require less costs and will allow scientists to explore something. He comes to Ana’s office in the Factory City.

“I think we should go to the Moon first”, he says.

“That is a good idea”, answers Ana. “What do we need?”

“We can do this with an existing Lenin I rocket. I talked with professor Dimitrov about the subject. This is what we came with”.

Alan Green gives Ana a few papers. They describe a possible unmanned Moon mission.

“He told me about an old Soviet project, to build a robot with feet. I like the idea. He called it ‘Selena Horse’. A horse will be able to walk over boulders and other obstacles more easy then a rover. Now, we don’t need much nitrogen for the third stage to reach the Moon. I suggest that we send an orbiter around the Moon and a horse on its surface. If we lower the amount of nitrogen, we can take them both with one rocket”.

Ana carefully looks at the project and then says:

“The goal should be to find resources for a human colony. Find water, nitrogen, iron ores and minerals. Build both the orbiter and the horse for this task”.

“They can fulfill this task if we do little improvements to them”, says the scientist.

“We must get it all ready and fast”, she answers. “Get started as soon as possible!”

This is the technical data for this rocket.

The horse will use a small rocket, weighting 1.15 t, with a RS-1 engine. It will carry 1.115 t of fuel, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen mixture. This rocket will help the horse land on the Moon. The horse itself weights 1 t.

The third stage is one and the same piece with the orbiter. Together with the horse, it weights 4.463 t. It carries 0.722 t of nitrogen for the engine, which can still create 3.261 km/s of delta-v. This is far more then enough to remain in orbit around the Moon for centuries.

The rocket, a Lenin I, will fire its engines to send the payload to a Moon flyby trajectory. This time, the trajectory is a bit changed, so that the ship will not escape into heliocentric orbit. Instead, it will orbit the Earth once, until it reaches the Moon again. Then, the nitrogen ion engine will allow it to enter orbit around the Moon and spiral down to a low altitude. Finally, the horse will be detached, to land on the Moon, while the orbiter – third stage will remain in orbit.

On the Moon, it is very cold during night. So, the horse is designed to hibernate, to shut down its systems and subsystems until day comes.

There is no time to test all parts, as should be done in a classic space mission. Scientists only have time to make close calculations. Ana’s instructions are clear: “Build them, send them to the Moon and see what is going. Then, improve the design and launch a new one”. In case of a failure, a new Lenin I rocket awaits.

Once the orbiter and the horse will be completed, others can be built on an assembly line. It all depends if the mission will be a success or not. But still, before launch, scientists test the horse in the desert, to see how it will work. They build a vacuum chamber fast and expose it to radiations and high temperature fluctuations. Usually, parts for a spaceship should be tested individually. The space vehicle itself should be tested for months. But now, they have no time to do all this. They do all the testing very fast. A few problems are detected, but are solved very fast. They know Ana’s orders very well. There is no time.

And so, at the end of June, the rocket is assembled and ready for takeoff. A few updates had been done, so that the boosters and the first stage should land more safely. The rocket is in place, at the Aral Cosmodrome, waiting for a signal. Launch will occur at 6.38 AM, on June the 27th, in the year 10 of the New Soviet Empire.

Will this rocket go to Moon? Will everything be ok? The rocket is in place, as the last preparations are on the way. Everyone is watching the clock and all the data available. Will it work properly?

It is already morning. The Sun is shining above the horizon. The final countdown… And then, the rocket is on its way. A huge cloud of smoke can be seen, covering the whole launch platform. After that, the rocket rises above it, followed by a thick cloud. Tons of hydrogen and oxygen are burning, pushing the payload up to the sky. But, there is no time to celebrate. Everyone is watching nervously as the rocket rises. Very soon, it passes through the clouds. First booster separation occurs. Then, the other two boosters detach. And then, the first stage is left behind, as the second stage fires its way to the Moon.

After nine minutes, the second stage is turned off and separates. Everything is according to schedule. The third stage tests its nitrogen ion engine. The nose cone is separated and solar panels released. In the launch tower, scientists are watching the whole process through a camera mounted to a telescope. They wait for a signal. Very soon, the orbiter sends a confirmation signal that it is operating properly. The nitrogen ion engine is tested, burning just a second.

The ship sends images from space. The Earth is behind and the Moon is on one side. Everything is according to plan.

Ana contacts her father, the dictator, to tell him about the success. He says it short:

“We will not make this public until we land on the Moon. Only at that point, we will tell the world about it. I want to make sure that everything is working properly”.

LENIN II

It doesn’t take long and the next rocket, the Lenin II, is finished. This required new facilities to be built. In the Space Factory, there is already an assembly line for Lenin I rockets. The new line, which will build Lenin II, is almost finished. Still, the rocket was successfully built.

It is July the 4th, year 10. The American Empire is holding today a big parade. It is just the perfect moment to launch the Lenin II. This rocket is much higher and able to send 3 t on a Sun escape trajectory. Here is a model:

It is far more powerful. The technical specifications are as follows:

The first stage is 77 m high and 8 m wide. It weights 900 t full and 135 t empty. It carries 765 t of fuel into space. For this, it uses 3 RS-4 engines, with a thrust of 3000 kN each. But even that is not enough. The first stage is helped by four boosters. It has two large boosters, 74 m high and 7 m wide, weighting 450 t full, 67.5 t without fuel and able to carry 382.5 t of fuel. They have two mighty RS-4 engines each. The other two boosters are small, 2 m wide and 57 m high, weighting 40 t full, 6 t empty and able to carry 34 t of fuel. They have a RS-3 engine each.

The second stage weights 86.42 t full, 8.64 t empty and is able to carry 63.85 t of fuel. It is 15 m high and 6 m wide. It uses a single RS-2 engine, producing a thrust of 300 kN.

The nitrogen ion stage weights 10.93 t and is 6 m wide and 2 m high.

Overall, this rocket is 102.5 t high. It is about three times more powerful then the Lenin I. The first two boosters are designed to fire for 150 seconds. The other two boosters are detached after other 125 seconds. Finally, the first stage detaches after other 92 seconds. All this gives the rocket a delta-v of 5.514 km/s. Second stage fires for 15.65 minutes and adds other 7.511 km/s. The ship will lose some of this delta-v by atmospheric friction. This is enough to go for a Moon flyby and exit Earth’s Hill sphere. Then the third stage, fully loaded with fuel, firing its nitrogen ion engine for 2244 days, can give the ship a Sun escape velocity.

The ships are able to carry 3 t of cargo into a Sun escape trajectory. But, since they were never tested completely, there are many unknown aspects. Nobody knows if they will work properly. So, two identical ships were built, hoping that at least one will go to space.

As a payload, both ships will carry an identical probe, a replica of the old Sputnik, but much larger. It will be a sphere, 3 m wide and 3 t heavy. The satellite is called “SSS”. Its purpose is only to send beep signals, like the old Sputnik, but far more powerful, so that they can be heard with any radio receiver from high distance. The SSS is solar powered, with huge solar panels that, once they detach, are 12 m wide and 60 m long. It has four telescopic antennas, 30 m long.

The SSS will start operating only after the third stage tests its nitrogen ion engine. I the first Lenin II rocket successfully reaches a Moon flyby trajectory, the second SSS will not start operating.

The launch window is about a half of hour. In order to launch both rockets, the second is already placed close and will be transported to the launch platform just after the first detaches.

The first rocket is launched as fast as possible, a bit ahead from the flight window. A bright, powerful light fills the cosmodrome, together with a thick cloud of smoke and a powerful noise. At just one minute, the second rocket is brought to the launch platform. The first rocket just passes through the clouds. Small boosters are detached successfully. Soon comes time for the second boosters to detach. Just a few more seconds… all goes just as planned. Soon, first stage is also detached and the second stage starts firing.

The second rocket is checked for the last time.

“Send it to space”, says Ana, looking at the data.

She turns on the timer. Five minutes to launch. In this time, the first rocket seems to have problems. It is not following the expected trajectory. The engine is not firing at full power. It should fire for 15 minutes with 300 kN. Something unknown is making it fire with only 227 kN.

Counter gets close to zero and scientists try to see what is going on. They are more focusing on the first rocket, which is not gaining the required delta-v and direction. The second rocket turns on its engines automatically and prepares for takeoff. Scientists start watching it too, trying to figure out what to expect.

Second rocket also has a small problem: one of the small boosters fires for 9.5 extra seconds, forcing the navigation control to change orientation of other engines to counterbalance this. The large boosters operate as expected. Then, the first stage detaches a bit slowly, turning the ship with a few degrees off-target. Second stage ignites and the rocket gains direction back.

The first rocket detaches its second stage much later then expected. Its engines fired for longer and at lower throttle. It will not make it to a Moon flyby. Still, its nitrogen ion engine seems to be functional and is working properly, but propellant pressure is dropping without an explanation. Something is going on there.

The second rocket detaches its second stage. The nitrogen ion engine is tested for a second. It sends a report back to Earth, waiting for a signal to start its Sputnik beeps.

“Should we?” asks Alan Green.

“Yes”, says Ana, pushing the button.

In a few seconds, scientists start recording a radio signal. It looks like the old Sputnik beets. However, the first rocket was a failure. Scientists argue what to do with it and they decide to try to adjust trajectory using its nitrogen ion engine. It will roam through the Solar System forever.

Still, Ana orders it to start beeping.

NEW YORK SURPRISE

Done for a thread, propaganda or prestige, the point is that thing is in the sky. A song about the old Sputnik.

Somewhere in New York, capital of the American Empire:

It is midnight. Moxy has a pirate radio. It is his passion and despite all problems he had with authorities, he continues to operate his radio station.

Suddenly, he starts hearing an unusual signal.

“What the fuck?” he mumbles on the microphone. “I don’t know what this is, but unusual radio beeps can be heard. I don’t know where they are coming from. Can you hear them, my friends? Could that be an alarm? Maybe from a robbery? I don’t know. Hold on for a second, guys, I have to find out its source”.

On the streets, two thieves try to break in a car. They use a walkie-talkie, a simple device that cannot be localized by GPS. One is trying to break in a shop, while the other one watches the street. Suddenly, their radio receives something they never heard.

“An alarm, Mike?” says one of them.

“I see nothing. What is beeping? Is it at you?”

“I don’t like the sound of that. What in the hell is happening?”

“Don’t know, man, but we should get the fuck out of here”.

Not far away from them, there is a night club with a party going on. DJ Radiation is mixing a few songs. Some teens, looking for fun, want to start a karaoke show. When they start singing, something happens. Everyone can hear beeps.

“There is something wrong with my instruments”, says DJ Radiation.

The city also hosts a public amateur radio station, used by many teens. Usually, they use it by night. To be on air, it costs 100 $ a minute. To listen various frequencies, it costs 10 $ a minute. Suddenly, a radio beeping starts to be received. They find out that the signal comes from space. The teens try to find out the source.

As morning comes, everyone finds out, thanks to social media, about the strange beeps coming from space. Is it an alien invasion? Are the other empires up to something? What is all this about?

Very early, Leonard Bohr, the American Dictator, is waken by one of his most trusted generals, Louis Goblin. It is 5 AM when Goblin calls.

“What is it?” asks Bohr, sleepy.

“Sir, we have two unidentified objects in space. They are sending radio signals. It appears to be of Soviet origin”.

“What? Tell me more”.

“They appear to be sending radio beeps like the old Sputnik did 150 years ago. We have a few images token with our telescopes. It appears that one is moving to the Moon, while the other, I don’t know exactly where”.

“Are we in danger?”

“Sir, I don’t think so, but it is better to proceed with caution”.

“Hold on, I come to my office. We need a security council and fast”.

Bohr gets dressed fast, grabs a cup of coffee and hurries to see what is going on. When he arrives, he can see pictures token by telescope. The two unidentified bodies can be seen, two shiny metal spheres, large solar panels and something cylindrical attached to them. He also looks at the signal they are spreading.

“Radio beeps?” he asks, surprised. “What is this? What do they mean? Is it any code signal?”

“Sir, I made some research”, says Goblin. “This signal sounds very close to the Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, launched by the Soviets about 150 years ago”.

“Are you sure about this?” asks Bohr, trying to remain calm.

“Yes, sir! The signal has the same beeps, but on more frequencies. And it is far stronger. Also, the polished metal sphere seems similar, only far larger”.

Bohr looks at some images of the old Sputnik.

“Any word from the Soviets?” he asks.

“No, nothing, Sir”, answers Goblin. “Still, our satellites found out that they built a new rocket platform on the Aral Desert”.

“And you did not survey the area, did you?”

“I never expected this, Sir. I thought they will launch another Lenin into space”.

“Now you see what they were up to”, says Bohr, looking at the data. “Just now, on the 4th of July. Instead of watching our parade, people will be talking about the New Sputnik! What a thread! Nobody could prepare us for this”.

“What should we do, Sir?” asks Goblin.

“Honestly, I don’t know”, answers Bohr. “The Soviets did it this time. Maybe we should launch something greater then they did. They practice a different type of war. They first try to emphasis people around, then conquer. Instead of a direct fight, they always give weapons to local groups. Remember our campaign in Northern Siberia? We could never fight them face to face. They always attacked us from behind. Remember how they took the Balkans from the Jews? They gave food and shelter to the local people, then offered weapons. Even Alaska, the did not attack us directly. Oh, I wish I could have a direct fight with them! Remember what they did at Deadhorse? They appeared from nowhere, encircled our troops and waited them to die of starvation or surrender. These Soviets are different from those of the past. They use diplomacy and dialogue, make local people join them and instigate them to revolt. And only after that, when you are already engaged in war, they come from nowhere, cut your supply lines and encircle your units”.

“Maybe we should try the same”, says Goblin.

“At least the Soviets don’t kill anyone. Conquered people were considered Soviet citizens and gave the same liberties. I am more worried about the Jews. They destroy everything. Remember what they did to Germany”.

Then, Bohr tries to contact Leonov and ask for clarifications, for an explanation about the radio beeps. He only gets a short answer:

“Yes, we launched two space probes in remember of the old Sputnik. Try to build your own”.

The parade goes on well, even if everyone is talking about the new Sputnik satellites. All televisions are forced not to say a word about anything else but the parade until it will be finished. Then, Bohr has a speech about the subject:

“Citizens of the American Empire, you gave me power to fight for you, to protect you from the evil forces that surround us. Recently, the Soviets have launched two satellites into orbit, which are sending radio beeps. I guarantee you that they are no thread to us. They think that this proves their superiority, but I guarantee you that these people are technologically far beyond us. If we wish, we can build a hundred satellites, far more powerful. God bless America and its territories!”

JERUSALEM SURPRISE

Dear reader, before everything, I remember you that I consider all people of the world equal. I don’t love or hate anyone more or less. What I wanted to show you here is that, if Hitler were to be born in another place and to gain power, his actions were to be similar. The Germans are not superior, nor inferior to the Jews, to the Slavs or to the Americans. We are all humans and we are all the same. Genetic studies have shown clearly that differences between human races are very small. Genetic differences between two puppies, born from the same parents, are higher then genetic differences between a black person and a Chinese. The author.

It is morning in Jerusalem. Jews come to the Mourning Wall, praying to God. Behind it, there was once a great mosque. Now, it is a radioactive wasteland. Why did God not allow them to rebuild their holy temple? If it’s not now the time, then when is it?

Now, they are no longer under a thread from the Muslim nations, as they are almost completely conquered. Not far from here, over the Jordan river, Muslim communities are strictly controlled behind high concrete walls. Isolated and divided in small communities, Muslims try to contact each other through handmade radios. This is the only way divided families can keep contact one with the other. An armed patrol surveys and destroys these improvised radio stations.

The main radio detector is in Jerusalem. It uses many relay stations located all over the empire, it collects data and pinpoint all signals. Suddenly, powerful radio beeps are detected in various points all over the empire. The signal is so strong, that a few relay stations in Northern Iran are rendered inoperational. The stations have also another purpose: to stop fugitives that try to defect into the Soviet Empire.

People on the streets of Jerusalem do not talk too much. Everyone minds its own business. The secret police can be anywhere. They have by far less freedom then those in the other two empires. But still, they can hear the unusual beeps on their home radios.

Samuel Rosenstein, the Jewish emperor, is warned by one of his most trusted generals.

“Your highness, the Soviets had launched two space satellites”.

“And?”

“The satellites are sending beep signals which can be detected by any portable radio”.

“Are they sending a message?”

“As for now, we were unable to detect their message”, the general says. “We presume they are only beeps. Still, they are sent on many frequencies. Some of our relay stations are rendered inoperative because of the intensity of the signal”.

“The Soviets are unable to build a functional refrigerator!” shouts Rosenstein. “How did they do that? Don’t we have any report from our spies?”

Judas Hahneman, chief of Jewish Intelligence Services, steps forward and says:

“Your highness, we knew that the Soviets are building some sort of rockets on Aral Desert, but we had no idea what their purpose is. Our intelligence reports that they want to send spaceships to the Moon and the planets. They are in some sort of space race frenzy”.

“There is a major problem at the border”, says the first general. “If the relay stations are not working, we cannot control the border”.

“You mean they are ready for an attack, while we are just sitting here?” shouts Rosenstein.

“I don’t think they are planning an attack on us”, says Hahnemann. “If they were, we have enough spies in their military to see it coming. I am more worried about defectors. Many Muslims will run to the Soviet Empire”.

“The Soviets conquered all of the Balkans except Croatia and Slovenia”, continues Rosenstein. “They took Poland and the Baltic States from us! They took the Caucasus and entered Afghanistan! Those lands should be ours, not theirs! They defeated us in a miserable way. I asked them several times to handle us all German descendants and they refused. They are offering free homes and farming land for fugitives. How far do they think they are going? What they are doing now, is an act of war”.

Everyone remains silent. Rosenstein wants to conquer the Soviet Empire, but he lacks the resources. He knows well his defeats. The most humiliating one was the siege of Krasnodar. There, Soviet forces gave weapons and food to all North Caucasian defectors which came from the Jewish Empire. Iosif Leonov said it loud and clear to them:

“The mountains are your homeland. Fight for it and it will be yours and your grandchildren will own it forever!”

He repatriated the Circassians and all North Caucasian people who lived there hundreds of years ago. The Red Army came later and attacked from behind. Jewish troops were encircled. Only the real Jews remained, while all the others betrayed Rosenstein. He had to retreat. In order to save his troops, he had to sign a humiliating peace treaty.

Rosenstein looks at all his generals, then says:

“I want to send a clear message to the Soviets. Tell them that what they did is an act of aggression, an act of war. If they don’t want to stop those beepers and give us back all fugitives, we will send a rain of atomic missiles over them”.

“Your highness”, continues Hahnemann, “I have a few extra information about the subject. The Soviets believe that ability to send spaceships is a proof of their superiority. Also, I have information about who is behind the project. It’s Ana Leonova, Supreme Soviet’s daughter. She is the director of their space program”.

“Ana Leonova?” says Rosenstein with a big surprise in his voice. “I hoped that girl was died. Do you know who is her mother? She is a German. I personally ordered her intoxication with chemicals. She died of cancer because I wanted that to happen. Too bad I missed the girl. Make your statement clear to the Soviets. Stop the space project and hand over all fugitives or you will be erased from the face of the Earth”.

THE LOVE OF A FATHER

You might think that you are completely alone in this world. God is out there, but He is too far and too high from us, to hear our screaming. Friends are not quite friends. An old teacher told me ‘don’t stay with your back to any door’ and he really meant it. Your closest friend can be in fact your worst enemy. Brothers and sisters might betray you. There are so many cases of brothers fighting each other for a legacy. Money can turn anyone against you. So, who can you trust? Maybe, the only people which you can really trust are your parents. I only have a father, my mother died a long time ago. He is the only person in the world that I can trust. He is the only one I can lay my head on his shoulder and not worry for an assassination attempt. Nobody else will sacrifice his life for me, he will. He saved me when I was raped and almost killed in my childhood. All I am now, is thanks to him. Ana Leonova, in her diaries.

The Lenin II rocket was a success. All over the Soviet Empire, people were talking about it. Two new Sputnik probes are in space! Also, the Moon mission landed. The ‘horse’, as they call it, started to walk on Moon surface. It did not operate quite as planned, but still, it is functional. This also reached the news.

Iosif Leonov orders a big military parade in Moscow. He orders the Red Army to march through the capital. In front of them, there will be a big replica of an SSS ship. Also, the scientists from Aral Cosmodrome will be there, marching in front of all workers from the Space Factory.

It is the first parade in the New Soviet Empire. There was no such parade from the old Soviet age. All soldiers are in uniform. All scientists and workers are in their costumes. Even the Supreme Soviet is wearing military clothes.

In addition, many Orthodox and Muslim clerics are marching too. This proves what Iosif Leonov granted to the people: religious freedom.

Ana Leonova was asked to sit near her father, but she refused. She wants to be there, together with all her colleagues, marching through the Red Square. Only that she wears no uniform. She has a red dress, with the hammer, sickle and red star drawn on her back. She wears high-heel red sandals with shiny pantyhose and long gloves with opened fingers. Her hair is now painted in black. She even smokes in front of others.

At the end of the parade, Iosif Leonov declares this:

“We stand here to hail our most brave Soviets, which made our name be known all over the world. We opened back the road to space. For us, the sky is the only limit and we are now conquering that one too. Our great space success is a proof of our superiority. And this is only the beginning. Much greater space missions await us. We shall make our name known to the borders of the Solar System and beyond”.

After the parade, Ana Leonova also has a public speech. She says this:

“Comrades, brothers and sisters! Who am I? I am one of you. I could sit up there with my father, but I wanted to be here, with the people. I am here to tell the world something. Even if I am the daughter of our Supreme Soviet, I am just a Soviet citizen, like you all. I have the same rights and obligations like you all do. And if you ask me why I am dressed like this, here is the answer: In our empire, women have the same rights as men have. Also, it doesn’t matter how you look and what nation or religion you have. All what matters is what you do, how do you help our empire to grow, for the good of all”.

Alan Green also is asked to say something. He says it directly, a bit afraid of the cameras, but not realizing that his words will be heard beyond the ocean:

“I defected from the American Empire because they wanted me to build ballistic missiles. I am a scientist, not a killer. And I will not kill anyone. I am here with you, in the name of science. I am a Soviet citizen and I will remain like this for the rest of my life”.

They have no idea that far away other two political leaders are watching this. Soon, all Americans will know that Alan Green betrayed them to work for the Soviets. He will be charged of crimes against humanity and considered the greatest traitor of all times. The Jewish televisions will show Ana as a ‘German whore’ ruling the soviet space program. And all this will happen in just in two days.

After the parade, Iosif Leonov invites the scientists to his favorite conference room. He shows his gratitude to their work, but strongly demands them to keep on the good work, no matter the cost. Only to Alan Green, he adds:

“You shouldn’t say what you said. You will make the Americans angry. You were their man before you came here”.

After this, Ana Leonova remains with him for the night. It’s been a long time since they’ve been together. The dictator is always busy until late in evening. Then, the two eat something and take a sit in a conference room, watching the sunset.

Ana feels herself comfortable. She takes a sit and puts her feet on the writing desk, lighting a cigarette. Iosif Leonov takes a sit at his desk with a small cup filled with vodka. He uses to drink something after work.

“We live difficult times”, he says. “In order to gain trust from the people, you have to show them something. There are three ways to do this. One wrong way is by force. Still, you have to show them your power, but use it only when it is the only solution. The other, much worse way, is by offering gifts. This will give you what you want for a short term, but on a longer time scale, it will certainly make you fall. The third way is what we are doing. You have to give people something to believe into. You have to build, you have to offer them victories. I am right now working on a megaproject, the Grand Soviet Railway. It will connect the Balkans with Alaska. We are building dams on Lena to produce more electricity. We are offering free farming land for new families. All comes with a price. Each of these three variants come with a price, but only the last one will pay more”.

“Dad, you are working too hard”, she says.

“You know, it is very important to chose good people to make your work. I come with the idea and I find the best people to do it. This is the most important part, finding the right people. It is better to find two or three and make them think independently. Never let your ambitions make you think that you know everything or that you are right. Do you know the Salekhard – Norilsk railway? Stalin wanted to build it with gulag slaves. He failed, because working with slaves is not feasible. If it were feasible, slavery wouldn’t had been abandoned after the collapse of the Roman Empire. Two millennia ago, people found out that slavery is not feasible. I repaired that railway and currently I am extending it to Iakutsk. Almost all the work is done with modern equipment, but some parts are built with workers”.

The dictator looks how the Sun vanishes slowly behind the many buildings at the horizon.

“My child, you have a hard and very important job”, he says. “We live in hard times. The Americans want Alaska back. They threatened me that, if I don’t give it by my own will, they will take it by force. They laugh at us, saying that we are unable to build a fridge. This is where your space program comes in. You must show them our supremacy”.

Ana looks at a world map and can see some areas encircled. She goes to the map and looks at it.

“What is going on, dad?” she asks.

“Those are the critical points”, he explains. “As you can see, all empires are facing problems. You see, people from the Baltics want out. They want to leave our empire and join the Jewish Empire. The atrocities done by the Old Soviets are still in their minds. They know how Stalin departed them in Siberia and almost killed them. It was my mistake. I wanted to conquer Germany. Many Germans already existed in out lands and many more defected to our empire. But, most of all, it was your mother. When our troops entered Germany, we found nothing but abandoned land and destroyed cities. It was my mistake. I shouldn’t conquer the Baltics. We have a good relation with the Poland Autonomous Republic, but people in the Baltics keep on making riots. I don’t know what to do. If we let them out, the other empires will take this as a sign of weakness. I could depart them all to Central Siberia, but, as Lenin pointed out, violence is acceptable only when there is no other way. On the other hand, people in Finland want to be out from the Jewish Empire, to join us and merge with Karelia, but we don’t have the resources to do that yet”.

“Maybe an exchange of territories should be a good alternative”, says Ana.

“Maybe, but Rosenstein is not a diplomat. He wants all defectors sent back to his territories. Also, people in Iran are strongly wowing for our help, to leave the Jewish Empire and join us. But, if the Jews lose Iran, they will start a crusade against us”.

“Again, we risk a nuclear war”, concludes Ana.

“My child, the Jews are a special kind of people. They are extremely ambitious. If you read the history, you can clearly see that nobody won a fight with them for long. Sooner or later, those who took something from them, had to pay and far more then they took. They are the most intelligent race on the face of the Earth. They gave the world some of the most well-known scientists, like Einstein. They gave some of the most known ideologies. Karl Marx was a Jew. Even Lenin and Stalin were half Jews. Communism was created by the Jews. Even the Old Soviet Empire was, in many aspects, built by the Jews. Hitler killed millions of innocent people. He butchered many people in Ukraine and the Caucasus, but history only remembers what he did to the Jews. Everyone who ever threatened them, who ever attacked them, paid a far greater price. Even in old times, when they built the first Israel state, they killed all the inhabitants of that territory. I am telling you very clear: Be careful about them. Don’t start a war against them in any way. They are the most superior human race, only that their leader is now a monster. Instead, we should friendly receive their defectors. Jews are the best people on Earth when it comes to managing resources. They are brilliant in strategic games”.

Then, the Supreme Soviet comes to the map.

“You see this?” he says. “This is Alaska, which I conquered from the American Empire. They want it back, but 60% of its inhabitants want to remain with us. Now, the Americans are angry that we took part of their land. I will not give anything back to them, but still, I signed a common development project. I am building the Soviet Corridor, a railway and a highway that will run from the Balkans to Alaska. They are also building Pan-America, a railway and a highway connecting all America and Antarctica, which now is a good place for agriculture, since glaciers are gone. The two corridors will merge and we will have a friendship train, traveling all the distance. I talked with Bohr about the subject. We should try to make peace. But it will not be quite a peace. My game is, just as his, to avoid a nuclear war, which Rosenstein is ready to start. In case of a long- term war, he will win, because his elite troops are the best in the world. And here comes your role, which is the most important”.

Ana listens carefully.

“We started the space race. You well know that the Americans are far superior when it comes to technology and the Jews are able to use their resources more efficiently then anyone. Be sure that they will try to win the space race. We have to be the first. Use any means, I repeat, any means, to win the space race. As they will try to keep the pace with us, they will be less focused on war. We have to change the war fight to something else. This is the only way we can avoid a nuclear disaster”.

“We are doing everything we can, dad”, she says.

“In ancient Greece, there were many wars between state-cities. At some point, the Greeks decided to change wars with athletic competitions. Wars did not end completely, but still, in many places, it was peace. This is exactly what I am trying to do with the space program. And we have to b quick, because the others are already starting to build”.

“Already?”

“Yes. The KGB reports that they are planning, but, as for now, we are still ahead of them. I am telling you this: The Americans started work on a giant space program. All scientists in the American empire are being selected right now for this task. The Jews are also building rocket working camps in their Arabian gulag. You have to build as fast as you can. You have the resources”.

The Supreme Soviet shows his daughter a lot of laws he implemented. He wants to boost the economy, to build dams and wind turbines all over the empire, to build irrigation projects and industrial centers. He wants to make sure that the people will have food, electricity, drinking water and fuel, but also that everyone will have something to work. But then, he shows her another law: the disappearance of prisons.

“This is what Lenin stated at his time”, he says. “He took people out of prisons to working camps. He believed that, this way, inmates will learn how to work and they will be useful for the society. Stalin took this idea and built his gulag camps. I want to use this force for massive projects. You will also receive ten thousand inmates for space projects. Use this labor force wisely. I watched the Lenin I and Lenin II rockets, but I believe we need far greater rockets to fulfill our tasks. I want Lenin III and IV to be built by October 4th. Why that day? I have intelligence that the other empires plan a man on the Moon by autumn”.

“I’ll do it, dad”, she says. “I won’t let you disappointed”.

“You never did”.

LENIN III

During World War II, German troops reached Moscow. Why didn’t they conquer the city? The Germans came with the most powerful tanks of the moment. Soviets also built a similar tank, with almost identical capabilities. The Soviets defeated German forces. How? The Germans built their tanks like art masterpieces, painted and polished them, like if they were race cars. The Soviets built their tanks as fast as they could. Soviet tanks were not even covered with paint. Soviets won the tank battle by number. Memories from WW II.

Once Ana arrived back to the Aral, she ordered her scientists to come with a design for the Lenin III rocket, as fast as possible. She ordered her scientists to also finish projects for the factories needed to build the rocket on an assembly line.

Even if the projects were not ready, work started on the factories. Everything has to be ready faster then expected.

Lenin III is a massive ship, able to send 10 t of cargo on a Sun escape velocity. It is a space monster, 3 times more powerful then Lenin II and 10 times more powerful then Lenin I. Still, all three rockets are similar in many aspects. They have a first stage with four boosters, designed to b recovered after they land back to Earth. The second stage takes the payload to a Moon flyby trajectory, while the third stage, powered by a nitrogen ion engine, fires for many days and increases speed to Sun escape velocity.

This is how a Lenin III rocket looks like:

The first stage is 84 m high and 14 m wide. It is powered by 9 RS-4 engines, with 3000 kN of power each. The stage is helped with two large and two small boosters. The large boosters are 91 m high and 12 m wide, powered by nine RS-4 engines each. The small boosters are 31 m high and 2 m wide, powered by a less powerful 300 kN RS-2 engine each. The first stage weights 3000 t and carries 2550 t of fuel. Large boosters weight 2000 t each and carry 1700 t of fuel each. The small boosters weight 20 t and carry 18 t of fuel each.

Second stage is 17 m high and 10 m wide. It uses three 300 kN RS-2 engines. Filled with fuel, it weights 288.3 t, 213.04 t being fuel (hydrogen and oxygen). The third stage is 3 m high and 10 m wide, carrying 27.3325 t of nitrogen, to be used by its nitrogen ion engine.

The third stage, together with the payload, weights 46.43 t.

However, Ana doesn’t want to send something in the Solar System. Her task is to send a human to the Moon. So, the third stage will have chemical engines. It will carry a single human to the Moon for a short visit. The 10 t payload will be a cabin, carrying a cosmonaut, food, water, oxygen, a space suit and a space to collect Moon samples. It will also carry a parachute for Earth return. The remaining 36.43 t will be used to store 29.144 t of fuel. It will be able to develop a delta-v of 5.015 km/s, more then enough. It will have two RS-2 engines.

Time is limited to test all parts. So, Ana orders three ships to be built. Only engines will be tested before flight. Three ships will go to the Moon, each one with a cosmonaut that has no idea if he will return home after all.

The ship is immense. It is 120 m high and weights 7395 t. That certainly is a monster.

Who will volunteer for this? Ana took a few military pilots and asked them if they want. From 33 pilots, 13 accepted. Then, she tested them in some extreme situations and came with 6. She decided that she will roll a dice. The lucky (or unlucky) one will be chosen at four hours before launch.

The three Lenin III rockets are ready. The first one is moved from Space Factory to Aral Cosmodrome. It is placed into position on the new launch platform, which is larger then all the others.

The capsule, which will host the cosmonaut, is not large. He will only have limited space. But even so, it is far more comfortable then the old Soviet ships. Even better, it has a toilette and wet taps, so that the cosmonaut will be able to wash himself.

At four hours before launch, Ana throws the dice. Winner is number 2. Alehin, a 28 years old pilot, comes in.

“I don’t know if you will make it”, says Ana. “All launch sequences are automated. Once we reach 20 seconds to launch, there is nothing we can do. You go to space. In case of a malfunction, you can separate with the third stage and turn parachutes on. Good luck!”

“I am ready and I am prepared to give my life for the Soviet dream!” he says, without a smile.

The cosmonaut gets prepared. He had only a few days to get familiarized with the commands. No test had been ran with the ship. All is unknown. Will he make it? He quickly gets dressed, takes the costume and climbs aboard. Scientists try their best to check last systems. After huge tensions, the clock shows it is time. It’s 6.31 PM. Last minute. Ana pushes the button. She waits nervously in the launch tower, with all scientists around. She clearly knows that the other empires are building their own rockets. Twenty seconds… Now, they cannot stop it. Engines are turned on.

“That is not good”, says a scientist. “I see a possible fuel leak”.

“Too late now”, answers Ana.

The engines ignite. 29 powerful engines are turned on, burning 18.84 t of hydrogen and oxygen every second. The ship starts to rise, as its powerful engines take it off Earth. Vibrations can be felt in the building. What a monster! Outside, everything is filled by smoke and light. The noise is very powerful.

“Unusual vibrations!” says another scientist. “All engines have the same resonance”.

The rocket is climbing up. In ten seconds, it gets 120 m up in the sky. Its bottom is where its nose once were. Another ten seconds and it rises 600 m.

Scientists receive telemetry.

“Booster 2, engine 4 failure!”

“Onboard computer will turn off engine 5 on booster 1, to compensate”, says another scientist. “But that will come with a loss of delta-v”.

“Oh no!” says Ana. “Not now! Just hope we get him alive!”

The rocket continues to rise, but with less force. Still, it rises in the sky. Then, another alarm is triggered.

“Booster 3 launched its parachute”.

Now, the monster just opened one parachute that would otherwise allow one of the small boosters to land. The parachute is pushing it on a side. The rocket is off-course, but still not falling down. Onboard computer is turning off a few engines to correct trajectory and allow it to move vertical. The rocket slows down.

After a minute, it is clear that the rocket will not make it to space.

“Activate emergency atmospheric protocol”, says Ana.

The rocket is 5000 km high. The boosters separate from the main core and their onboard computers calculate the best path to land on Aral Seabed. Second stage is also separated and all fuel left to escape in space. Third stage is detached, makes some trajectory correction maneuvers and releases extra fuel, to land.

An emergency team goes to recover the cosmonaut, which lands perfectly safe. Scientists go fast to check what went wrong. They work all night, trying to figure out what is the cause. Finally, they get the answer. It was the vibrations from the engines combined, which made some critical parts to fail. The parachute was also opened by the vibrations, which broke its cover in booster’s nose cone.

Next evening, at 7.27 PM, the second Lenin III rocket is ready to takeoff. Ana throws the dice.

“Number 4, pilot Gregoriev. Are you ready for this task?” she asks.

“Yes!” he answers.

He takes on the space costume and is moved into the rocket. Scientists did anything they could to make sure the rocket is functional. They changed a bit the synchronization of the engine start sequence and modified the launch platform, so that no reaction jet will resonate with the platform at all.

Everything looks well. After ignition, the rocket goes up. But, after a few seconds, another alarm is triggered.

“What is it this time?” asks Ana.

“We don’t know”, says a scientist, “It looks like something just hit the ship!”

Oh no! The rocket is placed between four launch towers. One of them did not retract completely one of its arms. The rocket just hit it and is pushed on a side! A few seconds later and scientists can see a flame on a side.

“Fuel tank breach!” says one of them. “Booster 1 is losing fuel”.

The rocket climbs into the atmosphere. Onboard computer turns off one of the engines on booster 2, to compensate. But this is not enough. The rocket starts flying in circles. Only a minute and… it violently impacts the ground. A powerful shock wave can be felt on the cosmodrome and a big flash of light is seen at the horizon.

“Comrade Gregoriev is dead”, says Ana, realizing the bitter truth.

Next day, she rolls the dice again. She gets number 4, which was Gregoriev, which now is dead. She rolls the dice again, to find number 1.

“Comrade Ebraimov, are you ready?”

The pilot does not answer anything.

“Are you not ready for the mission? I will roll the dice again if you wish”.

He doesn’t answer anything again.

“Well, then, who is prepared for the mission?”

“I do”, answers one of the pilots.

This is Mehmed Ben Abdul, a Muslim pilot. He comes from the Caucasus.

“You realize the risks, do you?”

“I do”, he answers. “But if Allah wants, I will make it. I want you to be proud of me!”

Ana gives him the space costume. He gets dressed and is placed in the capsule.

Launch occurs on October 4th, at 8.20 PM. It is night outside. Scientists check for all details before. The launch towers retract their arms much before the launch sequence is initiated. Everything looks good. Ana personally pushes the button. Twenty seconds to launch. Then, engines are turned on and a powerful light, noise and vibration is felt. It is not like the first vibration, it is weaker, but still very powerful. The rocket starts ascending with each second. Everything is going on just as planned. All 29 engines are working as expected, filling the cosmodrome with a dense smoke.

Thirty seconds. The rocket is now over 1 km above, rising to the clouds. Forty seconds and it enters the clouds. From below, scientists lose visual, they can only see a bright red- yellow light in the clouds. The first minute passes and the ship is still working properly. They receive a telemetry message:

“The ship is a bit off-course”, says a scientist. “That shouldn’t be a problem, second stage will correct this”.

The second minute passes and everything looks good. Through a gap in the clouds, scientists get a chance to see the rocket. Third minute passes also without incidents.

At 265 seconds, the small boosters are detached, as expected. Soon, at 272 seconds, the large boosters are detached. They will fall on the Aral desert. The main first stage is turned off at 408 seconds after launch. After five seconds, it is also detached. Second stage turns on after other five seconds. It is made to burn 17 minutes and a half and will provide enough delta-v to reach the Moon. Scientists watch this with their nerves stretched to maximum.

Finally, second stage runs out of fuel and is detached. The fairing (nose cone) is detached too. They soon can see Mehmed Ben Abdul on camera. He is alive and well.

“I never imagined it will be so powerful! The vibrations and forces are far beyond what I’ve encountered at any flying, real or simulated”.

“Well done, comrade!” says Ana.

“No. Well done to you all, who worked on this rocket”, he answers from space.

TO THE MOON

A hundred and fifty years ago, sending a human to the Moon was very hard. The Soviets failed. This is where we lost the space race. Now, with current technology, it is very easy to do that. But, because it is so easy, anyone can do it. Still, the Old Soviets had advantage of fossil fuels, which we completely lack on. Our ships are far more massive because hydrogen is very light. It was a great success, but because we did it so easy, others will do it very soon… and much better. Ana Leonova, in her diary.

After twelve days, the third stage arrives at the Moon. Now, we see a lot of problems. We did not understand the proper needs of a human. Our cosmonaut, Mehmed Ben Abdul, only has limited space to move, a cone, 3 m high and 2 m wide. He has limited air, water and food supplies. It is too little for a human. During the long flight, he has to stay, not to move, to avoid using too much of his limited resources. Each time he needs to go to the toilette, he has to use a bit of air, to suck his dejections into space. The limited food is in the form of protein cubes, vitamins and cubes of glucose. Water is being recycled through distillation, so he should have enough.

In the past, space missions carried an orbiter and a detachable lander. Now, we made it all in one. The third stage will use part of its fuel to gain Moon orbit, part to land, part to takeoff and part to return home. This is not the most economical way to build a Moon mission, but it is the fastest. In order to save fuel, the rocket goes on a longer trajectory, which means that we will reach the Moon in twelve days. That is a lot of time. We have to consider the other twelve days for returning and a day to stay on the Moon.

An unpleasant surprise is that the limited resources don’t allow Mehmed to take a bath. Well, you cannot have a bath in space. He should use wet towels to clean himself. Those towels should be washed by the shuttle and water recycled, with all impurities dropped on the way. But, the washing machine is not working properly. He will have to stay almost unwashed.

Every four hours, the spacecraft sends data to Earth. Everything looks good for now. Sometimes, the cosmonaut also sends messages to Earth and receives others.

Iosif Leonov orders that the mission will remain a secret until we have a successful Moon landing. Then, everything will be transmitted on television. But, the major problem is that the landing site will be on the far side of the Moon, in order to save time. To communicate with Earth, Mehmed will have to use the Moon orbiter, which has limited capabilities.

The Moon transfer orbit is different then at previous American missions. It is almost over Earth’s North Pole. Also, the return trajectory will be similar.

The ship performs a small trajectory correction. Then, once it is close enough to the Moon, the engines are turned on. Third stage fires to slow down the ship and land. All the way to here, the second stage traveled within visual, but now, it is left behind. It will be ejected out of Earth’s gravity sphere. The ship does not perform a first Moon orbit. It lands directly in a flat area, on the bottom of a crater. Everything goes just as planned. The engines stop the ship at 1 m above surface, then the ship lands on its four telescopic feet.

Mehmed Ben Abdul puts the space costume on, transmits its status to Earth and then opens the door, getting out, on the Moon surface. His costume has a camera that will record everything. Also, the ship has its own cameras.

“Wow! This place is so lonely! Nobody went here ever. I cannot see the Earth, just the sky filled with stars. The Sun is at the horizon”.

Down on Earth, his first words on the Moon and his first filmed images are transmitted on all televisions in the Soviet Empire. Another short film shows him putting the New Soviet red flag on the Moon, at 100 m from the ship. He collects a few pieces of rock and some dust. He spends exactly five hours on the Moon, until his costume runs out of oxygen. Time to return! During all this time, at every 44 minutes, he sends a short film of about a minute home.

He gets back into the ship, secures the door and takes his costume off. The engines are turned on. For a few seconds, the ship almost turns over, but the automated computer manages to control ship’s attitude. The ship gains altitude. It heads for an orbit.

Computer works automated and calculates the best trajectory to reach back Earth, the Aral Seabed. The return path is almost similar, taking the ship almost over Earth’s North Pole. Once the ship can see Earth again, it sends its recordings to Aral Cosmodrome. Many recordings are transmitted by the New Soviet televisions.

For Mehmed, other twelve days are ahead. With his limited food and air supplies, he has to sleep and rest as much as possible. The air in his cabin is almost unbreathable, filled with sweat and body smells.

In day 9, the ship conducts small trajectory adjustments, to safely land on Aral Seabed. The remaining fuel will be used close to Earth, to slow down the ship as much as possible, for a safer landing. Again, in day 11, the ship conducts another correction maneuver. Now, it is clear that it will land at only ten km away from the cosmodrome. Mehmed can hardly respond to commands. It is clear that he suffers from a lack of oxygen.

In day 12, the ship enters Earth atmosphere. The remaining fuel is fired to slow down the ship as much as possible. Third stage is detached and left to fall to the desert. The capsule throws all its wastes: carbon dioxide filters, remaining water and wet towels, to be lighter. Atmospheric reentry is confirmed. A medical extraction team is ready, just waiting for a signal to go. The capsule is slowed down by air friction, then it opens its small parachute… and then, its four large parachutes. It lands, just as the medical team arrives there.

They have to force the door and extract Mehmed, which is still alive, but almost lost contact to the world. The press will not know that he almost died from hypoxia. They will know that it was a successful mission.

A few days later, Iosif Leonov appears on TV, in a visit to the cosmodrome, giving Mehmed a Red Star medal. The same day, Ana Leonova appears on TV, in an online talk show. She says this:

“We are happy that we reached the Moon. After more then a hundred years, a cosmonaut walked on the Moon. It is also the first time a human walks on the rear side of our natural satellite”.

“What do you think the other empires will do?” asks the reporter.

“What would I do if I were in their position?” says Ana. “I would build my own ship and prove that I can do it too. This is what I am waiting them to do. We didn’t do many preparations for this mission. It took us only three months to build the rocket and the capsule. I believe they should try this, too”.

“What are your next plans?”

“How much time has passed since anyone sent an exploration spacecraft out there? This is what I plan to do, to send robotic missions to the planets. I do challenge anyone to keep it with our progress. The Old Soviets were bitten in previous space race. Let’s see if we will be bitten or if we will win this time”.

Unknown to Ana, the American Empire was already planning a Moon space mission, but it had no time. They went into feasibility studies and research. Until the Soviets landed on the Moon, they didn’t even start building the first rocket. If they had, it would had been far more powerful and superior to anything the Soviets, new or old, had ever built. They planned a complex manned Moon mission, with six astronauts, a Moon reusable space station and two rovers. The Jews were also planning a giant mission, with six rockets, each one sending parts to be assembled in orbit. It was also meant to be a great mission, meant to build the first space station on the Moon.

PART THREE – EXPRESS MISSIONS

The Soviets were not supposed to get that far! Ok, one flying statue should be acceptable, even the two Sputnik ships can be tolerated. A man walking on the moon is already too much. The question remains, how did they do it? How could they be ahead of us, even if their technology is far inferior?

Another thing that we could not understand at that time, is what was their goal. It was clear for us that they can send into orbit a nuclear arsenal and they can attack anyone within minutes. But they did not plan to put ballistics into orbit. What is their goal? What are they really up to? When are they going to end? How far will their limited resources allow them to go? With every new space launch, it was clear for us that they wanted space domination. We were just sitting and waiting, hoping that our dictator will finally come with a brilliant decision. The Soviets walked on the Moon. Why are we not going to the Moon already? The Soviets landed a space probe on Mars. Why are we not doing the same? The Soviets reached Pluto. What are we waiting to go to Pluto, at least after they successfully went there?

For them, it was victory after victory. For us, it was defeat after defeat. But, the biggest problem of all, was that nobody could understand the reasons behind their space exploration campaign. And to be honest, even now, I don’t understand the reasons for what they did. Maybe future generations will have access to many documents that are currently classified. What I can tell you for sure, is that in a dictatorship, the dictator sometimes takes personal decisions that are against the logic. David Master, a historian.

THE SCHEDULE

Ana Leonova? I’ve never seen a woman so ambitious. She is so decided to go to the stars, but she also plans everything in high details. It hates for me to say it, but she is a demonic mind. Alan Green.

“Alright, people”, says Ana to her scientists. “We got our success, a manned Moon mission. Now, the other empires will try to do that, too. It is time to go on a different path. We have three rockets now, the Lenin I, II and III. They are powerful enough to carry payloads anywhere inside the Solar System. The ships will be produced on an assembly line. We can have a launch every month, without problems. Now, it is time to build space probes to all of the planets. The rockets are almost safe and very efficient. We have our experience with the Moon orbiter and the Moon horse, so we know what to do next. We should build orbiters and horses on assembly lines, adapted to conditions on any planet. Planning starts now. I want the first space mission to be ready next month, then, every month, a new rocket to be launched”.

This was Ana’s message for everyone on the first of November, at the Space Factory. She wants her rockets to be ready as fast as possible. But before this, she has to solve a major problem. Spaceships need to be followed wherever they go. Since Earth is rotating, the ships are not always in contact. So, she orders three relay satellites to be launched first. They will be huge, with large antennas that will open in space. Nobody attempted this before. In past, NASA used the DSS network, but now, it is no longer functional and anyway it is outside the Soviet Empire. The only available option remains the construction of these powerful relay stations. They will have huge solar panels, about 400 m long and 100 m wide, while the antennas receiving from space will be 50 m in diameter. Each relay will have three antennas pointing to space and one, much smaller, only 10 m wide, pointing to Earth. Also, each satellite will have nitrogen ion engines to remain in orbit and in correct orientation for 50 years.

Construction goes well and the satellites are to be launched on 12, 13 and 14th of December, each one with a Lenin III rocket.

After this, Ana insists to develop many new ships. Her orders are clear: build a ship and launch it. In case of a failure, repeat. With the nitrogen ion engine, it is possible to adjust trajectories more easy. Flight windows occur much more often and trajectory can be adjusted at almost every point.

Scientists are drawing unmanned missions to all the planets.

But most scientists are Russians and love alcohol. Many times, after work, they go and drink vodka. Ana knows this and tolerates this. She never drinks, but sometimes she hangs out with her scientists at a local bar. One cold November night, after finishing work, she goes with four men and a woman. They drink.

At some point, waiter comes with something to drink and serves them all.

“This is a gift for all my clients”.

“I am sorry, says Ana, but I don’t drink alcohol.”

“Please”, says the waiter. “Just a bit”.

Ana takes the glass and gives it to Natasha, a scientist woman. And just as she drinks, Natasha falls on the ground, screaming of pain.

Everyone looks scared. Ana immediately runs after the waiter, hits him hard with a boot in his stomach and says:

“You are not getting out with it! Someone call the police, I am making justice myself!”

She grabs the waiter and asks other people to bring her ropes. She ties him on a table, then takes a knife and asks him:

“That cup was made for me, wasn’t it?”

The waiter answers nothing. Ana keeps him tied on the table, forcing everyone to remain inside the bar. Nobody goes out. She starts hitting the man with her fists. Then, when a police team arrives, she orders everyone to be interrogated. Also, she orders his wife, children and parents to be found and brought here.

In the morning, she asks someone to bring a veterinarian from the rural regions North to Aral Seabed. She orders the veterinarian to castrate the waiter, with no anesthetic. Everything is done while his family watches his desperate screams of pain. Then, she takes him into a remote room, ties him better and starts burning his skin with a candle.

“Listen this”, she says, with a lot of anger in her face. “You will die anyway. Don’t think that anything can make me feel mercy about you. But it depends on you if your wife, your children and your parents will survive. If you lie, they will be burned alive in front of the Space City and you will watch it all. If you tell the truth, I tell you loud and clear that nothing will happen to them”.

She continues to burn him with the candle.

“Whom do you work for? Who sent you to kill me?”

“The Jewish Empire”, he says.

Ana continues to burn him with the candle, while he screams of pain.

“Be more precise”!

“I don’t know them, a guy who calls himself H. He promised a billion dollars for my family if I succeed, plus all facilities to emigrate”.

“Should I trust you?” answers Ana, with a sadistic smile on her face.

“H has no phone and no address, just an e-mail. I can give it to you”.

The next day, after painful interrogations, the spy is tied in front of the Space City, on top of some woods. The television films live. Ana ignites a fire and sends him to a horrible death. The KGB will continue the investigations. Nothing bad will happen to his family.

MERCURY EXPRESS

After all these preparations, I finally saw a ship going to the planets. It was meant to reach Mercury. It was the first Soviet mission to that planet and the first in the ‘express’ program. I had tears in my eyes. Alan Green.

As Ana said, a spaceship will be launch in every month. The first to be sent out there, is to Mercury. A Lenin II rocket will carry to space an orbiter and a horse. The horse is a walking robot.

The orbiter weights 950 kg and has the main purpose finding conditions on Mercury for a possible manned mission. It is attached to the third stage and will remain so until the end of mission. Because Mercury is close to the Sun, the orbiter will have a heat and radiation shield that must be pointed towards the Sun. It will carry some science instruments: visible, ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers, high and low-resolution cameras, plasma and particle detectors, as well as a magnetometer. It also carries a neutron detector. Scientists hope to find water, nitrogen and other useful chemicals on Mercury, which may one day allow a manned mission to visit the planet.

The horse weights 850 kg. It will land with the help of a 1200 kg rocket, with one RS-1 engine. Unlike rovers, which were sent in past to the planets, a horse moves with its feet. This feature allows it to pass over most obstacles. The horse has stereo cameras and an onboard computer, which makes it autonomous. It has its own science instruments: spectrometers, a drill, a robotic arm, a microscope, an ionized chamber and instruments to analyze ions and neutral particles in the atmosphere. The horse has its own protection shield. During day, it opens a reflective panel, pointed towards the Sun, which will keep operating temperature below 100 C. During night, it is designed to turn off all functions and hibernate until light will turn it back on. The horse has a battery, which will allow it to work without light for about 50 hours. This is important, because scientists want to explore some craters in the Northern hemisphere of Mercury, where ice water is thought to exist.

The third stage will provide a delta-v of 15 km/s, which is close to the limit of what you will need to reach Mercury. Scientists want to perform a few Venus flybys to save some fuel. Usually, space missions are launched at the perfect planetary alignment. However, Ana wants everything to be done as fast as possible and is unwilling to wait for a very god flight window to appear.

After a Moon flyby, the rocket will be sent in heliocentric orbit, on a closer orbit to the Sun. The nitrogen ion engine will fire for 51 days, adjusting orbit for an Earth flyby. Then, another engine burn is needed for 22 days in order to get a Venus encounter. A 41 days engine burn will position the ship for a second Venus flyby. Then, after 25 days of engine burn, it will conduct a Mercury flyby. After that, the engine will fire continuously for 151 days, changing orbit for the second Mercury flyby. A new firing sequence of 11 days will put the ship for a new Mercury encounter. This time, the engine changes speed so that the ship will enter Mercury orbit.

The ship is planned to orbit closer to Mercury, then to deploy its horse. Then, the horse will start operating, using the orbiter as a relay station. As before, the press says nothing. People will know about Mercury Express only when the ship will arrive at Mercury, not before.

Outside, the press is talking about the three relay satellites, placed into orbit. They are so big and with huge antennas, that people can see them in the night sky, as shining stars. They are placed at 35786 km, above the equator. Their shiny antennas and huge solar panels can be seen with a telescope that many amateurs have in their homes. Many fear that they are designed to spy.

Also, others fear that the New Soviets are planning to put on orbit nuclear missiles, ready to strike at anytime any target on Earth. The Jewish Empire makes a statement that it will launch a rocket and destroy these satellites if needed.

VENERA EXPRESS

From the Old Soviet space missions, the Venera program is one of the most well known. Venera ships are the only ones that took pictures from the surface of Venus. They were destroyed in less then an hour, showing how difficult is to survive on that planet. Alan Green, in his memories.

At a month after the launch of Mercury Express, a new Lenin II rocket is ready on the Aral Cosmodrome. Its purpose is to send a research probe to Venus. Venus is closer then Mercury. The rocket will carry an orbiter, a horse and a balloon. The orbiter is designed with special sensors, able to pierce through Venus’s dense clouds, to gain data about atmospheric and surface composition. It weights a 1200 kg.

The balloon is designed to float at 10 km high, in Venus’s atmosphere. It is designed to sample and analyze the atmosphere of Venus. It will work during day, while during night, power stored on batteries, will only adjust the altitude. The hydrogen balloon will keep at a constant altitude a probe weighting 400 kg. The probe can also take images and spectral data from the surface. To control the altitude, the probe has a hydrogen tank. It will pump hydrogen from the balloon to the tank and back, to maintain the proper altitude.

The horse is different. It will land on Venus and will stay there. It will work on the surface, enduring extreme temperatures and pressures, in a highly corrosive environment. Scientists took all data they had from former Venera missions. The horse will be made mostly from materials that don’t work properly on Earth conditions, but will work perfectly on Venus. For example, most of parts are made of silicon polymers. Only a small part, hosing electronics, will be kept in a well-insulated chamber, with a temperature control system. The horse will gain energy with the help of thermal cells, mounted on its back. This will allow it to work both during day and night. Everything has to be designed completely different. The horse will have to cameras, allowing it to have stereo view, but these cameras had to be made of completely different materials.

With not enough time for testing, it is unclear if the horse, the balloon or the probe will work properly.

To make things even more difficult, the horse needs to be built in a special chamber, simulating the conditions on Venus: 500 degrees C, 65 bars and high concentrations of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. During the flight, the horse also needs to be carried in a well-insulated chamber, tapped on the interior with silicon polymers and a layer of gold. The horse itself weights 1000 kg, but the hosting chamber weights other 400 kg, with all its insulation layers.

A Lenin II is designed to take into a Sun escape trajectory three tons of cargo. However, to reach Venus, it requires less fuel for the third stage, which will carry less nitrogen, more engines and more solar panels to power-up its nitrogen ion engines. This way, it will arrive faster to Venus.

The plan is to send the rocket to Venus orbit. Then, both the balloon and the horse will be detached. They will use a small chemical engine and 100 kg of fuel to deorbit into Venus. A heat shield and a parachute will slow them on the way, down to an altitude of 10 km, when the balloon will separate. The horse will be slowed down with another one, smaller parachute, down to surface, where its hosting box will open and it will safely get out.

The Lenin II rocket is launched successfully into space. Its first stage and boosters detach and land on the former Aral seabed, just as planned. This time, each booster and the stage have only two large parachutes. Large wheeled vehicles are prepared and they go through the desert to recover them. Everything goes perfectly.

TWO SMALL MISSIONS

If someone asks me, this is how we should start, with small space missions. We should test our technologies on small missions before going for the big targets. Alan Green, in his memories.

Two more space missions follow the schedule. In March, the Luna Express mission goes to the Moon, sent with a Lenin I. It carries a new horse and a new orbiter for the Moon. The old horse was rendered inoperational when many of its elecronics ceased working properly. The orbiter is still functioning, but with many of its parts not working as they should.

Then, in April, the Aral Cosmodrome sees another launch: Asteriola Express. This mission intents to visit many near-Earth asteroids. The launch vehicle is a Lenin I rocket, which is suitable of delivering one ton of cargo into a Sun escape trajectory. The third, nitrogen stage, will remain attached to the probe, which weights 800 kg. The probe also carries two bugs weighting 50 kg each and 100 kg of propellant for them.

A bug is a small spacecraft, designed to travel between a small celestial body (for example an asteroid, a small satellite or a comet) and the mother ship. It also has a robotic arm, able to take samples from the surface and carry it to the ship for closer examination. It is the first time such a vehicle is built. Asteriola will visit many near Earth asteroids.

All these missions are kept secretly. Nobody knows if they will be a success or a failure. So, everything is kept in secrecy. The other missions are also monitored. Every four hours, each ship is sending data back home. Lenin’s statue is still flying. The nitrogen ion engine seems to work properly, as the statue is currently passing beyond the orbit of Mars. With less sunlight, its acceleration is decreasing, just as was expected. The two SSS ships, replicas of the old Sputnik, are now flying too. SSS 1 is getting on an orbit closer to the Sun. With more light, its beeps are more frequent. SSS 2 is moving away from the Sun, on its predicted trajectory, out from the Solar System.

MARS EXPRESS

When I was a little girl, all stories started with ‘once upon a time’. Then, as I grew and I could understand the first cartoons, I’ve seen many spaceships. Even if I were a girl, what attracted me were cartoons with spaceships and robots attracted me. In one series, Mars was a planet colonized by humans, terraformed and where people traveled with flying cars. I though cartoons were also stories from the past. When I grew-up, I could not believe that no human lives on Mars at all. That must be when my desire to reach the cosmos actually started. Ana Leonova in her memories.

The Mars Express mission is planned to launch at night, at 1.32 AM, on May 1st. The launch vehicle is a Lenin II rocket. It carries an orbiter, a horse and two bugs. The horse is a replica of the Moon horse. It weights 1000 kg. It will deorbit with the help of a small engine and 100 kg of propellant. A heat shield will help its descent, then a large parachute will safely land it on Martian surface. All this adds 600 kg. The orbiter weights 1200 kg too, plus extra 100 kg for fuel to be used by its bugs. The two bugs weight 50 kg each and are designed to land on Mars’s small moons, Phobos and Deimos, to take samples and return them to the orbiter for further analysis.

The launch is a success. The boosters are separated in time, followed by the first stage. Second stage ignites as it should, taking the payload to a Moon flyby. The first stage and the boosters are recovered as in past missions. Everything is a great success.

At 5 AM, Ana gives a free day to everyone, except a few people that have to monitor the ships. It is the first of May, a day when everyone is free from work. So, almost everyone travels from the cosmodrome and from the factories to the Space City to relax. Ana goes to her apartment for a sleep. She is sleeping, at 9 AM, when her father, the Supreme Soviet, calls her.

“Was the launch successful?” he asks.

“Yes, it was”, she answers.

“What is the status of the other missions?”

“Well, dad, they are all just as planned. Mercury Express is on its way for a Venus flyby. Venera Express is on its way to target. Luna Express successfully landed its horse, while Asteriola Express is on its way for the first asteroid encounter”.

“I have information that the other empires are trying to launch a manned Moon mission. Mainly the Americans are up to something. We destroyed their party on the 4th of July, now they should destroy ours on the 1st of May. I don’t know yet what they are up to”.

“Maybe, they want to go to the Moon”, says Ana.

“Maybe, maybe not. But we need to show the world that we are still leading the space race. I need to make public our recent space launches”.

“But, dad, I don’t know if they will work as planned once they arrive at their targets”.

“I know, my child, but we need to show our superiority somehow”.

“What about the Jews?”

“They want to attack our relay satellites. They say that we are spying them. I answered that such an aggression will be considered a declaration of war. We have some disturbing data from them, that they are building some rockets in Afghanistan and Iran, but I don’t know their purpose. They are very secretive, as you know”.

“Dad, if you think this will be wise, tell the world about our launches, but I repeat it to you, I have no idea if the probes will reach their targets”.

She falls back on her bed and closes her eyes. Even if she tries to sleep again, she cannot. What are the other empires planning? Will they win the space race, as they did in the past? She remembers a documentary, which she watched in her childhood, about the space race. How did the Americans won the space race? They had more resources then the Soviets. That’s the answer. And that’s the truth even for today. We lack the many resources they have. We lack the technology, we lack the infrastructure, we lack everything, not to mention the many scientists the have.

The Supreme Soviet makes desperate efforts to build a powerful economy. New railways and new concrete roads will cross the empire in all directions. New dams will provide cheap energy for industry and for the people. Large irrigation plans are on the way, together with projects for new cities. Education is a priority. Children are better prepared then before, because we need specialists. But still, we are far behind them. We defeated their troops by cutting down their supply routes, not by direct fight.

For the Jews, the problem is completely different. Their leader, Samuel Rosenstein, is a maniac. He wastes huge resources of any type, just for his crazy ideas. He is paranoiac. In conquered territories, he almost transformed people into slaves. In Africa, he is committing genocide against black people. In the Muslim world, he is using Muslims as slaves. The same happens in his part of China. That is not the way. People in a gulag will never work properly. No matter how hard you beat them no matter how much you torture them, they will never work at full capacity. The Romans realized this, thousands of years before. The Old Soviets used many gulags. At some point, they realized that two hundred gulag prisoners work like a hundred paid workers. The Old Soviets tried to reduce the food ratio for prisoners, but the result was worse. Without food, many died. Now, the same is happening in the Jewish Empire.

Samuel Rosenstein is the reincarnation of Hitler. He rejects this, as he hates all Germans in the world, but his actions are just the same. What he is doing is exactly what Hitler would have done. At first, he would kill all Jews, then he would continue, killing all other inferior races, until in the end, only Arians would survive. But then, he would probably start an ethnic cleansing also among the Arians, killing those that don’t belong to the pure race.

Thinking about all this, Ana falls asleep. Then, at 2 PM, someone calls at the door. She wakes up and goes to the door, to see what is going on. After the assassination attempt, she always has a bodyguard watching her back. Even when she is sleeping, a soldier is guarding her door. She ordered this, knowing that other attempts are possible.

As she opens the door, she can see a guy, about the same age as herself, with blonde hair and in a black costume. She knows him very well. He is Alex Green, the son of Alan Green. Their relationship is special. Well, it is not about love. Ana is a sfenist. A sfenist is a victim of a sexual abuse that never recovered completely from its trauma. Alex is the only person that knows her story except for her father. That is, Ana suffered three traumas in her childhood. The first was the lost of her mother, the second was a sexual abuse and the third was the war her father carried to reunite the Soviet Empire. As a sfenist, she is unable to have sexual relations at all. It I not something biological, it is psychological. This is why she never accepted a guy around her.

However, Alex is different. He is not interested in a relationship. In fat, he willed to cross gender barriers, to become a woman. His father never allowed him to do his. Ana found out and wanted to learn more. She even looked for a possible way to help him transform. Well, times are very dangerous and such a transformation of an important person will be on the front page of many newspapers.

Ana closes the door, to put on her day outfit: a black dress, thigh boots and long gloves. Then, she opens the door and invites him inside. She lights a cigarette.

“Comrade”, he says, “have you seen the news?”

“About our space missions?” she asks. “My father decided to tell the people, because today is the first of May. People need to see something, to believe into”.

“Yes, that was on the news too”, he says, “but something else. The Americans failed a launch. That was one massive ship”.

“A space launch?” asks Ana, shocked.

“Yes, a huge one”, continues Alex. “It was larger then anything we launched. Good thing that it failed”.

Ana opens her computer, to see it. They both look on news posts.

“Massive rocket failure!” reads Ana. “Democracy I failed to takeoff”.

“Yes”, says Alex. “It exploded. Look here! The massive rocket, designed to take four astronauts to the Moon, exploded on launch platform, killing them. It happened just a few hours ago. And look at the size of this rocket! It is mightier then the Lenin III! I am afraid that sooner or later they will build a new, more powerful one”.

“Reds did it, we lost it”, reads Ana another online article. “Democracy I failed to takeoff, killing all crew members. The mighty rocket, measuring 155 m high, exploded. Scientists say the cause is an engine failure. The Soviets report that they successfully launched ships to Mercury, Venus, Moon and Mars”.

“They were planning to steal our celebration”.

“Just as we did on the fourth of July”, says Ana, playing with her cigarette. “But we were more lucky. We had two ships. The first one almost failed”.

“I know, comrade Leonova, but if they could build this massive ship, they will try again”, says Alex. “It is only a question of time until they do it”.

“This is what I always said”, says Ana, blowing a cloud of smoke. “It is only a question of time. And we didn’t see the Jews launching a ship yet. I bet they are also up to something and we don’t know what”.

“Maybe, we have to send another mission to the Moon”, says Alex. “We have to prove our superiority before they do”.

“We will”, says Ana, after taking a deep smoke inhale. “But, not only to the Moon. We will go to the planets. You know why we launch express missions”.

“To see if we can send cosmonauts to the planets”.

“Excuse me a second”.

Ana calls the survey team at the cosmodrome. She asks about the Mars Express mission. The ship is moving according to schedule, heading for a Moon flyby. Everything is according to plan. The team also informs her that the Supreme Soviet asked for images and data to be shown on television. They had no choice but to accept… and they seen their images and short films on the news.

Listening to this, Ana plays with her dress and the top of her boots. At some point, Alex can see her legs covered with dark brown pantyhose. She notices that he is looking at her legs and says:

“I know what you want, to wear the same clothes as I do, to have breasts, to become a woman. I know that when you are alone you also wear women clothes and that you secretly wear pantyhose even now. Maybe one day you will be able to become a woman, but not now. Not until we win the space race”.

“I know”, he answers.

“Put one foot here”, she orders.

Alex obeys to her request. Her gloved fingers search between his trouser and his sock, finding light-brown, nude pantyhose. She takes another drag and blows the smoke towards his foot, saying:

“Right now, we need to continue the ‘express’ missions. We need to continue on our schedule, no matter the costs. And when we will be done, it is time to start manned missions. But, before we do that, we must make sure that our cosmonauts will survive. And this is the task I want you to complete. It is time to start experiments on humans, to see if and how they can survive in enclosed systems, how much food and water they need and how can we recycle their wastes. And also, all scientists will have a lot of work to do, building a more powerful rocket, able to take people and all they need into space”.

“Comrade, you told me this before, but I honestly don’t know how to start”.

“I need a person I can trust”, says Ana. “For the beginning, take some people into an enclosed space. You need to find some biologists to see what they need. You need to create a biosphere”.

“I did some research”, says Alex. “I know that the Old Soviets experimented with Chlorella algae and proved they can provide all ingredients needed for a human body”.

“That is correct. You told me that”.

“What they failed is to transform human dejections into minerals suitable for algae”.

“I know that too”.

“I found that in South America people purify water from sews with the help of bacteria and worms, then use ultraviolet light to kill bacteria. The result is a water suitable for human drinking”.

“Yes, you told me that too”.

“Well, I don’t know how we can put these things together”, concludes Alex. “We will need a huge space for algae, a huge space for bacteria, filters, a refinery, not to mention that all needs to be done in space, in zero gravity, where it is harder to separate liquids, fluids and gasses. How could we make that work?”

“My advice should be to use a centrifuge”, answers Ana. “But, you shouldn’t ask me that. Find your own scientists and make your own team. That is the only way you can build your device. Do it fast, the clock is ticking”.

The next day, Ana orders her scientists to build two new, more powerful rockets, able to take 30 and 100 tons into Sun escape trajectory. She also forms a new group of scientists, led by Alex Green, to research if and how food, fresh water and oxygen can be produced in space for manned missions.

TOWARDS THE ASTEROIDS

Many people consider the Solar System to be made of the Sun and the planets. When you look at the big gap between Mars and Jupiter, you start to think ‘what is there’ and ‘why is that gap empty’. It contains many asteroids. Some people suggest that once it contained a planet, which exploded or was pulled out of the Solar System by Jupiter’s gravity before it had time to swallow all small bodies crossing its orbit. Others suspect that Jupiter ate a significant part of the matter, leaving too little for a planet to form. If you ask me, I simply say that I don’t know. All I know is that, some of those asteroids contain more metals then all Earth’s resources together. Others contain minerals needed for life. The asteroids could be useful for space stations or could be harvested for materials needed for space colonization. But, that is a far dream of mine. We have a long way to get to that point. For now, we just want to send a ship to them and analyze as many asteroids as possible. Ana Leonova, at the launch of Piazzi Express.

Before the expected schedule, a new spaceship is ready to launch. It is the Piazzi Express, which will be launched by a Lenin II rocket. The launch will occur on May 26th, not in June, as was expected. Piazzi was the person who discovered the first asteroid, Ceres.

The spacecraft will take advantage of an Earth and a Mars flyby. It will reach asteroid Pallas, where it will deploy its horse. The orbiter will survey the asteroid from above, while the horse will explore the surface. The orbiter weights 1200 kg, while the horse weights 1000 kg. The probe also has two bugs, weighting 50 kg each, designed to take samples from smaller asteroids and bring them to the orbiter. The orbiter will carry 100 kg of fuel for them.

The horse will be delivered to the surface of Pallas with the help of a rocket, weighting 600 kg and carrying 500 kg of fuel. This will be enough for the horse to land and then to return to the orbiter, to explore one or two more asteroids.

The payload fits well for a Lenin II rocket. The third, nitrogen ion engine stage, has enough fuel to visit up to a hundred asteroids. The project is very ambitious.

The launch is scheduled to 14.36. However, launch is impossible because of the strong winds. With everything in position, Ana Leonova orders that the launch will occur the next day, the 27th of May, on 14.42, using the next flight window.

As planned, on the next day, scientists conduct a final checkout. All instruments appear to be working well. They check the engines. All seems to work properly. Ana gives the order. The engines ignite and the rocket starts rising from the ground. For the first minute, everything seems to work perfectly. Then, an alarm is triggered.

“What is going on?” asks Ana.

“Something hit the rocket”, says a scientist.

“First stage seems to be broken, we are losing fuel”.

“How is that possible?” asks another scientist.

“The impact diverted the rocket. We are off-course”, explains another scientist.

“Leaking fuel ignites!”

Then, suddenly, the first stage explodes. The second stage explodes too. Boosters are running out of course. A small booster impacts the ground, causing an explosion. Then, a big booster hits the ground. The explosion is so powerful, that scientists feel it like a small quake.

“Turn off the other boosters!” orders Ana.

Her command is executed and the remaining two boosters fall down to the Aral Seabed.

“Don’t look at me like that!” she orders. “Go and find out what went wrong! A new rocket must be ready as soon as possible! We are going to the asteroids, no matter the costs!”

Her orders are executed. Scientists try to figure out what happened.

The good thing is that they have enough spare parts, produced on assembly lines. A backup Lenin II rocket is ready. The horse, the bugs and the orbiter will be ready within two weeks, with all needed parts. Except for the Venus horse, which required a very different design, all other parts share many common features.

Well, in past, only building a part for a space mission (for example a spectrometer) required even more then a year, plus rigorous tests. What Ana wants now, is to build spaceships as fast as humanly possible. She knows the risk. Many ships will fail. She wants to play in the same way the Old Soviets played: build a ship, then, if it failed, analyze what went wrong and build again, with an improved design. Launch again and see how it goes.

In a few hours, a damage report is done. The ship is made of large tanks hosting liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. These gasses are first cooled to the temperature where they are in liquid state, then pumped inside the boosters and the first two stages. If the gasses are heated, they will boil and break the fuselage. However, this process takes long enough and each compartment has a pressure valve to avoid such a scenario. However, as the ship sits too long on the launch platform, its fuselage is cooled drastically. Cold metal is not so elastic and can break more easily. Even worse, because it is cold, water condenses and forms an ice crust. It appears that during the night a layer of ice accumulated on the second stage. After launch, pieces of ice broke away and hit the first stage, making cracks in it. That was just enough for the steel, cooled to –50 C, to break. To make things worse, leaking hydrogen ignited and heated the fuselage. The fast temperature change made the steel to break even more, until the first stage exploded.

Before launch, scientists noticed that a small amount of hydrogen and oxygen escaped through the pressure valve and added extra fuel and oxygen. They also noticed that the ship was covered with a sheet of ice, but they didn’t think it will be a problem. To avoid such a problem in the future, Ana decides to add a device that will spray rockets with heated water before launch, heating them and melting the ice.

Just as promised, a second Lenin II rocket is prepared to launch in short time. Only that, the flight window will be at the end of next month, on June, 21st. At that date, Ana planned to launch the Jupiter Express.

Well, all these ships were launched as fast as possible, not when the perfect planetary alignments were possible. Because of this, scientists had to use complicated trajectories and to use any possible flyby. Flight paths were calculated in very short time.

Well, luck strikes to Ana. It is possible to launch the Piazzi Express towards Venus and use a combined Venus and Earth gravity assist to get to the asteroids. However, the ship will first visit the asteroid Hebe instead of Pallas. Ana accepts and the launch occurs on June, 8th.

Plans are to send a ship to all the planets and major bodies in the Solar System.

IMPROVISING

I grew-up in America. All my life I worked as an astrophysicist. There, each time a machinery was not working, I called a specialized firm to repair or replace it. Each time I had a malfunction, I called a specialized teal to solve the problem. Mainly in space rocketry, parts are rigorously tested, sometimes for years. Before any piece of equipment is built, we work hard on theoretical simulations. Since I defected to the Soviet Empire, I was amazed of how these people solve their problems. They are masters at improvising. Is something not working properly? They open the machine and look inside. Is a pump leaking oil? They fix the problem with a hammer and a wire. I just could not believe it when I seen it. By far, they don’t have the resources I had, by far they lack the testing facilities I was so used to in America. And still, these people manage to make their rockets fly… and even better. Alan Green in his memories.

Ana gave a task to Alex Green, to build a food and waste recycling device, which could support the life of a cosmonaut in space. As she clearly pointed out, this is the only way we could send a cosmonaut to Mars or other planets. Alex took the project seriously and started to work on it, at the Space Factory. Now, Ana makes him a surprise visit.

He got a building for his tests, a few biologists and some workers. He is there, in the middle of a large room. As Ana can see, there are transparent tanks containing various substances, connected through hoses.

“Any success?” she asks.

“Yes”, he says, “but for each achievement we got new problems”.

“What do we have here?”

“Right here, I have a tank growing Chlorella algae. I found out that space radiation can affect them. So, I added an ultraviolet shield. I see no major problems. We insert nutrients and carbon dioxide in the tank. The algae grow and can be transformed in food. I am still working on that. You have to dehydrate them. They don’t test too good, but they can support a human organism”.

“Are you testing them on humans already?”

“I tested them on me. I think I would need rats or other animals for experiments before”.

“There is no time for that”, answers Ana. “You have to test it on humans. You have to put a person into the device and fast. Next year, we are going to Mars, I hope”.

“I am not ready with the second part: recycling”.

“Why not?”

“I am not ready to transform human waste into mineral food for the algae”.

“Why not?” asks Ana again.

“I got the worms and the microbes, but I still don’t know how to make the recycling tank. They need oxygen. Carbon dioxide and sulfur compounds need to be extracted and fast. If not, worms will die. They need fresh air. The same happens to microbes. If anaerobic germs multiply, they make toxins that kill other germs. Instead of getting minerals, we get alcohols. I don’t know yet how to make this work”.

Ana looks at the many tanks laid on the floor.

“Are you using real human dejections?”

“Yes”, he answers. “They come from workers and even from myself. But there will be more things recycled. We have to recycle moisture from the cabin, wastewater from when a cosmonaut takes a bath, urine, remaining food, dust, a lot of staff. Also, we have to recycle air. The result is too much water. Worms need a more dense substance. So, we have to extract part of the water before we can continue with the process”.

“Distillation?” asks Ana.

“Void distillation”, answers Alex. “First, the liquid enters a void chamber, that extracts part of the water and part of volatiles, like dissolved gasses. Now, these gasses need to be separated from water. I solved this part. What remains, is a denser fluid. Worms and germs decompose it. Well, up to this part, it seems to work”.

“So, where is the problem?”

“The problem is right here”, says Alex, showing her the third tank. “Here, we have to add oxygen for the worms and germs. And we have to take out carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. This is where I am stuck. What to do with the sulfur? How to extract it and make it useful again? Then, comes another problem. The process creates nitrates which are not in the form the algae will need them. So, I added another tank, where bacteria decompose nitrates”.

“And what the next tank does?” asks Ana, lighting a cigarette.

“The next chamber filters water and separates it from solids. Water is then irradiated with ultraviolet rays and becomes drinkable. Solids are also irradiated. We don’t want bacteria in the algae tank. However, we have a major problem there. The solid faction needs to be laid in a very narrow layer to kill all bacteria. We are working on that part. Soon, it will be functional. Solids are also suitable for growing superior plants. They work like dirt. I don’t think a cosmonaut will be pleased to eat this green goo for years”.

“Green goo, you say? Let me taste it”.

Ana takes a sample. It tastes almost like nothing.

“What do you say about it?” asks Alex.

“Not bad, even if it has no taste. It is some sort of gel, a mucus”.

She also samples water.

“It is interesting”, she says. “It tastes like water. It is good. The process seems to work”.

“The main problem is the mass of all this thing”, continues Alex. “In order to feed one cosmonaut, it must weight around 25 tons. A second problem is the energy needed. We need around 2500 W to illuminate it and other 150 W to power-up all the mechanisms”.

“The Sun will provide the light”, says Ana.

“Yes, but sometimes, you have to use artificial light”, says Alex. “For example, if you build a base on the Moon, there will be long nights, lasting 14 Earth days. You have to give light to the algae during that period of time. And that is not all. The air recycling part will require even more weight and energy. You have to extract carbon dioxide and add oxygen to the cabin during the flight. You have to extract moisture and dust. All these devices will add weight and energy costs”.

“I am confident that you will come with a solution”, concludes Ana.

“I will. I have a great team. Honestly, I am very amazed of them. They always come with new ideas. They always see solutions that I never imagined possible. For example, we needed a filter, to keep worms in a part of the first recycling tank. I didn’t know how to do that. Then, one worker gave me his shirt. Even now, that shirt is there, inside the tank. For the next version, I will use a special texture made of synthetic polymers. But for the moment, we are just using a shirt”.

“How much do you think the recycling system will weight in the end?”

“I think it will be around 35 t”, says Alex. “We need a more powerful rocket, it cannot be sent to orbit by a single Lenin III”.

“New rockets are on their way”, answers Ana. “Next year, we will start working with them. I hope we will get to the planets”.

From here, Ana goes to the drawing sector. There, Alan Green, with the help of a few scientists, is preparing the next mission. As she enters, all scientists look at her.

“Will Jupiter Express be ready within schedule?” she asks.

“Yes, it will”, answers Alan Green. “We are making the last calculations for the horses. It is a very ambitious mission, but I am confident of its success”.

“Major problems?” asks Ana.

“Yes”, says the scientist. “First of all, there is limited sunlight at Jupiter. We need huge solar panels. Second, temperatures don’t rise above –100 C. So, we have to build everything to work properly at low temperatures”.

“What about Lenin IV?”

The scientist looks down.

“This is a hard task”, he says. “Unfortunately, we need very big and very powerful engines for it. If not, it will have 83 RS-4 engines. I am afraid of so many engines. If one fails, the ship is at high risk. Also, putting so many engines under the ship is a big challenge. The only solution I found is to use more boosters. The Lenin IV will have eight boosters. I see no other solution”.

Ana looks at them and thinks for a while. Then, she says:

“It is like what happened to the Old Soviets. We failed to reach the Moon because the Americans built a bigger engine before us. I will not let this happen again. Time is our major enemy. Soon, the other empires will make it to the Moon and establish a base there”.

“If we build the RS-5”, continues the professor, “we will need less engines. But to do that, we need to test it”.

“Comrade”, says Ana, “just build that engine. We will test it with a small rocket, a booster of a Lenin I maybe”.

Ana returns to her apartment in Space city. From her computer, she can see everything. Three ships are heading for Venus: Mercury Express, Venera Express and Piazzi Express. The first and the last are going for a flyby. The second ship has Venus as its destination. She noticed some problems with the Venus horse. The container hosting it seems to be slowly losing its mixture of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. If that happens, the horse will no longer be kept in its environment. It is made of silicon polymers, designed to operate in the harsh environment of Venus. It cannot survive in other conditions.

She sits on her chair, looking at the data and smoking a cigarette. She remembers the old times, when she was a child and her father was just a Soviet enthusiast. At that time, they lived in Germany, in exile. He was convinced that the only way to save the world is the Soviet dream. He was a member of a secret organization. He could not earn any money. Her mother, Monika, had to work at a nuclear power plant to feed the family. They were poor.

That was the moment when she suffered the first trauma of her life. When she was returning from school, some guys attacked her and raped her. She hardly recovered from that event. For years, she had nightmares. Her mother encouraged her to start smoking, hoping that this might help her recover faster. Even more, her mother tried to give her all pleasures she wanted, all the fashion clothes. At that time, Ana was not only allowed, but even provoked by her mother to look as pretty as possible.

But Monika suffered of cancer. She tried to keep this a secret until it was too late. Doctors could do nothing to save her. It was a tragedy.

Her dad, then, found a way to take power in Moscow. The New Soviets needed a leader and he took the occasion, taking Ana with him. She was in a safe house, but she knew that her dad, the only close person she has, was fighting.

And then came the wars. Iosif Leonov had to unite the Soviet Empire and defeat the enemies. It was a harsh time. The Soviets were fighting with old, rusted tanks. Tankers had to be drivers, fighters and mechanics at the same time. The other two empires did not have such problem. When one of their tanks was not working well, their tankers just called for a chopper to come and take it. Soviet pilots had to repair their own airplanes between fights, while the other empires had huge workshops to do this. On the battlefield, soldiers had to hunt in order to get their food. We won the war like through a miracle. We won because Mother Nature helped us, like it did many times. While the other soldiers were stocked by the Siberian winter, we traveled by ski. Even so, while they were building everything in their homelands, we had to improvise, to use what little was available.

Ana looks at photos stored on her computer. Her father took them: the battle of Norilsk, the siege of Deadhorse, the war in Balkans, the conquest of Tibet. She is looking at a picture from Tibet. Her father arrived at a battalion or Tibetan recruits. He and his men give them vodka, while the Tibetans give him their traditional bread. He promised them religious freedom. Ana remembers his speech loud and clear:

“We shall never make the mistakes of our ancestors. People must have the freedom to believe in what god they want to believe. My mother was an Orthodox. My father was a Muslim. They kept their religious beliefs to their death. If you fight with me, I guarantee that nobody will ever dare to disrupt your celebrations again and you will be free to go to your monasteries and your temples”.

Ana has her own belief. She is a religious person, but not affiliated to any religious group. She believes that there is a god, without asking herself too many questions, just like her father.

Feeling warm, she takes off her boots and her gloves. Now, she is only wearing a black dress. She admires her feet, covered with dark-brown pantyhose. While she is watching other pictures from her father’s past, she hears voices at the door. A bodyguard is always protecting and following her wherever she goes. Now, that bodyguard must be at the door, like always. The other voice is Alex.

“Come in!” she says.

Alex enters her apartment.

“I found the solution”, he says. “We transform the hydrogen sulfide in sulfuric acid. Then, we insert it back to the tank”.

“Well done, comrade”, says Ana, lighting a cigarette.

“Tomorrow, I will test it. This will require a catalyst and some energy. If it works, I will start tests on a human”.

“Comrade, please, lock the door”, says Ana. “I want to stop thinking about science for a few minutes”.

Alex closes the door, while Ana looks at him.

“Can you please tell me a bit more about your… secret life?”

“I told you all, comrade”, he says.

“Yes, you told me how much you wish you were a girl. You told me that when you are alone in your apartment you practice cross-dressing. But I want to see this with my own eyes”.

Alex looks shocked and his face becomes red.

“Take one of my dresses”, says Ana. “Then… I don’t think my boots will fit you, but you can still wear my sandals. Take my gloves too”.

“Here? Right now?”

“Yes. Go to the next room and change yourself”.

“I don’t think it is…”

“That’s an order!” says Ana, with much authority in her voice.

After a few minutes, Alex comes back in a brown dress, with black gloves and with high heel platform sandals. His feet are covered with light-brown, shiny pantyhose.

“Don’t be shy”, continues Ana. “Just take a sit near me and we can talk. You know my secret and I know yours”.

He sits near Ana. Their pantyhosed feet are touching, while she shows him some images from the war.

“This was in Serbia”, she says. “The Serbs formed an army on their own, to draw the Jews out of their homeland. They accepted us as liberators. When I arrived, they were giving me flowers. They were so happy! We promised them that we will help”.

“Is that the Supreme Soviet?” asks Alex.

“Yes, that’s my dad”, says Ana, pointing her cigarette towards the screen. “People considered him their liberator”.

“You are so lucky”, says Alex. “I mean, nobody dares to call him other then the Supreme Soviet. You can call him dad”.

“Yes, I might feel lucky”, says Ana, taking a deep drag of smoke. “But on the other hand, it is a huge responsibility. Many times I wished I were just a simple citizen”.

Suddenly, they hear a powerful noise at the door. Someone hits the door a few times, trying to break it. Ana doesn’t hesitate and takes a pistol from her desk. Alex jumps off his chair, takes a vase and goes close to the door.

“Quiet”, whispers Ana. “Where is my bodyguard”.

Soon, another noise is heard, of a man shouting something. Then, both hear gun fire. The next second, someone pushes harder in the door and breaks it. Ana tries to fire, but she is too afraid. Alex throws his vase into the man, which appears as the door opens.

“Shoot!” shouts Alex.

Ana fires a bullet and hits the man in his belly, without killing him. The man falls down, dropping a pistol from his hand. Alex jumps on his back and hits him hard with a punch in the head. Then, Ana comes close and points the gun to the attacker’s head.

“Don’t move!” she says. “Who are you and who do you work for?”

Alex hits him again, until the attacker loses consciousness.

“You, change to your regular clothes”, says Ana. “I don’t want anyone to see you like this”.

The noise makes other people to come. Soon, a police task comes too. Ana finds her bodyguard dead, shot by the attacker.

“What should we do now?” asks Alex, shaking.

“We should do just what my dad would”, answers Ana. We will take him to a good place for interrogations. How about the desert?”

And this is just what she does. She orders that the attacker will be tied on a metal ladder and brought to the salt desert. There, from place to place, small brine lakes can be seen. An SUV takes her, Alex, the attacker and four bodyguards to the desert.

“Take off his clothes!” orders Ana. “And give me something to beat him!”

She watches very quietly how her bodyguards take his clothes off, then tie him on the metal ladder. Then, she takes a long stick and starts beating him with a lot of anger. Alex watches, scared. He never imagined that a girl is capable of such violence. She mainly hits his genitals, but not only. Her face is full of anger, almost boiling and full with sweat. She hits him until she can no longer do it. Then, she smashes his genitals with her boot.

“Who do you work for?” she asks.

The man answers nothing.

Ana lights a cigarette. She takes the lighter and starts burning his skin.

“I am asking you again. Who sent you here?”

The man answers nothing, again.

“You will speak, in the end. Don’t worry, you will die, no matter what you try”.

The man spits Ana. His spit is mixed with blood.

“Hey, you still can spit?” she asks. “Put him on the ground!”

She hits his mouth with her boots.

“Do you have any teeth left?” she asks.

She hits him again, with even more anger.

“I don’t think you do”.

Then, she takes her cigarette and burns his skin again. She orders him to be raised back vertical and she starts burning his penis with her lighter.

“This is what guys use as brain”, she says. “And you see where your brain sent you. Next time, if you want to shut something, better be prepared to do it. Well, this is pathetic. I think it is time to make him really suffer. Put him in a brine shrimp!”

Bodyguards take the man to a salt lake and lower him inside. The pain is so intense, that the man starts screaming.

“Please, stop! I will tell you all!”

“Let him inside the water for five minutes!” says Ana. Then, take him back.

“You have a traitor among you!” says the man. “His name is Bocinik! He is… And a woman too, Daria. I don’t know her other name. Just let me out, I will tell you everything! The Americans! ! They are spying you! Just let me out of here! I will tell you all I know, just spare my life!”

Ana looks not impressed. She watches her phone. After exactly five minutes, she orders her bodyguards to take him out.

“I will call the Supreme Soviet”, she says. “The KGB will take you for further interrogations. Remember, what I did to you is nothing to what will they do to you. Quite nothing. You have no idea how experts they are”.

Ana immediately calls her dad, telling him all what happened, including what she did to him. And just as the SUV arrives back to the Space City, a group of twenty people grab the attacker. For now, this is no longer her job. They have much more efficient ways of torture. They will insert pain simulation electrodes directly on his brain, with an intensity much higher then anything physical. In the end, he will die, but before that, he will beg for his life to end.

“I never imagined you are so cruel”, says Alex, when the two are back in her apartment.

“Neither did I”, answers Ana. “I don’t know why, sometimes sfenists can be extremely cruel. It happened once, when a guy tried to seduce me”.

“You killed him?”

“Yes”, answers Ana, lighting a cigarette. “It was in the war for the Caucasus. I burned him alive, then forced his parents to eat his flesh”.

Alex looks scared, how this girl talks about such cruelty in a very natural way. How could she torture someone like this? Will he be her next victim? Ana looks at his pale face and realizes what is going on. She says:

“Don’t worry, it will not happen to you… unless you try to attack me”.

Far from the Aral Sea, the attacker is interrogated. The KGB has much more painful and more effective ways to extract information. The Supreme Soviet comes in person to see what is going on. He personally orders the interrogation to continue. Soon, the truth is reveled. The attacker was just a simple farmer. A terrorist organization working for the Jewish Empire hypnotized him. Iosif Leonov wants to find out more. His elite men find out the organization, infiltrates inside and destroys it.

JUPITER EXPRESS

Sending probes to the inner Solar System might not be so hard, but reaching the gas giants certainly is. In order to do this, you need powerful rockets and a completely different approach. If anyone wants to prove superiority in space flying, the outer planets are the best place for that. An interview on NASA TV.

At Soviet Space City, scientists are having major problems designing the Jupiter Express mission. To reach the giant planet, you need more powerful rockets or repeated gravity assists. There, Sun light is far weaker. You will need huge solar panels or to start using nuclear power.

Ana Leonova wants a massive expedition. She wants to send horses to all the four larger satellites of Jupiter, a balloon to Jupiter’s atmosphere and two orbiters around the planet. This is a very hard task. With present design, the horses will weight 1000 kg each. Also, they have to a small rocket to land on each of their targets. Moving around Jupiter is also difficult, since the giant planet has a powerful gravity.

A direct flight to Jupiter, without the help of a gravity assist or an Oberth effect, requires a delta-v of 14.432 km/s. The third stage of a Lenin III can produce 15, but there is enough delta-v required for the movements inside Jupiter system. The ship will be launched a bit further then Mars orbit. Then, it will come to Earth for a gravity assist. Close to Jupiter, it will fire its nitrogen ion engine to enter Jupiter orbit. It will at first have a highly elongated orbit. With two Ganymede flybys, the probe will reach its desired orbit.

The mission is planned to include four horses, to land on the four large moons of Jupiter. However, each horse needs a small rocket to land. Calculations show that the Callisto horse will require fuel for a delta-v of 1.796 km/s, Ganymede horse 2.015, Europa horse 1.507 and Io horse 1.840. This automatically implies that all horses will require extra mass for landing. Callisto horse will require a rocket weighting 600 kg and 480 kg of fuel. Ganymede horse will require a rocket of 700 kg and 560 kg of fuel. Europa horse will need a rocket weighting 500 kg and 400 kg of fuel stored.

For Io, a horse is not practicable. This small moon is highly volcanic and lies in the center of Jupiter’s radiation belt. Any spacecraft will operate only for short time. Scientists prefer to use a lander, a battery-powered robot that will only operate for 100 hours. In that case, the mass is far smaller, only 300 kg. However, the lander needs to be sent from a safe orbit from the moon, from the orbit of Europa. This implies that the rocket carrying the lander has to work harder, to produce a delta-v of 3.436 km/s to get to Io, 0.907 km/s to enter orbit and other 1.840 to land. Overall, this requires 6.183 km/s. In order to do so, the rocket must be 2170 kg heavy. It will carry 1736 kg of fuel and oxygen. That is a huge amount of mass.

In addition, there will be a balloon sent to Jupiter’s cloud tops, weighting 400 kg. The balloon will operate for 100 days. It will be released on its trajectory from high above, with the help of a rocket weighting 200 kg.

The mission also includes two orbiters. The first one will remain attached to the third stage until the end of the mission and will carry all probes. It will weight 1000 kg. The second orbiter will be detached before Jupiter orbit insertion. It will explore the outer moons of Jupiter, then it will spiral towards the inner moons. It will weight 1000 kg, plus its own nitrogen ion engine and 850 kg of nitrogen. In addition, it will carry two bugs, weighting 50 kg each. Additional 100 kg of fuel are reserved for the bugs.

The third stage will have an attached probe, weighting 1000 kg, which will survey the large moons of Jupiter from above and will work as a relay station between the horses and Earth.

All these parts combined equal for 11.7 tons. A Lenin III is designed for 10 t of cargo. Therefore, something has to be reduced. They talked for hours what to reduce to fit everything into a single launch. Then, Ana took the decision herself:

“We will launch two rockets: a Lenin III carrying all horses, the balloon and the Io lander, followed by a Lenin I with the second orbiter. Please, add some more fuel to the rockets that will deploy the horses, because I don’t want a failure in case we need trajectory corrections”.

And here they go! Both rockets are ready on the Aral cosmodrome on July 18th. It is a premiere; the first time two rockets are launched at the same moment. The mighty Lenin III sits on its launch platform, 400 m away from the tiny Lenin I. Will this space duet work according to plan? Will both rockets arrive at Jupiter as they should? Tension is high. Scientists know that if two rockets are flying very close one to each other, they will produce atmospheric turbulences that might affect them. So, Ana agrees and decides to launch them at twenty minutes difference. First, will go the Lenin III.

At 16.31, launch sequence is initiated. Ana pushes the launch button, twenty seconds before launch, confirming that the rocket should go. A massive noise follows. The engines are turned on, producing a strong vibration. The rocket starts climbing through the big cloud of smoke it made.

The rocket starts climbing and soon passes through the clouds. Then, everything goes as planned. In 265 seconds, the small boosters detach. After other 7 seconds, the big boosters are detached too. 136 more seconds and stage 1 is detached. Stage 2 is turned on. It fires for 1045 seconds.

They don’t wait for the second stage to go off. Launch sequence for the Lenin I is triggered. The rocket is fired at exactly 20 minutes after the Lenin III. The sound, the smoke and the vibrations are far smaller. At 125 seconds, the small boosters are detached. Soon, the big boosters go off. Then, once the first stage is out and the second stage is turned on, the recovering team is on its way. Today, it has to pick-up eight boosters and two cores.

In order to make both launches successful, scientists made a few updates. The last rocket is too small also carry the two bugs, their fuel and the mobile laboratory needed to examine samples token from the small moons. Because of this, the team made an agreement. All these parts will be launched by the Lenin III and transferred to the Lenin I. This will happen in an unconventional way. The two rockets will attach one to the other and will travel together to Jupiter. During this part, the Lenin I will get from the Lenin III what it needs to attach. Once both ships are close to Jupiter, they will separate and follow distinct paths. Attachment phase will occur soon.

Scientists wait patiently how the Lenin I finishes its fuel and the second stage is detached. Now, the fairings are detached too. The two ships communicate one with the other and gently fire their engines to meet somewhere around the Moon, during the Moon flyby that will send them out of Earth’s gravity sphere. It is a very delicate maneuver.

There is also another factor, which makes the mission difficult. All orbiters, horses, the lander and the balloon are made to operate properly at low temperatures, between –100 and –150 C. They are also designed to hibernate during night, when temperature will dramatically drop below –200 C. However, they must not be exposed to high temperatures. So, during the whole trip, everything must be pointed away from the Sun. The third stage is large enough to shield everything, but it must be kept in position.

“We’ve done it!” says Ana.

“Now, we have to wait and see if they arrive at Jupiter as expected”, says a scientist.

“First Soviet rocket towards Jupiter”, says Alan Green. “And not only! It is the first rocket to reach Jupiter in over half a century”.

“I say we should celebrate this day”, says Ana, looking at everyone. “However, tomorrow we will start working on Saturn Express. That will be an even harder mission I suppose”.

Everyone agrees.

“We worked very hard for this mission”, says a scientist. “Building four horses in a month is a tough task. And then, we had to transform a horse into a lander”.

“Also, building their landing rockets on demand, was a challenge”, says another one. “It is like during World War II, when Stalin ordered people to do weapons from scrap”.

“We are lucky we are not at war right now”, says Ana. “It’s only our space program holding the enemy from attacking us. We left them puzzled, not knowing what to expect. However, be prepared, soon they will be out in space too”.

After the launch, Ana travels by train back to Space City. It is getting night, but still the air is hot. She is wearing a short white dress and high-heel sandals. It’s just too warm to wear her usual outfit, with thigh boots and long gloves. She also painted her hair, fingernails and toenails in white, to match the dress. She never travels in a special compartment, but together with everyone. The wagon is not separated in compartments. Now, she has two bodyguards, one sitting near she and the other on another bench. When she was attacked, her bodyguard went to the bathroom, so the attacker could sneak in more easily. Now, one of them has to watch her or her door all the time. She smokes in train too, not caring if people like it or not. A scientist and a worker travel with her, on the same desk. Outside, the sky is turning black. The sun has set. The train travels through endless plains covered with salt. Most people fell asleep during the ride. They all know the schedule and the stations. Ana is not sleeping. She is looking at the black sky, trying to see the stars. Now, people from Earth can see some extra stars, they are the large communication satellites deployed by the New Soviets. As bright as Sirius, people can see them from all over the world.

Suddenly, Ana’s special phone calls. She answers, not knowing what to expect and without looking at the number.

“Where are you, child?” asks the Supreme Soviet.

“Dad?” she asks. “In the train, returning to the Space City. Jupiter Express was successfully launched”.

“Have you seen the news?”

“No. Is it bad?”

“The Jews”, he says. “They are launching rockets, one after the other, from their cosmodrome in Sri Lanka. It looks like they are following a common trajectory, but it isn’t the Moon. Nearly half of them missed the target”.

“Dad, are we in danger?” asks Ana.

Suddenly, everyone around becomes silent, watching her. What is going on?

“I think they are trying to build a space station around the Earth”, says the Supreme Soviet. “Nobody could pierce into their ranks to find information, but I am sure they are up to something. What worries me is that, when one rocket failed and landed, it exploded like an atomic bomb. They are most probably carrying bombs to space”.

“Ballistic missiles?” asks Ana, while everyone around looks scared, waiting for an answer.

“Yes, I think so. However, their rocketry seems far inferior to ours. Maybe we underestimated them. These rockets look like Chinese ones. Well, they conquered most of China, so I won’t be surprise”.

“What should we do?”

“Nothing, my child”, says the Supreme Soviet, with a more silent voice. “Just continue your launches. Show them that they will get nothing through war. I wait for some more data, then I will make a public declaration on television. We must convince them to change their attitude somehow. A nuclear war could mean death to all of us”.

“I will continue the work. Next month, we want to go to Saturn”.

“Very well, my child”.

“Dad, do we have news about the Americans?”

“Not yet, but I know they are planning a manned Moon mission. They are rebuilding that rocket and are making it safer. They will go to the Moon in a month or two. We should try to be friends to the Americans and force the Jews to join the space race in a civilized way”.

The Soviet Supreme closes. Everyone is looking at Ana, waiting an answer. She takes her cigarette and puts it between her toes, lighting another one.

“The Jews are building a space station around Earth”, she says. “As I told you, the other empires will try to win the space race, but we have to be first. The Americans will try soon to go to the Moon again. That’s all”.

People look at she, waiting for more answers.

Ana lights a new cigarette, keeping the other one between her toes.

“You see this?” she says, showing both cigarettes. “Now, we have two empires in the space race, only that we are the first and we got further then them. If they want to be the first, they have to catch us. If we keep the same distance, they will never make it. We have to go to Saturn next month if we want to be the first. We have to be the first in space race”.

Ana knows very well that the other empires have more resources. They can win on a longer timescale. How to win a car race when you have a less powerful car? Steal the start, then hurry-up as much as you can… and hope they will not catch you. She knows how the Americans won the space race. Soviets were unable to reach the Moon before the Americans. That was the key moment. If only the Old Soviets sent more resources to space exploration, they could build a powerful engine and go to the Moon first. But it didn’t happen. Now, there are three players in the game.

Ana thinks about the old International Space Station. It still orbits the Earth, but it was long abandoned. What if she tries to send a manned mission there and reopen it? Shouldn’t that be a good destination to test life support systems?

Not now, she realizes. First, the ‘express’ missions must be completed. Only then, she will have to do something like that.

When she arrives to her apartment, she checks the data on her computer. All missions are operating as they should, except for the Venus horse. They are on the way to their targets. The Jupiter Express is in good status, heading for a Moon flyby. Still, nobody knows what the Jews are up to. She takes a bath and falls on her bed asleep. Then, close to morning, her father calls.

“My child, one of the failed Jewish rockets landed in Afghanistan. I already sent the KGB to analyze it. Recovered fragments will be sent to you”.

BLOWN TO PIECES

Will anyone survive in a nuclear war? Allen Green before defecting to the Soviet Empire.

After hearing that a Jewish rocket crashed in Afghanistan, a Soviet territory, Ana Leonova could not sleep at all. She got dressed and hurried to the railway station, to reach Space Factory. There, all scientists should gather to find out what is going on. It is 4.38 AM. The sun is rising over the desert. It is a cold morning. As she arrives, the space monitoring office is almost empty. Only two technicians watch the data. Space missions are going on, according to schedule. Asteriola is about to reach its first target, a small near Earth asteroid. The Venera Express is on its way to Venus, which is already in sight. But, pressure is on.

Around 7.30 AM, military helicopters return with remnants of the failed rocket. Ana immediately calls all scientists to come and take a look. At first, they don’t know what to expect. One of them takes a radiation sensor and finds out that all is radioactive. It takes half an hour and one of them makes a 3D computer model of the rocket.

“Well, they are very weak”, says Ana. “I didn’t expect them to build something like this. I see no reaction wheels, nothing. It is a steel inferior to ours. Ironically, it is not well polished!”

She sends the report to the Supreme Soviet, calling him ‘dad’.

A second, more detailed report, is done by 9 AM. Then, at 9 AM Moscow time or 11 AM Aral time, Iosif Leonov makes a public declaration on state television, knowing that his speech will be transmitted worldwide:

Comrades! We’ve been through many hard times. We managed to bring peace and prosperity to our lands, but for every victory we had, we fought hardly. We are at the beginning of a wonderful journey that will make our empire the most glorious in the world.

This night, our neighbor from South launched 175 rockets. I repeat, one hundred and seventy five. From all of them, only 98 reached destination, low Earth orbit. All the other rockets exploded at launch, crashed or missed target. Although the number of launches is impressive, the fact that so many failed, shows that the design is rather rudimentary. Those rockets which managed to achieve orbit, combined in some sort of space station. We can clearly see through our telescopes that cosmonauts are working there, assembling parts into something big.

If it is a space station, I salute the initiative. It is also one of our dreams to rebuild the International Space Station. However, some of the failed rockets had the signature of ballistic missiles. What makes them even more dangerous, is that their guiding systems and reentry atmospheric shields are not adequate. With the data we acquired, it seems that one such rocket will 95% fail to reach its destination, if it were to be used as a ballistic missile.

We have a far superior nuclear arsenal and much more efficient missiles then these. We have intercepting devices, able to shoot down any approaching missiles. So, there is no reason for anyone to fear an incoming attack, even from space. However, one of the failed rockets crashed in the mountains of Afghanistan. We allowed it to crash there because it is a remote and not inhabited area.

If it were a science mission, I would congratulate the scientists who built it and I would help them recover the parts. However, since five crashed rockets exploded in Iran producing nuclear radiations, I suppose what was built out there on the orbit, is a space war station. Even more, the rockets seem to lack any precision.

I personally want some official explanations about the project and I want that station to be deorbited as soon as possible. I don’t think any of us wants a nuclear war. And I don’t think that our Southern enemy has a more powerful nuclear arsenal then we have. Also, I personally want a public apologize from the Jewish Empire for landing a ballistic missile on our territory. Samuel Rosenstein, this is an act of war. I don’t think you have the will and the resources for an armed conflict between our two states.

I also make a public announce that we successfully launched two exploration rockets towards Jupiter. I personally challenge the other two empires to follow our example and prove that their technology is superior to ours.

Two hours later, an official answer comes. Samuel Rosenstein appears on its public television, saying:

This is a great day for us all! I personally announce the construction of our first space station. This station will stay in orbit and will watch over our enemies. It will guide our steps towards supreme victory. Even more, it will help us exterminate everyone who ever attacked or defamed us in history.

The station is equipped with nuclear rockets, able to reach any target on the Earth in less then an hour at any given moment.

And this is just the beginning.

Ana Leonova continues her work. She wants the Saturn Express to be operational and launched next month. The project is very ambitious. A Lenin III rocket will carry four horses, two orbiters and a balloon towards Saturn. One of the orbiters has a second task: to explore the rings of Saturn in high details.

Just like if nothing happened, she works with all scientists, developing this new mission.

One horse will land on Titan. This is an easy task, since Titan has an atmosphere. A parachute will slow down the horse to acceptable speed. However, the horse needs to be nuclear powered, since titan’s atmosphere will block most of the light from Sun. The horse will only need a small engine and 50 kg of fuel to land. The horse has a special design, so that it can float if it lands on one of the methane lakes on the moon.

A horse is designed to land on Iapetus and one on Rhea. These are the second largest moons of Saturn. Both horses will be solar powered, with huge solar panels. They will wait 9 hours to recharge their batteries in order to work one hour. In order to land, they will need only 100 kg of fuel.

A fourth horse is designed for Enceladus, Saturn’s most active moon. Its powerful geysers revealed the presence of a subsurface ocean, which could host life. This horse is nuclear powered and designed with a microscope and devices to analyze the water plumes accumulated on the surface, to find life. Since Enceladus is very small, 50 kg of propellant is enough for a horse to land.

Together, all horses weight 4300 kg. There is still enough room on a Lenin III. So, scientists added a fifth horse heading to Dione. With its 100 kg of propellant, the total mass is only 5400 kg.

The balloon designed to explore Saturn’s top clouds weights 400 kg, plus other 100 kg of fuel to make it land successfully. All this rises the weight to 5900 kg.

The mission will have two orbiters. One of them will explore the outer moons of Saturn. It will also have two bugs, the needed fuel for them and a mobile laboratory to analyze returned samples. It will also carry 1105 kg of nitrogen. Altogether, it will weight 2500 kg. This will allow it to explore the outer moons, then return to the large moons. In total, this means 8400 kg.

The third stage will use its nitrogen ion engine to reach Saturn. To save fuel, the ship will have to pass two Earth and one Mars flybys. Half of the nitrogen fuel will be spent to reach Saturn. Even so, since the moons of Saturn are far smaller and don’t require so much fuel to gain or escape orbit, the third stage will easily navigate between them. Each orbiter, horse and balloon will be deployed from the third stage. Finally, when the third stage will get close to the rings, it will deploy its last transport: an orbiter weighting 1000 kg, with its two bugs and fuel for the bugs. This final orbiter carries 400 kg of nitrogen. It is nuclear powered. Its main task is to explore the rings. It has a nitrogen ion engine, plus something else: an ice pistol. The orbiter is designed to enter the rings and directly sample particles from inside. It can take particles and use them as projectiles to move around. With this simple technique, it could, at least in theory, navigate to the narrow gap between Saturn and its rings.

All parts are being built as fast as possible. The Lenin III rocket is already built. Its first stage and boosters are recovered from the Jupiter Express mission.

It is an intense work. The launch is scheduled for July 16th. However, on July 4th, something unexpected happens. The Americans launch a giant rocket, Democracy II, towards the Moon. This time, it has a successful launch. Again, the launch is transmitted live on TV. Four astronauts are going to the Moon on a rocket far more powerful then a Lenin III.

The news hit Aral very fast. All scientists find out about this. What now? The flight takes four days to the Moon. Astronauts spend two days there, plus other four days on the route back.

Then Iosif Leonov makes a public declaration, congratulating the American scientists for their achievement. He also calls his daughter and tells her:

“Don’t worry, my child! After this, the Jews will feel inferior. They will try to reach the Moon too. This is what I want, to make them do something else, to distract them from building nuclear weapons”.

“But, dad, what if they win the space race?”

“Focus! Continue with the ‘express’ missions! You are ahead of them. Keep on your schedule”.

Ana goes fast to the research center, where a more powerful engine is being designed. It will be the RS-5, able to produce 10000 kN. In fact, an even more powerful engine should be required, the RS-6, able to produce 30000 kN. But, even the RS-5 would be a great achievement. The mighty Lenin IV is being designed. It will have eight boosters. This monster rocket will require a special launch platform.

For the waste recycling system, tests are going on. Now, a human is being tested. The machine will recycle air, water and human dejections, producing food, water and oxygen. It is the first day of testing. The environment is carefully surveyed. Food, air and water probes are taken every four hours. Even as the system started to work, problems appeared. Alex Green, which is in charge with the system, found out that recycled gasses don’t have the same ionization state as Earth’s atmosphere. This can lead to headaches and on a longer timescale to health problems.

After a few more days, Ana returns to her apartment, tired after a hard day at work. She jumps on her chair, putting her feet on the desk. Then, she takes her laptop on her thighs and turns it on. She did not even take off her shoes. Still, she manages to see a runoff in her sheer, shiny pantyhose.

American manned ship Democracy II landed on the Moon. Two cosmonauts remained in orbit around the Moon, while other two landed with a Moon module. They placed the flag of the American Empire on Moon soil. Even more, they managed to bring a rover to the Moon surface… only that it didn’t work properly.

Ana lights a cigarette and starts to calculate. How massive is this ship, compared to the Lenin rockets? Luckily, the Americans showed enough data. They are not so secretive. She checks the data. At high costs, they managed to produce liquid fuel for the rocket. That is highly expensive. The first stage landed somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Second stage crashed in the Pacific. Third stage made it to the Moon and remained in space.

“How can we fight with this monster?” asks Ana herself. “They showed their superiority without question. Our only advantage is that we got there first. The ‘Express’ missions take too much to reach their targets. Reaching the Moon is faster. I just hope the Venera Express will reach Venus soon. That will show them that we are moving on ahead of them”.

There is no news from the Jewish space station. It appears that all cosmonauts died out there. They assembled a base and that’s all. Their base has atomic rockets. Maybe, those rockets are remote controlled from Earth.

“Soon, they will do something else”, thinks Ana. “I just wonder what will they be up to next time”.

Well, on July 16th, Saturn Express is ready to be launched onboard a Lenin III rocket. With all the preparations done, the rocket is ready for takeoff. A launch occurs without problems. The rocket is on its way to reach Saturn and its moons. It is the first Soviet spacecraft sent to Saturn in history.

URANUS AND NEPTUNE

Not many spaceships visited these two planets before. The huge distance might be the cause of this. Others might say that Uranus and Neptune are frigid, ice worlds. Their icy moons don’t offer too much for humans to explore or to settle on. But is it so? Aren’t we missing something? Aren’t we wrong, at least only for a bit? Maybe Miranda is a world just as promising as Enceladus… and maybe Triton is a world as interesting as Titan. But, if we don’t go there, we simply cannot know. Alan Green trying to convince NASA to get back to space.

Two more missions are scheduled: Uranus Express and Neptune Express. Both are going to use Lenin III rockets. Both worlds are almost unexplored. What we know comes from space missions that occurred a century ago. No ship visited these two planets since them. They are distant targets. Uranus Express is scheduled to launch on August 11th and Neptune Express on September 9th.

Ana considered them to be sister ships. In part, it is true, because for a significant part of the journey both rockets will follow a common path. Both will make a Jupiter flyby.

In order to go to Uranus in a direct flight, with no gravity assist, a ship needs a delta-v of 15.938 km/s. In order to go to Neptune, you need 15.705 km/s. This sounds like a paradox, since Neptune is further then Uranus. In reality, things are different. A ship needs to accelerate while leaving Earth. Then, as it approaches its target, it has to slow down. The ship slows down by using fuel. If we add both energies needed to increase and decrease speed, we get these values. That energy is more then enough to escape the Solar System.

The Uranus Express will have two orbiters, three horses and a balloon. One orbiter will detach first and will explore the outer moons of Uranus. Then, it will spiral inwards, to explore the inner moons and the rings. A special target is the small moon Perdita. The orbiter weights 1200 kg. It has two bugs weighting 50 kg each and 100 kg fuel for the bugs. In addition, it has its own nitrogen ion engine and nitrogen fuel tank. This gives a total mass of 2650 kg. The horses will explore the moons Titania, Umbriel and Miranda. Ana chosen Umbriel, since it is her favorite moon. In order to land, each horse will use a small hydrogen – oxygen rocket. The Titania horse requires a rocket weighting 200 kg, Umbriel Express a rocket weighting 100 kg and Miranda horse a rocket weighting 50 kg. Each horse will weight 1000 kg. Since the moons of Uranus are small and have little gravity, not much force is needed to land on them.

Also, the Uranus Express will have a balloon, weighting 400 kg, which will be sent to enter the atmosphere with the help of a rocket weighting 100 kg.

This totalizes for 6500 kg. A Lenin III rocket can carry 10 tons. However, the third stage will arrive at Uranus with its fuel tanks almost exhausted. After Uranus orbit insertion, the third stage will only have enough fuel for Titania orbit insertion. The second orbiter, weighting 1000 kg, has its own nitrogen tank and its own nitrogen ion engine. It will carry 2000 kg of nitrogen to be used for the mission, to visit all major moons of Uranus and to deploy all horses to their targets.

What is interesting for the Uranus Express mission, is that solar power is hardly enough. All orbiters and horses will use a dual energy source. They will be both solar and nuclear powered. Also, everything is made to operate at low temperatures. After launch, the payload will be cooled with liquid hydrogen. Then, the third stage will always point away from the Sun, keeping all parts cold.

Neptune Express also carries two orbiters, three horses and a balloon. The main challenge around Neptune is that some moons are prograde, while others are retrograde. Again, the third stage will exhaust almost all its nitrogen before reaching Neptune.

One horse will explore the largest moon, Triton. In order to land, it will require a rocket weighting 400 kg. Another horse will explore Proteus, which is far smaller. The rocket that will take this horse down will weight 50 kg. The third horse will reach Nereid and will land with a rocket weighting also 50 kg. The balloon, weighting 400 kg, will have its own fuel tank and engine, weighting 100 kg.

The mission requires the use of two orbiters, weighting 1400 kg each. Each orbiter will have two bugs and fuel for them, to take samples from small moons. All this accounts for a weight of 6800 kg. The remaining 3200 kg will be divided into two nitrogen tanks and two nitrogen ion engines for the orbiters.

The Neptune Express mission is a bit different from previous missions. One orbiter, carrying the Triton horse, will separate before gaining Neptune orbit, so that it can gain a retrograde orbit. It will first conduct a Triton flyby to lose speed. Then, it will head to the outer moons, to conduct a few flybys. It will also orbit and explore the outer moon Halimede. Then, it will spiral inwards, to enter orbit around Triton and deploy its horse. The third stage will exhaust its fuel while trying to enter orbit around Nereid. The Nereid horse will be deployed and the third stage will be left behind. The orbiter will take Proteus horse to position and will deploy the balloon. Then, it will spiral downwards, to explore the tiny and unknown inner moons and rings of Neptune.

All probes designed for Neptune are nuclear powered. No solar panel is useful at that distance.

As the other two empires didn’t launch any spaceship in this period, the New Soviets didn’t announce anything about their launches. Both Uranus and Neptune Express remained covered in secrecy. Only at the Aral, both spaceships are checked from time to time. At every four hours, each ship sends back home a report.

However, Ana knows very well that other missions are on the way. This is why she never stops.

On September 11th, just three days after the launch of Neptune Express, something important happens. The Venera Express, which successfully entered orbit around Venus, deploys its horse and balloon. It is in low Venus orbit, studying the planet. Scientists look for results.

Ana comes to work like always, with thigh boots, long gloves and a black dress. She enters the mission control room. She arrived a bit too late. The horse is on its way. Scientists knew that the box holding the horse lost most of its environment, endangering the horse. They don’t know what to expect. Until the horse is out from its box, nobody knows its status.

At 8.29, they have a signal. The balloon successfully deployed and is operational. It is sending a status check. Then, at 8.51, the balloon calls again, using the orbiter as a relay station. It is operating at the designed altitude of 10 km. Scientists read first chemical analysis from Venus.

The box should be on the surface by now. Venus’s sulfuric acid should dissolve the walls. They are specially designed this way. Once the walls are eroded enough, they should separate. Tension is high, as there is yet no radio message. The process should last 35 minutes.

Then, at 9.33, they have the first message from the horse.

“Oh no!” says a scientist. “The horse is not working properly”.

“Receiving data…” says another one. “One stereo camera is off-line. One foot is non functional and one is reporting an anomaly. Robotic arm is not completely functional. 45% of science instruments are not operating. Still, the infrared panels provide enough energy. It’s good that many instruments are made with a duplicate. We still can make the horse work”.

“We have the first image from Venus surface”, says another scientist. “We got it, looks like a plain with small rocks. Also, we have a second image”.

“Comrade”, says another scientist to Ana, “the horse sent us a message. It wants us to re- configure its mission, since many of its subsystems are not functional”.

“This is what we should do, then”, says Ana. “We will re-configure the basic program. Even with less science, the horse will bring us a lot of data”.

New commands are sent to the horse. It takes many hours of hard work to make the new program. Finally, the horse starts moving. Even with two damaged feet, it can still walk. Scientists get data from the atmosphere and some spectral analysis of the rocks. With the robotic arm damaged, the horse can hardly pick a sample from the ground to analyze it. It must lower its body to the ground to pick a sample.

The first chemical analysis of Venus surface is done. The sample is analyzed by a backup spectrometer and with a microscope. Data is transmitted to Earth. After this, the horse travels on ground 50 m, which requires half an hour. Then, another sample is analyzed. Surprisingly, it has a different chemical composition.

After this success, it is time to make the results public. First pictures from the surface of Venus and first soil analyses will be this evening on TV. Everyone will know about them. The orbiter will also appear. Images from the balloon will be shown too. The balloon has cameras using a special IR frequency, able to pierce through the clouds and reveal the real surface of Venus.

Another space mission, Asteriola, arrived at its first near Earth asteroid. There, the bugs were tested for the first time. They successfully took samples from the surface and returned to the mother ship. Samples were analyzed. Now, Asteriola is traveling to another asteroid, with the same purpose. It will arrive in a few days.

LENIN IV

My grandfather remembers the day New Horizons reached Pluto. He watched amazed, night after night, on NASA TV. He frenetically searched the internet for new images from the distant planet. It was an incredible achievement. It was just like in the old days, when the Voyagers reached each of the giant planets.

But then, it was all silence. People asked: ‘Why don’t we send another spaceship to Eris or to Sedna?’ No such mission became reality. The Kuiper Belt, the outer reach of the Solar System, remained covered in mystery for many decades. As time passed, nobody ever dared to send a spaceship that far… until no spaceship flew at all.

When I was a teen, I always asked myself: How could people land on the Moon a century ago? How could they send spaceships to the outer planets? And why are we not doing the same? Those historical ships are so rudimentary, that I ask myself today how did they do it. We have a much more advanced technology. Why are we not following their steps? And then, I started to think that all the space missions were in fact just a lie. I thought that we didn’t land on the Moon at all, that we didn’t visit any other planet except maybe Mars and Venus. Alan Green in his diaries.

Late after work, Ana Leonova invites Alex Green to her apartment, to talk about the waste recycling system. Alex made experiments on humans. He is now confident that a human can survive a hundred days in space with the help of his system. Still, there are a few problems. For example, tubes and pipes tend to get silted. Some maintenance is needed.

Each time he goes to Ana’s apartment, she asks him to feel relaxed and to take on women’s clothes. She knows that he wants to become a transgender woman and she helps him as much as she can. She did her best so that people will not know anything.

Today, Ana sits relaxed on an armchair, without her usual clothes. She wears a sweater with black and white stripes, a white knee-long dress and black, opaque pantyhose. When Alex enters, she shows some clothes for him: a pink sweater, a black dress, platform sandals and shiny brown pantyhose. She recently painted her hair in pink. Alex gets in another room and changes himself. Ana even gives him a nail polish and a lipstick, so he will look more feminine. With thee help of a bra, he looks then like if he has breasts.

Then, the two start talking about the waste recycling system.

“Very soon we will start manned missions”, she says. “We only have four ships to launch: to Pluto, Eris, Sedna and Haumea. After that, we will see if your work pays off. As I planned first, with a launch every month, we should have four months ahead. But there is something new. The Americans are planning a new manned mission to the Moon. I am afraid that they will try to build a base there before us. Also, the Jews are up to something. They are building new rockets in Iran and I am sure they will launch again many rockets”.

“So, what should we do?” asks Alex, touching his pantyhosed feet with his hand.

“We must hurry”, says Ana, lighting a cigarette. “The Lenin IV is almost ready. We should launch it next time. I talked to your dad and many scientists about it. We can send many ships at once. We can launch all the four missions with a single rocket to space. This is my plan”.

“That is an ambitious plan”, says Alex.

“Not for me”, answers Ana.

Alex smiles, knowing how ambitious is Ana. She will walk through the impossible to make her ships fly.

“The Lenin IV is massive”, she says, blowing a thick cloud of smoke. “It can take 30 tons of cargo into Sun escape trajectory. All engines had been tested. Scientists had enough time to test all pats. This is what I want, to launch all four missions with the same rocket. Then, each one will go on its separate trajectory”.

“Scientists already built the Pluto orbiter and the Pluto and Charon horses”, says Alex. “They are building the Eris orbiter and horse”.

“I know”, answers Ana, taking her cigarette to the mouth.

“But they didn’t start work for Haumea and Sedna”.

“This is because the launch is not scheduled to start now”, continues Ana, mixing her words with smoke. “The launch will occur next month. All four probes will be sent together, next month”.

“Does anyone know about this?”

“Only your dad. But, everyone will know tomorrow”.

As they talk, suddenly, a window is broken in another room. They hear footsteps. Someone broke into the apartment. Ana doesn’t hesitate and opens a small door beneath her desk. She takes two pistols, one for her and one for Alex.

“Don’t miss!” she says.

“I won’t”.

Suddenly, a glass is broken in the room they are. They see a small object entering the room.

“Grenade”, says Ana. Down!”

Alex pushes the desk and they both fall down behind it. After a few seconds, the grenade explodes with a powerful sound. The two bodyguards open the door and look inside.

“The next room”, says Ana, showing them.

She didn’t think for a second that the bodyguards will see Alex dressed as a woman. They look at him and go forward. As the first bodyguard enters, he is immediately shot.

“Get out on the corridor”, says the other bodyguard. “I will cover your back, comrade”.

They get to the corridor, when another grenade falls in. Alex doesn’t hesitate and goes inside. Some gunshots are heard. The bodyguard is killed, but so does the attacker. Ana hurries in, looking. She finds Alex holding his pistol and shaking.

“I killed a man!” he says, almost crying.

“Not now!” says Ana. “Let’s see if there is anyone left”.

They enter the other room. Nobody inside. Then, another man comes from the bathroom. Without hesitating, they both shoot. The terrorist falls down. They look that he has soviet military clothes and a recording camera connected to his helmet. There is nobody else in the room.

Then, another grenade enters through the broken window. It explodes before they can look for a shelter. Alex jumps in front of Ana to protect her from the blast. The next second, he screams and falls unconsciousness.

In a minute, a police unit enters the apartment. They take Alex, dressed as he is, to an ambulance waiting in front of the stairways. Ana goes with him. She also suffered minor wounds.

It takes ten minutes and special KGB forces come in. They enter the apartment and search all around to find other terrorists. They locate attackers very fast. Also, they find something not expected: a microphone attached to Ana’s thigh boots and a camera glued on her dress. She didn’t notice them. Another microphone is later found glued to her purse.

At the hospital, Ana orders doctors to undress Alex and dress him in pajamas. She also orders them to keep silence about how he arrived. He wakes-up after a few hours.

KGB agents know what they have to do. The terrorist’s camera, the camera glued on Ana’s dress and the two microphones are first checked. Agents find out what link they use to access the internet. Very easy, they find the destination address and who is using it. Then, they start to interrogate the terrorists with their brutal ways. Ana and Alex are also interrogated, but in a polite way. Agents see recordings from surveillance cameras, which are anywhere: in the train, in the railway stations, on the streets and in all space factories. Very soon, they locate possible suspects and interrogate them too.

The space program goes to a halt for three days, as the investigation goes on. Nobody goes in and nobody goes out. Even the space missions are put on a halt.

Well, some major problems appear. Just in the first day after the attack, something else is on the news. The Jewish Empire shows some shocking images on its state television. They show Alex dressed as a woman. Also, some images are truncated, appearing that Ana is kissing him. Later, the same images appear on American Empire’s state television. The news is seen by almost anyone. Well, for the moment, these images are not seen on televisions in the Soviet Empire. Still, people see them on internet. The Supreme Soviet made a massive reform in education. He strongly insists that the new generation must be prepared for the challenges that stand in front of us. In all schools, English and Hebrew are teaching. This means that all students can understand foreign mass-media.

In the American Empire, LGBT organizations made a large-scale protest, claiming their rights, just one day after people heard the news. The same day, a well-known media corporation from the American Empire showed that part of the images and recordings are fake. It appears that Alex Green was indeed dressed like a woman, but he did not touch Ana Leonova at all. They were only talking. Also, their faces did not express anything related to sexual pleasure.

From the recordings, people find out that the New Soviets are planning to launch manned missions. They also find out that four ships will be sent to the Kuiper Belt with the help of a powerful new rocket, Lenin IV. Very soon, Leonard Bohr, recently honored as marshall, made a public declaration:

“The New Soviets are far beyond us. They are building a rocket similar in size and power with our Democracy rocket series. They are sending small probes to the Outer Solar System to prove their superiority because they are unable to build a large ship. Our new rocket, Democracy III, will takeoff next month, for the second manned mission to the Moon. How can they talk about manned missions to other planets if they are unable to build a large rocket?”

In the Jewish Empire, emperor Samuel Rosenstein also makes a public declaration:

“We successfully built an orbiting station around the Earth. Is that all we can do? By far, no! Our next space program is far more ambitious then this. The Soviets say they want to launch manned missions? I tell you that we can do far more. They say that they want to live in space or maybe on the Moon? I am telling you that we can blast the Moon out of the sky. And while we built our empire based on discipline and honor, they completely lack any morality. Who could imagine that the daughter of their dictator is having sexual relations with a cross-dresser? That is just unimaginable. Why is not she having intercourse with a dog?”

In the midst of chaos, the Supreme Soviet, Iosif Leonov, makes a visit to Aral. He arrives there with his personal airplane in the third day after the attack. By his personal order, the apartment where Ana Leonova lives is rebuilt. Windows are now bulletproof. The entrance door is replaced with a metal one, hard to break. From now on, Ana Leonova will travel with a special wagon on the railway. She will be protected by eleven bodyguards and not by two.

He also interviews his daughter and Alex Green for more details. He asks Alex about his sexual orientation and finds out that Alex wants to cross gender barriers. After finding out what is going on, he takes both Ana and Alex to Aral Cosmodrome. He spends more time asking about the progress of space missions.

There, at the Aral Cosmodrome, he makes a public speech. His words are transmitted live on state television:

Comrades! It is an honor for me to be at the Aral Cosmodrome. Here, the dreams of our ancestors had come true. Once, this place was used for mass-destruction weapons. Deadly germs, like anthrax, were tested on this site. Also, all the surrounding area was once a sea, the Aral Sea. Now, the sea is gone. Over a century ago, our ancestors, the Old Soviets, diverted rivers that once feed the sea for irrigation purposes, killing the sea. For over a century, this sea was nothing else but a salt wasteland. We brought life back to it. In this place with no economical value, we built a city, a space factory and a cosmodrome. We brought to the Aral the noble purpose of space exploration. From here, the New Soviet flag will be raised to the edge of our Solar System.

However, our neighbors don’t see it like this. It is the third time since I became the Supreme Soviet, that my daughter, Ana Leonova, survives an assassination attempt. Now, I stand before you and ask you and ask you not like a father, but like a state leader. Why is this happening? Why do people try to kill her? Is it because she is my daughter? Maybe. But why don’t they try to kill me? Are they afraid? Maybe. You will all understand why they tried to attack her if you see our achievements in space exploration. We rule the space race.

The space race shows us which empire is the most powerful. If you don’t have a powerful economy and if you don’t have scientists, you will not go to space. Our success is a proof that we are the best. And I tell you, this success could never be achieved without Ana Leonova. All we have is in part thanks to her. I am not telling you this because I am her dad. It was her ambition to start exploring space. She long insisted on this. So, one day, I said: ‘Is this what you want? Then do it! Make us proud!’ This is why terrorists try to kill her, because all the space exploration we recently had is her work. As you well know, there are many scientists behind, many workers and many hours of work, but she is the person that manages all the project. I ask you this: Do you know how many nights she didn’t sleep, working? Sure you don’t know, but I do. By killing her, you will stop the whole project. I know nobody as ambitious as she is.

Who are the terrorists? Do they think that they can go away with it so easily? You all know what is the punishment for sabotaging state economy and state projects. The punishment is death. This happens to all terrorists and spies, no matter who they are or what they are doing.

Well, but who they are? It is no hard surprise. They are people from or working for our two neighbors. First two assassination attempts were done by secret organizations from the Jewish Empire. Now, two organizations, from both Jewish and American empires, worked together. It was an organized joint mission. By now, 37 terrorists were arrested and interrogated. Now, I am asking both Leonard Bohr and Samuel Rosenstein: What do you want? Do you want war? Do you want a nuclear holocaust? What is the reason behind your actions? I want an answer. If you don’t want a war, eradicate the terrorist organizations involved in this assassination. If war is what you want, then you are out of your minds. Do you think you can win? I am sure you won’t. We drove you out once. We will do it again. We don’t want war. I hope you also don’t want it.

Our space exploration program will not stop at all. By opposite, your assassination attempts will only make us accelerate space exploration. We are proceeding according to our plans, to send unmanned ships to all the planets first, then to send manned missions. I challenge you all to do the same. If your economies, your technologies and your scientists are better then ours, you will win.

There is one more thing, which shows how people feel in your states, compared to our people. As I said in the first day when I became the Supreme Soviet, ‘we shall never repeat the mistakes of our ancestors’. We shall continue what was good and we shall never do what was bad. We continued what Lenin did. People deserve to have their own freedoms. All ethnic communities, in places where they form a majority, have autonomous republics or autonomous regions. They learn in their own language at school. They have their own televisions. We guarantee religious freedom. We repatriated all departed minorities: Circassians, Volga Germans, Pontic Greece, Nogai people, Vladivostok Koreans, Tatars and all others. Now, these people work in factories, cultivate land and fight in the army. In the same way, Lenin granted sexual freedom. We don’t judge people for their national, religious or sexual orientation. We judge people only by their work, as that is what makes us greater. The only think we ask in response, is decency, respect for other people and for their ways of being.

You heard probably that the spies sent outside of our empire images and short films. Many of them are fake. They insist that my daughter Ana Leonova has a relationship with Alex Green and that Alex Green was wearing women’s clothes. Before anything, I ask you: Does it matter? As long as the two are working hard on space projects, what is the importance of this? None. It is their freedom to do whatever they want in their apartment. Even more: If they want to get married, I cannot decide their personal lives and I won’t. Other people from outside questioned why is a woman so implied in space projects, why does she have so much power. We granted women freedom, equal rights with men. So, there should be no surprise that a woman is in a top public function. We have many women in top public functions.

But, because outside the New Soviet Empire people are talking too much about this, I tell them this: My daughter, Ana Leonova, is a sfenist. Sfenists are victims of sexual abuse in childhood or later in their lives. The trauma let them unable to sustain sexual relations at all. Don’t ask me, as her father, how many years she suffered after that. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. I tell you loud and clear that she never did, nor will ever be implied in sexual relations. Alex Green, which is a Soviet citizen, wants to cross gender barriers and to become a woman. Personally, I am not interested in this. All I want from them, is success in space exploration.

What really matters is that a new, powerful spaceship is ready to takeoff next month. It will be the Lenin IV. It will carry four spaceships into space, towards four different destinations. We recently sent two rockets towards Uranus and Neptune. The Lenin IV will explore the Kuiper Belt, a place where the only explored planet is Pluto. It is now time for the world to see Pluto again, together with Eris, Haumea and Sedna.

After this, the Supreme Soviet says to Ana and Alex:

“The whole world will be watching you. Make sure everything goes well. If not, you will face the consequences”.

“Dad, you shouldn’t tell them that I am a sfenist”, says Ana.

Alex looks down, with his face pale white. He never wanted people to know about his secret desire, to become a woman.

“So, both our enemies joined in the assassination attempt?” asks Ana.

“Yes”, continues Iosif Leonov. “Two terrorist organizations worked together for this. But they got what they deserved. They will be executed in public. This will make other terrorists to think twice before trying something else”.

Well, the launch of the Lenin IV is planned on November 7th. Scientists carefully planned the whole mission. Unfortunately, each celestial body is in a different direction. Launching all four ships with a single rocket is a big challenge.

Pluto Express requires two horses (one for Charon and one for Pluto) and an orbiter. Each horse weights 1000 kg. Pluto has some ‘seas’ made of ices that are not quite solid. The ices are in fact in a state similar to a gel. So, the Pluto horse will be built like a boat, able to float on those ices if needed and able to navigate on them. It will land with the help of a 400 kg rocket. The Charon horse will also use a rocket weighting 150 kg. The Pluto orbiter also has two bugs and fuel for them, so that it can sample matter from the other four small moons surrounding Pluto. A special target is the moon Styx. Together with the bugs, the orbiter weights 1400 kg. In addition, it has a nitrogen ion engine and a fuel tank, weighting 3050 kg. Overall, the Pluto Express part weights 7000 kg.

Eris Express has a single horse and an orbiter. The Eris horse weights 1000 kg, plus a landing rocket, weighting 400 kg. The orbiter weights 1000 kg. A special lander for the moon Dysmonia was also added, it weights 450 kg, plus a tiny 50 kg rocket needed to land. The orbiter will have attached a huge nitrogen tank and a nitrogen ion engine, weighting 3100 kg. Overall, the Eris Express will weight 6000 kg.

Haumea Express is in fact designed to explore not only Haumea, but also many Kuiper Belt objects. It consists only of an orbiter, weighting 1000 kg, plus a huge nitrogen tank and a nitrogen ion engine, weighting 4000 kg. Its total mass is 5000 kg.

Sedna Express is in face a mission designed to explore not only Sedna, but also the interstellar environment. The ship will not enter orbit around Sedna. It will conduct a fast flyby, then it will continue its journey. The ship weights 1000 kg. Attached, it has an impactor, weighting 300 kg, plus a small rocket weighting 100 kg. The impactor will detach and impact Sedna, revealing matter from beneath the surface. The spaceship carries a large nitrogen tank and nitrogen ion engine, weighting 4400 kg. This implies for a total mass of 6000 kg.

All these probes total a mass of 24 tons, while a Lenin IV can carry 30 tons. The difference is of 6 tons. Scientists supplied Eris Express and Haumea Express with 3 tons of nitrogen fuel.

The chosen trajectory is different from previous missions. Using current planetary alignments, Jupiter can be used for a flyby towards Pluto and Sedna, while Saturn will be used for a flyby towards Haumea and Eris. So, scientists divided the third stage in two identical parts, which will separate after a Moon flyby. One half will take Pluto and Sedna express ships towards a Jupiter flyby, exhausting its fuel on the way. Pluto Express will detach before reaching Jupiter, to get in the correct position for a gravity assist. Then, it will travel silent through space. Near Pluto, it will fire its nitrogen ion engines to slow down and enter orbit. It will deploy its two horses and make science.

The Sedna Express will work differently. After the Jupiter flyby, it will head to Neptune for a second gravity assist. Before this and after this, it will use its engines to gradually increase speed and become the fastest ship escaping the Solar System. It will send its impactor to Sedna’s surface, make a flyby, then continue to roam to the edges of the Solar System.

The second half of the third stage will set for a Saturn flyby. There, Haumea Express will detach for an optimal gravity assist. It will benefit from a second, Uranus gravity assist, later. Then, it will slow down, to enter Haumea orbit. After exploring the strange planet, it will use its engines to flyby or orbit many other objects in the Kuiper Belt.

Eris Express will conduct a Saturn flyby, then it will head towards its destination, Eris. Before arriving, it will also slow down, to enter orbit.

All four probes are nuclear powered. Sun is too far away for a solar panel to work. Still, the Sedna Express carries a small solar panel (only 10 cm long) for an experiment. All will reach their destinations in 12 to 23 years. It is a risky gamble, since everything will be transmitted live on state television. The date is known by anyone: November 7th, at 7.32 AM, Aral time.

The Lenin IV requires a special, massive launch platform. It also requires a different factory to build on an assembling line, a special transport vehicle to Aral Cosmodrome and special vehicles to recover boosters. Here are a few images, showing how large it is: At first, the Lenin IV, compared to a dwelling. Only the base is visible.

In the next image, one can see the top of the boosters. Second stage starts where the ship appears to be ‘shrinking’.

Finally, here is an image of the higher part. The third, nitrogen stage, is shown as a green stripe.

Well, things don’t go as planned. On November 2nd, the Americans launch Democracy III to the Moon. The crew will attempt to build the first manned base on the Moon, even if it will be used only temporary. It has two astronauts, but also carry food, oxygen and water for a three weeks mission. Instead of a manned orbiter, it will deploy two housing models on the Mon, which can further be used by next astronauts. The mission successfully lands on the Moon on November 5th.

Well, just on the same date, the Jews launch a multitude of small rockets, one after another. About 175 rockets are launched during the day. 117 of them join their space station and assemble into a larger ship. This ship then heads to the Moon. People don’t know what to expect.

Now, comes the time for Lenin IV to be launched. This giant rocket weights 22003 t and is over 200 m long. It is by far the tallest rocket ever made by humans. It has eight boosters, four big and four small. The small boosters are 74 m high and 8 m wide, powered-up by one new RS-5 engine. The large boosters are 121 m high and 10 m wide, powered up by 3 RS-5 engines. The core stage 1 is 167 m high and 18 m wide, using 9 RS-9 engines.

Second stage is 25 m high and 14 m wide. It uses 3 RS-3 engines. The third stage, 4 m high and 14 m wide, uses 3 NI-3 nitrogen ion engines.

Compared to anything ever launched before, Lenin IV is a monster. It is almost twice as tall as historical N1 and Saturn V rockets, able to send 139.3 t of cargo in heliocentric orbit or 30 t of cargo in Sun escape trajectory.

The ship arrives late at night, at 3.24 AM, on November 7th. All systems are checked over and over again. With 25 massive RS-5 engines, everyone is nervous. One single engine failure could have catastrophic effects.

With everything checked many times, at 6.35 AM, accumulated ice on the second stage is removed with jets of water. A small amount of lost fuel is replenished. Then, at 7.31 AM, launch sequence starts. The television is here, transmitting live everything. Ana is nervous. She lights a cigarette. When they are less then 20 seconds from launch, there is nothing they can do. Ana has to approve the launch.

“Comrade, should we…” says a scientist.

“Sure”, says Ana, watching the countdown.

Just 21 seconds before launch, she touches the launch button. Launch sequence approved. The engines fire slowly, then they fire at full power. All 25 engines are on. A very powerful noise is heard all around. The vibrations are also huge. The engines blow a powerful jet of fire under the platform. From there, smoke gets out through three massive holes.

“We have liftoff”, whispers a scientist.

The ship rises slowly first, then with ever increasing speed. A few windows break to pieces. Some fire alarms start to be heard. Inside the control room, a few objects fall from tables and desks.

“The launch platform is too close”, whispers the same scientist.

“I know”, says Ana, “but I wanted to see the launch from close range”.

It takes eight seconds for the ship to be 100 m above ground and 12 seconds to rise over 200 m. The whole cosmodrome is filled with a thick cloud of smoke (in fact water haze from hydrogen and oxygen burning). The ship continues to rise.

“No problem detected?” asks Ana.

“All engines are working as expected”, says a scientist.

“Wind blowing to South-East”, says a scientist. “The ship automatically adapts to this, as expected”.

In 42 seconds, the ship rises to the altitude of the lowest cloud. It continues to rise. On the cosmodrome, smoke is gone. TV cameras continue to watch the rocket as it climbs to the space on top of a long trail of white smoke. Vibrations are gone, but the sound can still be heard. Later, scientists will find out that the vibrations were felt as far as Aralsk and Nukus.

“We have engine 14 failure”, says someone. “We don’t need to worry, the ship is too far already. It will not make a significant change in the trajectory”.

“Where is it?” asks Ana.

“On booster 3. Soon, the boosters will be detached”.

“Large boosters will be separated in a few seconds, then small boosters”, adds another scientist.

And this is what happens. The four large boosters are detached at 245 seconds after launch. Eleven seconds later, the small boosters are detached too. First stage continues to fire alone. The ship left Earth’s atmosphere and is advancing on its trajectory.

“We have confirmed, boosters are separated”.

First stage continues to fire. However, beneath it, the boosters are moving alone. Two of them collide.

“They didn’t break apart”, says a scientist, “but they look deformed”.

“Just hope they will land back on Aral Seabed”, says Ana.

408 seconds after launch, the first stage is detached. Second stage ignites its engines and continues climbing to the space. Boosters reach a maximum height, then fall down. Second stage is expected to burn 940 seconds. Scientists see a status report. Second stage is working properly. The rocket is on its way, with a little course deviation. They nervously wait, watching the data. Exactly 965 seconds, they see the second report. Second stage is detached. Fairings, that covered the payload, are detached too. Now, the ship is heading for a Moon flyby.

“Well done, people”, says Ana. “Today, we won a battle with great success”.

Soon, all the press starts talking about this. A television in American Empire shows images from the launch.

Reds did it again! They are sending four spaceships with a single launch! Behold Pluto, Sedna, Haumea and Eris, they are going to kick your ass!

All four spaceships are heading to the Moon for a gravity assist. In the same time, American mission Democracy III successfully landed on the Moon. The two astronauts are building a temporary base.

The Jewish ship, assembled on their space station, heads towards the Moon. People expect it to be their first Moon landing. Nobody knows if the ship is manned or not. Their emperor, Samuel Rosenstein, says a few hours before Moon touchdown:

“We are going to show the world our superiority, with a big sign in the sky, that anyone will be able to see”.

The Jewish ship is expected to land on the Moon on November 10th at 14.28. The landing date is made public. Exactly at the expected moment, people see a huge explosion. A powerful bright light can be seen on the Moon from Earth with the naked eye. It is a massive nuclear explosion. The blast wave propagates through space. Many communication satellites are turned off by the blast. Democracy III mission is severely damaged, as all electronics go silent. The three Soviet space communication satellites are also affected, but not destroyed.

Surprisingly, the Lenin IV and its payload to the Kuiper Belt survive. This happens because the third stage was pointing away from the sun, to keep all ships at low temperature. In that moment, the Moon was close to the Sun in the sky.

After this massive explosion, Samuel Rosenstein appears on the news, saying:

“We shown the world our mighty supremacy. The largest atomic bomb in history just detonated on the Moon. This is only one of the large arsenal of weapons that we have. This is a prove that no body should ever dare to provoke us”.

Ana realizes that the Moon nuclear explosion destroyed the first Moon base. Now, the New Soviets have an advantage again. She has to build a permanent base on the Moon before the Americans go there again. She knows that they need at least 100 days to build a new Democracy rocket.

SOLAR EXPRESS

There is one celestial body untouched in the Solar System: the Sun. Reaching it, is more difficult then reaching Pluto or Sedna. Ana Leonova in her diary.

Unfortunately, the waste recycling system is not quite ready for space. Even with the mighty Lenin IV functional, the device is too heavy to be lifted and shipped to the Moon. In order to build a Moon base, many launches will be needed. Ana orders the construction of a new ‘express’ space mission. She hopes that after a month things will be different.

The new mission is called ‘Solar Express’. A Lenin IV rocket will take two space probes very close to the Sun. The major challenge for such a mission is the huge delta-v required. It is true, a ship needs far more fuel to reach Sun’s surface then it needs to escape the Solar System.

The Lenin IV rocket is able to send 30 t of cargo into Sun escape trajectory. The third stage weights 109.3 t and can produce 15 km/s delta-v. It will carry a fourth stage, weighting 20 t and carrying 17 t of nitrogen. This stage will add 14.13 km/s of delta-v. This is enough to gain a highly inclined orbit, very close to the Sun at periapsis and as far as Earth at apoapsis. A sun orbiter, weighting 1000 kg, will be detached in this phase.

Then, a fifth stage, weighting 8000 kg and containing 6800 kg of nitrogen, will generate other 23.82 km/s of delta-v. This is more then enough.

The impactor weights 1000 kg. More then half the weight is a massive shield pointing towards the Sun. The impactor will survive almost until it will ‘touch’ the Sun.

This mission is launched on December 4th. Again, one of the engines fail, but the others keep rising the spaceship to orbit.

The massive boosters and the core stage are equipped with giant parachutes. At their size, landing is difficult, mainly since the Aral is home to powerful winds. Nevertheless, they are recovered, refurbished and ready for a new launch.

Scientists learn that an engine failure is possible at any given point. So, they accept to build extra engines to take over the damaged one. The core stage will have 10 engines and the large boosters 7 each.

PART FOUR – COSMONAUTS

When the first men walked on the Moon, people were confident that in ten years people would reach Mars, in twenty years Jupiter, in thirty years Pluto and in half a century another star. Why this never happened? Why people never walked even on the Moon for over a century? They had no reason.

A new space race was needed to make us go back.

SOVIET MOON BASE

Comrade, please let us celebrate with our families! People asking Ana Leonova to go home for winter celebrations.

The American Empire tried to build a Moon base but failed. They will launch a new Democracy rocket within three months, most probably in February. That is a long enough window for the New Soviets to build the base first.

The waste recycling system weights 40 t and can support the life of a single person. Food, water and oxygen need to be stored in case anything goes bad. A human needs a space to live, a habitat. Energy is needed too… and in large amounts. All calculations show that only for a single person we have to carry 100 t to the Moon. That is a huge weight. Also, a backup ship needs to be ready on the Moon. If anything fails, the cosmonaut might still have a chance to return.

Ana Leonova calls Alan Green for details about the new mission.

“I think it is impossible to launch with a single ship all we need for the Moon base”, she says.

“A Lenin IV can send to a Moon flyby 139.3 t”, says the old scientist.

“Yes, that is correct”, says Ana. “I think we should send four cosmonauts to the Moon. What would we need for that?”

“First of all, the waste recycling system, it will weight 160 t for all of them”, says the scientist. “Four waste recycling systems. Then, we need to bring their home, where they will live. I made a design of a minimum habitat. It is made of four modules and weights 80 t altogether”.

“240 t so far”, writes Ana on a blackboard. “What do we need next?”

“They will need a rover to move on the Moon”.

“That is not quite hard”, continues Ana. “It won’t be more then 10 t”.

“They need space suits, food, air and water supplies”.

“How much will they weight?”

“About 20 tons, I estimate”.

“And the return ship”.

“That will be around 30 tons”, continues the scientist. “The return ship will bring them to the Moon and will wait them until they finish the mission”.

“Anything more?” asks Ana.

“Well, they will need electricity, solar panels and batteries. I calculated that everything else they will need will weight around 30 tons”.

“So”, continues Ana writing on the blackboard, “we need to get to the Moon 340 t in the end”.

“Yes, that is right”.

“We need many launches in order to do that”.

“Yes, we do”, continues the scientist.

“I have an idea”, continues Ana, lighting a cigarette. “What if we use a Moon gravity assist? I mean, the Lenin ships are designed to perform a Moon flyby to escape Earth’s gravity well. What if we conduct gravity assists in a different angle? This way, a ship will be sent into a new trajectory, closer to the Moon. In this case, we will need less fuel to enter Moon orbit and to land”.

“It will require time”, says the scientist.

Ana opens her laptop and makes a fast simulation.

“Here it is!” she says, pointing with her gloved fingers on the screen. “We go for a Moon flyby. The flight requires 11 days. Then, after other 17 days, we intersect the Moon again. Now, with a little engine burn, we get into orbit around the Moon. All we have to do then, is land”.

“That is a good plan”, continues the scientist. “Can you calculate how much fuel would we need to enter Moon orbit and to land?”

“Yes, I can. After all, I have this program from you”.

“Wow!” says the scientist, surprised.

“To enter Moon orbit, we need a delta-v of 0.840 km/s. Then, to land, we need 1.724 km/s”, says Ana. “What does that mean? We need 2.564 km/s. That is how much speed our engines must produce”.

“Comrade, you have to take into equation also Moon’s gravity, which we will fight with”.

“I do”, continues Ana. “Your program calculates that too”.

“I know, but I wanted to be sure. Well, I recommend that we also include some extra fuel. Fixed-point landing is much more difficult. Add 20% more fuel, we might need it”.

“Sure thing, comrade”, she says. “I will add. Now, comes the hardest part. How much can a Lenin IV carry? It can take 139.3 t of cargo to a Moon flyby. We need to calculate how much of this weight will be the fuel tank and the engines needed, to see how much we can actually send to the Moon”.

They spend the night calculating. In the end, the result is as follows: They can send to the Moon 61.3 t with a single launch. They will need a fuel tank and three RS-2 engines to land. With safety margins, they will need 62.56 t of hydrogen-oxygen mixture. Now, they can continue their calculations more easily.

“The highest weight will be the waste recycling systems”, continues Ana. “Everything else will weight 100 tons. I suggest we get to the Moon that 125 tons of equipment, habitat modules and supplies. With two Lenin IV launches, we should send them all. Then, we sill send the waste recycling systems at each launch, together with a cosmonaut and whatever we need. Four launches will be enough”.

“Or, maybe we send some goods with the first launch. The second launch will take a cosmonaut and a waste recycling system. Third launch will bring another cosmonaut and another waste recycling system”.

“That could be better”, says Ana. “After all, our greatest enemy is time. We must get to the Moon before the Americans or the Jews do”.

They agree on this. The first transport will detach to the Moon on January 1st. Second transport will go on January 28th, bringing the first cosmonaut to the base. A third transport will be on February 24th.

While the New Soviets plan to build a base on the Moon, the Jews and the Americans are almost at war, after the American mission was destroyed. Now, the Moon has a huge manmade crater, created after the fierce explosion that was seen even on Earth in daylight. Tensions are high.

Knowing the risks, Ana decides that the base will be on the backside of the Moon, where it will be more safe from another explosion. There is also another reason behind this. The Jews start to claim a part of Antarctica as their territory. They also claim the Moon. The Americans started to claim a part of the Moon for themselves, that is, over half of the Earth facing side of the Moon. So, Ana starts to work just like the old Russian Empire did in Alaska. They spread inside American territory silently, expanding their borders.

“Why shouldn’t we do the same on the Moon?” whispers Ana for herself.

After all, it was the Old Soviets, which explored the backside of the Moon first. Even today, many Geographic features on the backside of the Moon have Soviet names. Why shouldn’t we do this again?

With this in mind, Ana opens her laptop again and looks on the backside of the Moon. What is the best place to land? There are many craters all over the place. Where should we land? In the end, she finds a crater appearing black: Tsiolkovskiy. That should be good. It appears to be made of dark material, with a white island in its center. A complex Geology could mean that we can find many useful materials there.

This crater was intended as a destination for one of the ancient Apollo missions. Its intriguing Geology made scientists want to send a probe there several times. It is not in the center of Moon’s far side. In fact, it is more to Southeast.

Most of this crater’s floor is covered with a ‘mare’, lava flown from Moon’s ancient volcanism. Just in the center, there is a mountain peak rising 3 km above the ‘mare’. There are many different types of terrain in and surrounding the crater, varying from flat plains to high cliffs. There might be places not exposed to direct sunlight, where ice can survive for long. If that’s true, cosmonauts can find water.

The next day, Ana comes to the Space Factory, with pictures and some of her own calculations. She shows everyone a picture of the crater:

Alan Green, seeing the image, immediately says:

“Tsiolkovskiy? That is a very interesting destination. If it were up to me, I would say the same. Only that, it is on the far side of the Moon. You know what that means. We will need to use a relay station around the Moon to communicate with our cosmonauts”.

“Comrade”, says Ana, lighting a cigarette. “Unfortunately, the decision is mainly a political one. The Americans claimed their landing sites and surrounding terrain. The Jews claim the Moon for themselves. You know what they did”.

“Yes”, says Alan Green. “This is what worries me too. If they use another atomic bomb, they can destroy our future base too”.

“I believe that they will fight for the near side of the Moon”, continues Ana. “Of course, we should also claim the landing sites of our ancestors’ Luna missions, but that might start a war. So, I decided that we infiltrate on the far side of the Moon, just as we did in Alaska”.

Alan Green smiles, thinking about it.

“The Russian Empire silently colonized Alaska. West European powers had no idea first. We should try this again, on the Moon”.

“Comrade”, says another scientist, “why are we not building a base in the center of the far side?”

“Because Tsiolkovskiy is one of the most intriguing places on the Moon”, replies Alan Green.

“That was my first idea”, continues Ana. “But, we are looking for a place where cosmonauts could find water and other resources”.

“Moon water is at the poles”, replies the second scientist.

“It could be also in other places, but we need to dig for it”, answers Ana. “Tsiolkovskiy is not far from the South Pole and it has some sharp rims. There are small areas permanently covered in darkness. That could be our chance. If we don’t find water, at least there are many minerals, which we might find useful. As the base will grow, cosmonauts will build a town there. This is what I have in mind”.

Everyone looks amazed at what Ana says. She wants to build a town on the Moon? That is very ambitious.

“The poles will be searched for water by the other empires very soon”, continues Ana. “The Jews could nuke us there one day. But on the far side of the Moon, we are safer. I strongly advise the construction of Tsiolkovskiy base. Another advantage is that we can move our constructions for small distances around the central peak, avoiding to be in direct sunlight. From there, we can later spread on the far side of the Moon”.

“But, isn’t it a better strategic position the center of the far side?” asks the second scientist.

“Moscow is not in the center of the New Soviet Empire, as New York is not in the center of the American Empire”, answers Ana. “The economic center is not always one and the same with the Geographic center”.

Nobody dares to argue with her. So, Ana looks around and says:

“The first mission will use a Lenin IV rocket, to deliver to Tsiolkovskiy equipment, supplies and housing modules. I calculated last night. We need 62.56 tons of propellant and three RS-2 engines to land 61.30 tons of materials. Then, we will use other two Lenin IV rockets to bring in two cosmonauts, waste recycling systems and more supplies”.

“When will the launches occur?” asks a third scientist.

“The first launch will occur on January 1st. Manned launches will come on January 28th and February 24th”.

“That is a hurry”, says the second scientist.

“The other empires are closing on us”, continues Ana. “We want to be the first. We are lucky that Democracy III failed. This is our chance. Be sure that Democracy IV will be launched by mid February. We don’t have much time left. So, I order you all to start working. This is the plan. Time is critical, comrades. As the other empires fight for the near side of the Moon, we should take advantage and colonize the far side… and fast”.

With the orders given, scientists go to work. Only one of them whispers:

“Comrade Leonova wants her own Alaska!”

“That is true!” answers Ana, loud.

Nobody outside the Aral should know anything. Once the base is established, everyone will know. But, until then, it will all be a well-kept secret. Scientists design the Moon landing stage and test it within ten days. Then, they build all what is needed for the mission. Three massive Lenin IV ships are assembled.

Outside the Aral, many things start to happen. The Americans claim that their Moon landing sites and Moon’s South Pole belong to them. The Jews claim the whole Moon. In an official meeting, Marshall Leonard Bohr discusses with Emperor Samuel Rosenstein about sharing the Moon. Bohr divides the near side of the Moon in two halves. Rosenstein then says:

“Have you talked with the Soviets about this?”

“They have no territorial claims on the Moon”.

“I don’t think so”, answers Rosenstein. “You want to give me their landing sites. I don’t think that is fair”.

They decide to make a new official meeting. The Supreme Soviet will also join them. Iosif Leonov knows about the secret plan to build a base on the far side of the Moon, but he doesn’t want anyone to know about it. At the meeting, he clearly states this:

“How can we talk about sharing the Moon when we have no bases on it? I have another idea. Build a base and earn surrounding land. Why do you fight for something that was built over a hundred years ago?”

After five hours of negotiations, they come to no agreement. The Supreme Soviet is silent, watching the two.

As scheduled, on January 1st, Ana wants the first ship to take supplies to Tsiolkovskiy. However, she finds out that almost all workers are drunk, including most of the scientists. People asked her several times to give them a few free days, to visit their homes. Her only response was anger. Well, she gets those who are not drunk and prepares a launch. The ship is successfully launched from Aral Cosmodrome. The launch occurs at 0.27 AM.

On January 2nd, Ana roams through the Space Factory. She again finds all workers drunk. Very angry, she starts beating workers. On January 3rd, she orders all workers to stand in front of her.

“Comrades!” she screams through a megaphone. “What is wrong with you? What is this? Now, we are more needed then ever. The Soviet dream lies in front of us. Our supremacy is threatened. Is this the answer you give to the world? Everyone is watching us, waiting for us to build a base on the Moon. You disappoint me. You disappoint not only me, but all the other Soviet citizens, which are watching us and hoping that we win the space race. Where is your proud? Where is you patriotism?”

They don’t answer anything, but Ana realizes that something is wrong with them.

“What? What do you want? Do you want me to turn this place into a gulag? You all know from history about Norilsk and Kolyma gulags. Do you want the same here? It all depends on you”.

Ana looks at them, at their faces. It is a cold winter morning. The wind blows around and brings some snow.

“I know what you want”, she continues. “You want to go to your families, to celebrate the Orthodox Christmas with your loved ones. If that is what you want, so be it! I will give you a few free days. You will all be free between 5th of January to 9th of January, but only if you prove me that you deserve it. Today and on the 4th of January, work harder. You have to work in advance for the days when you will not be here. Prove me that you are able to do that. If not, you will get no free day. You all have an eight hours program. Today and tomorrow, work twelve hours. I want to see results. If I see no results, you will have no free day”.

People look around and start to whisper.

“Understood?” shouts Ana. “I want to hear you louder!”

“Yes, comrade!” they scream.

“Louder!”

“Yes, comrade!”

“Then, get to work!”

People listened to Ana’s order and worked harder for two days. Then, they left home for a four days vacation. The Space City and the Space Factory look abandoned for a few days. Only a few people remain. On January 5th, Ana roams the streets, stressed. She goes to the Aral Cosmodrome, to check status of all science missions. She spends a few hours there, talking with the few people that remained. Service must be maintained at every hour, minute and second. Space missions report home when they can, when planetary alignments allow them. Everything is looking good.

On January 6th, Ana is very bored and angry. She is used to work all time, all day long. Now, she looks on her window. The city is empty. Then, around 3 PM, Alex Green comes to visit her.

Like always, she asks him to get dressed like a woman. Then, Alex says:

“It is very good that you gave four free days to the people”.

Ana answers nothing. She lights a cigarette.

“Many people were talking about this. They’ve been here, sometimes for over an year. They have families and loved ones”.

“The only person I have is my father”, complains Ana. “And I didn’t visit him”.

“The same works for me”, says Alex. “My mother divorced when I was little. We know nothing about her for over fifteen years”.

“The Americans are planning a new mission to the Moon”, says Ana. “Time is critical. What if they will go to the Moon before we go?”

“Comrade, you have to keep your people a high moral. They are not robots, nor slaves. You father told us that we shall never repeat the mistakes of the past. We must not transform Aral into a gulag”.

“I know”, says Ana, playing with her dress, allowing Alex to see a bit of her pantyhosed feet above her long boots.

“They will work harder when they come”, continues Alex. “They need a few free days. You will see”.

“But they always had free days”, continues Ana. “I gave them a program, eight hours of work, in shifts. I gave them a free day every week. I always kept in mind what their religion is. I gave Sunday as a free day to those attending the church. Muslims usually worked Sunday and had Friday free. I built them churches and a mosque in the city”.

“I know”, continues Alex, “but you have to understand how people are. We are different, because we have no relatives. Most people seem to be very attached to their families, their relatives and friends. This attachment is far stronger then what I’ve seen in America. Just take a look at who is still in the city. Those who staid are people like us, with no relatives. They have nowhere to go”.

Ana takes a deep drag of smoke.

“I’ve been to the church one Sunday. It amazed me how Orthodox Christians are. They prey for their families and for their deceased ones. It seems that the connection goes beyond the limits of this world. Families are different here. People seem to have ‘extended families’, including their grandparents, brothers’ families, nephews and friends. This is something I’ve never seen. This night is Orthodox Christmas. People gain together. Families are reunited. They will come back to work after this. Just imagine how proud will feel those working here! Space exploration is the proudest thing possible. Their relatives will ask them to return to work”.

Ana listens to all this, without saying anything.

“It is a very important thing for them to get reunited with their families during these days. Very important”.

“Do you think we will launch in time?” asks Ana, putting her cigarette in the ashtray.

“Yes, I think so”.

Alex looks around and finds some pictures of Tsiolkovskiy crater, a topography map and possible landing sites. He realizes how much is Ana working on the project. He can see tens of pages written on her desk. A scheme is on the blackboard.

“Sometimes, you just need a break,” says Alex. “I know this from when I was at school. Didn’t it ever happen to you? You work on an exercise on Math and fail it. Then, you get out of the house, clean your brain for ten minutes and eat something. When you return, you might find the answer like if it were there, waiting for you”.

“Sometimes… You are right. You might need something to clean your mind”.

“Comrade, you also need a small vacation. Just try to think about something else for a few hours! It will help you find better solutions. It worked for me. I spent months working on the waste recycling system, trying to figure out how to make it work. Believe me, the best solutions came to my mind when I was traveling by train and not when I was working. I say that you should do something else for a few minutes”.

“Like what?”

“How about a walk through the city? Just let your mind think about something else”.

“Well, I made a lot of calculations about the Tsiolkovskiy base. I think I am done by now. I will come with you on a city walk… even if our city is not that large”.

Ana takes on her fur coat and says:

“Come!”

Alex had no time to change. He will go like this, dressed as a woman. Ana gives him a large fur coat. The coat covers his body down to his knee-long boots. Even Ana did not realize for a second that Alex is dressed as a woman. But, when she realizes, they already are on the stairs.

They go down on the street. There is nobody around. The wind is blowing snow over the streets. Space City is not too large. People live in blocks with seven levels. Desert saxaul trees grow along the concrete streets. All blocks are aligned and all streets are in straight lines. All blocks look the same. A newcomer will lose its way here, as all streets look just the same. In the center, there is a large square with a statue of Lenin, holding the hammer and sickle. Surrounding it, there are schools, shops and all institutions. Space City has its own town hall and its own hospital. There is a single boulevard, connecting the railway station with the central square. The city does not need more streets. It is possible to get around by car, but where to go? The only road is along the railway.

There was a long time ago when cars were roaming on all the roads. Now, it is too expensive. People depend on rail transportation, as trains use electricity. Electric cars exist too, but they are expensive. People usually drive by car for short distances, then load their cars to cargo trains.

“There was a time when people depended on fossil fuels”, says Ana. “Now, that is long gone. We have to use what we can produce. This city depends on wind turbines”.

“I know”, says Alex, feeling the bitter cold wind blowing.

“If we had fossil fuels, we could build much more powerful rockets”, continues Ana. “Hydrogen is too light. It requires huge fuel tanks to store it. If we could only have hydrazine…”

“The Americans launched Democracy rockets with the use of synthetic fuels”, answers Alex.

“It could be an option, but you know how expensive it is”, says Ana.

“I talked a lot about this subject with my dad”, says Alex. “He said many times that the way Lenin rockets operate is not the most efficient. He argues that a three-stage chemical rocket would be lighter and more efficient. However, he knows that in this case, it will be harder to recover pieces. The Lenin rockets are cheaper because they are built on an assembling line and because they are made to be reused, except for the second stage”.

“That is the major challenge”, says Ana. “By far, we lack the resources the Americans have. I took the decision to build the Lenin rockets because they are cheaper, even if they lack many features”.

“My dad says that there was possible to build another design, much more efficient”, continues Alex. “We could build boosters for Lenin III and IV from the first stages of Lenin I and II. This idea came to his mind later. He always complains that you force scientists to work faster, without calculating all possibilities”.

“You know well the answers, comrade. Time is critical. We didn’t have time for complex planning and testing. Even now, we don’t have that time available. We have to get to the Moon before the others do. If they get there before us, we lose everything. The Old Soviets failed to bring a man on the Moon and lost the space race. Later, they tried to send other exploration ships and to build a space station, but it was all in vain. Nobody thought that we could win the space race when we lost it”.

Alex feels cold and wants to enter somewhere to heat himself.

“If the Americans build a base on the Moon before us, they will also go to Mars before us. That is the gamble”, says Ana.

They enter to a bar. The waiter looks at them and says:

“How can I serve you, ladies?”

“Comrades”, corrects him Ana. “Bring us something to eat and two cups of tea… and an ashtray!”

The waiter looks scared, realizing that Ana Leonova herself is his customer.

Iosif Leonov allowed small and average-scale business to take place. Farmers have their own land. Only large, strategic factories are state-owned. He continued Lenin’s policy, as he considers Lenin a model to follow in life.

“That is the next target after the Moon? Mars?” asks Alex.

“If we want to go to Mars, we must make sure that the waste recycling system works well. Cosmonauts will travel for years. If anything bad happens to them, they are completely on their own. This is why the Moon base is critical. If we make them survive for an year on the Moon, we can think about a manned Mars mission. If not, the Americans will come with an idea before we do”.

“There is one thing I am worried about”, continues Alex. “If people will only eat Chlorella algae as their only food and will stay in limited space, they will not feel good. Think that you will eat only that green goo for years and you will live and sleep in your room for all that time! I think we need to build them a larger space. They will need to entertain themselves, to do physical exercises and to eat a more diverse diet”.

“Do you realize how expensive will that be?” answers Ana. “How are we going to bring all that into space? I wish I could do more, but as you well know, resources are limited. If we spend too much time for this, the Americans will go to space before us. Usually, it takes about a hundred days for them to build a Democracy rocket. This is the time we have before their next launch, not more. Everything is on the limit. Sometimes, you have to take a gamble”.

It is getting late. They start walking back on the streets. The night comes. But, instead of returning to Ana’s apartment, they still walk on the streets of Space City.

It is already dark. They walk along the central square. Finally, they see a church.

“Should we go in?” says Ana. What do you say?

“Well, I am a Catholic, but if you want, we will go”.

“I am religious, but not affiliated to any religious group”, says Ana. “My mother was a Lutheran, as you know. She was German. My dad is a theist. He believes God exists, but he doesn’t believe in religion. His mother was an Orthodox and his father was a Muslim. I know nothing about my mother’s parents. I never seen them in my life. So, it is no problem for me to enter here”.

They go to the church. Ana insists that Alex must have his head covered, as is polite in Orthodox churches for a woman to be. There is not much people inside, as most people left to visit their relatives.

Unlike in Catholic churches, in Orthodox churches people don’t sit down. There are no benches in the church. They stand up, listen and prey. Another major difference is that the altar is separated from the church, like another room. For Ana, it is the first time she enters here. She approved the construction of three churches in the town, but never went to see them close. After this, she comes to the altar and kneels at an icon, asking god for help, to win the space race.

Then, they return to Ana’s apartment, where they eat together. Ana never has time to cook. She calls a catering service to bring her food daily.

The next day, the two take another walk through the city, only that this time, Alex is dressed like a man. What happened on Christmas Eve, when Alex walked dressed like a woman, almost nobody found out, except Ana’s bodyguards.

After the Orthodox Christmas, people return to Aral, to continue work. Alex was right. They came with fresh forces. Just as planned, on January 28th, a Lenin IV rocket flies towards the Moon, taking with it the first cosmonaut to the Moon base. The second launch occurs even faster, on February 11th. The Supreme Soviet informs Ana that both the Americans and the Jews are planning a manned mission around February 14th. So, Ana decides to be the first.

The first ship, launched on January 1st, needed 11 days to reach the Moon for a flyby and other 17 days for an orbit insertion and landing. So, it landed at Tsiolkovskiy on January 28th. The second ship, carrying one cosmonaut, spent 11 days and arrived to the Moon on February 7th. It should land on February 24th. The third rocket arrived for a Moon flyby on February 23rd. Scientists calculated that it has enough fuel to land. So, the last two ships landed on the Moon, at Tsiolkovskiy, exactly on the same day, with a difference of only a few hours.

On February 22nd, American ship Democracy IV took off, heading to the Moon. It landed on February 25th, just one day after the soviets. Their landing destination was chosen the same site where the first Apollo mission landed. The Jewish ship took off on February 23rd. However, it did not carry a manned mission, but unmanned robots. It landed on February 27th, close to an old Japanese landing site. Everyone felt humiliated that the Soviets won again.

BARMINGRAD

Around 1970, Vladimir Barmin planned the construction of a base on the Moon. He never seen his dream came true. Even after his death, people continued to dream about a base on the Moon. For over a century, his project remained just a subject for sci-fi literature. Friends called his proposed base ‘Barmingrad’ or Barmin’s town. What is shocking is that nobody ever thought the New Soviets will do it! A newspaper in American Empire.

On February 24th, at 11.32, the second ship lands on Tsiolkovskiy crater. The cosmonaut is a woman, Tatiana Pavlova. She proved to the world that the waste recycling system is functional. She ate for 28 days the green goo produced by Chlorella algae. She lands at 100 m from the first landing site and starts assembling the habitat. Since Moon’s gravity is far weaker then Earth’s, she successfully moves parts weighting 500 kg with the help of small tools. Then, at 17.27, the other ship lands. Cosmonaut Vladimir Sauskin starts helping Tatiana to build the base. They finish work at 21.47. At that moment, they turn on all systems. Everything works. At 22.04, they communicate with the Earth with the help of Luna orbiter.

At the Aral Cosmodrome, Ana Leonova is sitting, late at night, waiting for a signal. She knows that both ships landed, but waits. If something doesn’t work, both cosmonauts are doomed. There is no ship to bring them back to Earth available. The next Lenin IV, which actually brings a return module, is scheduled to launch on March 9th.

Suddenly, the Supreme Soviet calls her, at 21.57.

“My child, do you have any news from the Moon?”

“Both cosmonauts are working. They are assembling the base. They last reported at 20.05 and were still working. They cover some parts with lunar regolith”.

“They better hurry, the Americans will land soon”.

“What do you know about them?”

“They have a functional base, but without a waste recycling system. They brought food, water and oxygen to live on the Moon for three months. Maybe we should have done the same”.

“Too late now. I call you when I have a confirmation that the base is built”.

“The Americans came with an already built base”.

“It shouldn’t last more then an hour, dad. They are almost finished”.

“I hope so. The Jews are also on the way. I don’t know what they are up to. They assembled again many rockets in space and will land probably tomorrow”.

“We will be the first, dad. I will not disappoint you”.

Ana closes the conversation. She waits. It takes a few minutes and…

“Receiving data!” says a scientist.

All scientists and Ana Leonova see it. The two cosmonauts appear inside their base, saying:

“Hi, Earth! We are Tatiana Pavlova and Vladimir Sauskin. We finished assembling the first human base on the Moon. It is functional. All sensors show that the base is habitable. We salute you all”.

Then, they see a few pictures token from around the base. It is assembled. Four habitation modules are linked together and covered with lunar regolith. Large solar panels are placed above. The rover is parked in front. The New Soviet flag is visible too. Behind, the high cliff in the center of the crater can be seen, shining above the dark surface surrounding it.

Everyone starts to applause. The first Moon base is established. Ana Leonova immediately calls her dad and says:

“We made it! They finish assembling the base! I am downloading to you the first images. We won the Moon race by only a few hours!”

The Supreme Soviet immediately calls the state television and sends the images and short film. Immediately, almost all televisions stop their regular program to transmit the data. All over the Soviet Empire, people see the images. Iosif Leonov personally appears on the news, saying:

“Comrades! Today, we won an important battle in the space race. More then a century ago, Vladimir Barmin among the Old soviets, wanted to do what we just done, to build a base on the Moon. While scientists knew it as Zvezda, friends called it Barmingrad. Now, over a century ago, Barmin’s dream came true. Barmingrad is finally built. We have the first base on the Moon, on Tsiolkovskiy crater. I congratulate all space pioneers working hard on the Aral Cosmodrome for this achievement. Also, I congratulate you all. This project could never become reality without the support of you, all. It is a proud moment for us all!”

The news is spread over the world. In the American Empire, people were waiting to see how their base gets first established. Televisions were transmitting news every hour. Suddenly, everyone sees this:

We interrupt this program to bring you important news. The New Soviets successfully deployed and assembled a space base on the Moon. The Supreme Soviet, Iosif Leonov, confirms this information. The base appears to be located on the far side of the Moon, in crater Tsiolkovskiy.

At 23.11, Aral time, scientists receive another set of images from the base. The two cosmonauts are inside the base, without their space costumes. They show the world, through a small window, the world outside. People can see the flat terrain surrounding the base and mountains at some distance. The New Soviet flag is visible too.

“We feel comfortable here”, says Vladimir. “We have fresh water and food. Solar panels are working just as expected, while batteries store power for the night. Temperature outside is +110 degrees Celsius, but inside, we have 18 degrees. The air is clean and ionized”.

“I just tested the shower”, says Tatiana. “It is working well, only that water droplets fall much slower then on Earth. Food, air and water recycling systems operate perfect. I wish you all a good day on Earth. Tomorrow, we will start exploring. Right now, we will take a nap. You can see our beds; they are just behind, here. Since the Moon has little gravity, I think it will be an interesting experience to sleep here”.

23.11 Aral time is 12.11 at New York. People find out that the New Soviets landed on the Moon at 11.19 AM. That is the moment when all televisions start transmitting this. The second post from Tsiolkovskiy base is transmitted at 12.28. The American ship lands on the Moon at 18.39. The news is heard on Aral Cosmodrome at 9.45, next day. By that time, the two cosmonauts are already awake and making the first drill near the base. This information is also shared on the news, as people in New York find out very soon.

Democracy IV lands 700 m away from the first Apollo landing site. Three astronauts form the crew. The landing vehicle is actually the base, built as a single piece. They prepare to walk out of their ship. All three are men. They just step on Moon soil and plant the flag of the American Empire. Then, they move close to remnants of the first Apollo landing stage.

“Greetings, Earth!” says one of the astronauts. “As our ancestors wanted, we returned. We made it! American nation is the first to establish a base on the Moon. We won the space race again, as we did over a century ago”.

Another astronaut makes fun, saying:

“Do you see any Soviet or Jew around? Do you see their flags here on the Moon soil? I don’t. We are the first to build a permanent base on the Moon”.

“It is an honor to see the remnants of our ancestors’ ship here, as we stand in front of it. We made America proud and great again, as it will be to the end of time”, says the third cosmonaut.

As they plan to say something else, they hear in their helmets someone speaking from mission control:

“Democracy IV, this is Robert Wong. I am sorry to interrupt your joy, but the Soviets just landed on the Moon prior to you”.

“What a fuck?” says one of the astronauts.

“When?” asks another one.

“They landed about eight hours before you did”.

The ‘what a fuck’ words go live on all televisions. Well, this doesn’t matter. All over the American Empire, people are upset that they lost by only so little. How was it possible? How could they build something like that in such a short time? Even the astronauts are upset. Everywhere, people watch shocked the news.

And then, the Jewish state television starts transmitting about a successful Moon landing. Only that, this time, no astronaut landed. The spaceship took to the Moon tanks, military vehicles, ballistic missiles and other weaponry. The chosen landing site is on the near side of the Moon, in South, an area where no ship ever landed. It looks like Samuel Rosenstein plans to conquer the Moon. He deployed there a fleet of 41 military vehicles, which started to move towards the equator.

On the first of March, an armistice is signed between the Americans and the Jews, dividing the Moon in two halves, at the equator. Still, nobody says a word about the far side of the Moon. It appears that the far side will be under Soviet control.

Ana is not impressed by this conflict. She just hopes that the two sides will be in conflict and she will be able to continue the mission. This is her plan. The Tsiolkovskiy base will receive further supplies. On March 9th, a new Lenin IV rocket is sent to the Moon, carrying science equipment, a new waste recycling system and another cosmonaut. Then, on April 2nd, another Lenin IV ship, unmanned, brings in a return vehicle. From now on, if anything bad happens, cosmonauts will be able to return home. Footage from Tsiolkovskiy is transmitted daily on the TV. Cosmonauts travel around using their rover, drill in nearby rocks to find water and other supplies and live their daily lives. Then, on April 30th, a Lenin IV rocket takes off, replacing the three cosmonauts with other three. This ship brings Earth seeds for the Moon and materials for building a greenhouse. Will it be possible to grow plants on the Moon? The greenhouse will be buried under Moon regolith. During day, light from the Sun will reach special panels and will be diverted to the greenhouse with the help of optic fibers. During night, the greenhouse will be artificially illuminated.

After this launch, Ana calls all scientists and discusses with them.

“Comrades, our Moon mission is a success, but we will not stop here. We are not over until we reach all other planets. The Moon was just an experiment. The ‘express’ missions were also just a step forward. They were launched to help us find out what we should encounter on other planets. Our ultimate goal is to send cosmonauts in manned missions towards all the other planets. If we don’t do it, the other empires will do it before us”.

“Comrade”, says Alan Green, “a manned mission to another planet will require costs beyond what we can handle”.

“If we cannot, the others will”, says Ana. “We reached the Moon just hours before the Americans. It is now just a question of time until they will walk on Mars”.

“With our current technology, we cannot go to Mars”, continues Alan Green. “First of all, we need much larger ships. The Lenin IV is simply not enough for such a mission. Also, we need to find a way to shield cosmonauts from cosmic rays during their flight. There are many parts of the problem which are not yet completely studied”.

“Well, this is the reason you are here”, says Ana. “You are here to study the problem and find solutions. As I understand, the first thing we need is to build a bigger rocket”.

LENIN V

The V-2, the first long-range rocket, developed by Wernher Von Braun, was a destructive weapon. However, it killed far more people at home then among the enemies. This weapon was built with Jewish slaves in Nazi Germany. It was one of the most bitter and horrible steps towards space exploration. Nazi experiments with V-2 rockets helped both the Soviets and the Americans develop their space missions. Every space rocket that we send today carries a bit of the blood wasted at that time. We shall always think about that and we shall never commit the same crimes against humanity. The reason for our space race is to distract our enemies from a nuclear war, by offering them a different challenge. That should be on everyone’s mind. Quotes from a speech held by Alan Green to the workers.

How big can a spaceship be? Is there any maximum limit? There are many limits that govern our world. One of them is size. In theory, you can build a 1 km long boat, but in practice, it will not work. The larger you build, the larger parts will need to be. At some point, parts will be so massive, that they will be unable to support their own weight. For example, you can build a 10 m long pillar from wood, being 10 cm wide. If you try to build it 100 m long, keeping the proportions, it will need to be 100 cm wide. In practice, that will not work. The pillar will crash on its own weight. This is why mice have very small bones, while elephants have huge bones. There is a maximum limit. A whale cannot sustain its weight on ground. The dinosaur is the largest possible organism living on ground. If you try to make it larger, it will simply not resist its own weight.

The same applies to massive buildings. The same principle limits the maximum size of a rocket. Fuel tanks cannot be built above a certain height. Beyond that, the mass needed to hold their weight is simply too much. Also, they hold pressurized fuel, even if it is cooled. Even if you hold just a liquid inside, pressure will be, at some point, too much. For example, if you hold water in a 100 m high tube, at the bottom, pressure will be huge. The tank needs to be reinforced in order to resist the huge pressure. We must also keep in mind that wider recipients need to be thicker. A lighter holds pressurized propane. Because a lighter is small, it can be made of plastic and will not explode. You cannot hold propane in a pressurized plastic recipient that is 50 cm wide. You will need steel for that. In case of a fuel tank, if it is wider then 20 m, you will need to make it very strong to resist.

Another major challenge comes when we talk about engines. Larger engines can be produced, but they lose efficiency. The Old Soviets preferred to build small, more efficient engines, for most of their ships. A less efficient engine automatically means that you will need more fuel to power it up.

In the old times, when fossil fuels were available anywhere, space rockets used them. But now, they need to be produced artificially. Synthetic fuels are available at high costs. The cheapest fuel is liquid hydrogen. In space, where you find no air, you have to bring oxygen too. So, a space rocket will have to carry both hydrogen and oxygen. Hydrogen is very light and requires huge storage tanks. Large fuel tanks require much steel, which requires a dramatic increase in weight. So, you come to a maximum limit.

Ana Leonova demanded that the Lenin V will be able to send 100 t of cargo into Sun escape trajectory. The rocket will perform just like the others. First stage, helped by a number of boosters, will leave Earth’s atmosphere. The first stage needs to have a thrust to weight ratio (TWR) between 1.3 and 1.5. With all the boosters, first stage needs to produce a delta-v of 5.5 km/s. To make things even more complicated, the first stage will fall back to Aral Seabed with all its boosters, to be recovered. Second stage will then produce a delta-v of 7.5 km/s, enough for a Moon flyby. The third stage, with its nitrogen ion engines, will add 15 km/s, enough to leave the Solar System.

How can someone build such a monster ship?

Scientists first designed the third stage. It will weight 364.4 tons, carrying 273.3 t of nitrogen. It will require nine NI-3 nitrogen ion engines.

Alan Green tells Ana that xenon is a better propellant then nitrogen, but she insists on continuing the work with nitrogen as before. Her argument is that nitrogen is found in large amounts, both on Earth and in space, while xenon is rare.

The second stage will weight 2883 tons. That is comparable with the mass of a Lenin I and a Lenin II put together or with the core first stage of a Lenin III. It will require nine RS-3 engines.

Well, everything up to here is possible to build without major problems. Now comes the hard part. The first stage needs to be huge, beyond anything ever seen. Scientists come to the conclusion that a fuel tank wider then 20 m will be just too heavy to be built. It will require too much steel and that will decrease its efficiency.

The first stage must be able to accelerate the upper stages to 5.5 km/s, at the same time fighting against Earth’s gravity.

After four days of calculations, Ana asks Alan Green about it. He says:

“Whatever I try, I just cannot find a way to produce 5.5 km/s for the first stage. I increase the size of the fuel tanks, but then they become too heavy. I manage to go to 4.7 km/s, but never higher. Whatever I try, it simply does not work”.

“There must be a way”, says Ana. “You have to find it. Add more engines”.

“But how many engines do you want? All models require at least 50. Comrade, this scares me. With so many engines firing at once, the ship is at great risk. You have 50 times more chances of an engine failure then if you have one”.

“Then, build more massive engines”.

“I calculated that, too. But, larger engines are not so efficient. They will simply not be as efficient. They will burn more fuel and produce less thrust, forcing me to increase the weight, which is already up to critical”.

“There must be a solution”, says Ana. “I asked everyone to come with a design. We will take a look at all of them and chose the best one”.

“I’ve seen some models, but they are aberrations. Honestly, comrade, they cannot fly at all. I’ve just seen a drawing, a monster ship 50 m wide and 500 m long, which could carry more then 100 tons. But, that ship could not even carry its own weight”.

After five more days, Ana collects all drawings and ship models. She takes them all to her office, then invites a five of the best rocket scientists to judge. Surprisingly, most of the schemes depict sci-fi spaceships.

“We cannot fly with something like that”, says Ana, laughing. “We need something realistic”.

Then, she forces the scientist to calculate fast if the remaining models are worth of a further analysis. Most designed rockets are too large, too high or have too many, crowded engines. Others are too strange. For example, someone proposes the use of 100 boosters.

“Holding all those boosters together will require too much tension”, says a scientist. “The rocket will disintegrate fast”.

Another model comes with 150 engines.

“We must consider that each engine resonates in its own way. We know what happened to the Lenin III the first time. It was that resonance that almost destroyed our launch platform. There are too many engines”.

At 5 AM, they finish analyzing all drawings. Still, they found nothing useful. It is a massive failure.

After other six days, Ana comes to the scientists and ask them if they found a solution.

“Still nothing?” she says.

“Everything we tried just fails to work”, they say.

“What is the biggest number of engines we can afford?” she asks.

“Everything over 50 is dangerous”.

“We can afford ten engines for a stage or booster”.

“Good”, concludes Ana. “What is the maximum width we can afford for the stage or the boosters?”

“Twenty meters”, says Alan Green. “Above that, the increase in width is hindered by the increase in mass”.

“Good, again. Now, what is the maximum height a booster or a first stage can have?”

“We should not go beyond 150 m”, says another scientist. “Anything above 150 m requires stronger structures to hold it in place”.

“Well, final question. How many boosters can we safely have?”

“The largest historical rockets had twelve boosters, but with so many engines and their combined vibrations, the highest number should be six”.

“I see”, concludes Ana. “Design a ship with ten engines for the core stage and each booster, with core stage and boosters being 150 m high and 20 m wide and with six boosters. If it doesn’t work, maybe add two more boosters. I wait two days for results. If not, you will all end-up in a gulag”.

“In a what?” says Alan Green, scared.

“Do you know what happened to the first spaceship developers during the Old Soviets?” asks Ana. “Because they failed to reach the Moon, the Supreme Soviet at that time transformed rocket parts into homes for pigs. Scientists then worked on growing pigs. The same will happen to you if you fail to design the Lenin V”.

Exactly two days later, Ana finds them working on a new design. The new ship is huge. The first stage is 20 m wide and 136 m high, equipped with nine RS-5 engines. It has eight identical boosters, all of them 20 m wide and 109 m high, equipped with nine RS-5 engines each. She looks at the model. The second stage will be 50 m high and 18 m wide, while the third, nitrogen stage, will be 18 m wide and 7 m high. Overall, the rocket will be 220 m high and will weight 83348 t. with all boosters combined, the first stage will have 81 engines, but only 69 will fire at the same time. 12 engines will be kept as a reserve in case one engine ceases to work properly.

“Now, that is acceptable”, she says. “Maybe, you will live another day”.

Well, how big is Lenin V? Here are some drawings. The first image shows a dwelling compared to the base of a Lenin V rocket:

The next image shows the upper part above the boosters. One can notice that the second stage starts where rocket’s body starts to ‘shrink’. The nitrogen stage is marked as a green line:

One can see that this rocket is really huge.

Now, other problems come in. How to build such a monster rocket? You need a huge hangar to build an assembly line for it. Well, there is no limit for Ana. At some point, the Supreme Soviet offered her some help. He banned prisons. All inmates, except those extremely violent, should instead work in working camps. That was Lenin’s idea, to make prisoners learn how to work, so that, when they are free, they can sustain themselves by working. Iosif Leonov offered her ten thousand inmates as labor force, but Ana didn’t accept at that time. Now, she calls her dad for help. He accepts to send him 5000 inmates as labor force.

The launch platform also needs to be huge, in order to support so much weight.

There are many costs for such a large rocket. First of all, its construction requires high amounts of steel and aluminum alloys. For each kg produced, you will need around 0.6 kWh. The most used propellant is liquid hydrogen, oxidized by liquid oxygen. To produce 1 t of this mixture, you need 5 kWh to produce 1 kg of fuel mixture. A Lenin V is made of 11580 t of metal and 71768 t of fuel mixture. This requires 6.945 MWh to melt the metal alloys and 358.840 MWh to produce the fuel. However, the building process also requires energy. A single Lenin V rocket requires nearly 1000 MWh of electric energy. And all this is possible using some of the most energy efficient tools. The whole process requires a power plant producing 1.5 MW continuously.

However, wind turbines don’t produce energy continuously. They generate power only when the wind blows. In many places, storage hydro power plants solve the problem. When you have excess power, you pump water to a higher reservoir. Then, when you need that extra power, you let water flow from the dam. This technology doesn’t work in a plain. The only solution is to store energy as hydrogen and burn it in a thermal plant during energy crisis.

There are also other problems. Hydrogen and oxygen can be stored in pressured tanks only in small quantities. If you want to store them in large amounts, you need to cool them. There already are massive underground storage tanks for these gasses, but now, they need to be extended. A better insulation is added to reduce the cooling costs. Energy is also used to cool the gasses and keep them cool.

In the Space Factory, rocket building process is not limited only to melting alloys and producing fuel. There are many activities involved in building a rocket. All engines need to be tested before assembling. Overall, the factories will require around 15 MW of power continuously. The Aral Cosmodrome requires some extra 3 MW. Transportation eats 2 MW. Space City has 4000 inhabitants, but with the prisoners, it might reach ten thousand. Usually, energy consumption is around 100 W in summer for a person, but in winter, it rises to 1500 W. That means we need 1 MW in summer and 15 MW in winter. Energy demands for heating in winter will be high, up to 10 MW in Space Factory and 2 MW in Aral Cosmodrome. So, the whole space complex will require 22 MW in summer and 50 MW in winter.

Ana needs to triple electricity production. She also needs to build or upgrade all facilities needed to build the Lenin V. The demand is to build a rocket every month, which is very hard.

She calculates this several times. It appears that, without help, she will never make it. She cannot upgrade the space complex to the needed size without a major help. So, she heads to Moscow, to meet with her father, the Supreme Soviet. The day is April 3rd.

When she arrives, she finds her dad surrounded by people and fixing many problems. In a world without fossil fuels, everything must be solved with a different approach. Transportation is vital for any economy and the New Soviets opted for the railway. Rail terminals will reach every village. People can drive their electric cars for limited distance, up to 100 km. Then, they have to recharge. Cars are loaded on trains for longer distances. However, with almost all road traffic transferred to railway, new rails are essential. All this process needs energy, electricity. Many new dams are under project or under construction on all rivers. Wind turbines are also planned all over Siberia. Nuclear power plants are another option, but world uranium 235 reserves are depleted. In order to produce nuclear energy, you have to transform uranium 238 into plutonium, which is costly. Thorium can be used, but it also requires to be transformed into an isotope of uranium first. Agriculture must produce all needed food. All tractors and agriculture machines need to wait hours to recharge. As an alternative, they can use hydrogen as a fuel, but hydrogen needs to be produced from water via electrolysis. Anywhere you look around, you see energy demand. Metal smelters require electricity too.

Ana thinks how was in the old times. Metallurgical centers used coal and coke. Cars used gasoline. Trains and boats used diesel fuel. Houses were heated with methane gas. Where is that time? It is long gone. Now, we have to produce all we need.

How are the other empires solving this problem? The American Empire decided to use algae to produce biological fuel. Large ocean surfaces are cultivated with algae. They didn’t abandon their road transportation, but adapted it. They opted for concrete roads, as asphalt was too expensive to produce. Their whole economy is dominated by algae fuel as the main source of energy. Well, they have large oceans. We only have the Arctic Ocean available, which is too cold for such options.

The Jews opted for solar power. They covered huge surfaces of Sahara with solar panels. Well, they have Sahara, with its endless sunny weather. We don’t have that. Talking about transportation, they opted for air and water transport for long distances and for road transport only for limited distances. Well, their empire is full of walls. Anywhere you go, you find walls, blocking your way. Nobody can pass without a special permit.

For two days, Ana simply cannot get to her dad. The Supreme Soviet is working very hard. But then, he calls her with an important message:

“My child, we have someone which wants to contact you and fast”.

“Yes, dad, I am already in Moscow. Where can we meet?”

“Come to my office at once!”

Ana comes without asking anyone. When she enters, her dad says:

“Everyone, out! My child, you stay here”.

Then, he calls someone, saying:

“Bring him in!”

Just after a few minutes, someone comes in. It is a man, about 45 years old, with curled hair, with a beard and a Jewish fez on his head.

“My child, he is Rabbi Alehin. He has no other name. He is a defector from the Jewish empire. He came here, requesting political asylum. The Jews offered us a ton of gold in exchange for him. He was third in command in their space program and deserted because he was sick to see how Rosenstein wastes resources in vain”.

“It’s an honor to have you on our side!” says Ana.

“The Old Soviets were very generous to Jews. Stalin even built a Jewish autonomous region where they can feel like at home. He wants to join our space program. As he told me, the Jews are already planning a manned mission to Mars. Use any means, I repeat, any means, to win the space race. I am giving you a free hand and all resources you need. Rabbi will give you detailed information about their technology”.

“Thank you, dad”, says Ana. “I came to you to ask for help, for more inmates for the construction of Lenin V”.

“You have as many workers as you want. Just contact anyone you want, everyone will help you. Now, I must return to work. A successful space program requires a powerful economy, which I am struggling to produce”.

Ana takes Rabbi to her room at the Kremlin. There, Rabbi starts speaking Jewish. An automated translator translates his words into Russian, so that Ana can understand.

“Rosenstein is insane! He is building fortresses and weapons, convinced that the other empires will attack him. Even more, he is exterminating the Muslims and the black people, considering them an inferior race. By doing this, he is weakening the empire. He is killing labor force. I could not stand to see all this. It is a shame that such a person exists among our people. He even killed many of ours, too! I had to run to save my life, as he accused me of rocket failures”.

“You are safe here”, says Ana. “Nobody will harm you here. In our empire, all Soviet citizens have rights. Also, don’t forget that our ancestors Lenin and Stalin were part Jews. Karl Marx, the founder of communism, was also a Jew. We respect you, but we don’t respect your leader”.

Rabbi waits for his electronic translator to translate in Hebrew all what Ana said, then continues:

“Rosenstein is obsessed of super-weapons and super-achievements. He plans to reach Mars with a manned mission. Unfortunately, spaceships cannot be done in the way he wants. So, he will launch many ships, hoping that at least one will get to Mars. Make sure you land on Mars before his slaves”.

“When will his ships be launched?” asks Ana.

“The first one will takeoff this month, in a few days”.

Ana looks scared. This month? Oh no! The Lenin V was not even built! The infrastructure is still in project. How bad!

“That is too soon”, says Ana. “I don’t think we can launch a rocket so fast”.

“Maybe we can catch them on the way”, answers Rabbi. “You have to use any possible means to catch them on the way. This will make Rosenstein angry and willing to stop. Each time someone defeats him, he stops”.

“Good to know”, answers Ana.

Then, Ana takes Rabbi to Aral. She shows him all the work that was done here and her plan to launch the Lenin V.

“It is amazing what you did with little resources”, says Rabbi. “We had by far more and achieved far less. It was Rosenstein’s stupidity which slowed down our progress”.

“Now, we have to build Lenin V” says Ana, sharp.

Rabi shows to all the scientists a memory card, which he carried secretly in his shoe. The memory card contains detailed information about Jewish rockets and projects. As the scientists upload and translate the files into Russian, Rabbi continues to say:

“Rosenstein is insane! He wanted to punish all nations in the world for what they’ve done to us. He heard that the Romanians killed up to 40% of their Jewish population during World War II, so he killed 40% of Romanians. Well, you later conquered the Balkans and prevented him from harming them any longer. When he arrived in Germany, he opened back the extermination camps, which were kept as museums. Then, he sent all German population inside and exterminated them. When he conquered Spain, he told us how Spanish inquisition forced all Jews to eat pork. Those refusing to eat pork were killed in public arenas. So, he forced all people of Spain to eat human excrements. Those refusing to do this, were killed without question. When he conquered Italy, he remembered how the Roman Catholic Church forced many Jews to apostate our religion and become Christians. He forced Italians to apostate Christianity and worship the devil. Then, he burned on the stick the Pope, all cardinals and all people he found in Vatican. When he conquered Arabia, he forced all Muslims to spit on the Holly Koran. Those who refused were killed. He burned Mecca and then detonated an atomic bomb there, so the city would never be rebuilt. He did this throughout all Muslim territories. This monster needs to be stopped! All his life, he said that Hitler is the devil. Rosenstein’s actions are no different then Hitler’s. All he does is killing and building mega-projects. Where will this go to?”

Rabi looks at the Space Factory. He looks at how people move around. Then, he says:

“Our space factory is a gulag. Every day, a thousand of living bodies get in and a thousand of dead bodies get out”.

“History will not forgive this”, says Ana, lighting a cigarette.

“It is the same as it was with Hitler”, says Alan Green. “Only that, Hitler had less power and for less time”.

“Future generations will accuse us for this genocide”, says Rabbi. “It is not fair. A whole people will be discriminated for their leader”.

“The Germans were also a civilized nation”, says Ana. “They gave to the world many scientists, mathematicians, poets and not only. Are the Germans, those who still are alive, guilty for Hitler’s actions? No. The Jews gave the world far more: scientists, writers, politicians, philosopher, even Jesus Christ was a Jew! I don’t think any nation in the world ever contributed to world’s culture and civilization more then you did. Are you guilty for what Rosenstein does? No! You are not guilty as a people for what your leader does”.

“I heard you are half German”, says Rabbi.

“Yes”, answers Ana, smiling. “This makes us two have something in common”.

The scientists look at Jewish rockets. Their technology is far inferior, but the resources involved are much above anything the Soviets could bring in. Rosenstein personally approved the project he wanted and ordered the construction of hundreds of small rockets, even if they are by far not the best option.

“If we had your resources”, says Ana, “we would had landed on Pluto right now”.

“We will never get to Pluto, with this monster”, says Rabbi. “By the time you will get to Pluto, we will have no labor force, as he will exterminate everyone”.

“We should send a rocket directly in his palace and kill him!” says a young scientist.

“No”, says Rabbi. “We should win the space race. Once you will win, he will stop building rockets. Show him that you are better and he will turn to something else. You see? He wanted the whole surface of the Moon. Now, after you landed, he resumed to the Southern part of the near face”.

Ana goes to her office. There, she has other things to do. She plans to extend the Space City and the Space Factory. The prison inmates are already there and they are working hard already… but progress is far beyond expectations.

Rabbi goes to Alan Green and talks with him. They talk about the Lenin V project. Then, they talk about the Jewish rockets.

“I am surprised how simple they are”, says Alan. “In fact, one of them landed on New Soviet territory. We analyzed it and found out it has a very simple design, but with high- quality materials”.

“Yes, we use the best alloys for rockets”, says Rabbi.

“I’ve seen it. Honestly, your technique, to launch over a hundred rockets in space and assemble them in orbit, is impressive”.

“This happens only because Rosenstein wants things to happen this way. Well, if you do the math, you see this is not feasible. It is a massive waste of money and resources. If we had Ana as a supervisor, we would had been on Pluto already”.

“She is an angel and a demon at the same time”, says Alan. “She is very ambitious, but also very cruel. For her, there is no other option then to win, no matter the costs. She brings prison inmates to extend the Space City, to build the assembly line for Lenin V”.

“She won’t make it”, says Rabbi.

“Why not?”

“We, Jews, are very good on finances and on resources, only that our leader is an idiot. You see, she wants to double the size of the city, to increase energy production by four times and to enlarge Space Factory by three times. How much people do you need to do all this? It is far beyond what the New Soviets can bring in”.

“So, do you think that we won’t go to Mars before the other empires?”

“Believe me, I would do anything I can to make sure she will get to Mars before the others. But, I see only one way and I don’t think she will accept it”.

“How?”

“To temporary transform Aral into a gulag”.

Alan Green looks shocked, then answers:

“I defected from America because I didn’t want to build ballistic missiles. I dedicated my life to space exploration. Do you know why we built this place? What do you think Ana wants? She wants to offer the world an alternative. In Ancient Greece, people ceased fighting in wars and decided to fight in sports. This is how olympic games started. Now, we want to distract the other empires from war towards a space race”.

“My friend”, says Rabbi, “I thought this is the reason. I also want no more wars. A new war, knowing how mentally ill is Rosenstein, will mean death to all of us. I defected here because I couldn’t take it any longer and to save my life. I couldn’t see how many people die in our space factory. But, believe me, this is the only way”.

“I wish you are wrong”.

“I will talk to Ana”, says Rabbi. “It hurts me to see another gulag, but believe me, it is the only way”.

Rabbi goes after Ana and finds her in her office. She watches on her computer how all the work goes on. When Rabbi enters, she just finishes a call to her dad.

“Welcome!” she says. “I called the Supreme Soviet. 45 trains loaded with cement and 22 trains with special steel are coming. I ordered 5300 tons of nickel from Norilsk. It should arrive in four days by train”.

“Comrade, I don’t think that is enough”.

“I think we started pretty well”, says Ana, lighting a cigarette. “Work starts on the new wind turbines. Electric wires will come next week. We started building the next hydrogen storage tank. Another oxygen tank is on schedule too. Work on the Lenin V will start in two weeks”.

“We don’t have that time left!” says Rabbi.

“How can you build it if you don’t have the infrastructure?”

“You need to build faster”.

“For this, you need more people. To bring in more people, you need more homes. All things are related one to another. I increase the town with the maximum speed”.

“Still, it is not enough”.

Ana looks at him, not understanding. She blows a cloud of smoke in the air.

“It hurts me to say it, but the only way is to force people work better”.

“How to do that?”

“The only way is to build a gulag”.

Ana looks down, thinking. Then, she answers, almost shouting:

“We had that in our history, but it was just a monumental failure. Do you think it is worth? Stalin tried this. Slaves don’t produce as much as paid workers. What is the result of using slaves? You waste a lot of humans, a lot of resources, to win nothing. If you already have ten thousand men as labor force, you better use them wisely! Tortured people will not work properly. If you don’t feed them, they will not have the power to work. I can show you many examples. Stalin tried to build a railway in Northern Siberia with gulag inmates. The railway was not finished, despite the huge human sacrifices. In the end, we rebuilt it with far smaller costs. The solution is not slavery. A slave works at half the capacity of a paid worker. If you want something better then slaves, use machinery”.

“Comrade, I know it hurts…”

“Silence!” shouts Ana. “If I hear you talking about labor camps again, I will personally build one with only one inmate: you”.

Ana pushes Rabbi out of her office and shuts the door with much noise. Hearing this, some people come to see what is going on. Ana hears them and comes out, on the corridor, saying:

“Back to work, anyone! If Lenin V is not ready according to schedule, I will build a gulag here for you all!”

Ana’s deadline is August 1st. Until then, a Lenin IV goes to the Moon every week, to enlarge the Moon base. Moon launches are scheduled on May 24th, June 19th and July 13th. But, on the first of June, it still appears that the Lenin V construction site will not be ready in time.

Then, on June 4th, the Jews launch 158 rockets to their space station. They build a massive rocket in orbit and head to Mars. This makes Ana very angry. How could they do this that fast? Desperate, she calls help from her dad, to build all facilities faster. 25000 workers are resettled to Aral to help the project remain in schedule. Ana talks with him about the possibility of using slaves. The Supreme Soviet answers short:

“No! If you do this, history will not forgive us. We shall not repeat the mistakes of our past, no matter the costs. You got all the support from me”.

Well, the Jewish spaceship is waiting in orbit. Other 162 rockets are launched on June 15th, building another part of the giant ship, made to reach Mars. The giant ship starts firing its engines a few days later, heading for Mars.

Even if the infrastructure is not ready, Ana orders the first Lenin V to be built. Work will go together with the assembly line construction. Most of the workers will be diverted to the assembly line and adjacent facilities. Everything else will be left behind. Workers might sit in temporary barracks until the rocket is ready. Even in the Space City, power shortages start to appear, as most of electric power is diverted to building the Lenin V. The first to be finished are the engines. Then, come the second stage and the fairings. The core first stage is the last one, as boosters are finished before. Workers build the rocket under open sky, since the roof is not finished. Still, most of the energy needed is for fuel. Hydrolysis of 1 kg of water requires double the energy needed to melt 1 kg of iron.

Ana plans to build more then one Lenin V rockets. She is sure that at least one of them will fail on launch.

The first rocket is ready on July 4th. Ana plans to send with this rocket some materials for a future Mars base. Compared to any rocket built before, it is a monster. With all its eight huge boosters, its base is as massive as a block of apartments, but far higher. It is over 200 m high, a colossal rocket. The launch platform was built at 1 km from the watch tower. Even so, it still appears huge. Launch is expected to occur at 7.32.

Even if this is only a test, everyone is feeling the huge tension. Scientists had no time to successfully test all systems. It is a huge gamble. Will it work?

At twenty seconds before launch, Ana pushes the button, approving the mission. Engines are turned on. A huge noise can be heard. Fire and smoke can be seen surrounding the rocket. Then, just when expected, the rocket starts rising in the sky. The earth trembles, just like at an earthquake. Vibrations are so strong, that objects start moving.

“It’s going up!” says Ana.

An alarm is triggered immediately.

“Engine 21 failure!” says a scientist. “We also have engine 14 failure. The system is turning on inactive engines”.

“Failure, inactive engines don’t respond!” says another one.

“They should be turned on at 1% capacity before launch”, mumbles Ana, with anger in her voice.

“We didn’t have time to set that command on”, says Alan Green. “Flying program is unfinished”.

“Engine 18 failure!” says the scientist.

“Ship is turning away from trajectory”, says someone else.

“Flying computer error”, says Alan Green. “The system cannot control so many problems and is overloaded”.

The onboard computer is unable to control all the fluctuations of all engines. It is too small for the task. It tries to counterbalance the ship, but all is in vain. The rocket rises to 5 km high, then it starts to spin chaotically.

“Contact lost”, says a scientist. “Onboard computer is unable to control the situation”.

Now, the ship spirals down through the atmosphere. It is only a matter of time until it will crash. Engines are still firing chaotically, spinning the ship in all directions. Everyone can see the ship going down… and then they see a massive fireball on the desert. The explosion is huge, like an atomic bomb. It is followed by a shock wave. The control tower is not far. Everyone takes cover. Glasses break and the shock wave destroys many of the equipment inside.

The explosion is so powerful, that people in the Space City could see it and hear it as an earthquake. They even felt the launch as the Earth trembled.

Without hesitating, Ana orders the construction of a new rocket as fast as possible. She wants it to be finished soon. She expects another failure. It is ready on July 14th. This time, before launch, Rabbi wants to go close to it and take a few pictures.

Unexpected, the rocket explodes, killing Rabbi. The blast is so powerful, that Aral Cosmodrome is almost destroyed. From all 124 people that were there during the explosion, only 14 survive. Ana is lucky just because she was in train, heading for the cosmodrome. Still, she could see the massive explosion. Just one minute after this, her dad calls:

“My child, are you alive?”

“Yes, dad. You won’t believe what…”

“I know. Where are you?”

“I am in train, approaching the cosmodrome”.

“Stop the train immediately and go to your apartment. I am sending a military unit”.

“What?” says Ana. “Those are my people there”.

“Child, it is a suicide attack. Stop the train immediately and return. That’s an order. Now, call me once you set the train on reverse”.

Ana pulls the alarm in her wagon, making the train stop in the middle of the desert. She steps out and hurries to the engine. When she gets there, she orders the engine to turn in reverse. The train heads back to Space City. She climbs in the engine and calls her dad.

“What is going on?” she says.

“The KGB contacted me that they received a phone call to the Jewish Empire. We have a saboteur among us, which planted a bomb inside the rocket. The main target was you. This is why I order you to return to your apartment safely”.

Ana returns to her apartment in Space City. The news spread the world. How could this be possible? She thinks that Rabbi might be the terrorist. Well, he didn’t look like a bad guy. He showed the New Soviets detailed plans about the Jewish rockets and their capabilities. Could he be the attacker?

How could someone blow a Lenin V rocket? Yes, the rocket has enough fuel to explode, but for that, you need a powerful enough explosive, to pierce the fuselage. She thinks about a million possibilities.

AT her apartment, she invites Alex Green and his father, Alan Green, for discussions. She also calls three other devoted scientists and talk with them. Well, just in a few minutes, her dad calls again:

“My child, are you in your apartment?”

“Yes, dad. I also called our expert scientists. They are here with me”.

“Turn on your laptop, so we can have a video conference”, he says, closing the telephone.

Ana turns on her laptop. It is a secured connection, allowed only by the Supreme Soviet. He appears in his uniform, together with a few of his most trusted generals.

“Comrades!” he says. “I know what happened. I’ve seen it coming, but I thought my special forces can stop it. Just over the border, in Iran, a group of extremists fired guided missiles towards the cosmodrome. We targeted the missiles successfully. At the same time, about 500 terrorists crossed the border. Again, we managed to stop most of them. They were equipped with anti-aircraft guns. However, some of them managed to infiltrate closer to the North. The rocket was destroyed by one guy, which stood at 12 km from the launching site. All he needed was a clear shot”.

“So, Rabbi was not the attacker”, says Ana.

“I don’t know. He just sent some pictures with his phone. More exactly, he took a selfie with the rocket. The KGB found that he was sending this image to his family. I was about to interrogate him, but he died in the explosion. If he knew about the attack, then he wanted to die and let no evidence behind”.

“What should we do now?” asks Alan Green.

“The Americans will take advantage of this and launch their rocket to Mars”, says Iosif Leonov. “Your task is now clear. You won’t be able to launch a ship before the Americans. However, you have to do it. Build three Lenin V rockets as soon as possible and send a cosmonaut to Mars on a no-return mission. We have to be the first to land there. Use any means needed. If the only way is to, transform Aral into a gulag”.

“Can this be avoided?” says Alan Green. “I don’t want to see people die around me”.

“Comrades, if you successfully reach Mars before the Americans, I will give you anything you wanted. We must do it! Alan Green, if we made a manned mission to Mars, I will not stress you any longer. Further missions will be more relaxed and in the benefit of science. If you fail, you will be sent back to America. Alex Green, if we reach Mars, you will have your life dream and you will be transformed into a woman. If not, you will be sent to forced labor. My child, I hope you don’t fail me. If you fail, I will marry you with Samuel Rosenstein. All scientists and all personnel of Aral Space Complex, if you succeed and send a man to Mars before the others, I will double your salaries. If you fail, you will all die in a gulag, specially made for you. You know about the Kolyma Gulag? This is where I send criminals unable to recover, to die in the bitter winter cold, at –55 C. I hope you don’t want that to happen to you”.

The next day, everyone gets back to work. A new flying computer is built for the Lenin V. The rocket is built as fast as possible. This time, Ana really doesn’t care. She wants the cosmodrome to be rebuilt. It will have two launch platforms for each type of Lenin ship. Platforms will be at a higher distance from the launch tower.

Ana realizes that there is no way to build everything in time, so she accepts what Rabbi said. She calls the KGB and asks for help. 500 armed men come to Aral. They will force all prison inmates to work to extermination. That is the only way to finish work faster.

On July 30th and August 2nd, the American Empire sends two Democracy rockets. They are just as large as the previous ones. The upper stages merge in Earth orbit, then start flying together to Mars.

With all the pressure on, the Lenin V assembly line is ready on August 20th, the cosmodrome is finished on August 17th, the wind turbines are finished on August 24th and the Space City is finished on August 27th. All work is finished until the beginning of September. Now, Lenin V rockets can be built on an assembly line, up to one rocket every ten days.

To make things worse, the Jews launch another set of 175 rockets and assemble a new Mars ship on August 18th. This ship goes to Mars too, but its engines are faster. It should arrive at the red planet together with the other ship.

The Lenin V is redesigned. Scientists find a way to make it lighter and more efficient. It will have 12 boosters, 6 bigger and 6 smaller.

By the end of September, three Lenin V rockets are ready to launch. Scientists request a few more time for testing all the devices. They find some problems and fix them. Launches will occur on September 5th. All three rockets will be launched in the same day and will assemble a giant ship in orbit. To make sure no other terrorist appears, military forces surround the Aral desert.

With all the work done, it is time to send people home. All workers detached to the Aral will return to their homes. About 35000 people go back home, 8700 remain in the Space City. From 7000 prison inmates, only 3000 made it. 4000 died in a very short period of time. They finished work as fast as was humanly possible… but their deaths could be avoided. Forced labor is not an option.

How could a Lenin V be destroyed? How could a terrorist get that far? KGB found out everything. It appears that a psychological weapon was used instead. All captured terrorists said nothing, no matter how hard they were tortured. It appears that they really know nothing. However, during hypnosis, they revealed a lot of things. It looks like the Jewish Empire has the power to insert and remove data from the human brain. They all have data inserted in a sub-consciousness state. They all acted according to their mission plan. Even Rabbi was one of them. He did just what he was asked to do.

Cell phones and cameras are forbidden outside Space City. But still, Ana allowed him to carry a cell phone. Top scientists are allowed to do this. Without knowing, at just the given moment, Rabbi called one of the terrorists, using a phone number that was stored in his brain. He gave detailed information about New Soviet space program. Even more, he gave coordinates of the rocket and details of its structure. An anti-aircraft gun could not pierce the thick fuselage, except for a few critical points, around the engines.

The Supreme Soviet is informed about what happened and he orders that silence will be held. He doesn’t want to increase tensions until a cosmonaut walks on Mars.

THE DAY TH EARTH TREMBLED

This thing, as big as a mountain, rose from the face of Earth. The ground trembled. Everything and everyone held its breath, as the havens watched it coming, unable to do anything to stop it. The largest rocket ever built by any human rose from ground. It was like if a demon came from Hell, piercing its way through Earth’s crust. Behold, world! Its trail of fire and smoke rise through the sky like the blade of a giant sword. Quote from a poetry work.

On September 5th, three massive Lenin V rockets are scheduled to launch. If all goes according to plan, they will join in Earth orbit and create the first Soviet manned ship to Mars. Each rocket will carry one cosmonaut, a waste recycling system, a habitat module and all the goods needed to reach and live on Mars. The rockets also carry plant seeds and a rover. If one fails, the others will go on.

This is how a Lenin V looks like now:

In order to reach Mars as fast as possible, all three rockets are equipped with large solar panels and many nitrogen ion engines. Also, the ships will slow down using the Martian atmosphere. An atmospheric shield was built for this purpose. The third stage has less fuel, but still, it is far then enough for the mission.

First two launches will occur at the same moment. It is a premiere, two space rockets launched at the same time. The third one will be launched as soon as possible, in a bit over an hour.

The launch sequence is started. As required, Ana presses the launch button for both ships at 25 seconds before liftoff. The engines are turned on. Reserve engines are made to work at 1% capacity, so that they will be ready if needed. Both rockets start rising through space. They are big, fast and nervous. The ground trembles. The powerful noise forces scientists to shout one to another.

Just when expected, the two rockets start climbing to the space. In order to save fuel, the Lenin V was designed to a high TWR (thrust to weight ratio) of 1.36. Previous model had a higher TWR, flying faster through the atmosphere, but losing more energy through air friction. It takes only 12 seconds for the ship to be higher then their own height. Even if they are above ground, the trembling can still be sensed. The whole cosmodrome is engulfed in smoke.

Twenty seconds from launch, the rockets are far higher in the atmosphere. Fourty seconds later, they are at the same height as the lowest clouds. Both rockets climb with similar speed.

The system operated just as expected. The first rocket had four engine failures, but auxiliary engines were turned on to compensate. The second one had three engine failures, one of them completely exploded.

After a minute, both rockets are 5400 km high.

“Come on!” screams Ana. “Put the other Lenin V on the launch platform! What are you looking at, people?”

They move the other Lenin V as fast as possible. A huge, special carrier is used to move these rockets. The rocket is put in place. Because of the limited available time, the cosmonaut was already inside when the rocket was brought here. Scientists check all systems.

“Faster!” screams Ana to all of them. “Faster, we don’t have time for a thousand checkouts!”

“Initiate launching sequence?” asks someone.

“Yes!” screams Ana, almost insane.

The launch sequence is put to only two minutes ahead. All scientists check all possible problems fast, while Ana waits, almost shaking, desperate to see this done. She pushes the launch button at 30 seconds before. The rocket carrier only managed to move at a safe distance. The rocket starts firing.

“Liftoff!” screams a scientist, in all the noise.

All looks good. Again, there is an engine failure, with a small fuel leak. But, the onboard computer adapts engine thrust and controls the situation. Scientists watch for a minute this rocket climbing into space, until the noise drops down.

“Second rocket!” screams a scientist, showing some data.

At 193 seconds after launch, the small six boosters are detached. After other 133 seconds, the other six boosters detach. The core first stage operates for an additional 81 seconds. What nobody expected is that, when you so many boosters at the same time, they will move chaotically. For the first rocket, three small boosters impacted one with another. One of them even broke apart. Well, for the second rocket, a small booster impacted the large ones, destroying two engines and making a fissure in the fuselage. The first core stage is damaged too and leaks fuel. The rocket is off-course. Even worse, the cosmonaut is not responding.

“That rocket will never make it to Mars!” says a scientist.

“We better do something, or it will explode”, says another one. “Activate emergency return procedure. Comrade, should we?”

Ana was thinking about the third rocket, which is still firing its boosters.

“Yes!” says Ana. “Save that cosmonaut if possible!”

The ground team sends a command. The engines are turned off and remaining part of the first stage is detached. Second stage is turned on to fire forward, slowing down the rocket. Onboard computer calculates the landing area. The best landing site is Baikal Lake, in Southern Siberia. That sounds good. The onboard computer is doing all the job. Second stage is fired completely and third stage is detached. Auxiliary systems are also detached. The atmospheric shield has to do all the work, to slow down the ship and allow it to land. The parachute made for Mars should be useful also for Earth.

While this happens, the other two rockets finish burning their second stage, increasing speed to a Moon flyby. The third stage, using nitrogen ion engines, is turned on before the Moon flyby, to use a maximum Moon Oberth effect. The third stages have huge solar panels, reaching from one end to the other, 1 km. Instead of 9 NI-2 engines, these ships use 27 NI-3 nitrogen ion engines. The power is 9 times greater. Only this way the two rockets can arrive to the Moon before the Americans. The Jews are much further and nobody can catch them. Well, there are two Jewish rockets on the way, one launched longer time ago and one launched not much time ago.

Six ships are heading to Mars: two American Democracy (V and VI), two Jewish (Samson I and II) and two Soviet (both named Lenin V). Which one will arrive first? The Soviets decide to keep it all in secrecy. They don’t even say a word about the successful launches.

Well, a Lenin V is too large to remain unnoticed. The ship was seen from Space City. The noise was heard from all villages surrounding the Aral. There is no doubt that spy satellites from the other empires also seen the launches and the huge rocket sitting on the launch platform. Since the Jews destroyed one Lenin V, it is clear that they had accurate information about the purpose. This can only mean that the New Soviet space program is known. The other empires have spies within the system or they have other ways to find out what is going on.

Ana Leonova, thinking about this, calls an important KGB agent to her apartment. She wants to know more. She finds out that today it is very hard to control all mass-media. Information leaks are very easy.

She finds interesting information about the Old Soviets and how their Moon rocket, N1, was spied. The Americans did not know clearly what is going on. They thought the Soviets were already building and testing a Moon rocket. At that time, the Americans used seismic measurements and listened to ultrasounds propagated in Earth’s atmosphere to find out if anything was launched. Satellite images were also used.

She also finds out that the N1 failed because funds lacked. The project started too late. If Soviet scientists had enough time and enough resources, they could beat the Americans at that time. Well, the Politburo did not start the project in time and did not give the needed funds.

Today, the Supreme Soviet ordered any available resource to be used for space exploration, for the building of Lenin V.

After talking with the leading KGB agent, Ana is puzzled what to do. Like always, people will know nothing about the Lenin V rockets that were launched. She wants nobody to know anything until they land on Mars. Not knowing what to do, she decides to take a free day. She invites Alex Green to come with her. Instead of the Space City, Space Factory or Aral Cosmodrome, she decides to take him to a secluded place. They decide to go to the desert, to a place where nobody goes.

There are many small lakes surrounding the former Aral Sea. Most of these lakes are artificial. Each one has more or less saline water. Each one is inhabited by various species of fish. There is, however, a very salt lake, situated at the end of the line. It receives water flowing from all the other lakes. Over time, it accumulates more and more salt and toxins. This lake is situated at only 25 km W from Space City and 35 km N from Space Factory. There are no concrete roads reaching it from the desert. Ana decides to take an SUV and travel to the lake. She travels with Alex Green and her bodyguards. She drives the SUV personally over the salt crust.

This lake is around 20 km wide. To get to its shore, you have to travel over large deposits of salt. Everything around is white. Then, the lake becomes visible at the horizon. Hardly, the SUV manages to reach the shore and stops there.

Ana stops the car and jumps out. Alex follows her. They both walk on the salt, until they reach the water. There, the salt forms interesting structures. It accumulates in large white boulders. Not far, at roughly 1 km from here, wastewater flows into the lake. It is already too salty for most living organisms to survive.

They stop near the shore. They both know that this lake contains deadly amounts of pesticides. Close to the shore, water is not deep. Even far to its center, the lake is not deep at all. The wind blows and forms small waves on the lake.

“I was always amazed by the fate of the Aral”, says Alex. Once world’s fourth lake by size, now it is only a salt desert”.

“We shall never make the same mistakes our ancestors did”, repeats Ana the words of her father.

“We built smaller lakes with what water was available”, says Alex. “To decrease salinity, all lakes had to lose some of their water into this one”.

“This lake was sacrificed, so that the others could live. But, the reality is different. This lake was doomed before. It was too salt already. Well, there is no way the Aral could be filled back. So, we did what was possible, to save what little could be saved”.

“Sometimes, I wish the old Aral could still exist. I mean, the cosmodrome, the city and all factories are located on former islands. If one day the sea will be filled again, nothing will happen to us, except for the railway, which will be submerged”.

“The rivers that once fed the sea now are diverted for irrigation. Even so, there is not enough water for irrigated all the land. Well, water was diverted over a hundred years ago. If it were up to me, I would have developed the project in a different way. Now, we only saved what could be saved”.

“I know”, says Alex, playing with salt.

“I brought you here for another reason”, says Ana. “I talked with a KGB agent. The other empires know about Lenin V rockets and about our missions to Mars. I am afraid that they have something we don’t know. They might reach Mars before us”.

“And what could that be?”

“Well, a small rocket will not be something they will look at, but the Lenin V certainly is. This rocket is so big, that at launch it produces seismic waves, which can be detected from far away”.

“The Jews attacked us because they knew about Lenin V”.

“True. I think they both knew about Lenin V when the first rocket exploded”.

“I think there are spies among us”.

“That could be true”, says Ana, “but it is hard to find them. A satellite surveying the cosmodrome is enough to find out what we are doing”. They can also intercept our space communications. They are not encrypted. So, if they know where we are going, they can build something in advance. Think about this. Both empires launched their rockets to Mars following specific flight windows. What if they plan to increase the speed of their ships, knowing that we will arrive before them?”

“That is a possibility”, says Alex. “They also can listen to our ships, as they give a status report at every four hours”.

“So, they know exactly where we are”.

“There is something else that might be a major problem. The Jews are able to attack us in space. They can detonate an atomic bomb near a ship. Nobody knows what they are transporting on their rockets. Our cosmonauts will not stand a chance”.

Ana looks down, playing with her heels in the salt, just near the shore.

“We really don’t know”, says Ana. “We need to protect our cosmonauts on their way to Mars”.

“I have an idea”, says Alex. “What if we pretend that our cosmonauts died on the way? What if we program the ships to send no daily reports?”

“In that case, we will not know if they have a problem”, says Ana.

“I have an idea. We send another probe, only for communications. It will be launched by a Lenin I. The probe will fly faster, to reach them. It will only carry a communication relay. This probe will be used as a communication relay between Earth and the two spaceships. When the probe will reach the two ships, it will tell them not to communicate with Earth any longer. Only a few reports will be sent to Earth, using a special encrypting system. I am sure the KGB knows well how to encrypt messages”.

“Then we go silent, pretending that we lost contact with the two ships. That is a very good idea. Not even our scientists will know what is happening”.

Ana lights a cigarette. She looks how the wind blows her smoke fast.

“We must be careful how we build the relay probe. It is very important that nobody will know its purpose”.

“Could the KGB do that?” asks Alex.

“You mean, we should ask them to build the probe?”

“We can build here most of the hardware and the launch rocket, but the encrypting codes should be done by them. And we have a very good argument, saying that the KGB wants to spy other empires’ rockets”.

Ana takes another deep drag from her cigarette, thinking. For almost a minute, she says nothing. Then, she continues:

“I don’t think we can hide our rockets by now. Their nitrogen ion engines produce a unique UV signature. There are too many engines firing. We have to wait for the ships to go further away”.

“Well, the relay probe will not be ready soon”, says Alex. “We need at least ten days to build it”.

“You are right”, says Ana. “Pretending that our cosmonauts died, we can go on and build another ship, to land on another planet. Why not? Well, I have to announce my dad. I am ordering you to keep silence. Nobody must know about our plan”.

“Not even my dad will find out. Quite nobody!”

“Well, if you don’t keep quiet, you know what will happen to you”.

Alex knows well how things are in this place. He knows what happens to spies and terrorists. And he knows what Ana can do to achieve her goals. She did anything to force people work faster and build the Lenin V. The worse was for prison inmates. She really had no mercy. She took a pistol and pushed it into people’s mouths, shouting at them. She will do anything to win the space race, quite anything, no matter the costs.

Also, Alex knows very well how big is the stake. The other empires consider the New Soviets as an inferior force. They don’t attack us because they fear our ballistic missiles, but they dare to interfere. The Jews launched a terrorist attack, destroying a Lenin V. They would never dare to do such a thing against the Americans. The two empires divided the Moon. The Americans said about ‘possible Soviet claims on the Moon’ only to take advantage in front of the Jews. Leonard Bohr always used dirty words when speaking about the New Soviets.

It is the space program that stopped them from ripping apart our empire. Their plan was to slowly annex border provinces, one after another. We offered them a new challenge and we fought hard to be in the lead. Alex knows this very well. Only Ana’s ambition kept the space program running. As long as we keep winning in space exploration, they will not attack us, because we discredited them with our space achievements.

No television said a thing about the Lenin V in any of the empires.

Unnoticed to anyone, the relay probe is built and launched on September 20th. The KGB did an awesome job. The relay will transmit encrypted data in a way that nobody can read it, except those holding the key.

A journey to Mars takes roughly 200 Earth days. The two American ships are scheduled to reach Mars around March 15th, while the New Soviet ships should arrive around the end of February. They are strongly firing their nitrogen ion engines to arrive faster. However, their massive increase in speed means that they will have to use the engines again, to slow down, once they are close to Mars. The relay probe will catch them around December, halfway to Mars.

Now, Ana plans a new manned space mission, towards another planet. She finds as a good candidate the dwarf planet Ceres. With its small gravity, Ceres is the second most easy destination after Mars.

But before that, a new supply ship needs to be sent to the Moon base. The Lenin V needs more tests before it can be largely used for manned missions. So, Ana orders two launches. They both take place on December 10th. A Lenin IV will take a crew of four cosmonauts to the Moon and will bring back to Earth the four already stationed there. A Lenin V will take to the Moon new supplies, new habitat modules and many other things needed for the base.

Both launches are a success. There are a few small problems, like one or two engine failures, but everything is getting better. The New Soviets become experts in this. A new launch is scheduled for January 17th. This time, a Lenin V will bring to the Moon something new: a mobile station with two rovers and two cosmonauts. The goal of this mission is to explore places further away from the base. As the mobile base will travel, it will also build a road along its route. This will be the first road built on the Moon and will stretch from the base to the center of the far side. There, a statue of Lenin is to be laid. The statue should be placed just before the arrival of the first cosmonauts to Mars.

Even if the press keeps complete silence about Lenin V, there are many voices in social media claiming the existence of a larger and more powerful rocket then anything tested before.

SHIPS VANISHING

If you want to be the first, never tell the others what you are doing. Ancient saying.

Then, the state television of the American Empire shows a documentary named Soviet Secret Rocket, showing satellite images of the Lenin V on the launch platform and while flying. They also show the explosion of this giant ship.

The documentary becomes one of the most seen TV show and it is shoed many timed. It leads to many talk shows. Another documentary, Red Space Terror, follows. It shows that Soviets tried to achieve their goals with huge costs. This documentary shows that the New Soviet Empire almost devastated its economy to build the space program. This shows the world that the empire is weak and ready to collapse. The major problem is that, thanks to social media, the news also spread here. People feel frustrated and their moral is going down.

Ana can see this in Space City. People seem frustrated, mostly when they hear that the rockets exploded.

She knows that the situation is different. The New Soviets can be proud of a GDP increase of roughly 20% each year, but this comes with a problem. The Americans have a GDP increase around 5%, while the Jews seem to start falling, with a GDP grow of –3%. The problem is that the New Soviets started with almost nothing. So, a 20% increase of almost nothing, still remains little. The economy is growing fast, but it needs many years to catch-up with the others.

The space program consumes 5% of state budget or 0.7 to 1.2% of GDP. This is a far greater share then in the other empires, where space programs account for only 0.2% of GDP. In the beginning, less then 20% of that money was used. The development of Lenin V rocket actually consumed all that was accumulated up to that 5% share. Did it press too hard on the economy? The answer is no. Other mega-projects, like the construction of massive power plants in Siberia or the Balkan-to-Alaska corridor consumed far more. These massive investments now are paying off, helping the economy to develop faster.

With money used for the space race, many things could be done. Well, Ana knows very well the truth. The other empires will not hesitate to attack. Since they failed to conquer us, they will use propaganda.

Then, as December comes, Ana plays her game. The relay probe catches the two spaceships heading to Mars and transmits to them new instructions. Both ships are now connected and fly together. They are both healthy and operating normal. The two cosmonauts are also healthy and waiting to land on Mars. As they see the instructions, they are both puzzled, but do what they are told to.

The cosmonauts pretend that some micrometeorites hit their ships and destroyed vital systems. The ships are both losing air and the two cosmonauts will die within a few hours. No further message was sent to Earth after this.

From this point on, both ships send a report once at every four days to the relay probe, which encodes the message and sends it to Earth. The message is transmitted to the KGB, which decodes it and sends it only to Ana and the Supreme Soviet.

Soon, the news spread in social media. No official answer is given, but all scientists on Aral think the cosmonauts died on the way. Both ships will fly on their own. The other empires show the news on their state televisions.

Well, Ana doesn’t seem impressed. She decides to continue space exploration. The ‘express’ ships are starting to reach their targets. Both Mars Express and Mercury Express land their horses.

She plans the new manned missions, but launches none of them. A Lenin V will be produced at every month, according to schedule. The needed fuel will be stored. By the time the two ships arrive to Mars, four Lenin V rockets are ready.

Just a month before Mars landing, the first Jewish rocket lands on the red planet. Well, its crew is dead. The rocket actually impacts Mars and is destroyed, unable to land. The Mars orbiter catches the images, but the New Soviets don’t say a word about it. Nobody says a word about this in any of the empires.

Then comes the big day.

Just two days before, the Moon mobile base reaches center of the far side of the Moon, putting a statue of Lenin there. The event is transmitted on Soviet state television live. All the world can see it happening.

The two ships arrive close to Mars and proceed according to plan. They turn on their nitrogen ion engines to slow down as much as possible, then go directly through the atmosphere of Mars, at higher altitude. The plan is to use the atmosphere to slow down. They perform an orbit around the red planet, then enter the atmosphere again, to land. Friction slows down both ships. They open their massive parachutes to further slow down, then, just a minute before touchdown, they use their engines. Both ships land close one to the other, at 100 m distance, in a former Martian river.

Both ships are equipped with wheels and can slowly move. They are positioned closer and then they merge. Both cosmonauts walk out and assemble the habitat. Martian soil is pulverized over the habitat, to protect it from cold weather and from radiations. Once the base is assembled, they put the New Soviet flag in front of it and send a report back home.

As scientists get the data, they are puzzled. Then, Ana comes in front of them all and says:

“There are spies among us. I contacted the KGB and asked them for help. You did not know what is happening because I wanted to catch the spies. Now, you should all know that our cosmonauts are on Mars and the first human base on the red planet is functional. All what you see is true”.

Again, the news go live on state television. The day is March 3rd.

Well, the other empires don’t see it that way. They say that the Soviets lie and all the broadcasting is fake.

On March 11th, the second Jewish rocket reaches Mars and lands. Only one astronaut survived the long route. The event is transmitted live on their state television. It is a moment of celebration, with massive military parades. The Jews consider that they are the first people ever to land on Mars.

On March 15th, the two American ships also reach Mars. Both ships land in the same spot and establish a base there. They also deploy a satellite from orbit. It is a moment to celebrate, as they soon find out that the Jewish base is abandoned. No astronaut is found alive. They transmit the data. And then, three days later, they discover the New Soviet base. It is a major shock wave. How could that be true? How could they land on Mars if the ships reported a massive failure? It makes no sense. And still, it is true!

Understanding what is happening, Iosif Leonov decides to make a huge parade on the streets of Moscow. Even more, he orders that replicas of all the five Lenin ships should be exposed in the Red Square during the parade. They are downscaled 1/10, but even so, they are huge. State television shows images from the impact site of the first Jewish rocket, the landing of their second rocket and the landing of the American ships. Even more, it shows how the Mars base was assembled.

The Supreme Soviet has a speech in front of the parade, congratulating the whole state for their efforts to win the space race. And then, he says:

“We successfully landed on Mars. It was a very hard task to do. We built one of the most powerful rockets ever built. But, the space race is far from over. We will not stop until we reach each planet in the Solar System. Only then, the world will be convinced of our supremacy”.

PART FIVE – HOW FAR CAN WE GET

A brave king fought many wars and won all of them. He earned his enemies’ respect and his people’s heart. He fought in the fiercest battles of that time. But then, when he almost conquered the whole world, he was defeated and killed. His kingdom was token and his people were enslaved. That’s what happens when you lose an important battle in the war. You lose everything and all your victories don’t matter at all.

Later, another king learned the lesson and sacrificed everything to win the last fight.

EARTH STATION

May 1st, an important day for both the new and the old Soviets. It is surprisingly hot. At the Space City, people enjoy a free day. In Moscow, a military parade is on. People might be enjoying a small vacation, but not all of them. There is one person who is not taking life easy… and that one is Ana Leonova.

During the last days, two Lenin V ships were sent to Mars and Moon, with supplies for the cosmonauts and equipment for the bases. The Supreme Soviet requested all personnel from Aral to come and march on the Red Square. This is his way of congratulating all of them for their achievements. He personally salutes them. All scientists also participated at the parade.

The cosmonauts returned from the Moon are considered great heroes. They march through the parade on a version of their Moon rover, with space suits on.

After this, he invites Ana Leonova, Alan Green and other ten important people from the space project to have lunch with him. Again, this is a rare occasion and a sign of outmost respect. All of them are very pleased. Everyone else from Aral receive a free meal on the street, as a gift from the Supreme Soviet.

After taking lunch together, the Iosif Leonov says something to all of them:

“What you’ve done is a great achievement, but there is more that we need to do. You sent people to Moon and Mars. In both cases, you won, but only at the limit of luck. Now, be sure that the other empires will plan new missions soon. It is only a question of time until they will try something else. Nobody knows what they are up to, because even they don’t know. A manned mission to the Moon was a critical point, which ended the old space race. We took it further, with a manned mission on Mars. There are many possible future destinations. The other empires might be planning a manned mission to Jupiter’s moons or to Pluto. We just don’t know. So, since there is no further plan for this new chapter in the space race, we have to be cautious. My child, I know what you were planning from the beginning: manned missions to all the planets. Well, now it is time to do it. Try to land on all of them. I only give you one advice: plan these missions in such a way that we will have a permanent footstep in each planet. I don’t know what that should be. The best thing should be a permanent base somewhere, able to survey anything that happens around each of the planets of the Solar System”.

Ana wants to ask something. The scientists also want more data. The Supreme Soviet says it short:

“I have many things to do. My job is one of the hardest in the world. Please, go and think about what I told you”.

At 17.07, an express train departs from Moscow, taking all people back to Aral. Workers have their designated wagons. It is hard to transport ten thousand people. Ana and the eleven most top people go in a special wagon, in the front. It is Ana’s personal wagon, which she uses to travel from her apartment to Space Factory or to Aral Cosmodrome. Her bodyguards are also here. They follow her anywhere she goes. Nobody knows when and how a new assassination attempt will occur. Railway has become the dominant way of transportation. Main railways have up to six lines, to handle the ever-increasing traffic. Soviet decision to move transportation from roads to rails is far cheaper, but requires a lot of investment.

Ana is dressed all in red, as she uses to dress on parades for the first of May. She has red thigh boots, red gloves and a red dress. On her dress, both on front and on back, anyone can see the Soviet symbols: the hammer, the sickle and the red star. She painted her hair in red. Adding a red lipstick, everything is done.

She lights a cigarette. Her red lipstick forms a spot on the filter. After two deep inhales, she says:

“I think it is time to move on with out space projects. We need to reach other planets too, before the other empires will do. I thought for many days about a possible mission design. Here is what I thought about today, during the parade”.

She takes another deep inhale from her cigarette, then talks, mixing her words with smoke.

“It is impossible to get everything ready with a single launch. So, we need many launches, then assemble parts into space, in Earth orbit. Merged parts will then form large ships, which will explore other planets”.

“We can do that”, says a scientist.

“This way, we create space stations in orbit around Earth. All we need is to move them to the planet where we want them to be”.

“We place the ships in orbit around planets? We don’t land?” says another scientist.

“You know what dad… the Supreme Soviet said”, continues Ana. “Space stations will remain there, in orbit. We will also have ships that will land on each planet and return, from each space station. I think that a presence in orbit is more important then a presence on the surface. On the surface, you are restrained to a small area. In orbit, you travel all over the planet. Our first target will be Ceres, which is easy to land on. Then, we should try landing on all planets and all major moons”.

“A Ceres manned mission?” asks a scientist. “How long will people remain in orbit around Ceres?”

“Our presence in Ceres will be forever”, continues Ana. “You heard the Supreme Soviet. You got his orders. Maybe some cosmonauts will return home, but some of them will stay there. At some point in the future, another ship will take other people to the station and replace the cosmonauts”.

“That is an ambitious plan”, says another scientist. “They will be exposed to cosmic radiation for all their lives. We have to protect them in space”.

“I know”, says Ana. “I am thinking about. But, most of sure, you will find a solution, some sort of shield. In fact, this is why you are here”.

“How many people will take part in each expedition?” asks someone else.

“I don’t know”, says Ana. “At first, I thought about three. What do you think?”

“Two?” says a scientist. “Smaller crews are easier to sustain”.

“I think four”, says someone. “Four is the smallest number that can be divided into two teams. Four cosmonauts should be the best choice. It is not good to leave someone alone, mainly in the vastness of space. It is good to always have someone close to you”.

“So, four is the magic number”, says Ana. “We will send four people in each mission. That will require four waste recycling systems, four habitat modules and about 300 tons to send into orbit”.

“Before anything”, says a scientist, “we need to build a space station around Earth. This is where we will build the large ships. As you said, comrade, it is impossible to get all done with a single launch”.

“That will be our first step”, says Ana, finishing her cigarette. “The first launch will build Earth Space Station”.

The plan is simple, but difficult. The old International Space Station still orbits the Earth, but it is long abandoned. Nobody ever visited it for decades. The last astronaut closed its door, hoping that one day someone else will come. At higher altitude, lie many satellites. It is an unsafe zone, as the area is filled with space debris, free floating around the Earth. And just above them, starts the Van Allen radiation belts, a place where nobody would like to be. After many discussions, scientists agree with a completely different place to build the station. There is a gap between the Van Allen belts. This gap is located at 10000 km above Earth’s surface.

But, in order to build the station, scientists had to discuss how the other stations should look like. Well, this station can be expanded each time it is needed, to make it more efficient.

After a few discussions, scientists argue that machines are cheaper then humans. They decide to send robots. A human needs food, water and air, radiation shielding and sleeping time. A robot needs none of these.

So, the first ship, a Lenin V rocket, brings to orbit robots and the skeleton of the new base. Solar panels are also brought, to provide the needed energy. The launch occurs on May 28th.

CERES MANNED MISSION

Limits are our illusions and illusions are our limits. Ancient saying.

The next plan is to send a space mission to Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt. This is the easiest manned mission possible outside the Earth-Moon system. Scientists carefully calculate what is needed. The space station will weight 300 tons. It will contain four habitat modules and a waste recycling system for four people. In order to survive radiations, one of the habitat modules, where people will spend most time, is reinforced with a layer of gold. Another 50 tons will form the ship electronics and science payload. A rocket is needed to land on Ceres with two cosmonauts, for a manned mission. The landing module weights 10 t. In addition, it will carry a horse to roam on the surface of Ceres and a rover for the two cosmonauts. This adds other two tons to the weight. The good part is that Ceres has a small gravity, so that the lander needs to develop only a delta-v of 0.561 km/s to land and other 0.561 km/s to return. Ceres has a very low gravity. A single RS-1 engine is enough for this task. The needed amount of fuel is 1.6 t. This increases lander’s mass with two tons. In the end, the lander will weight 14 t, which is small and acceptable.

Scientists accept to add 10 t of hydrogen-oxygen mixture, enough for five landings. Also, they add to the ship a fuel-producing unit. Ceres has water, which can be electrolyzed into hydrogen and oxygen. Maybe, it also has nitrogen. From the ground, cosmonauts are expected to bring rock samples.

The mission also includes the return ship, with two habitat modules, an Earth landing shuttle and two waste recycling systems. Its total mass is 150 t. However, to return from Ceres, it needs large amounts of fuel. It will require producing a delta-v of 5 km/s to return from Ceres. Earth’s atmosphere will slow down the landing shuttle, but everything else will be destroyed. However, those 5 km/s require 55.25 t of nitrogen. Adding needed mass for the nitrogen ion engine, fuel tank and solar panels, the return ship will weight 215 t.

So, we have a total of 615 t to bring to Ceres. This is a lot of weight. An Earth – Ceres flight requires a delta-v of 11.257 km/s. That is a huge value. Gravity assists can be used, but they will force the mission to arrive much later to Ceres. Well, scientists find out that there is a possible Mars flyby, which can save us 1.2 km/s. The remaining of 10.042 km/s needs to be produced by nitrogen ion engines. The ship will need 717.75 t of nitrogen. Adding fuel tanks and nitrogen ion engines, we get a total mass of 1300 t that needs to be sent to Ceres.

A Lenin V is able to deliver 500 t to Earth space station. So, three launches are needed. An additional 200 t are added by the last launch, including more nitrogen fuel, more fuel for the lander and some extra equipment. The last Lenin V also takes four cosmonauts, two men and two women. Ana insisted that they would be sent in pairs, hoping that future families will form in space.

The last launch occurs on August 27th. The monster rocket fires its engine, making the Earth to tremble. Fire… and it’s climbing through the sky. The launch sequence is filmed from the ground. For a few seconds, the cosmodrome is filled with smoke from the engines. 87 powerful RS-5 engines, producing each one 10000 kN of force, fight to rise the ship. 13 additional RS-5 engines wait, with their power reduced to 1% to take over if the main engines fail. The rocket pierces through the clouds. Its trail of smoke mixes with the clouds when it touches them. The powerful noise can be heard from all around.

Then, at 192 seconds after launch, when the rocket already passed over Earth’s atmosphere, the 6 small boosters are detached. After the lessons learned from previous launches, the boosters have a small guiding engine, which stabilizes their position. Small boosters, equipped with four active and one dormant RS-5 engine, are 95 m long and 12 m wide. The separation is clearly seen from Earth. At 326 seconds after launch, the other six boosters are detached. These ones are 134 m long and 20 m wide. Again, a small engine controls their movement, slowly separating them and pointing them towards Earth. At 407 seconds after launch, the first stage exhausts all its fuel and is detached. Second stage ignites. It can burn for 1045 seconds, but it will not fire that long. Its purpose is to reach Earth space station. A second burn is scheduled to stabilize orbit between the two Van Allen belts, in the safe zone.

The small boosters reach Earth’s atmosphere the first. The onboard computer slowly adjusts their trajectory, to land in former Aral seabed. They are slowed down by Earth’s atmosphere. Then, a small parachute detaches, further reducing speed and allowing them to refine trajectories. Finally, the large parachutes are deployed. Boosters successfully land. The same happens with the large boosters, which are also targeted to land in the area. It is nothing but a great success. Finally, the first stage, empty, falls through the atmosphere. Its onboard computer refines trajectory. A small parachute guides it to the Aral. Four giant parachutes ensure a safe landing.

Up in space, the payload reaches Earth Space Station. The second stage is retained there. Maybe, at some point, it could prove useful for something. There are already four Lenin V second stages stationed there. Scientists argue that they can be used for storage, transformed into habitation modules or sent back to Earth, to recover the metal.

After eighteen hours of preparation, the Ceres manned ship is assembled. Scientists conduct one last test, while cosmonauts check all the instruments. It is time to go.

“Ceres team ready!” report the cosmonauts.

“Comrades, are you all ready?” asks Ana.

“Yes”, answer all scientists, one after one.

“Flight window opens in a minute”, says one of them.

“Then, I authorize this mission”, says Ana, pushing a big button. “You are ready to go”.

The ship fires its nitrogen ion engines, detaching from Earth station. People can see a bright blue light behind the ship, which leaves with its solar panels wide opened, to take maximum advantage from the available light.

After Ana confirms a successful launch, the recording is sent to the Supreme Soviet, which sends it to state television. People can see now how a Lenin V looks like, how it is launched and how the Ceres mission was launched from space.

Well, things don’t go the way they were supposed to. In the New Soviet Empire, people are happy to see the new launch. Children call their parents, parents call their children, to see it on the news. By its size, the Lenin V is the largest rocket ever built. The Old Soviets designed an even greater rocket, the UR-700, but they never built it. Well, they had advantage that fossil fuels existed at that time. The UR-700 could send to space a bit more cargo.

Up to this date, nobody ever built a more powerful and larger rocket then the Lenin V. It is a giant compared to giants.

Well, it doesn’t last long and the other empires start to critic this massive rocket. First, the Jewish Empire starts with accusations that this monster rocket is built with slaves in a gulag. They consider that the slaves are defectors from their own empire. The next day, the Americans are very angry of the project, saying that “The Reds are building a huge base in cosmos for ballistic missiles”. Their state televisions don’t stop with accusations. Things are going in a bad direction.

Just two days after the departure of Ceres manned ship, the Americans force an embargo against the New Soviets. Their leader, Marshall Leonard Bohr, points this very clear:

“The soviets must stop their program at once! What are they up to? It is insane! Stop space launches immediately. The Lenin V is large enough to carry into space ten thousand atomic warheads. This can lead to total annihilation of all humans. As a sign of protest, from tomorrow morning, 7 AM, New York time, I am imposing a global embargo against them. The embargo includes any kind of goods, cargo, people, manned and unmanned vehicles. Any New Soviet vehicle crossing our borders, by ground, water, underwater or in space above Earth’s atmosphere limit of 30 km, will be destroyed. We will fire. If this is the only way to stop these space maniacs from their aggressive campaign, we are ready to do so. If they refuse to halt their space program, we are ready for a fast military intervention. We know very well what are their military capabilities. All we need is forty-eight hours to neutralize their troops. I don’t fear their ballistic weapons. Their technology is far inferior to ours. We have reasons to believe that their success in the space race is all supported with blood. Forced labor camps are reported to exist all over their state. People starve to support the space program. I ensure you all that the whole world will see our superiority and that we will succeed the most difficult space challenges possible, but without forced labor, without starving our own people and without threatening anyone”.

A similar declaration comes from Samuel Rosenstein, emperor of the Jewish Empire. He also agrees to start an embargo against the ‘Reds’:

“Recently, our Northern enemy created the largest and most powerful rocket ever designed in history, the Lenin V. I think the correct name should be ‘Stalin’s Devil’ instead of Lenin V. This monster is able to send to space thousands of ballistic missiles. What do you see in this? The Reds took by force a part of the land that rightfully belongs to us. You know well that they protect the last remaining of the fake Arians, the Volga Germans. You know well that they took from us the Balkans. They are protecting terrorists, murderers, the children of those who tortured our grandparents. For years, we conducted peaceful negotiations, to bring the guilty ones to justice. We asked them many times to retreat their armies from the Balkans, from Poland and the Baltics, form Afghanistan and Tibet. And what is their answer? They show us this massive rocket, able to destroy the whole world. I think we waited enough. We suffered enough humiliation. Our neighbors from the other side of the planet agreed to put the Reds on an embargo. I sign the embargo too. Also, I put our 162nd nuclear division on the border, ready for an attack. I want to see their space program terminated, our territories returned and the children of all who threatened us, brought to justice”.

It looks like a war of declarations is starting. Could it turn into a nuclear war? The Supreme Soviet decides to give an answer to the other two leaders:

“The development of space rockets is a prove that our empire is growing. This cannot be achieved without a powerful and growing economy. Our development can be seen even from space: new railways, new dams, new wind turbines, new factories, new factories. It is true that we transformed prisons into working camps, but that came with a huge benefit. Inmates learn a job and rarely return. With our increasing agriculture production, there is no way people can be starving. What should we do with all the crops? Every house has electricity. Every village has a railway connection. Tell me. Do you see starvation? Do you see economic failure? Some people claimed that our rockets are inferior to the other empires’. If it is so, then I ask you one thing. How could we do what we are doing? How could we build a Lenin V if our technology is inferior? Why the others are unable to build something even greater then we do? Now, think for yourselves and give me the answer. They accused us of forced labor and mass starvation. I am telling the other empires this: Look at yourself first. You might be surprised to see that I should accuse you for what you accuse me. No matter what you say, we will not stop the space program. This is the final prove of our technology and our superiority. If you think that you are superior to us, prove it, but do it peaceful. I am launching a challenge to you all. From all planets and all moons, the most difficult to send a manned mission is Venus. Which one of you is ready to send people to Venus and bring them back? Which one of you can accept this challenge? I don’t want war. I sent no ballistic warhead to orbit and I will not do. Which empire manages to send a manned mission to Venus and return home safely, is superior to all the others”.

What the Supreme Soviet never told in public is that he secretly helped various factions from the other empires. Over time, he sponsored ethnic Canadian people, Scandinavian people, Muslims from Iran and surrounding areas, Christians in Western Europe and ethnic groups in Africa, trying to weaken the other empires. He tried to emancipate them, to make them join the New Soviet Empire, but failed. Still, this caused some problems to the other empires. With the embargo, these people cannot be helped any longer.

He gives an order to Ana and all the scientists from Aral:

“I strongly appreciate your manned mission to Ceres, but you need to continue. It is time to reach other planets. The greatest challenge of all will be Venus. I am telling you: If we manage to send a man on Venus and return him safely to Earth, we won!”

A mission to Venus is probably the most difficult of all. Certainly, the other empires don’t have the capabilities to do this. But, before this, other manned missions are possible, at lower cost. Still, Ana orders that a mission to Venus will be studied in detail, to see how it could be possible.

MERCURY MANNED MISSION

You have an axe and two trees: a big one and a small one. If you think you don’t have the force to cut the big tree and let the job unfinished, it is better to cut down the small one and finish the job, even if you get less wood from it. Ancient saying.

Ana sits in her apartment, thinking. How do you get to Venus? It’s easy. All you need is twice the fuel needed to reach the Moon. This planet has a very dense atmosphere, which will slow you down. How do you get out of Venus? This is the hard part. You need a delta-v around 27 km/s. Venus has a very dense atmosphere. To make things even worse, it has violent storms, which can turn apart a ship. What a monster ship do we need to develop 27 km/s? It must be carried to Venus first. It must be lifted from Earth and sent to Venus.

She calculates, over and over. In order to move, a ship needs to develop a very low thrust first, to rise very slowly from the dense atmosphere, to reduce friction. Could we lift a rocket with the use of balloons?

Venus is like a pressured furnace. How long can a cosmonaut resist on its surface? How long can a space probe resist there? The Venus horse stopped operating. We need to find some answers. Before we send a ship there, we have to test the capabilities of our equipment. An unmanned spacecraft should go first, land, take a sample and return to Earth. We have to do this before anything else.

The probe should be very small, just a sample return mission. If I manage to take only 1 kg of rock from Venus, we are good.

Ana talked with the scientists about this subject. They decided to go first to Mercury and send a new probe to Venus. Two horses will be sent. Again, they will be constructed using silicon polymers, which work very good in the environment of Venus. The horses need to be built on Earth in conditions similar to those found on Venus, because silicon polymers might disintegrate in Earth conditions.

The former horse was damaged because, during the flight, it lost some of the carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid. Now, scientists came with two alternative models. One horse will be in a box with less pressure inside and lower temperature. The other horse will be in a box where conditions will be similar to what is on Venus, but it will have a reserve of gas to be added. On Venus, the atmosphere is in a hyperfluid state. In this state, it pierces through the smallest pores. Similar conditions occur in thermal plants. There, steam (which is also in a hyperfluid state) escapes through the smallest pores of the metal pipes. Because of this, a thermal plant needs to have a steady supply of high purity water.

Scientists also discussed about a Venus sample return mission. Well, how can that become reality? They calculated over and over, until they realized something. In the dense atmosphere of Venus, liquid hydrogen, used as fuel, is too light and will float. In such conditions, they have to use some sort of ballast to make the ship go down. The atmospheric shield can be very useful for this, since it is made of metal and it is heavy.

Hydrogen-oxygen tanks need to be thick, to keep these gasses in a liquid state. On launch, fuel is cooled to liquid state, so that it will not force the fuel tanks too much. However, you have to carry all fuel to Venus. On the planet, temperatures are extremely high, 400 to 600 degrees Celsius. Fuel tanks cannot stay too much exposed to these temperatures. They will simply explode. We have also to add the heat produced by atmospheric friction. So, how do we land such a big ship? We need a massive atmospheric shield, probably to engulf the whole ship inside. It is very complicated, almost impossible.

Fuel tanks carry liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. On the launch platform, these gasses are already cooled and pumped to the ships at low temperatures. The tanks are not made to sustain high pressures. But, fuel is used long before it can heat itself and make the tanks explode. Again, liquefied gasses are used for upper stages, for landing or liftoff or for the nitrogen ion engines. In this case, fuel tanks are heavier, reinforced. To prevent overheating them, all tanks are covered with a reflective material and pointed out from the sunlight. In outer space, if you block light from the Sun, you can easily get temperatures around –180 degrees Celsius.

Until now, all space missions took advantage of that. The Moon base shields its fuel tanks during day and cools them during night. The same happens on Mars. In the same way, all probes, landers and horses use a reflective foil to block light from the Sun and cool the fuel tanks.

Knowing how hot is on Venus, scientists concluded that a manned mission must be very fast. Cosmonauts will not be able to stay more then 90 minutes on the surface and a spaceship will not be able to resist more then a few hours. It will be a very fast mission. There is no room for errors.

One scientist said that it is impossible to build a space suit able to resist more then two hours on Venus, no matter what you try. Ana argued that even in the best scenario a manned ship can resist more then a day. It is true. Everyone knows this.

The next manned mission will go to Mercury, but it will also flyby Venus. This offers scientists a chance to deploy an unmanned probe to Venus. The two horses and the sample return probe will be sent this way.

The two horses will weight 1000 kg each. They will need two boxes to be stored in Venus-like conditions, which will weight 300 kg each. In addition, they will require parachutes, an atmospheric shield and a pressurized tank with carbon dioxide. The total mass rises to 3500 kg.

The sample return probe will only weight 1000 kg. This includes the parachute and atmospheric shield needed to land back on Earth. It will take a sample from the atmosphere, a sample from surface and will drill 1 m beneath the surface of Venus. To travel back from Venus orbit to Earth, it will require a delta-v of 6.904 km/s. 600 kg of nitrogen is enough for this. The nitrogen ion engine, nitrogen tank and solar panels will add 100 kg. Scientists added a 200 kg extra budget, knowing that there is always something unexpected. So, we need to bring from Venus surface to orbit 2000 kg.

Venus is almost as massive as Earth. In theory, to get something off Venus, you need a similar thrust to get off Earth. To get 2 to from Venus surface to orbit, a Lenin I should be more then enough. However, Venus is not Earth. It has a far denser atmosphere. On Earth, without atmospheric friction, you need a delta-v of 7.957 km/s to get into space. If you add the atmosphere, you get close to 9 km/s. On Venus, adding atmospheric friction, you get a shocking high 27 km/s. What ship will ever be able to do that?

Ana spends all night, calculating over and over. A Lenin V carrying a Lenin I instead of the third stage? How on Earth can you bring a Lenin V to orbit without using its fuel? This is absurd. And how strong do the fuel tanks need to be, to hold all hydrogen and oxygen in, once they will be heated? Stronger fuel tanks will be needed, which will add extra weight and will ruin the process.

She spends all the night, calculating one model after another, thinking how could possibly a rocket break through the gravity of Venus. How could you send two tons from Venus to Earth? Then, her clock rings. It is time to go and catch the train, time to return to Space Factory.

Ana steps in the train, in her personal wagon. Scientists come and sit near her. They all look tired. It is a clear sign that they also spent the whole night thinking about the same thing. How could we possibly send a sample return mission to Venus? Ana lights a cigarette and when the train starts moving, she says:

“I just cannot figure out a solution to this problem”.

“Me too”, says Alan Green. “We would need a Lenin I on top of a Lenin V to lift something from Venus surface”.

“That was the result of my calculations too”, says Ana.

“I tried to use balloons, to lift the rocket from Venus surface to 10 km high”, says a scientist.

“Does it work, Viktor?” asks Ana.

“In theory, it works”, says the scientist. “But we have to keep in mind that Venus is experiencing huge storms and this might smash the balloons. Also, they need to be made of a material that can resist the corrosive environment of Venus. I don’t know if this will possibly work”.

“The balloon we sent to Venus operated for longer then we expected”, says another scientist. “It could work. But, we have to attach it to the top of the rocket. And once the engines ignite, we have to separate the balloon in a safe way, so it will not hit the rocket. Yet, I don’t know how to do that”.

“There is a way, but I don’t know if it will work”, says Olga, a female scientist. “If the rocket moves very slow, friction is smaller. What if we use small thrust first? I thought about a rocket with eight boosters. We fire two boosters, then the other two, then the other two and so on, until we reach a safe altitude, where atmospheric density is lower and we can fire the core stage. I calculated this last night, for a model smaller then a Lenin I. It worked, but at the limit”.

“That is brilliant”, says Ana.

“It is not my idea”, says Olga. “I’ve seen my children playing a space simulator game. They were playing exactly this, how to make a manned mission to Venus. This was their idea. They tried to get out of Venus with the engines turned to 100 % and failed. Then, they turned engines to just achieve 50 km/h until they reached an altitude where atmospheric pressure falls below Earth’s”.

“We should try that”, says another scientist.

“It is just a computer game”, argues Vasili, another scientist. “I’ve seen many stupid ideas in video games”.

“When we arrive to Space Factory, I want to simulate that”, says Ana. “If it proves to be efficient, we should study it further”.

“There might be another way”, says Vasili. “I tried to work on a jet engine. Using hydrogen and oxygen, we can easily power-up a jet engine and gradually increase height. In my model, we use a winged ship, something like an airplane. It could more easily climb through Venus’s atmosphere to a safe altitude, then it can turn on its rocket engines and fly out of the atmosphere”.

“Are you sure about that?” asks Ana.

“Venus has a much denser atmosphere”, says Vasili. “An airplane could easily use that to its advantage, with far less fuel consumption. The first stage will climb to an altitude of 15 or 18 km, using a jet engine. From there, the second stage will separate and get out of the atmosphere, using rocket engines”.

“That sounds like a good option”, says Ana.

“Maybe we should think about something else”, says a scientist. “A century ago, it was planned to use small probes to take samples from Venus. These probes will then use balloons to rise to higher altitudes, where an airplane-rocket will pick them and take them back to Earth”.

“This plan is complicated”, says Ana. “I don’t know if we can handle it. Venus has strong winds, we might not be able to catch those balloons at all”.

“There are two major problems I see”, says Alex Green. “First of all: How do we transport fuel tanks to Venus safely, without an explosion? And second: If we use a massive, large ship, how do we take samples from the surface? I mean, if the sample device is on top of the rocket, it needs to have a very long arm, to reach the ground. This is difficult”.

“We could build a crane or some sort of elevator outside of the rocket”, says a scientist. “I thought about that myself”.

“Yes, but complicated devices are prone to fail”, says Alan Green. “Simple devices will work better”.

“I think we should use all these ideas”, says Ana. “We will use balloons, low-thrust stages and an airplane design, all in one. Some of these should work properly”.

“I have an idea”, says Vasili. “If we make the ship land on one side, we can take samples more easily. Of course, it will be more difficult to make it land on a side, but it is possible, with parachutes. We successfully do this with our boosters”.

“Then, we rise the ship with balloons”, continues Ana. “If the balloons tend to fail, we use the wings to glide in the atmosphere, with low-thrust engines, until we reach a good altitude. Then, we fly it out of there”.

The scientists think about details. When they arrive to Space Factory, they already know what is to be done. They all come to Ana’s office and calculate. As said above, they need to lift 2000 kg to Venus orbit.

By the end of the day, the final calculations show how the Venus return vehicle should look like:

Stage 1: 4 RS-4 engines, producing 3000 kN each. This stage weights 250 t and carries 200 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 72 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.391 km/s. TWR is 1.311. Height: 40 m, width: 6 m. Stage 2: 3 RS-4 engines, producing 3000 kN each. It weights 200 t and carries 160 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 77 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.467 km/s. TWR is 1.343. Height: 32 m, width: 6 m. Stage 3: 6 RS-3 engines, producing 1000 kN each. It weights 100 t and carries 80 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 59 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.261 km/s. TWR is 1.267. Height 17 m, width: 6 m. Stage 4: 5 RS-3 engines, producing 1000 kN each. It weights 80 t and carries 64 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 57 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.300 km/s. TWR is 1.334. Height 14, width: 6 m. Stage 5: 4 RS-3 engines, producing 1000 kN each. It weights 70 t and carries 56 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 62 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.385 km/s. TWR is 1.350. Height 12 m, width: 6 m. Stage 6: 3 RS-3 engines, producing 1000 kN each. It weights 70 t and carries 56 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 82 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.472 km/s. TWR is 1.318. Height 12 m, width: 8 m. Stage 7: two RS-3 engines, producing 1000 kN each. It weights 50 t and carries 40 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 88 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.443 km/s. TWR is 1.257. Height 9 m, width: 8 m. Stage 8: 5 RS-2 engines , producing 300 kN each. It weights 40 t and carries 32 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 94 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 0.647 km/s. TWR is 1.363. Height 5 m, width: 8 m.

All these eight stages together provide a combined delta-v of 3.366 km/s. This is not much for Venus. Since they will burn one after another, they will push the ship up slowly through the dense part of Venus’s atmosphere. Together, they should rise to 10 km high, where atmospheric pressure is comparable with Earth’s and where the other, faster stages can take over.

Each stage was also equipped with independent wings. The wings are designed to be packed during flight and extend after landing. If this works, the ship can successfully operate as an airplane. If anything fails to work, the wings will be detached and will fall to the ground.

The next two stages are designed to push the ship fast through the upper layers of Venus’s atmosphere and escape to Earth:

Stage 9: five RS-2 engines, producing 300 kN each. It weights 60 t and carries 48 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 141 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 3.983 km/s. TWR is 2.119. Height: 22 m, width: 4 m. This stage also has wings, which will be detached one the rocket gains enough altitude. Stage 10: three RS-1 engines, producing 100 kN each. It weights 10 t and carries 8 t of fuel. At full power, it can fire for 118 seconds, with a resulting delta-v of 4.279 km/s. TWR is 2.548. height: 4 m, width: 4 m. It has no wings.

On top of the last stage lies the probe, with its nitrogen ion engine and tank, which will bring it home from Venus. The probe is covered with a landing atmospheric shield, so that it can easily pierce through, when the last stages will fire their engines through the still dense atmosphere of Venus.

In addition to all this, each stage will have one or two pairs of feet, for landing. The ship will land on a side and not vertical. The feet will be on landing side, while on the far side, there will be parachutes and balloons. Parachutes will slow the ship down and ensure a safe landing. Balloons will be inflated once the mission will be finished, helping the ship to rise.

When entering the atmosphere of Venus, the ship will be protected by a large atmospheric shield, which will be placed beneath the first stage. Once speed is reduced enough, the shield will detach and the parachutes will be deployed.

The rocket itself weights 932 t. With its wings, balloons, parachutes, landing legs and shield, it weights 1331 t. That is how much you have to send to Venus to pick-up a few kg of rock. Well, a Lenin V can send to Earth station 500 t. It is too much for a single Lenin V. Three launches are needed for this. They will also bring to orbit the two new horses, two balloons for atmospheric study and two orbiters.

Well, the main goal is to send a manned mission to Mercury. Four cosmonauts need a ship weighting 300 t. That will be nothing compared to the monster ship needed to land on Venus. In addition, scientists plan to do two landings on Mercury and build a return ship. A Mercury capsule will weight 20 tons. In addition, it will deploy a horse on Mercury surface. The good thing is that Mercury has a small gravity, so you don’t need much force to get out of there. You need to develop a delta-v of 3.904 km/s for this.

A manned Mercury lander will have two stages, the first one will help it land and the second one will return the cosmonauts back. Second stage needs one RS-3 engine and will weight 35 t. The first stage needs 3 RS-3 engines and will weight 100 t. Total mass is 155 t. It is no problem to send two Mercury landers with only one Lenin V launch.

The return ship, which will carry two cosmonauts back, weights 150 t. But, to get them from Mercury to Earth, you have to produce enough thrust. Even with a Venus flyby, you still have to provide it a delta-v of 12.304 km/s. You need to provide it 187.5 t of nitrogen and 250 t for the nitrogen ion engine stage.

That’s it; we have to send 900 t to Mercury and 1350 t to Venus. To reach Mercury from Venus, we need a nitrogen ion stage weighting 800 t. And to reach Venus from Earth, we require another 1000 t.

So, the whole Mercury – Venus mission will weight an enormous 4000 t! To lift all this, we need eight Lenin V launches!

By the end of the day, scientists look at these values shocked. They argue that it is impossible to do all this. Ana calls her dad and he says loud and clear:

“You were given specific orders. Do it! No matter how hard it is, do it! And if you fail to send a sample return mission to Venus, how can you send a manned mission there? Eight launches will require eight months. I hope the others will not get to Venus before we do. If they do, you will all end-up in Kolyma Gulag”.

They all know very well what that means. Condemned people no longer go to prison. They are sent to working camps. Even if the other empires argue that life in working camps is harsh, it is not like in a gulag. Inmates have an eight-hour working program. They have food and shelter, but they lack freedom to go outside. They have no TV, no internet and no vodka. They go to schools, where they learn moral codes and how to have a job. There are around 8000 working camps in the empire.

However, those who commit violent acts inside a working camp are sent to a harsh working camp, where they work 12 hours a day. They have enough food and heated rooms to sleep in, but they are not allowed to talk one with each other. There are 400 harsh working camps in the empire.

Those who commit violent acts in a harsh working camp are sent to the gulag. There, each morning, they have to repeat: “I am guilty for what I’ve done and I regret everything I done”. If they don’t say this, they get no food. They are not bitten, but they are forced to work hard, cutting wood or breaking rocks. It is a place where they receive many insults and must understand that they are guilty for their state of suffering. There are 20 such places in the empire.

Finally, those who still commit violent acts and are considered unable to return to normal society are sent to Kolyma Gulag. There is only one such place. It has an entrance, but no exit. Once you get there, you have no way out. Once, there were gold mines. Inmates are forced to endure extreme cold. Food is only 500 g of bread a day. They sleep in a former mine, all crowded together. Working is 16 hours each day. It is the only place where inmates are bitten and tortured.

Once they enter prison, inmates are told about the four types of camps and see short films from all of them. People know about Kolyma. Four years ago, a criminal raped nine girls in Moscow and killed them in a horrible way. People demanded that he will be sent directly to Kolyma. Parents of the murdered girls sent a petition to the Supreme Soviet. He answered them and came in the middle of the trial. He said:

“I also have a daughter and she was also sexually abused. Luckily, she is alive, but I tell you, she needed years to recover. So, I understand you well. I will show no mercy to this criminal. Down to Kolyma with him!”

Well, Ana knows very well what Kolyma is. The flight window to Venus occurs just eight months from this moment. The Mercury mission needs to be finished in time. And she really has the time to do it.

Eight Lenin V launches are scheduled: on September 21st, October 16th, November 11th, December 8th, January 9th, February 2nd and March 1st. All parts are assembled together and the mission is ready to go.

On March 1st, the last Lenin V takes to orbit the four cosmonauts, which will go to Mercury. With all preparations done, the ship leaves Earth Space Station towards Venus and Mercury. It is just in the flight window for a Venus gravity assist. The ship should arrive at Venus in July!

Well Ana doesn’t want to waste time. Until then, four other Venus V ships will assemble a manned mission to Mars. This is easier. A space station, weighting 300 t and hosting four cosmonauts, will be sent to the Martian moon Phobos, where it will land. A small probe will travel to Deimos and take a sample from there. Then, will come a manned landing to Mars, exactly to where the Mars base was established. The lander will bring supplies, habitat modules, equipment and a rover to the base. There are important reasons to do this. The two cosmonauts who landed on Mars formed a family. Soon, they will have a baby. It will be the first child conceived in interplanetary space and the first child born on Mars. Again, there will be a return ship, which will bring two cosmonauts back to Earth, while two will remain on Phobos.

This mission will bring many construction tools to Mars. The two cosmonauts think that they can enlarge the base with materials that exist on Mars.

To assemble the mission to Mars, four Lenin V launches will be needed. The ship will go to Mars just a few days before the other one reaches Venus.

JUDGEMENT DAY

The Old Soviets failed to reach the Moon. What happened to them? Most of the cosmodrome was abandoned. Many ships were dismantled. As a punishment, the former scientists were forced to grow pigs in the ruins of their cosmodrome. The Soviet space dream was over. No more sputnik, no more Gagarin, no more space exploration! Still, the scientists never gave-up fighting and hoped that one day, they will be allowed to build new ships and reach the stars. The grandchild of a former Old Soviet space scientist.

Mars mission was deployed on July 2nd. However, after such an achievement, people at Aral cannot afford to relax. Mercury mission is approaching Venus. It will use Venus’s gravity to adjust its orbit towards Mercury. The Venus sample return detached just a few days before. It is directly heading to Venus and will hit the atmosphere in a few days.

July 4th. It is an important day for American Empire. Suddenly, their state television transmits something unexpected. An American ship arrived at Venus and deployed four satellites to orbit the planet. A huge probe pierces through the dense atmosphere and lands. Two rovers are detached on the surface from the probe. They start taking samples and analyzing rocks.

All over the American Empire, people are happy.

“We did it!”

“We landed on Venus before the Reds!”

“They will never catch us!”

Marshall Leonard Bohr says to the world:

“This is just the beginning! We are paving the road for a manned mission to Venus. Soon, we will be the first to land on that planet! The first empire to send a man to Venus and return him safely to Earth is the strongest of all! And I ensure you that we are that empire. Nobody has the resources or the technology to do this!”

July 6th. A Jewish ship lands on Venus. It carries an astronaut. Everything is filmed live. The ship, weighting 20 t, lands on the planet. Then, the astronaut steps out of his ship and walks on the surface for roughly half an hour. Transmission is then interrupted.

The event is followed by a massive military parade. Nobody cares about the poor astronaut left behind. At Aral, scientists pick-up a signal, transmitted by the orbiter left around Venus since Venera Express. The astronaut sends SOS signals. He entered back his ship, which is decomposing in the harsh atmosphere. Cabin temperature rises gradually, until life support systems fail. He is dead in an hour.

July 7th. One of the American rovers ceases to answer, while the other experiences technical problems.

July 8th. Finally, Venus Sample Return ship arrives and plunges into the atmosphere. The mission is automated. Scientists can do nothing to adjust commands. The ship is completely on its own. Contact is lost at 9.03, Aral time, when the ship enters Venus atmosphere. Everyone waits nervously.

At 10.13, scientists receive a message from the ship, a short health report. It landed on Venus. Because time is critical, the ship sends no more data. Nobody knows what happened. They all wait.

At 11.25, the two horses report. They are on the surface. One of them is functional and starting to work. The other horse was unlucky. A parachute landed just above it and the horse is locked beneath. No sign of the ship, so it must had left. One horse identifies a landing leg, dropped on the ground.

Time passes. Scientists still have no data. Then, at 16.21, they start receiving. Venus Return Probe passed through the atmosphere and is returning home. They all start exploding of joy, hugging each other. It is the first time in history when a spaceship manages to get out of Venus in one piece.

Now, scientists see all data. The probe used balloons to rise from surface, but was not well balanced. At some point, it turned upside down. So, it detached balloons at an altitude of 3 km. From this height, the probe turned on its engines and starts behaving like an airplane. Firing just one engine, it gained enough speed and could climb slowly to an altitude of 14 km. Then, one engine failed to ignite and the ship lost speed. It detached that stage (stage 5) and used stage 6 to get a vertical ascent. From that point on, the ship detached wings and started thrusting to orbit. It took an atmosphere sample, a surface rock sample and drilled 30 cm for a subsurface sample. Overall, the probe sampled 3 kg from the surface of Venus and now is in safe orbit.

Once Ana has enough images, she sends the data to her dad. In a few minutes, it will be all on the news. And this is just what happens. Well, the Supreme Soviet calls Ana and says:

“This is not a success. The others managed to go to Venus too. Build a manned mission and fast! Time is critical”.

Getting 2000 kg out of Venus was a hard task, but getting a human out, is far more difficult. The smallest shuttle for a single cosmonaut weights 10 tons! The manned ship needs to be five times heavier.

Instead of a victory, scientists are back to the drawing table. Everything needs to be calculated again. There will be new days of working. The stages needed for this rocket are so big, that not even a Lenin V can take them to orbit. Total weight of the Venus return vehicle is close to a whole Lenin V. Who can ever build this? All calculations show that this is impossible. The only way to lift the rocket is by combining all technologies used for the Venus return probe. So, the rocket will be lifted from ground with huge balloons filled with hydrogen. Then, once it is at a safe elevation, it will turn on its engine and increase altitude, flying like an airplane. Finally, once it is high enough, the ship will turn on its large engines and fly to orbit.

After days of work, scientists concluded that the Venus return rocket will require 11 Lenin V launches only to get all fuel tanks together, plus other 44 launches to bring all the needed fuel. This is too much and will take years.

However, one day, Alan Green comes to Ana Leonova’s office.

“Comrade, I think there might be an easier way to reach Venus”.

“What is in your mind?”

“Is there any fuel available other then hydrogen?”

Ana looks at him and thinks.

“I wish there were other fuels left”, she says. “Fossil fuels are almost extinct. We have a reserve, a tight oil field, but it is protected for the military in case of a war. There are very small reserves of coal, of lignite more exactly, but of very bad quality. Making fuel, like kerosene out of it, is far more expensive then anything we tried so far”.

“I know”, says the professor, looking around.

He can clearly see that Ana has been working very hard. There are sheets of paper all over the place, filled with numbers and schemes.

“What about solid fuel?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”.

“Old rockets often used solid propellant. It doesn’t need to be carbon based”.

“Please, give me more info. And please, don’t come with things that are not possible. How does such a rocket work?”

“Here. Instead of oxygen, we use ammonium perchlorate. Instead of hydrogen, we can use aluminum powder. We will also need iron oxide as a catalyst. The main advantage is that such ingredients are far more compact then liquid hydrogen and are solid. The mixture will require far less space and far smaller holding tanks. And since it is solid, it doesn’t need to be compressed. What do you think?”

Ana looks at him, surprised. Many people came with ridiculous ideas. At some point, someone said that ‘we should try to pull the ship to orbit with a rope’ and other similar suggestions.

“Do you think that works?”

“It was largely used a hundred years ago. The last solid rocket was fired around 50 years ago. It proved to be very efficient”.

“Why nobody ever launched such a rocket?”

“Because nobody had a reason to go to space, other then sending Earth satellites. The main disadvantage is that solid fuel does not ignite completely and it leaves small solid debris on the way, which can impact other ships and satellites. But, for atmospheric flights, they are a good option. Many missiles used for military purposes still use solid fuel”.

Ana looks to the professor and says:

“I tell you what. I need to see a demonstration. Build one and test it. How about using a booster from the Lenin I? Use a small booster. Also, I need to see the costs of such a propellant. I hope it is comparable with hydrogen”.

“I need your orders to test it”.

“Well, you have my order. Let me see where we can find the ingredients you asked for”.

It doesn’t take long and Ana finds what they need. She orders the needed ingredients to be brought to Aral with a train. The whole empire wants to support space exploration, no matter the costs. I takes only ten days and the booster is prepared. It will not fly to space. Instead, it will be tested in a test facility. Filled with the solid mixture, it weights 195 t, instead of 10 t, as it would be with hydrogen and oxygen. Its fuselage is also reinforced, to resist the massive force. Combustion process actually happens inside the booster and not outside.

The test is a success. Certainly, it could reach space. The force developed is large enough to push a probe into space.

“That is much better”, says Ana. “I like this principle. Materials are not so expensive. Less volume means less costs. We should try to work more with this”.

“The major advantage is its small size”, continues Alan Green. “I don’t like the idea of a giant ship gliding in the storms of Venus. The last project I’ve seen was of a rocket 150 m long, with airplane wings 130 m wide. I don’t think that can resist”.

“So, we should work only with stuff like this on Venus?” asks Ana.

“It is safer then liquid hydrogen. Still, it is explosive. I think it is a good idea, but we have to be careful with it. My idea is of several boosters like this one, weighting just as much as can a Lenin V carry to space. Since they are smaller and thinner, they can travel through the atmosphere with less friction. Still, I recommend a balloon to take the ship to a much higher elevation, to save some fuel”.

“No airplane design?” asks Ana, surprised.

“No, I don’t like that. Please, wait me a few days and I will come with a better design”.

The next day, Alan Green comes with a set of small solid boosters and stages, developed to push the ship out of Venus.

Payload (capsule): 10 t, 4 m wide, 5 m high.

Stage 9: hydrogen, one RS-2 engine. Stage mass = 10 t. Delta-v = 2.069 km/s. Stage 8: hydrogen, two RS-2 engines. Stage mass = 20 t. Delta-v = 2.069 km/s. Stage 7: hydrogen, four RS-2 engines. Stage mass = 40 t, Delta-v = 2.069 km/s.

These three upper stages will provide enough thrust to take the ship to orbit (delta-v = 6.027), once it in the upper atmosphere of Venus. Together, they will be 32 m high and 4 m wide, with a total mass of 80 kg, capsule (payload) included.

Now, to get to that safe altitude of 20 km high…

The engine already exists. It was already designed. The Old Soviets used it. An updated version is the RR-1, is designed now, with a force of 3000 kN. A second one, RR-2, is calculated to have a power of 10000 kN.

Stage 6: solid, one RR-1 engine. Stage mass = 220 t. Delta-v = 3.508 km/s. Stage 5: solid, one RR-1 engine. Stage mass = 200 t. Delta-v = 0.875 km/s. Stage 4: solid, one RR-2 engine. Stage mass = 500 t. Delta-v = 1.746 km/s. Stage 3: solid, one RR-2 engine. Stage mass = 500 t. Delta-v = 0.741 km/s. Stage 2: solid, one RR-2 engine. Stage mass = 500 t. Delta-v = 0.323 km/s.

Each lower stage will have a smaller TWR (thrust to weight ratio), meaning that it will pierce slower through the atmosphere of Venus. Together, these stages provide a delta-v of 7.102 km/s. Launched from an altitude of 7 km, this should be enough to rise the ship high enough to pierce out of the atmosphere. Together, all five stages are 37 m high and only 4 m wide.

To get from surface to this altitude (or maybe higher), you need something else. You need to develop a delta-v of 14 km/s. With all this mass, it is impossible. Still, it is possible to use balloons or to use wings and fly like an airplane. So, here comes stage 1, with its revolutionary design.

Stage 1: It includes wings, each one 40 m long and 50 m wide. This stage has a large fuselage, which covers all the other stages together, holding the wings too. It has eight small solid boosters in its tail, each one only 1 m wide and 27 m long. Each booster weights 100 t and has a RR-1 engine. This should be enough for airplane propulsion, to climb through the dense atmosphere. Combined mass of this stage is 1000 t.

The whole thing will look like a massive airplane. Instead of wheels, it will use metal sleds to land. Landing speed will anyway be very small, as parachutes will slow it down in Venus lower atmosphere. The first stage will cover the other stages. Between them, there will be a layer of liquid nitrogen, which will boil, cooling down the upper stages, so they will not explode, nor ignite. The final detail is a 100 kg hydrogen-oxygen tank with a single RS-2 engine, which will slow down the ship, to enter Venus atmosphere. When ground mission is finished, the ship will use balloons to rise from surface. That will not last long, as giant balloons will be destroyed by the harsh weather on Venus.

In the end, the whole Venus lander will weight 3000 t, enough to be carried to orbit with six Lenin V.

In addition, the station, home for four cosmonauts, weights 300 t. The return vehicle weights 150 t, plus needed fuel (nitrogen, ion engines, fuel tank and solar panels), which make up to 70 t. Overall, the total weight which needs to be carried to Venus orbit is 3520 t. To carry all this, you need 1630 t.

The grand total is 5150 t. Scientists add a few more fuel for safety, raising the mass to 5500 t. That is a task for 11 Lenin V launches. Having the final calculations done, Ana calls her dad and tells him all. Everything will be built until May, the next year. The Supreme Soviet says:

“Get it done as fast as possible and as good as possible!”

The deadline is fixed: May 1st. At that day, the ship must detach Earth space station and head to Venus.

KOLYMA

Is there anything, any other word that can bring more fear then this? What is Kolyma? It is an ice river turned in red. Blood has been flowing on its waters for centuries. Diaries of a gulag guard.

Now, that the project for manned Venus mission is finished, work can start. Each month, a Lenin V will take parts to be assembled in space. The first launch took place in July. Others will come soon. There is a lot of work to do.

The Supreme Soviet is not satisfied with this. He wants the project to be ready as soon as possible. He accepts nothing but total success. So, he calls Ana to see how work is going on.

Outside the borders, tensions are also high. The other empires asked again that the Venus mission will be stopped at once. Even more, they sent satellites to take close pictures of what is going on in space. Both empires are angry and eager to stop, but they both have plans for a manned mission to Venus. This is the goal. This is the point. The first empire to send a man to Venus and return him safe to Earth, will win. No other celestial body is so hard to reach by a human.

The needed solid fuel is being shipped to Aral by train. Everything goes according to plan or even ahead of the plan. One by one, the Lenin ships take their cargo to space, where the Venus ship is assembled, piece by piece.

July 22nd. A new launch is scheduled today. The payload is a solid fuel stage for the Venus manned mission. Filled with fuel, it weights 500 t. A Lenin V will deliver it to Earth Space Station. Launch occurs at 23.51, close to midnight. Suddenly, an unidentified object appears on radar. Well, the rocket is launched according to its schedule, but the unidentified object is approaching. It is heading to the cosmodrome. Not knowing what to do, scientists watch it on the radar. A military airplane appears too, from the opposite direction. It opens fire on the unidentified object. A powerful explosion illuminates the cosmodrome. The blast also takes out many electric facilities in the area. The airplane is also destroyed. The pilot ejects to save his life.

The unidentified object appears to be a missile fired from Iran (Jewish empire). Samuel Rosenstein claims that it was a terrorist organization behind. The good part is that the rocket was not affected at all.

July 28th. After work, Ana is returning to her apartment, in her personal wagon. She invites a few scientists to sit with her, like she always does. The train travels like always with 100 km/h, through the salt desert. Suddenly, the engine stops. Everyone can hear the noise made by emergency brakes. It is something that never happened before. Ana calls the train engineer, to get some answers.

“There is a truck on the railway”, he says.

“How could that be?”

“I don’t know”, answers the engineer. “I just see it. We need to take it off the rails”.

There is a concrete road along the railway, but the only way in is at Aralsk. Cars are rarely seen on this road, since almost everything is carried by rail. The area is a well guarded.

A group of armed men step out of the truck. When the engineer sees this, he turns on the speakers and tells anyone in the train not to open the door. He blocks the doors. They try to force doors. Then, one of them starts shooting with a machinegun.

“Damn it!” says Ana. “Not again!”

“What do we do now?” asks someone.

“I still have a pistol”, whispers Ana. “But that is not enough. We have to wait until the army comes”.

That is correct. Once the alarm was triggered, a helicopter will come with soldiers. Terrorists try to shoot in windows. They break inside and start to terrorize people, shooting at random.

“Our wagon is bullet-proof”, whispers Ana.

“But what about the others?”

“I don’t know”.

In exactly 38 minutes, a military force comes. They don’t risk and kill terrorists, even if they start killing people in the train. 58 deaths.

August 7th. Ana arrives home. She always commands food from a catering company located nearby. A guy comes with the food. She opens the door and takes it.

“Hey, I ordered something else!” she says.

“I am sorry”, says the agent.

“I didn’t order chicken. And what is this? Coffee? I ordered milk. Well, I will accept your chicken, but I don’t drink coffee. You drink it!”

“I wouldn’t presume…” says the agent.

“Drink!” says Ana.

The agent takes the cup of coffee, drinks and then falls on the ground, dead.

She is shocked to see this. And just as she looks, Alex Green comes on the stairs, followed by one of Ana’s bodyguards.

“What is this?” asks Alex.

“You tell me!” answers Ana. “Who ordered coffee? Certainly, not me!”

The bodyguards take the dead agent. Alex gets inside the apartment, while Ana closes the door.

“Third assassination attempt in just ten days”, says Ana. “I don’t think I can take this much longer. Don’t these people have anything to do? Honestly, what do they think? If they kill me, the space program will go on with someone else as a leader. I really don’t think this will end anything”.

“If you are dead”, says Alex, “nobody will continue it. Just nobody!”

“Don’t be so sure. You can continue it. We are very close now to get a man on Venus”.

“We can continue this project”, says Alex. But we are unable to go further. It is you who pushes the limit. If it were up to us, we wouldn’t have a man on the Moon”.

Ana laughs. She falls on the coach, looking on the window. Outside, she can see the panorama of the city: blocks along the concrete streets. She lives in an apartment just like everyone else here. There are no privileges in this city. There are no houses, just almost identical blocks. She thinks for a few seconds. Yes, this city is her work. She ordered its construction. But is this the only case? What happened during the Old Soviets? They also built a space city and a cosmodrome.

“If it is not me, then someone else will do it. History showed this again and again. And if it weren’t me, maybe, many things would be much better”.

Alex looks a bit confused at Ana’s words. For he, she is the person behind everything, that person that pushed space exploration beyond any limit and is still pushing everything beyond limits.

“Trust me, Alex. If it were one of the Old Soviets or one of the Old Americans, things would had been much better. They built all from scrap. We have the advantage of their achievements. They first had to figure out how to make a rocket fly. Then, they had to find out how to make a spaceship reentry Earth’s atmosphere. They built the first engines and the first rockets. Even if their technology was, in many aspects, rudimentary, they managed to do incredible things. I’ve seen how they worked. Without a computer, they had to do anything on paper. We need only seconds to simulate how a spaceship will fly from Earth to Venus. They needed weeks and tens of people calculating. Can you imagine that the first spaceships had no computer? The first computer, which took the first manned space probe to the Moon, was simpler then a TV set from our days. Believe me, what they did, is incredible. If they could see what we are doing now, they would laugh at us”.

Alex listens to all this, thinking about. He never bothered too much with history. For him, it is impossible to understand how people were working in past, without a phone cell and without a computer. The middle ages are something he could never understand. The same applies also for the beginning of space age.

“We need to do a lot of things for the Venus mission”, says Ana.

“It is a very complicated mission. We need someone well trained”.

“On Venus, a cosmonaut will have only an hour available to explore the surface. Time is critical. We tested many space suits and all of them have a limited life”.

“I see other problems as well”, says Alex. “Venus has the same gravity as Earth. A cosmonaut, staying for long in space, will get muscles atrophied. The cosmonauts sent to Venus need all their strength and much more. Think that the costume will weight 60 kg. Put that to your weight and it already is too much to carry. The atmosphere is dense and maybe hazy. In case of a wind, you will be blown away like a nothing”.

“We have to make artificial gravity”, says Ana. “The ship will be spinning, simulating Earth’s gravity”.

“I propose to use an even greater spin rate, to mimic a greater gravity then Earth’s. Cosmonauts will have to do a lot of exercises. This is my point of view, that we need to keep them in the best physical form”.

“You’ve seen their face a day ago, when we tested them in fire”.

Alex remembers. Space costumes for Venus were tested many times. But, since yesterday, tests started with people. Ana asked the first tested person to walk through fire… and then, to walk through sulfuric acid. She threw a dead rat into the acid… and the rat started to decompose fast.

“The costumes survived”, says Ana. “We even did the final test, sending people in a hot, corrosive and pressurized chamber, like we will find on Venus. The costumes passed the final test”.

“Yes, but we don’t know exactly what is on Venus. There could also be other acids as well”.

“I know, but there is not much more then this that we can do. We have to take a gamble. I give them two safe hours. And if anything goes bad, the cosmonaut will be tied with a cable to the ship. At least, we can drag him back”.

Ana lights another cigarette. She goes to the window and looks outside.

“What worries me the most is if the other empires will try to attack us. I mean, they can try to attack our spaceship in orbit, before it reaches Venus or even in Venus orbit”.

Alex listens to this, thinking. Could that be possible? Yes. There are already too many political tensions. The other empires put an embargo on us. What could come next? They can go further and attack us. The Americans said that they will take Alaska back by force, if needed. The Jews also want some territories.

“The Jews”, says Alex.

“Well, we are a bit guilty for what they are doing to us”, says Ana. “In fact, the whole world is guilty. They actually made justice. I think every state in history and every ethnic group on this planet did something bad against them, at least once. Nobody suffered more genocides in history then the Jews. They were departed to Persia in ancient times. Then, the Romans conquered them and killed them almost to extermination. They were spread all over the Earth. I am amazed how they managed to survive. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, Jews were crucified even three on a cross. Then, once they were spread all over the world, everyone had something against them”.

“I did not know”, says Alex.

“By far, the worst of all came to them during Hitler’s regime. He tortured and killed millions of Jews in extermination camps. But did only Hitler do this? No. All his allies have their hands painted with blood. They all killed Jews by the millions. Some did this to show their support for Hitler, while others without a reason. Even Stalin. Many Jews ran to the Soviet Union to seek shelter. What did Stalin do? He sent them back to the Nazi. He sent them to death. Also, don’t forget that it was Stalin who learned Hitler methods of extermination. German elite troops were sent to the Soviet Union’s gulags to learn. When they returned, they just applied what they’ve seen”.

“That is why Rosenstein hates us so much”.

“No, Alex. I mean, in part, this is a reason. He hates us also because we took the Balkans from him. We took Ukraine and the Caucasus from him. He wanted to exterminate the Ukrainians just like they did to the Jews”.

“Ukrainians killed Jews?” asks Alex, surprised.

“They did, to show their devotement to the Germans. At that time, Stalin was ruling with his reign of terror. Villages were suffering from artificial famine. People were starving. There were many cases when people killed each other for a rotten potato. Cannibalism was, in some villages, on a daily basis. Also, from Stalin’s order, millions were executed or sent to the gulag. People suffered hard. So, when Hitler came, they considered him as a liberator. They wanted to join German forces. People in the Caucasus or in Ukraine welcomed German troops with bread, meat and anything they had. And to show their devotion, peasants brought their Jewish communities tied to the Germans”.

“So, that’s why Rosenstein wants to invade us!”

“You see, the history is filled of genocides. Some people were completely wiped out in time, some survived. Even territory of today Israel is home of a bloody genocide. When the Jews came there, they killed all people that inhabited the land. The Bible claims that it was God’s wish”.

“I know that part of the Bible. I always looked shocked at it. Do you really believe it was God’s will?”

“I don’t know. I told you, I am a religious person, but not affiliated to a certain religion. I think that humanity has evolved above those times. It is time to stop doing genocides. As my father said, it is time to find a solution to all. ‘If we cry our sins, we do nothing. It is time to repair what can be repaired’ he said when he repatriated the Circassians, the Tatars, the Pontic Greeks, Volga Germans and others. This is what Lenin tried to do before. Lenin created autonomous regions to protect remaining ethnic groups”.

“I heard about the Holocaust and all what the Jews suffered from Hitler”.

“I lived in Germany in my early childhood”, says Ana, turning back from the window. “My mother took me to a Holocaust memorial. We visited an extermination camp, which was preserved as a memorial. I wish that place could be seen. The Germans acknowledged their mistakes, their crimes. They were decided never to do the same again. They had no idea that, one day, they will be the ones entering the extermination camp, never to return alive”.

Ana takes an old picture from somewhere. She shows it to Alex. On the picture, the face of a woman with red hair can be seen.

“She is Monika Leonova, my mother”, says Ana. “I don’t have many things from her. I have this picture and a hair clip. Yes, she was a German, a native German. Many people lived in Germany at that time. Through time, many immigrants came from all over the world. Many came to work in Germany and remained there, married German boys or girls and gave birth to children. There were also some Jews in Germany. Despite Hitler’s atrocities, some Jews survived. Others came later and settled in. Even Rosenstein lived in Germany. His family name is actually of German origin. I would not be surprised if he has some German blood flowing in his veins. After all, Hitler had some Jewish blood in his veins too”.

“Tell me more about Germany. How was it?”

“It was a country, a rich and well developed one. Streets were clean. Germans were very civilized. German language has almost no ugly words. Germans were quiet and polite, hard working people and proud of their civilization. Well, I was a child at that time. Dad had to run to Germany to hide himself. He was always implied in politics. In my early childhood, we were regular citizens. Mom worked at a nuclear plant. We think that is where she got cancer. This is why dad is against nuclear plants and insists on using wind and water to gain energy. We had a small house in the suburbs. Mom went everyday to work and I went everyday to school. Around that time Rosenstein took power in Israel and started his crusade against Muslims. Dad knew him. He was sure that Rosenstein will not stop until he will erase Germany from the face of Earth. This is why, during the siege of Romania, we moved to Moscow. Dad was sure that Moscow will be the last city to fall. When we moved, mom was no longer. It was a shock for me. Moscow is far more violent. People are by far not that polite as Germans are. It is a dangerous place to live. At school, I could hardly adapt. It was good that I knew Russian from dad. Then came the day when he took power by force. He knew it is the only way to stop both the Jews and the Americans, to create a third empire. Dad knew Rosenstein from when I was very little”.

“Don’t tell me that they were friends”.

“Not friends. They were both part of a secret organization, called Red Flags. Throughout history, it was secret organizations, which decided the fate of this planet. Even communism started as a secret organization, banned in many states. Do you know anything about my grandfather?”

“All I know is that he was a Muslim and he was an important figure in history”, says Alex.

“My grandfather was Adge Leonov. He was more a military leader. He brought independence to the Northern Caucasus by force. However, that territory became a paradise for mafia clans. Soon, the area was ravaged by endless wars. He was a visionary. His dream was a world divided in a thousand small, independent states. He believed that globalization is the worst thing for mankind. He tried to make other regions of that time Russia to divide into independent states. After many wars, all Siberia was split into smaller states. That is where he found his wife, my grandmother. She calmed down his temper and convinced him that peace is the only way to solve problems. They were both murdered. Dad managed to survive by joining the Red Flags. This organization helped him run to Germany. There, he found Rosenstein, which was also a teen. The organization helped Rosenstein gain power in Israel. You see, these secret organizations seek only one thing: power. The reason behind their lust for power is greed. The good thing is that they learn you many interesting ways to gain power, to control people and to build your way in life”.

Ana puts the picture back.

“What can I tell you? Rosenstein was a monster from the beginning. He wanted to make justice through any means, but he was a monster. He had an almost demonic hate for anyone who tried to argue with him. Red Flags helped him to gain power in Israel to ensure its power in the area… but it was a terrible mistake. After he gained power, he ran out of control and killed anyone who opposed him. Between my dad and Rosenstein, the fight is much older. Mom was a simple German woman. She married dad because of love and nothing else. At that time, dad was just a simple citizen. But, before that, mom was Rosenstein’s love. Well, she never liked him, but he was in love. This is where all started in fact. Rosenstein invited her on a romantic journey along the Danube. She accepted. The journey ended in Romania, where the Danube flows into the sea. There, she found preparations finished for a wedding. She accepted the celebrations to go on. For a day and a night, she was Monika Rosenstein. Then, she ran away, took the first airplane and returned to Germany. A month later, she was with dad. This is in fact the cause of all you see around”.

Ana has tears in her eyes. She goes to the bathroom and washes her face and then she returns and continues to talk.

“She accepted the Danube journey without knowing what will this lead to. But, as she told me many times, Rosenstein is a monster. He tried to murder mom and me when I was 3. He tried again when I was 6. If you look on the map, his first military campaign in Europe just follows their journey. He invaded Romania first then went to Serbia and Hungaria. He destroyed every city or town where he and mom stayed. He wants me dad. It was clear from the beginning that he is fighting for this. The Jews were fooled at first by his ambition to punish all Muslims which ever attacked Israel. Something had to be done. You know, for a hundred years, terrorist groups had been hiding among Muslims. This is why the world supported him at first. But then, when he got enough strength from conquered territories, he turned towards Europe. He wanted to kill all Germans for my mom”.

Alex looks shocked, not knowing what to say.

“There is something else which can make peace: my hand. If I marry him, he will sign a peace treaty and our empires will unite. But I will never accept this. Never!”

Ana has again tears in her eyes. She takes a towel then speaks again.

“The Americans stepped in without knowing what this is about. They wanted to form a counter state, able to defeat him. They don’t know what he really wants. For a while, he thought I was in America, since Red Flags has many base organizations there. It infiltrated both the Masonry and Illuminati, which are strong secret organizations on American soil. America just played his game without knowing. You see, throughout history, nobody could conquer Russia. The Mongols tried first. Then came the Tatars, which are Mongol descendants. Napoleon tried and failed. Hitler went to the doors of Moscow, but failed. Rosenstein knew that a military conquest of Russia would be very hard, if not impossible, without help. So, he divided the world between him and Leonard Bohr. They were both to conquer Russia, one from the North and one from the south. He thought that, encircled, Russia will surrender. That is the moment when dad took control in Moscow. He knew that it was the only way to stop the two. He knew that, if he doesn’t do this, the two empires will, at some point, unite. He did not do this for me, but for the people. And that is true. In hard times, people need something to believe into. The government of that time was ready to negotiate surrender to a faction or another. People still had something in mind, the image of the Old Soviets, the time when we were a mighty empire, equaling in power the Americans. What did people want? They wanted the rebirth of the Soviet dream, a dream that they always had in their minds. This was the only thing which could stop Rosenstein from ruling the world”.

“But the American Empire was formed to counter Rosenstein’s increasing power”, says Alex.

“Indeed”, says Ana. “But there is something you miss from the picture. Let’s suppose the New Soviet Empire never existed. The two empires share the world. Then what? There are two possible outcomes, both leading to Rosenstein’s domination. First, think about a nuclear war. Who would win? At a first look, nobody would. However, people in democracy are less prone to violence. They first want to discuss and to vote. Until they are ready to attack, they are doomed. In a dictatorship, power is in the hands of a single person, which will launch the missiles faster. The first to launch is the first to win. The second option is that of a formal peace, with strong tensions. However, they are not prepared to deal with a madman like Rosenstein. He follows his plans to the end. At some point, he will attack. He will cross the borders, slower or faster. He is just like Hitler in many aspects. Hitler was friend with Stalin. But, when Hitler could no longer advance to the West and conquer Britain, he turned East, against his ally. The second way also leads to a war. And again, in case of a war, he would win. Now, think about how things are now. There are three empires. If two empires are at war, the third will win. Even after a nuclear war, there will be survivals. The two empires would be completely destroyed. The third empire would sustain less damage and would have the resources to conquer the rest of the world”.

“Now I understand”, says Alex. “So, the Supreme Soviet took power to save the world? He knew that things will go this way?”

“He was helped by Red Flags to take power. He was helped by this organization to unite many former Soviet territories. He realized that it is the only way. It really was the only way. He never wanted to save the world. His plan was to form a neutral state between the two empires, a free place where people could have another option. But, once he started, he had to continue. Well, now things are going in the wrong way. Rosenstein is starting to be friend with Bohr. This could mean our doom. If they unite, they can slowly push us out of the table. It starts with an embargo. Then, they will start using propaganda and border tensions. Slowly, they will force us to spend more money on military and less to develop the economy. This will weaken the economy, up to the point where we will not be able to sustain ourselves. We will fall like the Old Soviets. Only that, this time, it will be worse. Our disintegration will be completed”.

“I hope we will not fall”.

“For Hitler, the start of the fall was Moscow. When Germans started to lose battles, many of them knew that they will lose the war. For the Old Soviets, the sign was the lose of the space race. When the Americans walked on the Moon, experts realized that they will win. The second warning was the Voyager program. Suddenly, the Americans were beyond Jupiter, when we couldn’t get past Mars. The same is in here. As long as we lead the space race, we hope for victory. When the others will have a decisive advance from us, we will know that the end is coming for us”.

Ana lights another cigarette and looks on the window.

“People follow charismatic leaders to the end”, she says. “Do you think the Germans did not know that they will fall? Do you think that they did not know Hitler was a monster? But still, they followed him. What do you think? There are many Jews, which are against Rosenstein, but they follow him and they will keep following him when he will start falling. As for now, we are the only thing that stands between life and death, between peace and a nuclear war. If we reach Venus before the others, we win. The space race will not end, but we will have a far greater advantage compared to the others. We bet everything we have on Venus. Failure is death. Dad will have to sell me to Rosenstein to make peace, to be his wife. You will all end-up in Kolyma Gulag. With us as an ally, he will attack the Americans and will conquer the Earth”.

It is getting dark outside. Ana allows Alex to sleep in her apartment. Tomorrow, they will go back to Space Factory to keep on working.

August 7th. Work is continuing at Earth Space Station. The massive ship that will head to Venus is gradually assembled. On the sky of Aral high-altitude airplanes appear. They are all American airplanes. They want to block further launches to takeoff. They all fly very high in the stratosphere. Leonard Bohr comes live on their state television. He claims that the New Soviets transformed Aral into a gulag and many workers die of starvation. He wants a humanitarian inspection to visit the facilities and make sure people are not used as slaves. In America, massive protests follow the next weeks.

The Supreme Soviet answers short to these accusations:

“If you claim that we use slavery, then what should we say about you? Do your people enjoy more freedom then we do? Where is the democracy? Where is their freedom?”

The other empires conduct high-altitude airplane surveys all over the New Soviet Empire. It is a tentative to lower the moral of the people. Near the borders, military fortresses are built, one by one. Inside those fortresses, nuclear warheads can be seen. The pressure is getting higher by the day.

The Supreme Soviet orders that a Lenin V will take four cosmonauts to Earth space Station. They will live there. Four habitat modules and four waste recycling systems will be sent to space. He fears that the other empires might use a ballistic missile to blow the station. If there are people onboard, nobody would risk to kill them. Such an act could trigger a nuclear war. So, the launch schedule is increased. In addition to existing Lenin V scheduled launches, there will be Lenin IV launches to occur at the same schedule. These rockets will bring supplies to existing surface bases on Moon and Mars. They will also bring supplies to the space stations.

October 1st. The Mercury manned mission arrives. The ship is parked in orbit around Mercury. A few days later, the first manned landing occurs. Two cosmonauts land at Mercury’s North Pole, in a crater, which hosts water ice. A second landing occurs on October 10th, on the far side of Mercury. Again, it is a great success. And on October 17th, the Mars Space Station is established on Phobos. On October 22nd, the first manned mission visits Deimos and on November 12th, a manned ship lands to Mars Base and heads back to Phobos. Later, on December 13th, Ceres Space Station is put in place and starts operating in orbit. On December 19th, the first landing on Ceres occurs.

All these are seen as ‘Soviet victories’ by the other empires. All over the American Empire, people start protesting, requesting that Marshall Leonard Bohr has to develop better space missions. People start to admire the ‘Reds’ for this.

During this time, the Jewish Empire continued to send unmanned robots to the near side of the Moon. Samuel Rosenstein claims his sovereignty over the South part of the near side. He reveals the world a massive Moon colonization plan.

January 7th. This is the date of the Orthodox Christmas. Ana decides to bring the Russian Orthodox Patriarch to Aral, to the Space City. This is her gift for the people. She wants the patriarch to sanctify the factories and the cosmodrome. Since most people are Orthodox, this will boost their moral. Ana herself participates at all this. The patriarch gives small presents to all the children.

The story of Santa is a bit different in this part of the world. Santa has a bad wife, which hates children. She is guilty for each time when Santa fails to give to the children the presents they wanted. She is an old and ugly witch, with a long nose. She grabs bad children and cooks them in her cauldron. This story works very good, as children are scared with Santa’s wife. There is also another legend, that Santa often gets drunk. And when he is drunk, his sleigh often gets stocked in trees. Only that, this time, his sleigh got stock on a rocket waiting to get launched. Santa looked around and said: “What is this? Oh, it’s the Aral! I forgot last year to bring something for the children in here. Let’s see what I have in my sack”. The patriarch tells the children how he fought to get Santa off the rocket. Parents laugh, while children listen carefully, thinking the story is real. The patriarch then tells children to avoid being alone at night, as Santa’s wife is trying to steal their presents.

Another important Orthodox celebration is January 19th, the date of Epiphany. At that date, Jesus was baptized in Jordan. It is also the coldest time of the year. However, the tradition is that, on this day, some people take a bath in cold, freezing water. There are a few lakes surrounding Space City. Ana accepts for a large celebration with the condition that people will work harder and the next Lenin IV and V will be launched before schedule. This is just what happens. Both rockets are launched on January 17th. The project is already ahead schedule by a launch.

Everything should work well. However, one of the boosters used for the Lenin IV fails to land where it should. Instead, it lands far to the West, in the Himalayas, which form a border with the Jewish Empire. The booster is attacked by a ballistic missile and explodes. It is a massive nuclear explosion, which creates a powerful avalanche in the area. The avalanche destroys a Buddhist monastery.

This is the moment Iosif Leonov had been waiting for. He appears on state television and says:

“Comrades! Our neighbor from the South is doing anything against peace. Today, he attacked a booster of one of our space rockets that was in our territory. This is a violation of our rights, of our sovereignty and of our freedom. I strongly condemn such an act. Everyone on the face of Earth and in outer space should condemn such an aggression. To make things even worse, the explosion caused an avalanche, which killed 72 monks in a Buddhist monastery. People died there. I am asking you all. Were they guilty of anything? Did they do anything bad to anyone? No! They were praying, up in the mountains. They were praying for us! They were praying for the peace of the world! Is it correct? Is it fair? No! I am publicly asking Samuel Rosenstein to apologize for this. He must apologize not to me, but to the people who died, to their relatives, which are now crying. I am asking for the American Empire to condemn this. It is unacceptable to kill innocent people. Violence is only acceptable as self-defense. Nobody is allowed to take the life of anyone, except when defending you. The only people that are allowed to kill are soldiers in a mission, but even they can only kill other soldiers, not innocent people. I strongly condemn this act. I am publicly asking the American officials to recognize that this is an act of war. We don’t want war. We want peace. We want prosperity and economical development. Rosenstein, you are not at the first such act. What happened to the crew of American rocket Democracy II? They died. I strongly condemn what happened to Democracy II. It could establish a Moon base before us. I want competition, not conflict. Competition will show who is the strongest of us. Conflict will lead to no good, to all people in the world”.

January 20th. An American spy airplane suffers from an engine malfunction. It crashes not far from Aral. The pilot ejects and is captured by a military task. This is another event that Iosif Leonov was hardly waiting to happen. He orders the pilot to be treated well, to receive food and shelter. The pilot is asked if he wants to get Soviet citizenship or to return home. Because he wants to be returned, this is just what happens. He is loaded on a public train, with one soldier (to ensure his safety) and sent to Alaska and then to the border. The wrecked airplane is also sent to the border. The Supreme Soviet says that ‘this is a gift of peace’. He also insists that a ‘peace and cooperation train should be traveling every day between Moscow and New York, as a symbol of peace and cooperation’ between the two empires. Leonard Bohr accepts this and the train starts traveling every day. The train is named Мир (or Peace in Russian).

It is a great success. Now, the Americans and the Jews are not friends.

However, on February 8th, a massive accident happens. A Lenin V fails to launch successfully and crashes in the desert, at 21 km from the cosmodrome. Nobody got killed, but this might cause a delay in the launch schedule.

The Supreme Soviet wants to make a visit to Aral. The official visit is scheduled for February 11th. He will come by airplane. However, he secretly orders Ana and the top 11 scientists to take the train to Aralsk, just two hours before arrival. The official airplane lands at the cosmodrome. The Supreme Soviet lands with a small airplane secretly at Aralsk on an airstrip.

The official plan is that Ana and the scientists will meet with the Supreme Soviet at the airplane. Soldiers will protect the official envoy. This is what should happen… In fact, people dressed like Ana and the scientists are waiting the Supreme Soviet, which is replaced by a man wearing his costumes. Then, a group of terrorist snipers start shooting at the official envoy from 2 km away. Guided missiles are also fired.

Ana and the scientists enter the small airplane. The Supreme Soviet shows them what is happening, live, on a laptop. He says:

“I knew this will happen. I had the information. So, I placed elite troops all around and allowed the terrorists to think nobody will see them. Sooner or later, I will force Rosenstein to discuss with us. But for now, this will only buy us a little peace until the mission to Venus is ready”.

“All is linked to the mission to Venus”, says Alan Green.

“Yes, comrade”, says the Supreme Soviet. “We have only one chance to get to Venus. They will do anything they can to stop us. I am telling you classified information. The other empires failed to build a manned Venus return mission. They simply lack the resources. Bohr tried to make a joint mission with Rosenstein for this purpose. Together, they could get to Venus, but divided, they cannot… at least now. The Venus flight window is in May. If we fail now, the Americans will have enough time to build it until the next flight window. They will build it until next winter”.

“That is good news”, says Alan Green. “We will not fail”.

“I came here to show you something”, says the Supreme Soviet. “I will take you to stay 24 hours in your new home. If you fail the mission to Venus, you will all go there for the rest of your lives. I am taking you to Kolyma. I am taking you to Astana. From there, another airplane will take you to your destination. After a day, you will be sent back to Aral. This is also the time the KGB needs to interrogate all terrorists”.

This is exactly what happens. Ana and the 11 leading scientists are left on Astana airport. From there, another airplane takes them to the secluded area of Kolyma. They land in the middle of the night. Well, it is polar night. After a few hours, the airplane lands on a small icy airstrip.

Outside, it is incredibly cold. The air is so cold, that you can hardly breath. How many stories had been told about this place, about this area? Hundreds of thousands died in here. Even today, mining operations find holes filled with bones. It is said that the cruelty was beyond imaginable. This must be the place where Stalin experienced his most cruel ways of torture. This must be where the German elite SS troops came to learn how to torture people. This is the place where the most brutal and most inhuman ways of torture were discovered and tested. Many people went to here, only a few survived to tell the world. The last gulag was closed after 1990… at least official. Still, many survivals of the former slaves remained in the area and built their own villages.

Today, things are different. The rich mineral deposits are still mined, but with modern equipment. Like all around the Siberia, dams are being built, together with wind turbines. Railways cross this region too. The endless taiga is a major source of wood, which has many industrial applications. Loggers use now technology instead of slaves.

There is only one place where slavery still exists. This is the last gulag. Here are sent those who are unable to recover. The worst criminals, who continue to kill people even locked in prison, are sent to this place. They stay here until they die.

A group of guards escort the scientists through the bitter cold. Not far, behind electric fences, they can see the camp. Everything is, by far, different to what was here before. All inmates have an electric collar around their neck. If they don’t listen, they receive a powerful and painful electric shock. Rule number one: don’t talk. The device is activated by your own voice. You say a single word and… next second, you are down on ground, screaming of pain. All day long, inmates work in the mines, smashing rocks with hammers. They are not allowed to rest. If they are not working, they get electric shocks. Food is some sort of gray goo. Ana tests it. It is not much different from the food used by cosmonauts.

This is all what inmates do. They work all day. In the evening, they return to the barracks, eat and go to sleep, exhausted. They work until they die. They are not allowed to do or to think anything else. In past, it was far worse. Food was sparse. Inmates often turned to cannibalism to survive. They were often bitten to death. But, even today, most inmates don’t resist more then two years.

Returned to Aral, Ana and the scientists know very well that they have to get to Venus unless they want to end-up in Kolyma. The Supreme Soviet made that clear.

MOMENT OF TRUTH

You are all that stands between a great victory and eternal slavery. You stand between light and dark, between glory and shame. You don’t fight for me or for you or for the Supreme Soviet. You fight now for all the people in the Soviet Empire. You represent today Christians, Atheists, Muslims, Russians and all other nations who inhabit this land. You fight today for all of us. Fight well! Ana Leonova talking to the cosmonauts before the launch to Venus.

April 29th. The last Lenin V is launched towards Earth Space Station. The monster rocket turns on its engines. The ground trembles. When the countdown reaches zero, the monster is released and starts climbing to space, filling the cosmodrome with fire and smoke. It carries the last supplies for the future Venus Space Station, together with four cosmonauts. Four pioneers go to Venus: two men and two women. They are Svetlana, Daria, Iuri and Vuc. After months of hard training, they are now going to space.

Inside, they witness the fury of the beast. The mighty Lenin V fights against Earth’s gravity, accelerating more and more by the second. Inside the cabin, they witness a powerful noise and very strong vibrations. There is nothing that can describe how it is to sit on top of a space rocket. On computer displays, they can see how the rocket is moving on, how engines work and how fuel is consumed. Higher in space, the small boosters are detached. Then, the big boosters are separated. And then, the first stage is exhausted. Second stage continues the fight against gravity.

Finally, the fairings are detached. For the first time, cosmonauts can see the beauty of space. The sky is black and full of stars. The Earth is near them. It is the first time they witness the lack of gravity. After two hours, they see Earth Space Station. At first, it appears as a star, then, as an object.

May 1st. After the last preparations, Venus manned mission is ready. The huge spaceship is assembled and ready to takeoff. The ship leaves Earth Space Station at exactly 9.00, Moscow time. The event is transmitted live on state television. The huge solar panels open. They are over 1 km wide. At this size, they can be seen even from Earth surface. All 29 nitrogen ion engines are turned on. They produce a bright blue light. The ship advances very slowly, as these engines produce low, but highly efficient thrust.

Two other ships appear from the darkness of space. One is American and one is Jewish. They want to follow the Venus mission and make sure that it is not a fake. They want to see that the New Soviets really send a manned mission to Venus and manage to recover the cosmonaut from the planet.

People are celebrating the event. They are all happy. They are all sure that the mission will be a success. Ana watches everything nervous. Will this mission work? What if it will fail dramatically? She closes her eyes for a few seconds. She remembers the Jewish manned mission to Venus. They sent a cosmonaut, without planning his return. The Venera orbiter captured his desperate calls, as his ship started to disintegrate in sulfuric acid. He cried almost like a child, knowing that he will die. What if this will happen again?

Ana remembers the successful Mercury landing. Two cosmonauts landed on that planet. She remembers their message:

“Greetings to Moscow! I know it is winter up there. But down here, on the closest planet to the Sun, we have both summer and winter. We are at the North Pole! Up on the crest of this crater you can see the Sun. Down on its bottom, there is ice!”

The first manned mission to Ceres was also a great success. The ship landed and transmitted the first pictures. It was also the first marriage in space. The cosmonauts that landed on Ceres got married in just a few days. They decided to remain forever in space on Ceres Space Station.

Phobos Space Station was also a success. The lander brought supplies to the Mars base. There, on Mars surface, was born the first child in outer space. Another child will come soon.

It is now time for Venus. Will it be a success? Unfortunately, we have to wait six months until the ship arrives to orbit and Venus Space Station is put in place. Well, at 10.00, Moscow time, the ship starts spinning its habitat modules. Cosmonauts will benefit from artificial gravity. Spinning rate is set higher, to simulate a gravity of 1.2. This way, cosmonauts will be better prepared for the conditions on Venus. Only two of them will go to the planet… and only one will walk on Venus. Let the best of all be the one to touch Venus surface.

Meanwhile, Ana decides to continue work. She doesn’t like to see her workers sitting. She starts planning a manned mission to Jupiter’s moons. After Venus, Jupiter is the second most difficult target. Its moons are deep within Jupiter’s gravity well. The planet has a powerful radiation belt. It is a very difficult challenge. But will it be possible? It all depends on what will happen on Venus. A failure now and the whole space program is compromised.

Ana is decided to go to the end. Can the Jupiter mission be developed in six months? If the Jupiter manned ship is launched before the Venus probe arrives, nobody will stop it. It is a hard gamble. She knows that a Venus return mission is the most difficult thing for a spaceship. Any space power able to do it can do many more. She knows that space exploration will not abruptly come to a halt. When the Old Soviets failed to send a man to the Moon, space missions continued, but it was clear that America won. Soviets built the first space station. The Americans conducted several more Moon landings. Then, they built the Voyager program: two spaceships, which explored the four gas giants. Nobody dared to provoke them again. The same will happen if the mission to Venus fails. Another mission to Venus will require time. Eleven Lenin V launches are not easy to conduct. The needed time for this is longer then the time to the next space window. With all mobilization, the New Soviets will simply be unable to launch a new mission to Venus in such a short time.

What would a manned mission to Jupiter mean? The first challenge is weather. Jupiter is further from the Sun. Average temperature is below –100 C. In such conditions, a spaceship needs good insulation and a source of heat. The second problem is lack of light. Plants can survive in these conditions, but they will produce far less food. The base will require larger aquariums, exposed to more sunlight. Solar panels need to be huge and might not be enough. A nuclear generator is needed to provide part of the heat.

Jupiter has a very strong radiation belt. A space station needs to be located further away. The best location appears to be the small outer moon Himalia. It is far enough from Jupiter and in a safe location.

All missions to the large moons of Jupiter require a high delta-V budget because Jupiter has a strong gravity. The plan is to send four ships towards the four larger moons of Jupiter. Also, the journey takes many days between the station and each moon. Cosmonauts will need to carry their food.

While doing missions on the large moons and en route to them, cosmonauts will be exposed to radiations, which are far stronger then Earth’s Van Allen belts. To make sure nothing will hurt people and equipment, landing ships need to be protected. However, radiation shields add to the weight. Both the ships and the space suits will be heavier.

The plan is to build a space station on Himalia. Then, four ships will take cosmonauts to the inner moons of Jupiter.

In a few days, scientists do the entire math and see how much fuel will they need to complete this mission. The first thing they see is that each mission will require between 100 and 200 days to complete. Can cosmonauts store all the needed food, oxygen and water for such a long journey? A two men crew might require too much. A single cosmonaut might consume less, but it is difficult to stay alone for such a long journey. The single cosmonaut option appears to be better.

Also, it appears that nitrogen ion engines should be the best option for the long journey between Himalia and each of the inner moons. This will dramatically reduce weight. Chemical engines will only be used around the satellites. Each of the manned ships is designed with four stages. Stage 1 will transfer the ship between Himalia and the target. Stage 2 will ensure landing. Stage 3 will be used for liftoff. Stage 4 will transfer the ship back to Himalia. On the target moon, a horse will be also deployed.

In order to get from Himalia to Callisto, a ship needs a delta-v of 4.101 km/s. The ship also needs 2.707 km/s delta-v to land. This means a total of 6.808 km/s. The same delta-v is required to return from Callisto to Himalia. Stage 4 will weight 7 t. Stage 3 will use two RS-2 engines and will weight 30 t. Stage 2 will weight 100 t and will use four RS-2 engines. Stage 1 will have nitrogen ion engines and will weight 55 t. Total mass is 212 t.

To get to Ganymede, you need 5.779 km/s for the flight transfer and 3.056 km/s of delta- V to land. Stage 4, with nitrogen ion engines, weights 11 t. Stage 3 weights 41 t and needs 3 RS-2 engines. Stage 2 weights 149 t and uses two RS-3 engines. Stage 1 will weight 117 t. Total mass is 339 t. Using two Callisto flybys can save some nitrogen fuel. This can reduce mass to 327 t.

To get to Europa from Himalia, a spaceship needs 7.360 km/s for the transfer and 2.264 km/s to land. Europa is the most intriguing of all moons of Jupiter. It has a subsurface ocean, where scientists think conditions are just fine for life. For over a century, people dreamed of an adventure in the subsurface ocean. However, breaking the thick ice, which is many km thick, is beyond current technology. What scientists hope, is that microbes from the ocean might have been sent to the surface by geysers. If this is true, they can be found in ice. The mission will deploy a horse on Europa and will take many samples of ice to be brought to Earth. Stage 4 must carry enough nitrogen and will weight 15 t. Stage 3, used for takeoff, will weight 29 t. It will use three RS-2 engines. Stage 2, used for landing, will have a weight of 66 t, using two RS-3 engines. Stage 1, using nitrogen, will have a weight of 47 t. Total calculated mass is 112 t. Ganymede and Callisto flybys can further reduce this mass to 101 t.

To get to Io, a ship needs to go deep into jupiter’s gravity well. The transfer orbit requires a delta-v of 9.116 km/s. For landing, a ship needs 2.747 km/s. Io has an extreme volcanism. These volcanoes produce sulfur, which feeds the radiation belt. Io is a dangerous place to land. A mission cannot last more then a day. Stage 4 needs to carry more nitrogen and will weight 20 t. Stage 3 will weight 46 t and will use four RS-2 engines. Stage 2 weights 72 t and uses two RS-3 engines. Finally, stage 1, which needs to transfer the ship from Himalia to Io, weights 156 t. Total mass is 315 t. However, flybys with the other satellites can reduce delta-V. The mass can be reduced to 277 t.

Together, the four manned ships weight 978 t. If fuel is saved with the help of gravity assists, the mass can be reduced to 917 t.

The unmanned probe to Almathea and the inner moons will also carry two bugs. Its total mass will be 2 t. However, to fall that deep into Jupiter’s gravity well, you need to produce a delta-v of 13.389 km/s. The probe will require a nitrogen stage weighting 6 t. Overall, it will weight 8 t, which is very little compared to the manned missions. Sending a human that close to Jupiter is too costly, but still more easy then sending a human to Venus.

The return ship to Earth weights 200 t. However, it will need to produce a delta-v of 14.432 km/s. To get all that thrust, the ship needs a nitrogen stage weighting 420 t (357 t of nitrogen). Total mass becomes 620 t.

So, if we add the four manned ships, the unmanned one, Himalia Space Station and the return vehicle, we get a total mass of 2006 t. To get all this to Jupiter we need 3580 t of nitrogen. If we also add the mass of the engines, nitrogen tanks and solar panels needed, we get an astonishing weight of 6218 t. To lift all this mass to orbit, we need 13 Lenin V launches! There is no way to finish all this until the Venus landing.

Desperate, Ana asks scientists if it is possible to reduce costs by using more flybys. It could be possible. If instead of a direct Jupiter flight the assembled ship will conduct two Earth and one mars flyby, it can save much fuel. Also, the returning ship does not need to land entirely. Only a shuttle needs to land, the rest can crash on earth. Still, mass cannot be reduced too much. This will also make the mission much longer. Cosmonauts are not happy to spend too much time in space.

Until Venus mission arrives to Venus orbit, six Lenin V ships are already sent to Earth Space Station. Others are expected to come… if the Venus mission will be a success.

Then, on November 13th, the Venus Space Station is placed in orbit. Final preparations are done. The station is assembled and the manned lander should detach soon. Both the Americans and the Jews have a ship in orbit. They are both waiting to see if the mission will be a success or a failure. It is now or never.

The lander is detached on November 26th. The plan is to land somewhere close to the landing site of one of the Old Soviet Venera landing sites. Two cosmonauts are chosen for this mission: Svetlana and Vuc.

How does the lander look like? Here is a drawing. Its total length is close to 70 m It has roughly 40 m from the end of a wing to the end of the other. All stages are visible in different colors:

Here is a comparison between all five Lenin ships and the Great Pyramid:

The lander has a round hydrogen-oxygen fuel tank at one end, which is burned with the help of a RS-2 engine. This is just enough to deorbit it into Venus. At 6.22 Moscow time or 9.22 Aral time, the engine starts firing. The lander is slowed just enough to pierce into Venus’s atmosphere. Because of the distance, it is impossible to keep a live contact between Earth and the lander.

The fuel tank is detached once it is exhausted. The lander turns with its front forward. Now comes the easy part. It pierces through the outer, rarefied atmosphere of Venus. The wings start to work, slowing it down. Atmospheric contact is confirmed at 11.27, Aral time. Then, at 11.31, contact is lost. Five minutes later, scientists see this.

It is something expected. When a ship flies fast through atmosphere, contact is always lost. It should reappear once the ship is slowed down enough.

Inside the lander, the two cosmonauts are in their space suits, waiting. The onboard computer controls movements of their ship. They fly fast through clouds of sulfuric acid. Turbulences are strong.

“System working good”, says Vuc. “The lander is turning towards East, to avoid a big storm ahead”.

“Should I fire the first nitrogen to cool the ship?” asks Svetlana. “I think we should wait a bit longer”.

“The system will fire it automatically if needed”.

They feel stronger turbulences. The ship is twitching and trembling worse then any airplane on Earth. Altitude decreases to 20 km. Finally the ship is slowed down enough.

“We are coasting!” says Svetlana, as the ship stops trembling too much. “Speed is reduced to 1573 km/h”.

That is the moment when signal is recovered. On Earth, scientists see these five minutes later. Everyone hears Vuc saying:

“My God! We are in a purple cloud! It appears to be raining around us. Well, I wonder how the weather is now in Moscow”.

“I bet the whole world is watching us right now”, says Svetlana.

Ana watches the mission. She can see inside and outside the cabin. The lander transmits live… only that Earth sees it five minutes later.

“Just focus, you two!” whispers Ana. “Focus, don’t screw it now!”

“It is so nice to feel gravity again”, says Vuc. “After six months when we only experienced artificial gravity, we can feel it. It is much weaker then we expected”.

The lander turns in the dense atmosphere. The onboard computer fires some liquid nitrogen for the first time, cooling the inner part of the fuselage. The gas escapes fast into the atmosphere.

“Temperature is falling”, says Svetlana. “That is good, stages are still at –172 degrees Celsius. Inner fuselage temperature dropped from –21 to –117 degrees. Our fuel is preserved well”.

“Venera 9 landing site is close to us”, says Vuc. “The computer is turning right and slowly spiraling down. It is a flat terrain, very good for landing”.

“Radar scan confirms that terrain is flat”.

“I hope we can find Venera 9 in this area”.

“It should be around here somewhere”.

Altitude decreases to 5 km. The atmosphere is far denser and hotter. The onboard computer searches for any sign of Venera 9. Signal is interrupted for a minute.

“I see it!” screams Vuc. “Venera 9 is just down there! We located it. I am surprised to see it survived in this acid sea!”

“We are going to Venera!”

After other 13 minutes, the ship is close enough. It moves slowly through the dense atmosphere. Now, cameras transmit images from the surface. The ship slows down to less then 100 km/s. Sleds are prepared for landing. Another puff of liquid nitrogen is sent through pipes, cooling the fuselage.

The lander approaches surface. A parachute is opened, further slowing it down. Landing occurs at 33 km/h, at 100 m from Venera 9. The landing is much harsher then expected. Sleds fire harpoons to secure the ship on ground. The new horse is deployed too.

“We arrived on Venus!” says Svetlana. “Wind speed is 22 km/h. We proceed with ground operations”.

As the news reach Earth, all scientists hug each other, in a happy cry of joy. But, nobody has time to celebrate. Cosmonauts know very well that the clock is ticking. With every second, the corrosive atmosphere dissolves the ship. Nitrogen is again pushed into the cooling pipes, to keep the ship cool.

Vuc will go down. He is already wearing the costume. It is the toughest space suit ever built, made of titanium alloy and covered with platinum. He is in a separate chamber, where the air had already been pumped out. The atmosphere of Venus enters his chamber in a minute. The door opens.

“Wow! I never imagined Venus is such a noisy place!” he says once the door opens. “It is like being in a street concert! I hope you guys hear what I hear!”

A ladder allows him to get to the surface. The wind is already strong, pushing him away. He touches the surface. Scientists on Earth see this image. On all cameras, the image is blurred and twitching. There is a storm above, distorting radio signals. The ship deploys a robotic arm and drills for underground samples. Vuc starts walking on the surface.

“Oh mine!” he says. “I never imagined Venus to be this hell! The wind is almost pushing me up! Well, let’s plant the flag”.

He takes the New Soviet flag. He moves 30 m away from the lander and plants it in the ground. The flag is fixed with a pneumatic harpoon.

“I wish the Old Soviets could see this!” he says.

On Earth, scientists watch. One camera goes off. It imploded on the huge pressure of Venus. Vuc continues to go towards Venera 9.

“Go more to right!” says Svetlana.

“I cannot see further then 50 meters”, says Vuc. “Oh, there it is. I can see it, but it appears much further. I cannot see where the Sun is or anything. It is just a pink yellow surface of rocks. Above me, I see some sort of haze”.

Ana takes the microphone and tells him:

“Vuc! Move faster! We don’t know if a more powerful storm is coming. Make sure you can return!”

“My costume is pouring liquid nitrogen to cool itself”, says Vuc. “Outside, it is like in a lake of molten lead, but inside, I feel just fine. I am amazed how efficient this costume is. We tested them in a pressured furnace and it resisted”.

He manages to go to Venera 9. Scientists see the probe. The image is not clear, as the cameras start to fall.

“Old Soviets, do you hear me? Venera 9 is here! The ship is still here! I see signs of corrosion, but by far not what I would expect. It survived! We made it!”

He looks for a place to grab a sample. He finds a sheet of steel detached from the ship and breaks it. He also takes a few rocks and something that looks like mud from the surface. His costume has a pocket specially designed for this on his chest. Then, he hears Ana’s message. He looks scared, then says:

“Yes, comrade Leonova! I am coming”.

He starts walking back to the lander. After roughly 30 meters, the wind pulls him down. He continues moving on the ground, unable to walk.

“My costume is pouring nitrogen over and over. It must be extremely hot around here. I never expected it to be like this. It is far more difficult then in any simulation we had. Kids, don’t come to this place. It is more dangerous then I ever imagined”.

He tries to use the cable to return. It works for a while. Then, the cable breaks. Sulfuric acid corroded it.

“I cannot see Venera 9 behind me. The lander should be in front of me, I hope. I see something, but I don’t know exactly what it is”.

In the lander, Svetlana sees how the onboard computer triggers some alarms.

“Vuc, move faster! We are losing too much nitrogen! We might not have enough to return! Atmospheric sensors are down!”

“I am coming!” he says.

Ana sends another message through her microphone:

“If the wind is too powerful, don’t use balloons”.

The wind is slowing down almost completely. Vuc can see a black smoke coming out of the cable. Oh no! It is being corroded faster then expected. He tries to run, but the costume is too heavy. And then…

“I see some sort of smoke coming from my right foot. Could it be possible? I cut the protective platinum sheet when I felt. I need to hurry”.

The scientists watch all this. They can no longer see through Vuc’s cameras, which ceased to work.

“Come on!” shouts Svetlana. “You can do it! The flag should be close to where you are right now. Can you see it?”

“I see it, but it is changed. It is no longer red. It turned green. Well, the hammer and sickle is still there”.

Another alarm is triggered. The harpoon releasing mechanism is starting to fail. The ship might not be able to leave Venus. Vuc hardly climbs the stairs back up and enters the lander. However, he cannot close the door. The wind is too powerful.

“We stayed here for two hours”, says Svetlana. “We need to run and fast. We are running out of nitrogen. I am decoupling the harpoons right now”.

Svetlana disconnects the harpoons. Wind is starting to intensify. Right now, she gets the message from Ana and says:

“Comrade Leonova, we will not deploy balloons. We will fire engine 1. Wait us for a tea in Moscow when we return!”

“And a vodka”, says Vuc. “We certainly need one if we get out alive from here”.

Svetlana starts the first engine. There are eight small tanks of solid propellant, each one weighting 100 t. The first engine ignites and starts to push the ship forward. The onboard computer takes control and makes the ship rise in the atmosphere. This is just enough for the door to be closed. It fires for 171 seconds. The ship is pushed forward very fast and climbs.

The ship flies in the same direction with the wind. First solid fuel tank pushes the ship fast, but not for long. It glides through the dense air and reaches an altitude of nearly 200 m. But the impulse continues to be felt, as the ship moves further on, rising through the dense atmosphere with 300 km/h.

Vuc puts his samples in a special sealed container. Then, the corrosive atmosphere of Venus is pumped out of his room and replaced with breathable air.

The second solid fuel tank is ignited. The ship feels its force pushing forward and glides up in the dense atmosphere. The ship trembles in the strong currents. Speed is further increased, but not too much. They know well that in dense atmosphere friction is high. For another 171 seconds, the lander climbs fast. They are now at over 1 km high and climbing.

Another plume of nitrogen cools the fuselage. Other alarms are triggered, as other sensors are destroyed. The ship reaches the acid clouds. A powerful lightning can be seen, crossing just near them.

After four minutes, the third tank is fired, increasing the speed again. The ship uses this to climb further into the atmosphere. Svetlana watches the altitude radar. 3000 m… 3250 m… 3370 m… The ship is climbing slowly. Up here, temperature is a bit lower. Fourth tank is ignited, pushing the ship even further. This time, the lander reaches 680 km/h. The computer automatically uses this to increase altitude. Finally, the ship reaches 6800 m high. This is where balloons should take the ship. This is where solid fuel tanks should be ignited one by one.

The fifth fuel tank is fired. The ship now moves like an airplane, rising through clouds. All around, the two cosmonauts can only see yellow clouds and nothing else. Another lightning strikes very close to them. An alarm is triggered.

“Come on!” says Svetlana.

When the sixth fuel tank is ignited, the ship is moving smoothly. Here, the atmosphere is more like on Earth then like on Venus. Air pressure is lower. The onboard computer directs the ship forward until the fuel tank, exhausted, is detached and left to fall. Altitude increases to 11 km. Then, the ship makes a massive turn around, to match the direction where it should be flying to meet Venus space Station. The last two fuel tanks are ignited one after the other.

The ship reaches an altitude of 11.53 km when the last fuel tank is detached. Both Svetlana and Vuc take off the helmets of their space costumes. Vuc steps on his chair near Svetlana. All around, the air has a strong acid smell. Vuc can see signs of erosion on his costume, which also smells of acid.

“We got higher then expected with these boosters”, he says.

“Time to go to orbit”, says Svetlana.

“Time to get out of hell”, says Vuc.

The ship turns with its nose pointing up. It is now time to fire the powerful solid fuel stages. Wings are detached. Stage 2 is ignited. Both cosmonauts feel its powerful acceleration. It fires for 158 seconds. Then, the ship rests for two minutes. It is important not to increase speed too much. If this happens, the atmospheric shield will be overheated. So, the ship flies for a minute without an engine fire. Stage 3 is ignited. Solid fuel burns fast and with a huge throttle. After 158 minutes, this stage is also exhausted and left behind, to fall on Venus.

Stage 4 is ignited when the ship almost stopped. This time, its thrust is huge. Both cosmonauts feel its strong power pushing them up, out from Venus. They reach the altitude of 19 km. Now, they are high enough. The atmosphere is rarefied and not corrosive at this height.

Stages 5 and 6 are lighter, around 200 t each. They both contain solid fuel and are made to work for roughly 220 seconds. They are the last solid fuel stages. Everything works much better then planned. The lander continues to rise. Now, the ship will certainly pierce out of Venus’s deadly atmosphere.

The last remaining nitrogen is used to cool the upper stages one last time. They are far lighter and contain liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The last stages fire one after one, finally putting the ship into orbit.

After a very dangerous and painful voyage, the lander is in space. The last stage still has 11% of its fuel unused. At 20.37 Moscow time or 23.37 Aral time, the lander is docked at Venus Space Station. It is a huge success. The American and the Jewish ship watch how the lander is docked and the two cosmonauts, exhausted, meet their comrades.

At Aral, the scientists hug and congratulate each other. People on the streets are celebrating the event. Teens gather on the streets with torches. It is a moment of celebration. Also, in the other empires, the Venus mission was transmitted live. Everyone could see it. Nearly all televisions transmitted it live.

The impossible became possible. For the first time in history, a human walked on Venus and returned alive. What nobody thought to be possible came to be real. Even if it is late at night, the Supreme Soviet appears and congratulates everyone who made this mission possible.

Ana Leonova cries of happiness. After so much tension, after assassination attempts, after so many white nights, she can finally rest. She falls unconsciousness from her chair. Scientists take her and put her on a bed. She needs some rest. Everyone at Aral needs some rest, even a free day.

The next day, all televisions, newspapers and social platforms are filled with comments about the subject. This happens in all three empires. Perhaps one of the best images depicting what happened is of the New Soviet flag. Less then an hour after it was planted, it turned from red to green. Near the flag, the cable that was supposed to save Vuc’s life lies down, corroded and making a black smoke. The image clearly shows how dangerous Venus is.

ON TOP OF THE CLIFF

When a tree starts growing in a pasture, it has a harsh life. Cattle eat its leaves and new branches. The tree has to survive and grow very slow. But, once it gets high enough, it can grow freely. From a short story.

For the New Soviets, it was an astonishing victory. Vuc Stoikovic and Svetlana Pavlova became heroes. The Supreme Soviet gives them a special medal for their great achievements. They will return to Earth with the next flight window. Vuc is from the Balkans, while Svetlana is from the Ural Mountains. They were both fighter pilots. In fact, all cosmonauts need to be able to pilot a fighter jet. This is a mandatory test they have to pass. Ana insisted that cosmonauts will be chosen in pairs. Each station must have two men and two women. She hoped that a relationship will get formed between them. This is just what happened, as Vuc and Svetlana fell in love. The two want to get married once they return to Earth. Ana wants families to be formed and children to be born in space. She doesn’t force the cosmonauts at all, but she knows that there is a high probability for this to happen.

She focuses all her strength to space exploration. She knows that she won the war, but it is no time to stop. When America won the space race, it didn’t stop. It wasn’t a single Apollo Moon landing. The Americans were still worried that the Soviets might reach the Moon in the end. The Apollo program was cancelled only when they were convinced that no manned Soviet ship will attempt to land on the Moon. Then came the Voyager program, which explored the outer planets. This ensured American superiority over space exploration.

Ana knows very well. She has to keep on exploring space. Space exploration will no longer be forced like in past, but it must not be stopped. As Venus was conquered, the next relevant target becomes Jupiter. This is the second most difficult target after Venus. Instead of celebrating, she wants to focus on this new mission.

She is invited to state television for a talk show. She refuses it, saying that she is busy planning the Jupiter mission. She doesn’t want fame.

At that point, mass media finds a glitch in the New Soviet space program. The ships lack names. It is true. The space program was so hardly forced to develop, that scientists had no time to give names to their ships. The other empires did the job already. They associated New Soviet rockets with mythical creatures from Hell. They named the Lenin IV Satan. Lenin V was named Stalin’s Demon. They also referred to Lenin IV and Lenin V as Stalin I and Stalin II. They called the boosters used for Lenin V Cerberus. The Venus lander was called Hades and the Mercury lander was nicknamed Lucifer. Soviets are not happy of this.

Ana had in mind to name the large manned missions to each planet with Greek names of the deities associated with each planet. The mission to Mercury should be named Hermes, the mission to Venus Aphrodita, the mission to Mars Ares and the mission to Ceres Demetra. Well, not many people will like this. As an alternative, she thought about using names of historical figures: Russian tsars, writers or scientists. But even that is not a good option, as the New Soviet Empire includes many people from various places. She never had time to think wisely about this.

At some point, she found out that in former Yugoslavia, on banknotes, there were random girls designed and not personalities. Could this be a better option? What would the other empires say about this? They will laugh. The Americans named their manned rockets Democracy, Freedom and America. The Jews took names from the Bible for their rockets and space missions.

Ana talked about this subject with her scientists. Each of them had other ideas. However, each proposed name seems to hurt someone. Finally, someone says this:

“We should look how the Old Soviets named their ships”.

Ana looked over history pages. Then, she found a rocket named Angara. That is much better. Angara is a river. Rivers, mountains and other Geographic features can be used. What if we take random names from Geography? That sounds much better and will not hurt anyone.

She decides to write on small pieces of paper names of all major rivers, mountain ranges, plains, peninsulas, lakes and Geographic features from the New Soviet Empire. Then, a random piece of paper will be extracted.

Meanwhile, work for the Jupiter manned mission continues on schedule. With each Lenin V launched, the massive ship grows in size. Parts are assembled in space. The plan is to launch it in June. In addition, ships cross the space, bringing supplies to the space stations and changing cosmonauts. It is time for a new design. At Aral, scientists develop two reusable ships, one for cargo and one mixed for cargo and passengers. These ships will travel between Earth Space Station and the other stations in the Solar System. Once they arrive at Earth Space Station, they are refueled and loaded with goods. Ana wants to give them a random name. However, the Supreme Soviet asks for something that will honor the two cosmonauts that landed on Venus. So, the ships are named Balkan and Ural. Their construction requires three Lenin V launches. Still, these launches occur without disturbing the schedule for Jupiter.

Without the extreme stress, life on Aral finds a more normal way. Workers are happy and more relaxed. Scientists have more time to plan missions. The Jupiter mission must go on, but not in an extreme and forced way.

Winters at Aral are harsh. For a Russian, that might not be a problem. After all, Siberia is prone to very cold winters. However, for a foreigner, this is not pleasant. It is the end of November. It is snowing for the whole night. The wind is blowing snow all over the Space City. In the morning, people prepare to go to work. They find that the snow is blocking access ways. Wind blows the snow in all directions. People find hard to go to the railway station. When they arrive, the station is blocked. In some places, the snow is as high as the train. In other parts, usually behind buildings, the ground is clean. Such winter storms are common in Siberia. The Aral lays mote to South and is in part saved from extreme cold.

Ana reaches the railway station. The train should detach and bring workers to Space Factory. Usually, in such days, a train is detached before, to clear the line. However, that train just derailed 10 km away from Space City. Ana enters the railway station and asks for more data. The line is not safe. So, she accepts to send everyone home. It is not safe to travel. In past, such an event was unacceptable for her, but now, she doesn’t risk the lives of all workers. Everyone will have a free day today.

Ana invites Alex Green to her home. She wants to talk with him about the mission to Jupiter. As always, Ana asks him to get dressed as he feels comfortable, like a woman. And like always, he listens to her. They are both dressed similar, with thigh-high boots, long gloves and a black dress.

“People here are less tolerant to sexual minorities then in America”, says Alex. “I don’t think they would accept me if I transition to a woman”.

“That is for sure”, says Ana. “They have a different mentality, strongly influenced by Orthodoxy. You see, for same-sex relations, an Orthodox priest will give you up to 20 years without eucharisty”.

“But in the same time, I find these people to be like crazy! I mean, I’ve seen acts of violence. Well, not quite as one might consider violence. I’ve seen people bitten on the streets. One day, I’ve seen two cars crashed. The drivers went out of their cars and started to beat each other instead of calling the police. They did not care even that they blocked an intersection. And while this was happening, other drivers just passed by. It is like they didn’t even care”.

“This is how Russians are”, says Ana, smiling. “They are different people. You will never see them calling the police. When they are in trouble, they make justice by themselves. They like to feel free and act by themselves”.

“I’ve seen this. Well, many times, they are just having fun, but in a more violent way then Americans do”.

“Well, they get rid of stress this way”.

“I asked someone what do they do for stress”, says Alex. “He asked me what stress is. I explained what do we do in America. We relax, we grow plants, we watch TV, we practice anti stress therapy… Then I asked him what do Russians do to get rid of stress. His answer shocked me”.

“What was the answer?”

“Vodka”, says Alex, puzzled.

Ana laughs.

“Yes, that’s what he said”, continues Alex. “I just could not get it. So, if you are stressed, you get drunk? Wow, that is a harsh solution”.

“This might be an answer why there are always alcoholics on the streets of Space City”, answers Ana, laughing. “Alcohol is a national problem. Now, if you judge your way, you might come to the conclusion that people here are extremely stressed”.

“One day, a car just ran into an apartment block”, says Alex. “I went to see how the driver feels, but he was so drunk, he could not walk outside of the car. Honestly, I’ve never seen crazy drivers like in here. Just a few days ago, one guy went straight off the road into a saxaul tree”.

Ana laughs again.

“And another day, two cars crashed. The drivers started to beat each other. Oh mine… one of them broke the windows of the other car. People were just passing by, like nothing happened”.

“You see, Alex, people like to act by themselves. They don’t like others to interfere with their problems. When you see something like that, just keep some distance. Don’t worry, they will not harm you as long as you mind your own business”.

Later, the wind slows down. It is no longer snowing and the Sun appears. They decide to go out and eat something. They both go out dressed like women. Ana applies a lipstick and some make-up on Alex. She gives him a woman fur coat and a woman hat. Now, they both look like two women. Alex is a bit afraid to walk like this. He knows that people don’t like cross-dressers. He is not gay, but he knows that a cross-dresser might be considered gay. The law now gives freedom to all sexual minorities, as Lenin tried a long time ago. Still, in many places, gay people had been bitten and even killed. Ana calms him down, saying:

“Nobody will get pass me in this city”.

They go to a fast food. There is nobody inside. Ana’s bodyguard goes to a separate table and eats something. He is dressed civilian, so nobody knows what he is. The waiter has no ideas who are his clients. He thinks they are two girls looking for something to eat. He serves them with some food. Then, Ana and Alex remain for a while, talking.

Two guys come in. They seem a bit drunk. Seeing Ana and Alex (and thinking Alex is a girl), they take a sit near them and start talking. Suddenly, one of them tries to seduce Ana.

“Did anyone ask you anything?” she says.

The guy continues. He approaches Ana and orders something for her to drink.

“No, thanks”, she says. “I don’t drink alcohol”.

The guy still orders something for her. He keeps on trying to seduce her. Suddenly, he starts touching her feet with a hand. Then, he touches her hand.

“You know the law?” she says. “I am not for your entertainment. Keep distance. You can end-up in a labor camp for harnessing a woman”.

“Bite me!” he says. “I just want to lick your pussy”.

“I think you want some flowers on your tomb”, answers Ana.

“I warn you, I am armed. Take your hands off my body!”

The guy doesn’t listen. He continues touching her and he says some very impolite words. Suddenly, he moves closer and tries to kiss her.

Ana waits, silently. And just when his lips almost touch hers, she takes a bottle from the table and smashes it in his head. Suddenly, her bodyguard rises from his table. The two guys try to grab Ana. In the next second, she starts hitting the guy with anything she finds. Her bodyguard comes and grabs one guy. Ana has the face of a wounded animal, ready to kill anyone who attacks her. Two waiters come and try to immobilize her.

Alex jumps off his chair and screams at anyone to stop. He gets a punch in his face from the other guy. Alex falls on his back.

The bodyguard has a pistol. He takes the weapon and shouts:

“Everyone, stop!”

Ana is freed for a second. She grabs a chair and smashes it in the guy’s head. The next second, she gives him a powerful boot in his genitals, then another one, until he falls down. She hits him in the head, then spits on him.

“Comrade Leonova, please stop”, says the bodyguard. “You might kill him!”

Everyone is shocked. This cannot be! Ana Leonova is here in person! What is she doing here? Ana lights a cigarette and looks around. She looks at the other guy and says:

“What are you looking at, you, guilty animal? Take that dirty peace of meat out of here or I’ll kill you too”.

The other guy tries to take the fallen one:

“Boris? Are you still alive? Let’s get the hell out of here!”

Boris is not answering. Ana screams at them as loud as she can:

“Get out of here or you will get straight to hell!”

The guy pulls Boris out to the street. He is so scared, almost shaking. Ana sits down, calm. She orders a cup of tea, like nothing happened. Everyone looks scared, but she is incredibly calm.

“You almost killed him!” says Alex, shocked.

“Why do some guys have so much testosterone in their veins? How many women had been sexually abused? Men are good for nothing when it comes to sex. They should be castrated. I am sorry that I didn’t kill him”.

“But he is a human! Don’t you care about human life?”

“I do, comrade. I do. But there is a major difference between a human and a penis. That creature you’ve seen is not a human. He has no brain, but a penis and nothing more. Pieces of garbage like the one you’ve just seen, don’t deserve to live, unless they learn how to masturbate. There are only two solutions for them: be castrated or learn to masturbate. I think I should build public masturbation places”.

Alex looks shocked, not knowing what to say.

“What do you think?” she says. “He thought I was just a regular girl. All he wanted was to get to bed with me. Maybe he has a wife somewhere in this city… and his wife is waiting him to come. Maybe he abused many other women until I stopped him. After all, you know very well why I am a sfenist. It is all caused by another piece of garbage like this one”.

“But you are a public person. What would the people say?”

“I don’t care what they will say. All I care is that this guy will think twice before trying to abuse another woman”.

“In America, for this, you would be on the news”.

“Here, you have the right to defend yourself”, says Ana, finishing her cigarette. “Let’s go! We have to talk about the mission to Jupiter”.

After they return to Ana’s apartment, Alex says:

“You told me once that you killed a guy who tried to seduce you”.

“Yes, I did. This is what nearly happened to this one, too”.

“Don’t you feel petty or remorse?”

“For guys with too much testosterone?” asks Ana. “I feel nothing for them. If I feel something, is for those who died when we were building the Lenin V. Four thousand men died then. I regret this every day. I even dream them. There are days when I want to cry for their souls”.

Saying this, Ana has tears in her eyes.

“But for sexual abusers, I feel no remorse. They don’t deserve to live another day”.

“I know the law”, says Alex, taking off his boots. “Anyone has the right to self-defense and to kill an attacker or a thief. Friends have the right to kill the murderer of a close friend. Parents and brothers have the right to kill sexual aggressors”.

“It is true”, says Ana. “Those laws exist for a purpose. Russians are not like Americans. They like to make justice by themselves. The effect is incredible. The rate of murders and sexual abuses has decreased significantly after this law was implemented”.

Ana takes off her boots too. Her legs are covered in dark brown pantyhose. Alex has his feet covered in light-brown pantyhose and black fishnets over them. Ana can see his toenails painted in red. Her toenails, painted in red too, are hardly visible. She lights a cigarette. Then, she takes a deep inhale. The smoke leaves her body through mouth and nostrils. She sees how Alex looks at her smoking.

“My father promised you that, if we successfully build a base on Mars, he will pay your transformation into female”, says Ana. “This will be your chance to officially become a woman and wear women clothes anywhere”.

“I would like to walk like a woman on the street, but… I don’t know. This might be too much. The main problem is that people will keep distance from me. I will have major problems at work. You know, I would like to live a double life. I would like to be a man at work and a woman when not at work”.

Ana listens and takes a new smoke drag.

“People heard about my cross-dressing”, says Alex. “I noticed that most men increased distance when they found out. But by far I have less problems then you do”.

Listening this, Ana blows a cloud of smoke in the air. She seems surprised and a bit curious.

“Don’t you know what people say about you?” asks Alex.

“No. I really don’t know”.

“People call you the demon. They say that you have no mercy to anyone. Some people say that you are a whore. Others think you are a lesbian. I heard people saying that you kill men and burry them in the desert. Don’t tell me you didn’t know”.

“I didn’t”, says Ana, playing with her cigarette. “You know, many people forced me to get married. As you know, Rosenstein wants me as his wife. There are also important politicians in the New Soviet Empire who would be pleased to marry me. But I refused. I always refused this”.

“The Supreme Soviet will never allow a marriage between you and Rosenstein”.

“He would, Alex. You see, it is very hard to be in his place. He has to do many compromises to keep the balance of power. He advised me that it would be a good option. This would guarantee peace with the Jews and annihilation of the Americans. I refused. However, if we lose the space race, he will have to do something to save the state. I know what kind of person is Rosenstein. When he wants something, you can hardly stop him. What do you thing would have happened if we failed to return from Venus? My dad would have to do something to save the empire. An alliance between the Jews and the Americans would lead to our annihilation. In that scenario, there would be only two scenarios. In the first scenario, dad would have to sacrifice us. There would be no more space launches. We would have been sent to Kolyma Gulag. This stepback would then signal our submission. The other empires would then extend their influence over our territories. Gradually, we would cease to exist. Since the Americans are a better option, we would join them and accept their seniority. This would result in a new world order, with two powerful empires. Rosenstein would sacrifice most of his people in a nuclear war, knowing that the one to strike first will be the one to survive”.

“Oh mine!” says Alex.

“The second scenario would be my marriage with Rosenstein. But, you know very well that I am a sfenist. It is impossible for any man to have sex with me. My life would be ruined. However, I would have to accept. Our empire would slowly go under Rosenstein’s rule. Over time, things would further change. He would fortify his power over the New Soviets. We would no longer be free. Under his protectorate, we would lose some territories to him. This change of power would again lead to a new world order, with two empires ruling the whole world. However, this option might lead to a peace. Rosenstein knows that dad will not accept total submission. So, Rosenstein would probably not start a war against the Americans”.

“It must be very hard for your dad, to sacrifice his only child for the good of the state. I never truly believed that he would send you to gulag”.

“He would, if that was the only way. Can you lose the lives of millions for a single life? This is the question. As a political leader, sometimes you have to take such decisions. This is just what I decided when I sacrificed the lives of all those inmates. I knew that we have to build the Lenin V if we want to reach Mars. We won, but with a huge price. Without their sacrifice, we wouldn’t be here. The Lenin V was a big gamble. There would be no Venus return mission, no Mercury space station and no Jupiter manned mission. We could use many Lenin IV launches, of course, but that would be far more complicated”.

Ana looks at the floor. She can see her feet next to Alex’s, playing on the carpet. Her gloved fingers play with the cigarette, while Alex’s fingers play with his dress.

“Did you ever wanted to get married or to have a girlfriend?” asks Ana.

“Well, I dreamed about this when I was a child. I liked to watch women wearing their female clothes and make-up, their shoes and dresses. But, unlike other boys, I didn’t want to get in love. I wanted to be like them. I was never attracted by sex like other guys. I had girlfriends, but each of them left me when they heard about my cross-dressing”.

“Wow!” says Ana. “What I like at you is that you are the first guy which doesn’t seem to be trying to seduce me. Why did all women run from you? Because you like to wear women clothes?”

“Yes”, says Alex. “This is the reason. You are the first woman who understands me the way I am”.

“This might be because I am a sfenist. I also am different from the mainstream population. This might be the reason”.

“I might say that you are a man in a woman’s clothes… and I am a woman in a man’s body”.

“Life forced me to behave like a man. I had to take harsh decisions in my life. Usually men take decisions and women correct them. But in my case, I had to take the hardest decisions. I had to keep space exploration on. Well, it is better this way”.

Ana lights a new cigarette, thinking about what people say about her.

“So, people say that I am a whore! That surprises me, since I am almost a virgin. Without that event that made me a sfenist, I never had sex in my life. I have sex with men, then kill them and burry them in the desert! Oh mine! People are crazy! They say this bullshit because I am not married and I don’t want to take a man in my life as they think. How stupid people can be!”

“I just told you the truth. You asked and I said it to you”.

“You have no idea how many men are dreaming about a night with me. ‘Oh, I had sex with the daughter of the Supreme Soviet! Give me an important position in the empire or I will tell the whole world about it!’ Do you have an idea how many men are dreaming about this? Getting married with me will boost their hierarchy in the empire. Be sure I will not accept this, no matter the costs. If I will ever get married, it will be with a man who will never touch me and will never fight for a higher rank”.

Ana takes a drag from her cigarette. Then, she plays with the smoke.

“You should try to smoke less”, says Alex. “This might kill you”.

“My mom learned me to smoke”, says Ana. “She tried everything to recover me. She turned me towards fashion. She was a smoker too. Honestly, she saved my life. Without her, I would probably be in a mental hospital. I needed years to recover. I don’t think smoking is something bad. A smoking woman is an independent one, a woman not willing to be under the foot of a man. This is how I feel. I say the opposite. If you want to be a woman, you have to learn to smoke. This will give you a better status then of a non smoker”.

“I don’t know if I am ready for it”, says Alex.

Their pantyhosed feet touch on the carpet. Can this be considered a kiss? Alex remains at Ana’s apartment over the night. He does this for another reason. He wants to protect Ana. Some people say even more naughty things about her. If they see him sleeping in the same apartment with Ana, they will shut up. People must not know that she is unable to sustain sexual relations. He loves Ana, but not in the classical way a man loves a woman. In fact, it is more like a very strong friendship.

LET’S GO TO JUPITER

When Lenin took power, he gave freedom to women. Communists allowed women to make politics. It was something the world never seen. All citizens had equal rights, men or women. He made the 8th of March a national celebration, to ensure women will have the same freedom as men. A speech from the Supreme Soviet, year 15.

It is the year 17. The New Soviet Empire existed for 17 years. So many things changed. For five years, all three empires fought to conquer space. It was a harsh, bitter space race. The last year was much more quiet. After the New Soviets successfully sent a manned mission to Venus, no other empire contested their superiority in space exploration. This brought peace to Earth. However, the Americans and the Jews continue to dispute their territories on the Moon. Each empire built manned and unmanned bases on the Moon. The Americans continued to send supplies to their base on Mars. The New Soviets sent periodic supplies to their space stations.

However, rumors are that the Americans are preparing a manned mission to Ganymede, one of Jupiter’s moons. The Jews also plan to establish a base in the Asteroid Belt. In these conditions, the New Soviets have to show their superiority again.

A giant ship waits to be launched on Earth Space Station. The ship is finished. It required eleven Lenin V launches to bring all parts to orbit, to assemble and to refuel them. The launch date was fixed to be November 12th, year 16.

The project had a major setback. The New Soviets also want to build the first manned surface base on one of the moons of Jupiter, to be the first in space exploration. However, such a challenge comes with costs. The habitat for four cosmonauts weights 400 t. In order to land it on Callisto, you need chemical engines and fuel, weighting an additional 450 t. To bring the base to Callisto, you need nitrogen fuel and nitrogen ion engines. This also increases mass. This increases mass by 1650 t. Total mass is 2500 t, which requires five Lenin V ships to send to orbit. Later, the mass of the base was increased, to include more habitat space, a rover and other facilities. This will require six Lenin V ships to launch all.

This pushed the launch date. With the help of an Earth and Mars flyby, some fuel can be saved. Scientists think this is the best solution. Mission is approved. Unlike previous important missions, which took place on May 1st, this mission will be launched on March 8th, another important day.

The Old Soviets wanted to build a base on Jupiter’s moon Ganymede, which is the largest. However, Ganymede lies closer to the radiation belt. Callisto is safer. On March 8th, at 2.42 AM, Aral time, all eight cosmonauts are sent to Earth Space Station onboard a Lenin III. They are crowded in a small shuttle, which only carries themselves and their personal luggage. They arrive to the station at 3.26. The final preparations are done. The mammoth Jupiter ship is detached at 11.24 Aral time. 15 Lenin V ships were needed to assemble this giant ship, weighting 7500 t. It is a monster, so big, that it can be seen from Earth’s surface. It deploys huge solar panels, needed to suck energy for its hungry nitrogen ion engines.

Scientists wanted to name this ship Zeus. However, since launch occurred on Women’s Day, they call it Hera.

So many things happened in the last time. The two cosmonauts who landed on Venus returned home. They were considered heroes. Even more, they are now a family. They got married. Now, they want to go back to space and live their lives there. Ana Leonova accepted their request and sent them to Jupiter, to live on the new base that will be built on Callisto.

Also, Jupiter Express arrived at Jupiter. We have now horses deployed on two of the moons. One orbiter sent the first close-up images of Himalia. This moon was chosen for Jupiter Space Station. Now, scientists can see that their decision was not a mistake. Himalia appears to be safer then the other moons.

Taking advantage of this day, the Supreme Soviet tells the world about the importance of women and the equality between genders. Soviets always had respect for women. They always allowed women to play important roles in the society.

In a special room, he invites important women from all over the empire. He gives to every woman a special medal, according to her achievements.

He starts his speech in the following way:

Comrades!

Not far from here, there is a monument. A man and a woman hold together the hammer and the sickle. What was the builder trying to tell us? Freedom. Men and women have equal rights. They have the same rights to work, the same rights for a politic carrier and the same rights for making us proud of their achievements.

When Lenin took power, he gave freedom to women. Communists allowed women to make politics. It was something the world never seen. All citizens had equal rights, men or women. He made the 8th of March a national celebration, to ensure women will have the same freedom as men. Do you know how women were treated before? Families decided marriages, without asking the girl at all. Women were forced to endure violence from their aggressive and drunk husbands. They had no right to defend themselves. In most cases, they were not even allowed to go to school.

You heard it. In those times, the wife was considered a property of her husband. Lenin decided to change everything. Unfortunately, like in many aspects, Stalin ruined many of his reforms. We are here to learn from our past and never repeat the same mistakes. It took the rest of the world fifty years to give women the same freedom Lenin did. We are here to continue Lenin’s good policies and never to repeat anything bad that happened in the past.

If you look at the history, you can see that many empires and states reached their most glorious moments when a woman ruled them. Take a look at Egypt. Which pharaoh is most known? Surprisingly, the most known ruler over Egypt is a woman, Cleopatra. Look at the British Empire. It reached its maximum glory during the reign of Queen Victoria. Even in the Russian Empire, women made politics. When the tsar was a woman, it was a time of peace. So, don’t be surprised if a woman will govern one day one of the three empires, which rule the world today.

I am here to give a special medal to all women that made the New Soviet Dream become reality. Some of them did a better job then a man could possibly do. Before anything, I want to give a medal to my wife, Monika Leonova. She died a long time ago. I preferred to remain widow because I never found a woman like she was. She encouraged me to do what I’ve done. She told me, day and night, that the other two empires will rule the world, unless someone builds a third state between them. Even if she died, her words were always behind me. Most of my decisions were made according to what she learned me. In fact, she wanted the New Soviet Empire to rise from the ashes.

Now, I want you all, to think about your wives. How many times they boosted your moral? How many times they forced you to continue the good work? When you came home tired, how many times they waited you with a hot meal and tried to make you relax? Also, think about your mothers, which gave birth to you. Think about your grandmothers, which also helped when you were children. They are the ones who should actually receive much greater medals then the ones I give here.

Humanity can exists without emperors, without scientists, without priests and without philosophers. Humanity cannot exist without mothers.

If you look in space, you see that we send cosmonauts in couples. For every man in space, there is also a woman. Do the other empires do this? No! They sent almost only men to space. Perhaps, they don’t value the life of a woman enough. Perhaps discrimination still exists among them.

And now, I want to share medals. They will be given at random, to avoid any discrimination. The first medal goes to Olga Barmina. She deserves her medal for reforming Russian Language. Why do I give her this medal? What is the most known language on Earth? Most of you will say that it is English. It is true, at least for now. English became the most widely spread language because it is simple. Verbs don’t change form. Nouns don’t have gender. Not many languages are like English. However, English has one major problem. It is an etymologic language. There is no clear corresponding between the sounds and the letters used in a word. Russian has this major advantage. Each letter in our alphabet corresponds to a sound. Olga Barmina simplified our language and made a new, commercial one, easy to learn and understand. She also reformed our writing. But, most of her work was done to simplify our grammar. I know it was hard for anyone to adapt. It was hard even for me, but I didn’t think about myself. I thought about our children and our children’s children.

The second medal goes to… Nadejda Gregorieva. She deserves it for her work on our infrastructure. Without fossil fuels, we had to develop an alternative way to move around. She had the idea of developing rail transport. She first suggested construction of the rail corridor that linked the Balkans with Alaska. She organized the working teams and found the best route in the harsh Arctic tundra. Building the railway was a very hard task. We had to make many sacrifices to build it. She came with ingenious solutions that reduced costs almost to half.

I have another medal here. This one will go to Abida Radueva. This is another prove that discrimination does not exist among us. She is a Tatar and a Muslim. She deserves this medal for her researches in Chemistry. As oil reserves are depleted, we have to produce ourselves all that we need. We need plastic. She came with ingenious solutions, to make plastic out of wood. The Siberian Taiga has enough wood for our needs. The only problem was that, until recently, the process was too expensive. She showed us that plastic could be synthesized in various ways from natural wood. Her researches allowed us to produce not only classic plastic, but also transparent plastic, synthetic fibers and rubber from wood.

Each time, the woman who receives a medal is allowed to speak for a few minutes. Each woman can freely point some aspects. Olga Barmina insists that reforming the language is crucial. The empire stretches over many territories, where different languages are spoken. It is very important to provide a simple and accessible language to all Soviet citizens. Nadejda Gregorieva requires more funds to expend and enlarge the railway system. Abida Radueva insists that using wood, as a source of plastic, is the only possible solution.

Fossil fuels still exist in very low amounts. Every empire has a small strategic fuel field, protected for emergency situations. Over time, they drilled most of their strategic reserves. Poor quality fossil fuel deposits still exist. However, extracting them requires more energy then what they would produce. For this reason, extraction was limited for making plastic, medicine and fertilizers. As time passed, even this ceased to be feasible. A new source of plastic was needed.

Each time he picks a medal, the Supreme Soviet looks around for his daughter. She must come. There is a medal prepared for her. She was busy with the launch of Hera. The Supreme Soviet ordered his personal airplane to go and pick her from Aral. Did anything happen? What is going on with her?

Today, airplanes and helicopters use hydrogen as fuel. Without fossil fuels, hydrogen became the main fuel where electric power was impossible to be used.

The Supreme Soviet has only two more medals. He gives one to a woman who dedicates it to her parents. Then, just in the last moment, Ana Leonova appears on the stage. She is dressed in a color between yellow and pink, resembling the color of Venus. She has thigh boots, long gloves and a dress, like she always walks on the street. Her hair is painted in the same color. She even painted her lips in the same color. The Supreme Soviet says directly to her:

“What took you so long?”

“I wanted to make sure that Hera is completely functional”.

“I told you to come earlier”.

“For me, the lives of those onboard are more important”.

This small conversation is transmitted live. Then, the Supreme Soviet says:

“The last medal goes to Ana Leonova, for her efforts to conquer space. Many of you might think that I give her a medal because she is my daughter. The truth is different. She forced space exploration to go beyond the limits. I think you have no idea how many times she called me, even past midnight, requesting materials for the space missions. She focused all her efforts for space exploration. Without her, we wouldn’t be beyond the Moon. She made the other empires respect us. She made us proud of what we are. She continued the space race which our ancestors lost”.

Ana has to say a few words. She lights a cigarette, then says:

“Comrades! This medal is not only mine. I could not win it without the work of all scientists and all workers at Aral. They all deserve a part of it. Space exploration is a tem work. Also, you all participated in a way or another. Some of you produced steel, others produced copper, plastic, gold or at least contributed to the imperial budget. Also, the project could never become reality without the help of all space enthusiasts, who voluntarily came on the streets each time we achieved a success. I guarantee you all that we will follow our schedules. We will send manned missions to other planets and moons in the Solar System. We want to be the first, when it comes to space exploration”.

People think that she finished her speech and applause. She rises her hand, making all of them stop. She continues:

“Is it true that women have equal rights with men? Yes. We have equal rights. But, even if the law gives us rights, there is something that needs to be changed. Why does anyone force me to get married? If this is happening to me, as the daughter of the Supreme Soviet, then, what can say other girls? This also happens to guys. If you enter an Orthodox church and confess your sins, the priest will most likely ask you if you are married… and ask you to get married. It is my own right to do what I want with my life. I want to live the way I am. I tell you all that the only thing that matters to me is space exploration and nothing else. I don’t want a family or to be a newspaper star”.

People look a bit surprised at her. Even the Soviet Supreme is shocked. But, Ana continues to say:

“How do you judge a person? I judge people at Aral by their achievements. I don’t care how they look like, what are their beliefs, their gender or their addictions. Women have freedom. Religious freedom is guaranteed. Ethnic groups have their freedom too. This is very good, far better then what you see in other parts of the world. Maybe some of you wonder why I came with this outfit and why do I smoke here. I do all this for a reason. It is not how a person looks and how a person behaves that matters. Judge people by their achievements! And I dare to say something even more. The waste recycling system keeps our cosmonauts alive in space. This complicated device is vital for a manned space mission. We got so far in space because we could build it. The other empires have to take supplies from home during a flight. They have to carry food and oxygen, madding their ships much heavier then ours. We don’t. Do you know who invented the waste recycling system? That person is something between a man and a woman, he is a cross-dresser, but one day he might cross gender barriers and become a woman”.

The Supreme Soviet looks even more shocked. He wants his daughter to stop. Ana doesn’t stop. She takes a deep puff from her cigarette and says:

“Fortunately, our law is probably the most correct in the world. It grants religious freedom, but it forbids religious propaganda. It grants rights for ethnic groups, including autonomy, but it prohibits aggression and discrimination, including from the minority against the rest of the population. It gives rights to sexual minorities, but requires from them decency in public. Our law is the best possible. We only have to work a bit with ourselves. Trust me, changing a bit the way we think is easier then sending a ship to Jupiter. I believe we can be better. Our history showed how Lenin changed the fate of women, from almost slavery to equality. We walked a long path to get to where we are now. There is only little more to climb and we will be on top of the mountain of freedom and equality. Next year, when we will go to Saturn, we will meet again and I hope we will finish the last steps we have to walk, in order to make ourselves the best”.

As Ana leaves the stage, people applause all around. The Supreme Soviet gives her the medal. Ana says to everyone:

“I have to get back to Aral, to check the space missions”.

An airplane takes her to Aral Cosmodrome as fast as possible.

BACK TO SATURN

Everyone expected it. After Jupiter, it was time to send a manned ship to Saturn. This was the logical way to continue space exploration. The main difference is that now we work with far less stress. The other empires will not catch us. Ana Leonova in her diaries.

Once the Jupiter mission Hera detached, it was time to move on to Saturn. The good part is that Saturn is smaller. Its moons are also smaller. So, we will need far less fuel for this. The mission will be somehow similar. Cosmonauts will build a space station on the moon Helene. From there, manned ships will land on the other moons for short missions. The crew will consist of four cosmonauts. Two of them will remain on Helene and two will return home when the mission is over.

Helene Space Station weights 400 t. The landers are built with four stages. First stage uses nitrogen ion engines to get to orbit around target. The second stage is used for landing. Third stage is used for takeoff. The fourth stage, using nitrogen ion engines, will return the cosmonauts to Helene. Each lander will have a capsule weighting 20 t, which will carry both the cosmonauts and all the goods they need for the journey. Also, each lander will carry a horse to be deployed on each moon.

To go to Iapetus, the lander needs a delta-v of 5.288 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.585 km/s to land. Stage 4, with nitrogen fuel, will weight 10 t and will carry 8.5 t of nitrogen. Stage 3, used for takeoff, will weight 8 t and will carry 6.4 t of hydrogen and oxygen. Stage 2, used for landing, will weight 11 t. Both stages will use one RS-2 engine. Stage 1, used to travel from Helene to Iapetus, will weight 23 t and will carry 19.55 t of nitrogen. Overall, the Iapetus rocket will weight 74 t.

To get to Hyperion, we need a delta-v of 4.466 km/s for orbit transfer and only 0.020 km/s to land. Stage 4, used for return, will weight 8 t, carrying 6.8 t of nitrogen. There will be a single stage used for landing and takeoff, weighting 1 t and using a single RS-1 engine. Stage 1, used to get to Hyperion, will weight 12 t and will carry 10.2 t of nitrogen. Total mass of Hyperion rocket is 42 t.

To get to Titan, things are a bit more complicated. Titan has an atmosphere that can be used to save fuel for landing. We need a delta-v of 4.111 km/s for orbit transfer and 2.961 km/s to land. However, because of the atmosphere, we only need no fuel to land (just a parachute and an atmospheric shield) and 3.315 km/s to takeoff. Stage 4, used for return, will weight 7 t and will carry 5.95 t of nitrogen. Stage 3, used for takeoff, will weight 200 t and will carry 160 t of hydrogen and oxygen, using 8 RS-1 engines. Stage 2 will only consist of an atmospheric shield and a large parachute, adding a weight of 10 t. Stage 1, used to ferry between Helene and Titan, will weight 80 t and will carry 68 t of nitrogen. Total mass of Titan rocket is 308 t.

To get to Rhea, we need a delta-v of 1.534 for orbit transfer and 0.682 km/s for landing. Fourth stage will weight 2 t. The third stage will weight 6 t and will use one RS-2 engine. Second stage will weight 9 t and will also use one RS-2 engine. First stage will weight 5 t and will carry 4.25 t of nitrogen. Total mass for Rhea rocket is 34 t.

To get to Dione, things are a bit more complicated. Dione and Helene share common orbits. The transfer orbit will only request a delta-v of 0.3 km/s. Landing will request 0.425 km/s. The first and the fourth stage will merge, weighting only 2 t together. Nitrogen ion engines will be built at some distance from the core of the ship, allowing them to thrust all time. Third stage will weight 4 t and will use one RS-2 engine. Second stage will weight 5 t and will also use a single RS-2 engine. Overall, the mass of Dione rocket will only be 32 t.

To get to Tethys, we need a delta-v of 1.302 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.432 km/s to land. Fourth stage will weight 2 t. Third stage will weight 5 t and will use a single RS-2 engine. Second stage will be identical, weighting 5 t. First stage will weight 4 t. Total mass fir Tethys rocket is 37 t.

Enceladus, the most active moon in the Solar System, is an important target. To get there, a ship needs a delta-v or 2.557 km/s to change orbit and 0.264 km/s to land. The fourth stage will weight 4 t. Second and third stage will fuse into a single stage, weighting 5 t. The first stage will weight 6 t. The lander will also take samples from the ground and from the plumes of Enceladus. If there is life in its subsurface ocean, we will find out. Total mass of Enceladus rocket is 36 t.

To get to Mimas, we need a delta-v of 3.809 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.170 km/s to land. The fourth stage, using nitrogen ion engines, will weight 7 t. Stages 3 and 2 will merge into a single stage, weighting 2 t and using a single RS-2 engine. Stage 1 will weight 10 t. Total mass of Mimas rocket is 40 t.

Well, a manned mission to Saturn would never be important without a mission to the rings. A special rocket will travel to Pan, a moon orbiting in a gap between the rings. There, it will deploy two unmanned orbiters to explore the rings. The delta-v required for this task is 6.393 km/s. to change orbits. Landing on Pan and entering the rings will require only little energy, around 0.02 km/s. The fourth stage will weight 15 t, carrying 12.75 t of nitrogen. Second and third stages will fuse into a single one, weighting 1 t and using a single RS-1 engine. First stage will weight 26 t. Total mass of Pan rocket will be 64 t.

In addition, there will be an unmanned probe sent to Phoebe, Saturn’s largest outer moon. Phoebe orbits retrograde. To get there and return, a ship needs two years, too much for a manned crew. The probe will deploy a horse on Phoebe and will pick a sample. The probe itself will weight 2 t and the horse 1 t. A flight to Phoebe requires a delta-v of 5.603. The probe will have two stages, one to get to target and one to return. The return stage will weight 2 t, while the first stage will weight 4 t. Total mass of Phoebe rocket is 8 t.

Altogether, there will be 9 manned missions and one unmanned. Together, they will weight 675 t.

The return ship will weight 200 t and will bring two cosmonauts back from Saturn to Earth. However, such a flight requires a delta-v of 15.729 km/s. To move the return ship back to Earth, we require a nitrogen stage weighting 500 t and carrying 425 t of nitrogen. Total mass will be 700 t.

If we add all these values, we get 1675 t. This is a huge payload to transport to Saturn. To do this, a nitrogen stage is needed, weighting 4325 t. Total mass is now 6000 t! That will require 12 Lenin V launches! There will be a whole year of work. The spaceship is scheduled to be ready in February, next year.

By comparison, this mission is as heavy as the mission to Jupiter. However, since the gravity is far smaller, it is possible to conduct nine manned landings instead of four. Scientists plan how the parts will look like. They need to be ferried to Earth space Station using Lenin V rockets. Most of the weight will be nitrogen tanks and engines, which will be nearly 5000 t. It is a huge mass. The Saturn Express mission did not arrive at Saturn yet. As so, we don’t know exactly what to expect. Almost all what we know about Saturn comes from the American mission Cassini, which went to space a century ago. That is a lot of time. Also, since Cassini was not a Soviet mission, there is a lot of data that is inaccessible. Nobody knows for sure what to expect. Saturn has its own radiation belt, far smaller then Jupiter’s, but uncharted.

The first launches carry only nitrogen fuel tanks. Nitrogen ion engines, the base and the rockets will be shipped later. This will give scientists enough time to test parts. If anything goes bad, cosmonauts will be doomed. Well, some malfunctions occurred on other manned missions as well. The waste recycling system needs maintenance. From time to time, a cosmonaut must come and clean the tanks containing algae or bacteria. Sometimes, pipes get silted with solids. Gasses tend to accumulate. The device requires many engines and moving parts, which also need maintenance. Cosmonauts must also be engineers.

How is a day in Ana’s life?

June 29th, year 17. The fourth Lenin V was launched a few days ago. The launch occurred perfectly, just as planned. She wakes-up at 6.35 AM. Exactly at that hour she receives breakfast from a catering company located in Space City. Breakfast is simple: a sandwich, some chocolate, a fruit and a cup of tea. She eats, then smokes a cigarette and gets dressed. Even if winters are very cold and windy, summers are hot at Aral. It’s too hot for her usual outfit, with thigh boots and long gloves. She gets a dress and her sandals, then runs to the railway station. The train leaves at 7.04 AM. People come to take the train to work. There is always something to do at Aral. Rockets are built automatically, but human presence is still needed. Recovered stages and boosters are reused. The refurbishing process usually takes a week.

A rocket should be launched every month. However, many more launches occur. The budget allows for a Lenin V, a Lenin IV, a Lenin III, a Lenin II and a Lenin I launch to occur every month. However, this happens every 25 to 30 days. Lenin V launches are conducted only for building manned ships towards outer planets. Lenin IV ships bring goods and fuel to the Balkan and Ural ships, which ferry between Earth Space Station and other stations. Lenin III rockets are used to bring cosmonauts to Earth Space Station or to return them to Earth. Lenin II rockets are used for scientific missions. They are a continuation of the Express missions. When a horse, an orbiter or another probe ceases to work, a Lenin II is sent to space with a replacement. Still, other space missions were launched using this rocket. A space probe was launched to explore two Centaurs (celestial bodies that orbit between Jupiter and Neptune). The targets are Chiron and Charilko. Another probe was sent towards a comet, to explore it. There are plans to send three probes, using three Lenin II launches, to an orbit between Saturn and Uranus. Placed in a circular orbit, the three probes will investigate gravity anomalies and will lead scientists to the possible discovery of a celestial body in the Oort Cloud. Finally, Lenin I is used to launch experimental devices into Earth orbit. Scientists tested the efficiency of a solar sail and plan to test the efficiency of a magnetic drive. There are already two probes launched with Lenin I rockets, carrying a small habitat of algae, lichens and bacteria.

From time to time, scientists from Moscow come with mission proposals for the Lenin I and Lenin II rockets. Ana provides the rockets for free, while scientists build the payload. It is a partnership between Aral and universities or institutes.

Usually, Ana goes to Aral Cosmodrome, where large antennas are always pointing towards the geosynchronous satellites. She enters the mission control room, a building where all data is gathered. When she arrives, she wants a report from each mission. Each space mission has its department. Someone comes to her and gives the report, as she stays in her office.

“Mercury Express Mission. We are conducting the second surface scan, searching for possible new craters. The horse traveled 148 m since last time and found nothing different. Rocks appear to be silicates without traces of water”.

“Venera Express Mission. The horses are operational. Horse 2 is immobile because of a powerful storm. Horse 1 traveled 61 m and reported seismic activity. The orbiter is functional and scanning from above”.

“Asteriola Express Mission. We are en route to our new target. The ship reported back. It is operational and healthy”.

“Mars Express Mission. The horse traveled 224 m. We found subsurface deposits of carbon dioxide and water at our current location. The orbiter is reporting a malfunction at its infrared spectrometer, but is operational”.

“Uranus Express Mission. We are coasting to our destination. The ship is heading for the orbit of Saturn. All parts are functional, the ship is on sleep mode”.

“Luna Base. Cosmonauts worked on a new platform to be used for future landings. They did an impressive work by reusing an empty fuel tank and converting it into a storage module”.

“Venus Space Station. A waste recycling system is not working properly. Cosmonauts asked for assistance. It looks like an engine ceased to work properly. The next time they will be online, we will transmit them instructions to solve the problem”.

“Ural 2 ship reporting. Everything is working as planned. The ship is approaching Ceres Space Station and will arrive in 42 days, according to schedule”.

“Earth Space Station reporting. The fuel tank for Chronos Saturn Mission is placed in position. Everything is working as expected”.

Ana investigates all space missions, to make sure that everything is working as planned. Today, they have a Lenin I on schedule for launch. The rocket will put a small probe on a Moon flyby trajectory. From there, it will head to Venus. The goal is to test 100 different materials in the environment of Venus. Ana checks the launch details. She has a team working on that. She gives them instructions. Launches occur at all hours. Events occur at all hours. Ana remains only during critical moments.

After checking everything, she leaves Aral Cosmodrome and takes the train to Space Factory. Here is her main office. Once she arrives, she checks the infrastructure. Wind turbines, the aqueduct, the railway system, electricity supply and the factories need maintenance.

Then, she calls a report for what is going on. She checks personally if everything is according to schedule. The Lenin rockets are built on their assembly lines. Engines, fuel tanks, solar panels and all equipment need to be built on their assembly lines too. It is a lot of work to do. Parts for the manned Saturn mission are assembled and tested. Even the waste recycling system is built on its own assembly line. This way, costs are far smaller and less people is needed.

She checks supplies. Oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen tanks must be full. There must be enough steel and all needed materials. If not, she calls for supplies. Most of the time she spends checking data for the manned missions.

Then, she decides for the small missions, which will be launched with Lenin I and II. She found out about a plan to detect objects in the Oort Cloud by using stellar occultation. This mission is proposed by an university in Moscow. They will build a large telescope for this purpose. Ana has to build la Lenin II for them if she accepts. She accepts this for a future launch.

There are too many programs going on for her. She simply cannot get too implied in them all. She prefers to place trusted people for each mission.

When an important event is scheduled (like a manned landing or a launch of a Lenin V), she watches it, no matter the hour. She remains at the cosmodrome until everything is done according to her specifications.

Before she leaves, she calls the town hall at Space City to see of any problems. She always wants to make sure that people have what they need at home.

Then, she takes the evening train and returns to her apartment. There, the catering company brings her lunch. Usually, in the remaining time, she analyses the space missions, present or future.

Sometimes, Alex Green visits her after work. He goes to Space Factory and returns to Space City with the same train. They are close friends, but not in love. Some people thought things are more different.

Ana knows well that people talk a lot. She thought about a formal marriage with Alex. This will shut some mouths. She knows well. Kings don’t get married for love, but for power. Anyone would be tempted to take her to gain power. As the only daughter of the Supreme Soviet, she is one of the most powerful people in the empire. Anyone would be interested to become the successor.

Communists hated nepotism. Lenin wanted Trotsky to take power. However, Stalin took power against Lenin’s will. An unofficial version is that he killed Lenin to gain power. Lenin never wanted a blood relative to take power after him. Stalin never thought about letting one of his children to take power and died without selecting a successor. The only communist dynasty existed in North Korea, but that is a black page in history.

Still, it is possible that Iosif Leonov would like to make his daughter as the successor. What he said on Women’s Day, that it is possible for a woman to rule one of the three empires, made many suggest that Ana is scheduled to take power.

Iosif Leonov thought about a possible marriage. He talked with Ana about it many times. He could marry her with Rosenstein. This would guarantee a long-term peace, but no father would like to see his only child married with that maniac. Ana is a sfenist. Rosenstein would not be pleased to see this. Still, he would sacrifice his daughter to save the state. He also thought about marrying her with Eugene Bohr, Leonard Bohr’s son. This would form a coalition against Rosenstein and lead to a war. It appeared as a better solution. Eugene Bohr was forced by his father to marry the daughter of Rosenstein’s second in command. However, Eugene refused this and took an American girl to be his wife.

A third solution was to marry Ana with an important political figure in the New Soviet Empire. This would determine who would take power over the empire. It will be a formal marriage. Her selected husband will rule as Supreme Soviet after Iosif’s death. But who will that man be? Ana said: No! Her answer was this one:

“I don’t want to get married at all. The next Supreme Soviet will be the person that proves to be worth this job. Let that be clear to anyone!”

Her father insisted. He told her several names. In the end, her father told her that he has to marry her, otherwise there will be problems. In all times, children of the leader must be seen as an example. Such a rebel daughter would only cause trouble.

In one summer day, Ana invites Alex to her apartment. She is tired after work. She takes a shower, while Alex waits in the room, dressing like a woman. When Ana comes, she says it straight:

“You know what people say. You know what my dad says, that I have to get married. Otherwise, there will be problems in the state. I am running out of options”.

“I know”, says Alex. “You are a sfenist. A marriage without sex is impossible. Your problem is a bit like mine. What woman would like to be with me? Each time I was in a relationship, it ended when she found out about my cross-dressing”.

“I am thinking about a solution. How about a formal marriage between us? It will be just a sheet of paper that would calm down the spirits”.

Alex looks shocked. He never thought about something like that. They are good friends, but not in love. He is not a sfenist… but he knows well what would happen if he tries to touch Ana. He will be killed.

“I think that would solve our problems for all”, says Ana. “Nobody would try any longer to force any of us into a relationship. We can stay here as close friends and that’s all. It will be no celebration, just a sheet of paper”.

Alex accepts this, without saying a word. It happens very soon. It will not be a religious marriage. It happens three weeks later, at the town hall of the Space City. Only the scientists from Aral were invited and nobody else. Even the Supreme Soviet had no idea. He found out after a week. He was shocked. Later the press found out. Not many people commented about the subject. Most people said:

“It is their problem. She shows some modesty after all. She didn’t take a powerful political leader, but a coworker from Aral”.

Many people know that she is a sfenist and Alex is a cross-dresser. They accepted things as they are and said: “They match each other”.

On February 18th, year 18, the Chronos mission to Saturn is ready. Ana Leonova approves its departure from Earth Space Station.

TWO MORE PLANETS

So much money is wasted in space. With this money, we could boost our economy or we could build a shelter for homeless children. Edda Smith, America.

Chronos was launched to Saturn. The next day, work starts for a manned mission to Uranus. This mission is similar. A space station will be built on the tiny moon Perdita, close to Uranus. Manned ships will fly to the large moons of Uranus. Then, return ship will bring two cosmonauts back.

The Perdita space station will weight 400 t and will be home for four cosmonauts. There will be 6 manned missions: to Puck, Miranda, Umbriel, Ariel, Titania and Oberon. In addition, two unmanned ships will sample the inner and outer moons of Uranus. Each manned rocket will carry a capsule weighting 20 t and two cosmonauts. They will have four stages. Stage 1, with nitrogen ion engines, will fire for the transfer orbit. Stage 2 will ensure landing. Stage 3 will be used for takeoff. Stage 4 will bring the ship back. Each manned mission will carry a horse to its target and will bring back a sample from the surface. Unmanned missions will have two stages, both with nitrogen ion engines. They will carry some fuel for landings.

Puck rocket requires a delta-v of 0.499 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.073 km/s for landing. In such conditions, it will not require many stages. It will have a 5 t fuel tank carrying hydrogen and oxygen, with a single RS-2 engine. Also, it will carry a 4 t nitrogen tank. Total mass is 30 t.

Miranda rocket requires a delta-v of 1.980 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.212 km/s for landing. For landing, it will carry a 6 t fuel tank filled with hydrogen and oxygen and a RS-2 engine. For orbit transfer, it will carry a 10 t fuel tank and nitrogen ion engine. Total weight is 37 t.

Ariel rocket requires a delta-v of 3.041 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.625 km/s for landing. The fourth stage will weight 5 t. Stage three will weight 5 t and will use two RS-2 engines. Stage two will weight 6 t and will also use two RS-2 engines. Stage 1 will be 10 t heavy. Total mass is 47 t.

Umbriel rocket requires a delta-v of 3.691 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.584 km/s for landing. Fourth stage will weight 6 t. Stages 3 and 2 will weight 5 t each and will both use two RS-2 engines. Stage 1 will weight 12 t. Total mass is 49 t.

Titania rocket will require a delta-v of 4.301 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.800 km/s for landing. Stage 4 will weight 8 t. Stage 3 will weight 7 t. Stage 2, needed for landing, requires a mass of 9 t, as Titania is the most massive moon of Uranus. Stage 1 must weight 17 t. Total mass is 62 t.

Oberon rocket needs to produce a delta-v of 4.502 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.819 km/s for landing. Stage 4 must weight 8 t. Stage 3 must have a mass of 7 t. Stage 2 will weight 9 t, while stage 1 must weight 18 t. Total mass is 63 t.

The first unmanned probe, weighting 2 t, will have an auxiliary fuel tank of 1 t and a RS- 1 engine. It will go to the outer moon Sycorax and pick a sample. Because Sycorax is retrograde, the probe needs a powerful delta-v of 5.101 km/s. To complete its mission, it will have a nitrogen ion stage weighting 3 t. Total mass is 5 t.

The second unmanned probe, designed to explore the rings and inner moons of Uranus, will be similar in design and will also weight 5 t.

All the probes, manned and unmanned, weight together 298 t. This is far smaller then the previous missions to Jupiter and Saturn.

The return ship weights 200 t. However, to travel from Earth to Uranus, you need an astonishing delta-v of 15.938 km/s. To get this, you need a nitrogen stage weighting 520 t and carrying 442 t of nitrogen. Total mass of the return ship is 720 t.

Perdita Space Station, the return ship and all rockets weight 1418 t. To get all of them from Earth to Uranus, you need a nitrogen stage weighting 3640 t and carrying 3094 t of nitrogen. Total mass is 5058 t. However, scientists calculate that a Jupiter flyby can reduce the costs significantly, both while traveling to Uranus and while returning. Total mass was then reduced to 4500 t, which can be lifted with 9 Lenin V rockets. The final launch will occur on November 7th, year 18.

Soon after that, the manned mission to Neptune will take place. This mission also requires a space station, which will be established on the moon Halimede. This moon is far away from the planet and is the only one suitable for a space station. The mission will include a lander to Triton, one to Triton and one to Proteus. An unmanned mission will stretch to the close, inner moons and rings of Neptune. Because Halimede is very far from Neptune, the capsules need to carry more supplies for the cosmonauts. This will raise their mass to 30 t.

Proteus is prograde, Triton is retrograde and Nereid has a highly elliptical orbit. Changing direction or a rocket is possible only at higher distance. This is why scientists chosen Halimede for a space station.

The Triton rocket will have four stages. Required delta-v is 2.26 km/s for transfer orbit and 1.164 km/s for landing. Stage 4 will weight 6 t. Stage 3, used for takeoff, will weight 18 t and will use two RS-3 engines. Stage 2, used for landing, will weight 29 t and will use three RS-2 engines. Stage 1, used for transfer, will weight 15 t. Total mass is 99 t.

The Nereid rocket will require producing a delta-v of 1.315 km/s for transfer orbit and 0.166 km/s for landing. Stage 4 will weight 4 t. Stages 3 and 2 will merge in a single stage with a single RS-2 engine and will weight 2 t. Stage 1 will weight 5 t. Total mass is 42 t.

The Proteus rocket will generate a delta-v of 4.002 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.194 km/s for landing. Stage 4 will weight 11 t. Stages 2 and 3 will merge, will use a single RS-2 engine and will weight 5 t. Stage 1 will weight 16 t. Total mass is 63 t.

The unmanned mission will sample the inner moons of Neptune. It will weight 3 t, including a 1 t fuel tank and one RS-1 engine. To get there, it needs to produce a delta-v of 6 km/s. This will be solved with two nitrogen stages. Stage 2 will weight 2 t and stage 1 will be 3 t heavy. Total mass is 8 t.

All rockets combined weight 212 t.

The return ship weights 200 t. However, to get to Neptune, you need a delta-v of 15.705 km/s. The needed nitrogen stage weights 500 t, rising mass to 700 t.

Together, the Halimede Space Station, the rockets and the return vehicle weights 1312 t. To bring them all to Neptune, you need a nitrogen stage weighting 3300 t. Total mass rises to 4612 t. Scientists concluded that a combined Mars and Saturn flyby can be used, reducing mass to 4317 t. In the end, the Neptune mission will weight 4500 t. That will require nine Lenin V launches.

Launch date for the manned Neptune mission is fixed on July 17th, year 19. Both missions are developed without a delay.

What are the other empires doing? The New Soviets achieved a great goal by creating the waste recycling system. It is relatively small and provides life support for cosmonauts as they travel long distances. Without this device, space colonization would never be possible.

The other empires failed to build a functional waste recycling system. When traveling long distances, their ships have to carry both food and oxygen for their cosmonauts. This might be acceptable for a mission to the Moon, but for a mission to mars, this is difficult. The needed amount of food and oxygen is huge. This is what limited their expansion in the Solar System.

The Americans continued to build on the Moon. Their base, built near the first Apollo landing site, increased. They built a giant greenhouse and named it New Eden. Their colony increased in size. It now hosts 16 people, but almost all of them are men, scientists. A new base on the Moon is in project. A road will link the two bases. They are working on projects that will allow their astronauts to build more, using raw materials from the Moon. Their base on Mars is far smaller. It also has a large greenhouse, providing food for the colony. Huge transport costs limit the number of people that can be ferried to Mars. Still, they are working on it. A transport ship, hosting a huge greenhouse, is under construction. Their plan is to use this ship as a transport vehicle between Earth and Mars.

The Jews tried to experiment with freezing technologies. As for now, it is impossible to cool the human body for long and wake it up without damage. Space hibernation is difficult. Still, they managed to do something. A cosmonaut can travel for longer distances in an induced state of coma. This way, the body will consume far less food, water and oxygen. They are experimenting this in their first manned mission to Mercury. They want to establish a Mercury base close to the planet’s North Pole, where astronauts can find water.

The New Soviets have a major advantage. All their rockets and parts are built on assembly lines, reducing construction costs by more then half. They have all what they need in Aral.

Still, there is a major challenge. Leonard Bohr wanted to do something to win the space race in the last moment. He knew that the last standing planet to conquer is Pluto. Actually, Pluto is not quite a planet, but a Kuiper Belt Object. Still, many people refer to it as the last planet in the Solar System. Pluto is considered the last classical planet. Sending a man to Pluto would be a great achievement, which would put America back on its place. Scientists planned the manned mission. The crew will have only two cosmonauts. The ship will host a greenhouse, artificially illuminated. There will be two landing modules, one for Pluto and one for Charon. The life support module will weight over 1000 tons. Adding the needed amount of fuel (xenon for American ion engines), the ion engines and nuclear generators to power them up, the total mass rises dramatically to 5000 tons.

It is too much. Protests rise in the American Empire. The main protestor is Edda Smith, a journalist. She claims that space projects consume too much money and resources. The empire cannot afford to pay that much for a space race that is lost. Edda Smith is imprisoned, but this doesn’t stop her. Public demonstrations rise on the streets of New York. Bohr is forced to use the army to stop the protests.

The Jews see this as a chance. They decide to go to Pluto before the Americans and the New Soviets. A massive ship is built in space. It will carry two astronauts to Pluto. However, they hardly have the resources they once had. Rosenstein’s policy of using forced labor, his mass extermination programs, left large areas with a massive population decline. He forces his people for one last, massive space project. This time, he does it in public. He uses all resources for building the manned Mercury mission and then starts building the manned Pluto mission.

For Iosif Leonov, this is a big thread. He orders Ana to do something.

THE LAST FIGHT

If you win all battles but you lose the last one, you lose the war. Alexander The Great.

The manned ship detaches to Neptune on July 17th, year 19. As this happens, Ana is again working with all scientists for a manned mission, this time to Pluto.

Mission objectives are: build a space station on Pluto’s moon Styx, build a lander for Pluto, a lander for Charon and a multiple lander for the small moons of the Pluto System. Four cosmonauts will be sent to Pluto. Two of them will then return with a returning ship. Major challenge is the huge distance to Pluto.

The station will weight 400 t and will support the lives of all cosmonauts. It will be placed on the small moon Styx.

The Pluto lander will carry two cosmonauts and will weight 20 t with all its parts. It will also carry a rover for the cosmonauts and a horse to remain on Pluto. It requires a delta-v of 0.430 km/s for transfer orbit and 0.888 km/s for landing. Scientists calculate that it will only need two stages. Stage 2, used for liftoff and returning, will weight 10 t and will have two RS-2 engines. Stage 1, used for landing on Pluto, will weight 20 t and will also have two RS-2 engines. Total mass is 50 t.

The Charon lander will be similar in design, weighting 20 t together with its manned rover and unmanned horse. It requires a delta-v of 0.076 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.670 km/s for landing. It will also have two stages, each one using two RS-2 engines. Stage 2 will weight 5 t and stage 1 will be 7 t heavy. Total mass is 32 t.

The multiple lander will visit the remaining moons: Nix, Hydra and Kerberos. For this, it will conduct 3 different flights, returning to the base after each visit. It will not carry a horse or a rover. These moons are too small for that. It will weight 15 t. For each mission, it will attach a fuel tank from the base and will detach it on return. For Nix, it requires a delta-v of 0.009 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.021 km/s for landing. 1 t of fuel is enough for the whole mission. To get to Kerberos, you need to provide a delta-v of 0.020 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.022 km/s for landing. Again, a fuel tank weighting 1 t is more then enough to reach the moon and return to base. For Hydra, you need 0.026 km/s for orbit transfer and 0.019 km/s to land. Again, a fuel tank weighting 1 t is more then enough. Three small fuel tanks and one RS-1 engine would be enough. Total mass is 18 t for all this.

Visiting Pluto and all its moons is possible with only 100 t.

The return ship will weight 200 t. However, to go from Pluto to Earth, you need a delta-v of 15.498 km/s. That can be achieved with a nitrogen stage weighting 550 t and carrying 467 t of nitrogen. Total mass rises to 750 t.

Overall, the Styx Space Station, all three landers and the return ship weight 1250 t. To get them all to Pluto in one shot, you need a nitrogen stage weighting 3250 t and carrying 2762 t of nitrogen. Total mass rises to 4500 t. You need nine Lenin V ships to get that into orbit.

The Pluto manned ship will be launched on April 4th, year 20. Taking advantage of one Jupiter and one Uranus flyby, it will arrive to Pluto in 14 years.

The main problem is that both the Americans and the Jews decided to launch a ship to Pluto around the same date. All three ships will arrive to Pluto using the same gravity assists. Their arriving time will be similar.

Hearing this, people in the New Soviet Empire are unhappy. The first to take action is the mayor of Moscow. He personally visits Aral and asks Ana to build a manned base on Pluto. People from Moscow and all the empire wish to fund that mission. They are determined to build something that nobody else did.

Ana accepts the challenge, very happy. She orders more Lenin V ships to be built. The base will weight 400 t and will land on Pluto. To land, it requires 120 t of hydrogen- oxygen propellant and nine RS-3 engines. To get to Pluto 520 t, you need 1350 t of fuel. Total mass is 1870 t. Scientists increase the mass of the base and fuel tanks, then add another RS-3 engine, to fit it to 1500 t. Five Lenin V ships will be needed.

Space Factory was built to produce one Lenin V every month. Now, it has to produce one every 15 days to fit with the schedule. It is a hard task. Ana needs to upgrade the factories. She does this. She decides to improve all factories, so that ships will be built faster and launched more often.

Well, all goes according to plan. On April 4th, everything is ready and launched. The new joint mission to Pluto is named Hades.

But just as Hades detaches from Earth Space Station, heading for Pluto, Nikolai Monosov, a rich person from the New Soviet Empire, requires a base to be built on the moon Umbriel of Uranus. Ana accepts this mission too. It will require five Lenin V launches. Four cosmonauts will be sent to Umbriel.

She has another plan: to build a mission to three celestial bodies further then Pluto: Eris, Haumea and Sedna. This mission will use 6 cosmonauts, three pairs. Each will use a similar rocket. The habitat module will weight 200 t. Each mission will have a lander, similar to the lander used for Pluto, weighting 50 t, which will detach, leaving the main ship in orbit. Nitrogen stage will weight 550 t. So, total mass to be sent to each planet is 800 t. For this, you need a nitrogen stage weighting 1700 t. Total mass of each mission will be 2500 t. With a total of 7500 t, you need 15 Lenin V launches to assemble it in space.

The mission to Umbriel is finished until September 27th.

The manned missions to Eris, Haumea and Sedna are finished in year 21, on June 1st. All three spaceships are launched from Earth Space Station at the same day, at only two hours difference. It is a huge success.

PART SIX – END OF THE RACE

Did you know that Russian Soiuz rockets take all the astronauts and supplies to International space Station? Also, did you know that Russian rocket engines are the best in the world? Why is that? The largest and most known American ships in the 21st century are sent to space using Russian technology. Why? Some people say that this is not fair. Others complain that America has to do something about, to build better engines. The truth is, all this was born during the space race. Not having enough resources, the Soviets had to develop more efficient engines.

WELCOME TO PLUTO

You plant a tree and forget about it. Then, when you come after many years, you see the big tree that grew on its own. Its branches grew higher then you. Even after you die, the tree is still there and continues to grow. A wiseman.

It is the year 31. The date is January 8th. Today, the first human lands on Pluto. Styx Space Station was built and is fully operational. On the surface, the Pluto Lander just arrived. It landed on a small ice platform. Pluto Base is on its way and will land in a few days.

The chosen place to land is very close to Sputnik Plain, which was named so after the first artificial satellite. What better place could be for a New Soviet base? The Pluto Lander reached surface. Cosmonauts are a man and a woman. They jump off their ship and touch the icy surface.

Just as they touch surface, the ground starts to make some sort of steam. There are many ices on the surface, which evaporate at low temperature. The sky is dark blue. The Sun is visible as a very bright star. Around, cosmonauts can see mountains rising anywhere. Sputnik Plain is not far. It is something between a sea and a solid surface, more exactly some sort of a gel.

“We are the first to step foot on Pluto!” says the man.

“It is winter in Moscow and children are playing with snow, but we are playing with nitrogen snow here”, says the woman, walking a few steps.

They walk together, more jumping then walking. Charon shines above them. Soon, they will visit it too. Then, they plant the New Soviet flag.

So many things happened in this time. They traveled 14 years through space to get to Pluto. It was a long journey. Humans arrived to Neptune and landed on its major moons. There is now a base on Uranus’s moon Umbriel. Most missions were a huge success. Most were, but not all. The two cosmonauts remember the news they periodically got from Earth.

There were also accidents. The mission to Jupiter’s moon Io was the hardest hit. Two cosmonauts landed on Io. One went outside for a walk of an hour. However, the costume failed to protect him and he died in 27 minutes. The second cosmonaut, a woman, went out and took a ground sample. Even that was too much. She died later of cancer on Himalia Space Station.

Another mission of two went to Jupiter’s moon Europa. However, a quake almost made the rocket fall. They hardly managed to make it fly, using too much fuel. To get back to Himalia, they had to use a double gravity assist from Ganymede. This made the flight far longer. They exhausted their supplies and returned more dead then alive. A new team was sent to Himalia later.

Another accident occurred on Saturn’s moon Iapetus. Cosmonauts hardly found a good place to land, exhausting all of their fuel. They used fuel from the return stage to land. To return to Helene Space Station, they had to use a Titan flyby.

And then, small meteorites hit Mercury Space Station. One waste recycling system was destroyed. Cosmonauts had to reduce their daily activity, so that they would consume less food, water and oxygen, until a new waste recycling system was brought from earth.

One thing almost stopped everything. Samuel Rosenstein sent his troops towards Aral, His troops pretended to be deserters at first. They crossed border from Iran and advanced straight to the cosmodrome. The Supreme Soviet ordered all area to be evacuated and all facilities to be dismantled and moved to Siberia. Then, ‘rebel’ troops advanced towards the Volga, to where Volga Germans live. They were unlucky. The New Soviets burned all crops, all villages and all towns on the way. Troops were unable to get supplies from the conquered land or from home. They marched towards Moscow and arrived there in winter. Hungry and exhausted, they deserted again, but for real, joining New Soviet forces. It took then an year for all space facilities to be rebuilt. During this time, all space launches were cancelled. The returning ship from Saturn had to wait. It performed one Earth flyby to refine its orbit, then it landed at Earth Space Station. That was Rosenstein’s last attempt to kill Ana Leonova.

After this, he got paranoia, thinking everyone would kill him. He started to execute his most trusted friends and most loyal generals. In the end, he went suicide. His cousin, David Rosenstein, was chosen as his successor. David is a completely different person. He started to rebuild what can be saved. He found a weak empire, with huge areas depopulated, with endless labor camps and with people starving. He immediately signed a peace treaty with the other two empires.

Knowing that the Americans would be interested to take control, Iosif Leonov offered a huge aid to the Jewish Empire. He sent workers to rebuild the infrastructure, food for starving people and medical help for those in labor camps. With Soviet help, a network of dams and irrigation canals was built on some major rivers, like Congo and Yellow River. This would ensure a steady supply of food and energy. Also, a new railway was built, connecting Moscow with Jerusalem and further crossing Africa from North to South. When the railway was finished, Iosif Leonov came to the inauguration festivity and said to everyone:

“We shall never forget the bad things of our past. We shall forgive all bad things that we’ve done. There is no state in history, there is no ethnic group on the face of the Earth, that was never part in a genocide. I think it is time to understand something. If we forget the bad things we’ve all done, we will commit them again. If we don’t forget and we don’t forgive, we are at risk of committing new, worse atrocities. Again, if we look down and only cry for our sins, we do nothing to repair them. It is time to see what we can do to repair what we had done”.

The Supreme Soviet wants a state of equilibrium in the world. All three empires must have an equal status in order to prevent a war. He helped David Rosenstein at first, then he increased distance. He tries to keep the equilibrium.

How many things changed in the world? Three ships flew to Pluto. Each empire sent one. The Americans tried to build their own version of a waste recycling system, but it failed. Some water pipes got silted and in the end astronauts died. The Jews tried to place two astronauts in a state of coma… but until they arrived at Pluto, they could not wake-up at all. It was a failure.

After the last manned ships were launched, Ana Leonova started another project. Scientists designed passenger and cargo ships to travel between planets after a schedule. These ships carry equipment, supplies and cosmonauts to each space station. Scientists designed habitat modules with an incorporated waste recycling system for a single person. A module weights 100 t and can be attached to a ship.

Currently, the interplanetary fleet has a few ships:

Ural – designed to carry 100 t, Balkan – designed to carry 200 t, Volga – designed to carry 300 t, Tibet – designed to carry 500 t, Tunguska – designed to carry 1000 t.

In addition, fuel is no longer produced on Earth. There are many asteroids around Earth containing water and nitrogen. Also, water and nitrogen are found on most of the moons. Scientists built two unmanned ships, Kalinin and Peciora, able to extract water and nitrogen from rocks. Kalinin is made to drill on small moons surrounding the gas giants. Peciora can travel more and mines asteroids around Earth or in the Asteroid Belt. Each ship can carry up to 50 t to a space station. In addition, fuel refining facilities exist on all surface bases.

How many times a ship was made reusable? Ion engines usually destroy their cathode. The problem was solved very easy. Ships have spare cathode grids, easy to be changed. Nuclear power is essential for far missions. Old ships used Pu 238, an isotope of plutonium. However, this isotope is very expensive. Americium is far cheaper. However, its radiation destroys the RTG faster, shortening its lifetime. The problem was solved too. Ships have spare RTG systems. They just change the americium pellets from one RTG to another. How many fuel tanks were reused over and over? Now, scientists are working on a reusable Mars rocket, to travel between Mars Base and Phobos Space Station. They found out that fuel tanks can be reused without risks. The engines can be refurbished too, with adequate technology.

All these new achievements made space transportation cheaper. To get something from Earth surface to Saturn’s moon Iapetus, using the New Soviet space transport network, it costs less then 10% how much it would cost using rockets of the other two empires.

It is a huge difference of cost. The most expensive part remains sending something to Earth orbit. Up to this point, Ana found no other solution. The five existing Lenin rockets are the only vehicles connecting Earth surface with Earth Space Station. Also, that station grew in size. It is now over four times it were before.

At some point, someone had the idea to make a space hotel there. Second stages of the Lenin rockets were just sitting there, docked to the station. They could be transformed into a large, complex habitat. Plants and animals are grown, providing a better food then Chlorella algae for the tourists, willing to pay a lot of money for this.

All these things happened while the mission to Pluto was traveling through deep space. But now, cosmonauts walk on the surface of Pluto. They deploy the rover, a nuclear powered machine, for the first ride. The terrain is very difficult. They travel half an hour to reach the Sputnik Plain. Well, it is not quite a plain, but a hilly landscape. There, they see the white surface of methane, nitrogen and carbon monoxide ices. Unable to reach them by rover, they step outside and jump from place to place. Finally reaching the surface, they see it from close. The ‘sea’ looks more like cheese, with many holes inside. One of them tries to take a sample.

“Wow! It really is some sort of gel. It feels like toothpaste. And it looks like it, too! Scientists were right about it”.

“The old Sputnik would be proud of this, to see a place named after it”.

The old Sputnik is long gone. It burned into Earth’s atmosphere at reentry. However, the New Soviets managed to launch two massive replicas. One of them was sent on a Sun escape trajectory. Now, it should be on a hyperbolic trajectory, heading away from the Sun. Its last beep was received more then ten years ago, when it was between Jupiter and Saturn. Since then, it had not enough sunlight to recharge its batteries. The other one spiraled closer to the Sun and eventually was destroyed by the intense heat somewhere between Venus and Mercury. It will roam forever in space.

Then the two cosmonauts return to their rocket. They make a last trip towards the Chulthu Plateau, one of the oldest surfaces on Pluto. They have to take a sample from there too. The rover finds this very difficult too. Scientists are eager to learn more about Pluto. While Sputnik is the newest place, Chulthu is the oldest. They are both very close one to another.

For Ana Leonova, this part is not interesting. She doesn’t care about evolution. She is only concerned about what can be useful for future missions. Can the tholins found on Chulthu be useful? Can something be made with them? Is there a possibility to transform them into plastic or other useful materials? This is the only thing that bothers her.

When the return ship arrived from Jupiter, it carried samples from all Galilean moons, as well as samples from the tiny inner moon Almathea and the outer moon Himalia. Scientists started to analyze them. Surprised, they found out that complex organic compounds were absent in the ices of Europa. What could that mean? There is no life on Europa? They found more organic molecules in the samples from Ganymede. Is that moon supporting life? It also has a subsurface ocean beneath. They were eager to find more. They asked for a new mission to Ganymede, to see if something more complex can be found. They wanted to pierce through the ice and explore the subsurface ocean beneath, to see if life can actually exist down there. Ana Leonova changed the subject in a shocking way:

“This is very interesting. The possibility of life would increase curiosity from people around the Earth. However, it has no practical issue. Focus on what can be harvested on Ganymede for future missions. I am more interested in building a base down there and a scheduled transport service between Ganymede and Himalia”.

Ganymede can support a base. It has a small magnetic field, which shields itself from the radiation belts of Jupiter. There are already voices asking for a base there. However, Callisto was chosen for a permanent manned base, because Callisto is richer in minerals. It provides everything that cosmonauts need. After the base was built, cosmonauts started to explore the moon. They found unexpected mineral ores. Even uranium was found in significant amounts, not to mention the minerals needed for life. When they got supplies, they started to enlarge their base. They had a serious reason to do this. There were four cosmonauts sent to Callisto, two men and two women. Soon after launch, they acted as two couples. When they landed, one of the women was already pregnant. Now, they have four children living in the base.

Actually, the New Soviet space stations and bases are full with children born in outer space. This required many more supplies, to give them all what they need. On Earth, this encouraged parents to have more children. Love is an important connection between people. It made cosmonauts more attached one to another. This made them solve their problems better then if they were just close friends. Love reduced tensions. It is hard to live in enclosed space for many years.

There also were couples that failed to form, divorces in space. But, in most cases, strong families were formed. Sometimes, scientists sent already formed couples to space. In a long-term mission, people have no way to stay separated. They have to live together.

Another important moment was when the first couple returned from space with a child. All the press commented about this event. Doctors were eager to see the child, to learn how space environment and cosmic radiations affected the child.

So many things happened in the passing time. And now, the two cosmonauts pick-up samples from Chulthu and bring them to their spaceship. Soon, the Pluto base will land and the two cosmonauts will return to Styx Space Station. After the mission to Pluto will end, the samples will be sent to Earth for further analyzes.

Cosmonauts on the Pluto base have another symbolic task. They place a statue of Lenin on the surface of Pluto. The moment is transmitted live on Earth. However, because of the high distance, people on Earth will see this more then four hours after the statue is put in place.

FIRST CUSTOM FLIGHT

The media is desperately afraid of being accused of bias. And that’s partly because there’s a whole machine out there, an organized attempt to accuse them of bias whenever they say anything that the Right doesn’t like. So rather then really try to respond things objectively, they settle for being ever-handed, which is not the same thing. One of my lines in a column – which a number of people thought I was insulting them personally – was that if (the president) said the Earth is flat, the mainstream media would have stories with the headline: ‘Shape of the Earth – wiews differ’. Then they’d quote some democrats saying that it was round. Flat Earth Society.

Have you heard about the Flat Earth Society? They claim that the Earth is flat and that the Sun and the Moon are small, flying in the space above. They say that stars are incredibly small and all space exploration is a hoax. They come with quotes from the Bible to prove they are right and scientists are wrong.

The Flat Earth belief is very old. People believed for centuries this. But, at the same time, many scientists argued that the Earth is round. The first person who proved that the Earth is round was Magellan, who sent an expedition from Europe to the West, crossed between South America and Australia and traveled through the Pacific Ocean, South of India and Africa and eventually reached Europe back.

The best prove that the Earth is round came with the space age. Both the Americans and the Soviets returned pictures of Earth from outer space. Astronauts on Apollo missions saw the Earth from space, as it is round. Then, many space probes and manned missions took pictures from Earth.

There could be no doubt that the Earth is round. But still, many people did not believe it. Many people were convinced that the Earth is flat. Flat Earth societies survived through centuries. There is no a single Flat Earth Society. There are many organizations, but all of them have a common goal. They all believe that the Earth is not round and that space exploration is a hoax, made for the purpose of money laundry.

This movement is most powerful in America. Still, it has adepts all over the world. Actually, Ana Leonova never knew about it. She never believed that people would still think that the Earth is flat. Soon, there will be 200 years since the first human went in outer space.

One day, Alex (which changed his name from Alex Green to Alex Leonov) searched the internet for private space launches. There are many people with a passion for space exploration. There had been cases of students, which built small rockets in their garages and attempted to launch them to space. Some of them successfully sent small satellites to orbit around Earth.

Suddenly, he finds an interesting article:

Flat Earth believer tries to launch himself into space, to prove the Earth is not round. He is willing to pay any space agency to send him into space.

He shows the article to Ana. She looks surprised. She reads the article. One flat Earth organization asked its members to donate. They donated a lot of money, but not enough to build a small rocket. He asked NASA and some private American space companies to bring him to space, but they all laughed, saying that the Earth is round. He then called Jewish Space Agency, but with no result. He plans to contact the New Soviet space agencies, but he found no phone number and no e-mail address.

“We could put him onboard a Lenin I”, says Ana. “If he pays that much, we will offer him a lift to space. He will see with his own eyes that the Earth is round”.

Alex laughs. “That would be a very interesting mission”.

Ana laughs too. She sends him an e-mail, with an invitation to space. A Lenin I without the nitrogen stage will send him to space, to a Moon flyby. Then, he will fall back to Earth, to Aral. Ana knows what are the costs of a Lenin I launch and how much would cost to build a small capsule, with food, oxygen and water supplies for a 20 days mission. It is less then half the money he is willing to pay. He accepts the offer within a few hours. Everything is done within 22 days. The rocket is ready and waiting him. He gets a special access permit at Ana’s order.

The rocket is launched on March 11th, year 31. He is placed in the capsule and waits. Engines are turned on at 14.27. The rocket leaves Earth as planned. Unfortunately, he cannot see anything until he reaches space. The fairings cover the capsule until it gets out of the atmosphere. They detach when the second stage is turned on. He transmits live from his capsule. Everything is streamed live on Flat Earth TV. Anyone can see it.

Fairings are detached. Now I can see the Earth. I am above the atmolayer. You can clearly see that it is flat. Above me, the sky is black and I cannot see any star. Beneath me, I can see the Earth. Just look for yourselves. Do you see any curvature? I don’t.

It’s been a bumpy ride up to here. I never imagined that traveling on a rocket is so painful. It was a horrible noise. Everything was trembling around me. God, I thought I would die. You won’t believe the acceleration I encountered. Even the fastest car or the fastest airplane cannot push you so fast. It is a miracle that I didn’t throw-up.

What can I say? Beneath me, everything is white. Where am I? My bet is that I am somewhere above Siberia, but I don’t know for sure. Wait! There is some land not covered by snow on that side. Also, I see a lot of clouds down there. I never imagined so many clouds roam in the atmolayer.

As the rocket continues climbing into space, the second stage is exhausted and detached. The capsule now only has 2 t of fuel and a tiny RS-1 engine for the Moon flyby. Small thrusters adjust its movements, so that he can see.

Now I can see how astronauts feel. This part is true. Just look at my hat! I place it in here and it remains in the air. There is no gravity in space. But yet, I cannot see any curvature. Talking about where am I, now I know. Onboard computers show me current position, but I wanted to make sure. I think I crossed over the Arctic Ocean and now I am above Canada. Well, it is hard to say what is ‘up’ and what is ‘down’ in here, as there is no gravity.

The next day, as the capsule got far enough, he shows the world new images.

Do you see that? The Earth is down here. It looks like a giant blue moon! On the dark side, if you look close enough, you can see lights where cities are. It is true. The Earth is round. Believe me, people! Just take a look at what I see! The Earth is round.

After other four days, the capsule approaches the Moon. The orbit was chosen in such a way that he would see the New Soviet base. He comments about this:

I witnessed the moment when Earth appeared as small as the Moon. Now, the Moon is getting larger by the minute. Interesting is that, the closer I get to the Moon, the larger it appears. Very soon we will fly above the New Soviet base. I can see the road they built on the Moon to reach the center of its far side.

Here it is! The base! Do you see it? I do. It appears so small compared to the huge size of the Moon. There is another thing that impresses me. From this height, the Moon appears flat too. It is round, but when you are very close to it, it becomes flat.

Soon the return engine will fire. I am scared. Getting off Earth was a harsh experience. What made it even worse is that I had no view to the outside world. Fairings covered my capsule.

After a close Moon flyby, the RS-1 engine is turned on. It adjusts the orbit, so that the ship will reach back Earth and will land at Aral. The capsule continues to move in space, leaving the Moon behind.

I wonder how astronauts feel after traveling for years in space. For me, it is a harsh experience. I need to take a bath. I need to take a shower. The whole capsule stinks. Using the space toilette is not as nice as it seems. What kind of water I drink? It is distillated urine. Only thinking about makes me throw-up. I drink my own urine. I have enough food for the trip, but it is not like what we have on Earth. It consists of dehydrated cubes in small plastic envelopes. I wish I had a soup. My stomach is destroyed. I feel constipated. I also have samples of the green goo they eat. Boy, it tastes like nothing. It is like trying to swallow your own nose mucus. It made me throw-up. How do people live in such conditions?

The capsule heads back to Earth. The passenger witnesses how Earth becomes larger as he gets closer. The Moon, left behind, becomes smaller until it is as small as you can see it on Earth. The capsule makes one last trajectory correction, to land precisely on the Aral. Reentry starts. The capsule starts trembling again. All he can see on the windows now is fire. Finally, after minutes, the parachute is deployed and the capsule successfully lands on Aral.

I am down. Finally, I am back on Earth. My ears hurt like crazy. Someone, give me something for pain! What is surprising, my muscles are atrophied. I cannot hold myself. A rescue team must come and pick me from here. Anywhere around I see only snow.

A rescue team comes and picks the capsule. He is sent to a medical checkout and then sent to take a bath. After this, he gets new clothes. Ana comes to him and asks him directly:

“Congratulations! You are the first American passenger sent into space from the Aral Cosmodrome! Feel welcome to call our services at anytime!”

“Thank you!” he says. “I never imagined you would be so kind. It was a great honor to reach space and see the Earth and the Moon from out there”.

“Do you still believe the Earth is flat?”

“No. The Earth is round. I’ve seen it with my own eyes”.

Starting from this moment, Ana Leonova introduces custom missions. Anyone willing to get to space or to send something to space is welcomed to Aral. Tariffs are shown on the internet. Anyone who pays is welcomed.

It was a historical event, the first custom civilian space flight. This opened a door that nobody thought once to be possible. Anyone with money can go to space. Anyone, owning enough capital, can use Aral facilities to send a satellite or a probe to orbit around Earth and far beyond.

Ana did not expect something like this to happen. She just wanted to have some fun with the flat Earth concept. She accepted the mission for fun. She knows that the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, accepted custom flights to the International Space Station. Roscosmos ferried American and European astronauts to the station for money. They also launched private satellites for money. But now, everything is different. The person sent to space was a civilian, without space training and without any official status.

Soon, Ana had to answer in front of a TV camera. She said it loud and clear:

“He paid for the mission. Anyone who pays has the right to go to space. We are not in war with anyone. We won the space race. From now on, our services are opened to anyone willing to pay. We already worked for New Soviet universities and research institutes. Now, it is time to work for anyone willing to pay. In fact, this was my dream, to offer an alternative for space colonization. If you want to move to Mars or to a moon of Saturn and you have the money, you are welcome onboard of our ships. We will provide a scheduled interplanetary transport system, which can be used by anyone”.

“What if the American and the Jewish space agencies will ask for your services?” asks the reporter.

“They are welcome. We can launch their probes and ferry their cosmonauts to their bases if they want. Our services are available to anyone, as I said”.

Meanwhile, the Flat Earther travels back to America. There, he finds anyone at the Flat Earth Society considering him a traitor. They accuse him for taking part at the conspiration. Fearing to lose his rank in the organization, he tells the world this:

They locked me in that capsule, where I could not see anything. Then, as the fairings opened, I could see the Earth and the Moon. What if all this is a well-elaborated hoax? What if there was actually high-tech TV screens on each window and all I could see was fake? I don’t understand where the lack of gravity came from, but this can all be a hoax. We are lied on a size we never encountered before. We have to take attitude, go to the streets and protest. The hoax is beyond our imagination.

Hearing this, Ana laughs at him. She doesn’t comment it at all. She is happy that the first paid civilian space flight went perfectly.

The Supreme Soviet is a bit concerned about this. Transforming the Aral Space Facility into a public place was something he never had in mind. Well, he thinks in a different way. Since launches are far cheaper from Aral then from anywhere else in the world, space agencies would prefer to use the Lenin rockets instead of their own. This would ensure New Soviet dominance over space. However, it is important that the New Soviets must have more ships, more cosmonauts and more bases in space then anyone else, to ensure their ruling position over space. It is a good thing but also a challenge.

WHAT NEXT

It takes a little axe and a lot of work to cut down a big tree. But, once the tree trunk is cut, there is nothing that can stop the tree from falling. And even if it doesn’t fall and lands on other trees, its fate is doomed. A wiseman.

After the first custom manned space flight, things started to change at Aral. The first to call were the Americans, asking for a cheaper ferry to their manned bases on Moon and Mars. Ana accepted this offer. They offer money for this. After a few weeks, the Jews called and asked for a ferry to their bases on the Moon and Mercury. Ana accepts that too. She decides to charge anyone with the transport prices and an extra fee of 30%. This fee will be used to extend the transport system.

She wants a scheduled transport system to cover the whole Solar System. She divides the Solar System into four regions.

Sector Earth is the first region. Ships will ferry between Earth and Earth Space Station every 20 to 30 days. Between Earth Space Station and the Moon, the same schedule can be maintained. Inner Solar System is the second region. Ships will travel roughly every two years along the routes Earth – Mercury, Earth – Venus, Earth – Mars and Earth – Ceres. The third region stretches beyond the Asteroid Belt. Ships will travel every four years on routes Earth – Jupiter, Earth – Saturn, Earth – Uranus, Earth – Neptune and Earth – Pluto. Finally, the fourth region consists of all other celestial bodies in the Solar System.

Scientists start working on this problem. These ships will travel between space stations and will not land on a major planet. They will use nitrogen and nitrogen ion engines to move around.

Landers are needed. These will be reusable rockets, designed to land on all planets and moons. They will offer a scheduled transport service between space stations and each planet or moon. There are still two bodies where no lander will reach: Venus and Io. For Venus, a reusable lander is impossible to build. Piercing through its dense atmosphere is impossible without using a multi-stage device. Io lies in the center of Jupiter’s radiation belt. There, a cosmonaut cannot survive more then five minutes.

These rockets require fuel: hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. The good part is that these fuels can be mined and refined in space. There are already two unmanned spaceships working on this: Kalinin and Peciora. Ana orders the construction of more. Earth Space Station will have ten Peciora ships, which will extract fuels from near Earth asteroids. This fuel will be used for all ships arriving here.

Venus Space Station and Mercury Space Station will receive fuel from Earth Space Station. Currently, no other solution seems possible. Some water and nitrogen was found on Mercury. So, it is possible to fuel the lander on Mercury surface.

Phobos Space Station will receive a Kalinin probe, to ferry fuels from nearby Deimos, which, surprisingly, has more resources. Mars has some water on surface, so the lander can be refueled there.

Beyond Mars, in the Asteroid Belt and on the moons of the gas giants, there is enough water. Nitrogen was also detected. So, interplanetary ships and landers can be fueled there easily. The same works for Pluto.

Ana takes her ambitious plan further on. Is it possible to build launch platforms on each planet and moon where we have a base? Also, is it possible to build a railway connecting bases on a planet? It appears that it is. She first tries this on the Moon. If this works, then a single base on the Moon would be enough. Goods can be ferried by train.

Ana presents her findings to the scientists. They are very interested on building reusable landers. Once you build them, you will only have to do limited repairs to them. Producing fuel in space is also a thing they are happy about. Building space platforms for ships is also something that they accept. Platforms can be built with existing materials found on almost all moons and planets. However, building a railway in space, is a different story. They find it too difficult and not feasible.

We already have roads in space. There are several roads built on the Moon, crossing the far side. They can be extended. Riding along them is a difficult task, but not impossible. Building a railway is something else, difficult and costly. Well, nothing is impossible for Ana Leonova. Everyone knows this very well.

Planets and moons have various gravities. A lander needs chemical engines for landing and nitrogen ion engines for changing orbit. Each case is particularly different. Each transport is different. Sometimes, you have to carry a few tons, sometimes you need to transport much more. Sometimes you have to transport people.

Ana is not thinking for the moment, but for the future. She knows that space missions will be more and more frequent. There are new requirements. The Japanese people want a base in space, on Mars. People from San Francisco want a base on a moon of Saturn. Someone with enough money requested a base on the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. For many rich people, this appears to be the ultimate glamour: build something in outer space. Once these bases will be built, they will need supplies.

IRTISH UNIT

It is amazing to see this thing into action. It drill and extracts goods. It refines, it purifies and produces all the fuel we need. Solar or nuclear powered, it works all day and all night, never stopping. You don’t need to watch it. It is all automated. You just let it down there and it does the job, alone, undisturbed. Diary of a cosmonaut.

What spaceships needed, is a way to produce propellant in space. Already, some efforts had been done for this purpose. The New Soviet bases on Moon, Mars, Callisto, Umbriel and Pluto already have small devices able to do this. They worked slowly and supplied a return ship with fuel.

Scientists on Aral worked for months to come with a universal design for a propellant producing plant. It took them some time to come with a good design. Then, they came with one solution.

It weights 100 t and it’s wheeled. They chosen a random name for it: Irtysh, after a river in Siberia. The Irtysh actually supplies the Aral complex with water. Much of its water is used for producing hydrogen and oxygen, the basic fuel mixture used by the Lenin rockets.

All bases will receive an Irtysh Unit. All bases will benefit from this technology.

The Moon is a special place; it is the only territory outside Earth divided with borders. The Americans share the Northern part of the Near Side. The Jews share the Southern part of the Near Side. The New Soviets have the Far Side. To solve the problem, Ana decides to build three space platforms and bring in three Irtysh Units. Also, two platforms and two Irtysh Units are sent to Mars. Well, she doesn’t stop here. As many bases are in project, she accepts the challenge and builds new units. One unit is sent to Mercury, two to Himalia Station, three to Helene Station and other five beyond.

Her ambition to create a scheduled transportation network throughout the Solar System has no limit. She decides to build reusable ships. Actually, there will be reusable fuel tanks with attachable engines. At Space Factory, custom fuel tanks are being built. They have various fuel capacities: 1 t, 3 t, 10 t, 30 t, 100 t, 300 t and 1000 t. Some tanks are built for hydrogen and oxygen, while others are built for nitrogen. Also, spare engines are built: the RS engines for hydrogen and oxygen and the NI engines for nitrogen. The plan is ingenious. Each lander will use more or less fuel tanks and engines depending on what payload they have to transport. So, custom ships can be assembled on each space station, which will have a steady supply of engines and fuel tanks.

Ana continues with her ambitious plan. Launch platforms will be built on all major moons, even if a base was not yet established. She wants to create the infrastructure for space colonization. The space project continues to receive 5% of state budget or 0.7 to 1% of New Soviet Empire’s GDP. However, money is starting to flow from other sources. As more and more people want to go to space and colonize other planets, more money flows towards the Aral. With this new money, the project can go on, ahead of the schedule.

STEEL ON MOON AND MARS

Some people look at things that had been done and with a sad face, they say: ‘Why?’ I look at things that had never been made and with a big smile I say: ‘Why not?’ Ana Leonova talking to the Supreme Soviet.

It is the year 36. The date is July 8th. In the last years, many settlements had been built on various planets and moons. There are also bases on various asteroids. Almost every two days a ship is sent from Aral to space.

Now, scheduled spaceships travel between all space stations. Other ships, following a similar schedule, land on all destinations. There are over a hundred people living in space today. There are bases on all rocky planets except Venus and on all important moons except Io. Since fuel is produced in outer space and ships are reused, prices have fallen even more. Aral Space Complex offers space transportation at 7% the price requested by others. Almost no launch occurred from any other place on the Earth.

Ana Leonova is no longer the teen she once was. She is now 54 years old. All these years of hard work made her look older then other women at her age. Nevertheless, her ambition remained unchanged. She lived to see her dream fulfilled. She lived to see space exploration transformed in space colonization. But her ambitions are even higher.

Ana lives in the same apartment with Alex. Everything remained unchanged between them. They are close friends, but not in love. After all these years, nothing changed. Still, people see them as a family.

They go to a visit to Alan Green, Alex’s father. The old scientist is now 88 years old. He retired when he could not work any longer. Now, he is sick, waiting his life to end. He lives alone in his apartment in Space City. A woman comes every day and brings him what he needs. As they enter the door, they find him on bed, resting.

“Dad, how do you feel today?” asks Alex.

“My back hurts. I feel pain in a foot. Don’t worry, son! This is how all elders feel. I am still well for my age”.

“Do you have enough medicine?” asks Ana.

“Don’t worry about me”, he says. “Natasha comes every day and makes sure I take my pills. Well, I lived my life. I had seen my dream coming true. I’ve seen space exploration becoming reality. I am now ready to die”.

“Shut up!” shouts Alex. “Don’t say that!”

“Son, when you will be at my age, you will understand how it feels. There comes a moment when you accept your fate, when you know that your life is going to end. I am not afraid. I am just happy that I fulfilled my mission. Consider me like the old Voager probes. They visited the giant planets. They reached interstellar space. And then, after finishing all their tasks, they ran out of power and went silent. This is the law of nature. We are like the stages of a rocket. Each stage burns to push the payload further away. My burning time is over. Now, it is up to you. And you did a great job pushing space exploration further then ever before”.

“We are not finished”, says Ana.

“You will never be finished, comrade. Once you finish something, you see something else to build. Do you remember when we met for the first time? You were sitting in front of me, smoking and writing on a blackboard your mission proposals”.

“I remember”, says Ana.

“Do you know how many years I waited to see a new space probe launched? I was a child when the last astronaut left the International Space Station. I never thought that people would not return to it for decades”.

“It is functional, dad”, says Alex. “It is a huge resort station now, with hotels and restaurants and places to have fun. Many investors moved to there. People spend their holidays up there”.

“I know. It is visible from Earth in night sky. I am happy that we saved it. There were plans to deorbit it. How lucky is the ISS that it survived!”

“There is one more thing that needs to be done”, continues Ana. “We have to develop a cheaper way to send things into space. Once you told me about magnetic elevators. We are studying that idea. Maybe, in a few years, it will be functional. We are working on it. But it is very difficult. When a probe gets out of the elevator, it is hit by Earth’s atmosphere. The impact might destroy it. I don’t know yet how to solve that problem, but we will figure out”.

“I might not live enough to see that happening”, says Alan Green. “But, there still are many things which you can do to lower the prices. I had a dream last night. I don’t sleep much at my age, but I still dream. I was in a train moving on Mars. The planet was terraformed. The railway connected a few settlements. When I woke-up, I remembered your ideas, comrade. You wanted to build a train on the Moon. Then, I thought. Can we at least build rocket parts on the Moon or on Mars? Building staff in outer space is more difficult, but certainly is cheaper then building on Earth and sending everything onboard the Lenin ships”.

Ana looks surprised.

“Good idea!” she says. “We have huge iron ores on the Moon. We should try this. Mars has large deposits of iron too!”

“We already have tried this”, says Alex. “The results are rather promising. But, in order to build parts in outer space, we have to build a whole factory out there. I don’t know if this is feasible for the moment”.

Alan Green falls asleep. They leave his apartment, so that he can rest. However, Ana is very interested in his idea. She orders the problem to be further investigated. Is it possible? Experiments showed that it is.

The next day, she orders the subject to be further studied. She calls her scientists. Many of her former scientists are retired. New ones came to take their places. She tells them all her idea:

“Comrades! I have a new project for you on the table. Our experiments on the Moon and on Mars shoed that metals can be extracted and used for building. Also, experiments on other planets and moons showed that many local materials can be used for building. We have rocks on Mercury that are suitable for building cement. Tholins on Pluto and Triton are suitable for building almost anything. We produced plastic from the rocks on Umbriel. If we take a different approach, then we can use materials from space just as well as we can use materials from Earth. All we need is a different approach. Space colonies are currently extending with materials produced there. Do you think that we can use metal ores from the Moon and Mars to produce rocket parts?”

Scientists look puzzled at this proposal. They never expected something like that.

“Comrade, with all the respect, but rockets use special, complex alloys. I don’t think we can produce them in space. This might be risky. A small fissure, of only a few microns, can compromise a fuel tank on a long timescale”.

“We could try, but we need a whole factory for that. Building or bringing a factory to the cosmos would be too expensive”.

One by one, all scientists argue that this is too hard, if not impossible. Ana knows when to stop. Her dad told her many times this:

My child, a dictatorship is good as long as the dictator listens to the people. The mission of a dictator is to show the way and make the people follow the way. Never go beyond your role. Let scientists, engineers and experts to do their job. The history shows many examples of failed dictators, which considered themselves to be superior to anyone else. Always listen to your scientists, but always push them to work forward and seek solutions to all problems”.

She remembers the many examples her father gave her. The dictator of Cuba had no knowledge in economics and sent his state to an economic failure. The dictator of Romania forced gigantic projects to go on the most difficult ways without listening to his engineers. Still, the worst examples come from North Korea. Even what happened to the Aral Sea is a good example of a dictator that ran out of his mind. Stalin wanted to make irrigation in the deserts of Central Asia. He diverted the rivers that once fed the Aral with water. He considered the Aral to be an error of the nature. What is the result of this? Because the irrigation systems were done very bad and a lot of water was wasted on the way, water infiltrated in the salt desert, destroyed groundwater and large surfaces of land. The sea was doomed, as it is today. Scientists, left alone, could find a better solution. The sea could still be here today, probably reduced in size by 30%. The fields could be irrigated in a more rational way.

Fearing not to build an abomination, Ana comes with another proposal:

“If it is so hard to build parts in space, then we can do something different. I told you a long time ago about my plans to build railways on other planets. I think this is much more easy and safer to build. Think about a system that can build 1 m of rails every hour. I want you to study this possibility. New colonies are being built on the Moon and on Mars. Soon, it will be impossible to send a lander to each one of them. I don’t say that we should connect all bases on the Moon with a railway. My idea is to build 20 km and allow new colonies to be laid on the way”.

Scientists start working on this. Is it possible? Can anyone do this? Surprisingly, in a few days, they come with amazing results. Ana looks at them.

They conclude that the technology is possible. Railways can be built on the Moon. Steel can be made using existing iron and carbon ores. Pieces of railway will be made with metal sleepers. They will be around 10 m long. Each piece would be carried along the recently built railway and laid. The construction process will have a speed of 20 m a day. The same results come for Mars and Mercury. Even for Ceres, a railway is possible.

For the icy moons and icy planets, they come with a different solution. The most abundant material out there is ice. Scientists come with an ingenious solution there. Ice is more fragile. But, if you add some sort of fiber, you can make it stronger. Plastic fiber can be made from existing tholins.

After only a month, construction of the first cosmic railway starts on the Moon, on the far Side. At first, it is an experiment. Soon, scientists find out that the railway doesn’t need to be as resistant as on Earth. The Moon has a far smaller gravity. Construction lasts for nearly two months and ends with 1 km of railway. It is the first time something like that is done in space. On the Moon, no worker participated at the process. The only builders were robots.

It was an experiment, but it gained a huge popularity. After its success, everyone wanted a railway building system close to a base. The system builds 7.3 km of railway in an year. In ten years, that means 73 km. The hardest process is extracting iron and making steel. Everything else is done fast.

Scientists developed two different rail building systems: Ladoga (for steel railways, weighting 300 t and building 1 m of rail every hour) and Onega (for ice railways, weighting 150 t and building at the same speed).

Well, Ana had no idea what she just started. After half an year, the demand for rail building systems could hardly be satisfied. Ana soon finds out that the produced steel is not used only for railways, but also for building many different things around each base. She never imagined that space colonization would reach such proportions.

It looks like anyone is willing to go to cosmos.

A POWERFUL SCREAM THROUGH THE CENTURIES

The real value of a person is revealed in a critical moment: at his or her death. That is the moment when people behave naturally. There is no moment like it in the entire life of anyone. You can see if that person was good and loved or if he or she was bad and hated. The moment of death is the moment of truth. An Orthodox priest.

February 26th, year 39.

Iosif Leonov, the Supreme Soviet, ruled over the New Soviet Empire for many years. In the first days, he was a brilliant military strategist. His campaigns united the empire and created a third force to stand between the other two empires. He was a charismatic leader, a very ambitious but moderate dictator.

For many people, he was a liberator. He allowed immigrants to settle and gave them Soviet citizenship. He tried to repair the wounds of the past in a way never seen before. But, most then everything, he kept a state of political equilibrium on Earth. He maintained peace. Still, for many people, he will be remembered as a ruthless dictator. It is impossible to satisfy all your citizens. Sometimes, you have to take drastic measures to solve conflicts. Many people will judge him for the lack of social assistance and for wasting a lot of money for giant projects of infrastructure.

There are two examples in history. Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, is still remembered as a liberator and the man who brought peace and prosperity to the people. On the other hand, Stalin is remembered as devil’s reincarnation on Earth. Well, nobody is only good or only bad. Even Hitler, remembered in history for his genocides against the Jews and non-Arian races, still did a few good things. He was a good painter and he founded an university.

Now, Iosif Leonov is old. He is 81. At this age, he can feel the end coming. For a long time, he continued to hold power, as his strength did not vanish. But now, things are different. He is no longer able to focus like before. He never thought about a succession. In past, he could work until late at night, but now, he needs to rest. He hardly can travel through the empire and participate at long political discussions.

Knowing that his life would not last forever, he calls the first and most trusted person he knows: his daughter, Ana Leonova. But even she is 57 years old.

Ana goes to Moscow, leaving Alex in charge with the many space programs currently operating. Many people want to visit space, at least only to see the Earth from above. Scientists built small capsules, which are launched by Lenin I and II rockets. They take people for a journey to space. Every day, at least 50 people go on such small missions.

When she arrives to Moscow, she finds her dad to be a different person. He still wears the same uniform as he did in his youth. His hair is white, his face is that of an old man, the skin on his arms is like an old papyrus sheet and he walks slowly.

Even Ana is no longer the person she was. She is starting to get old. Her face is aged. Her hair should be white is she wouldn’t paint it. She no longer wears that fashion outfit with long gloves and thigh boots. She no longer puts her feet on the desk. Still, she remained a convinced smoker. Some things never change, but some things do.

“My child”, says the Supreme Soviet. “I never imagined you got old. For me, you will always be the young girl I once sent to Aral”.

“That was a long time ago”, says Ana. “Now, Aral is my home, even if I don’t call it so and I never did”.

“We are socialists. We never gather fortunes. It is good that you never both an apartment and you still live in a state building. I do the same. I own nothing myself. Everything belongs to the people, even this palace”.

The Supreme Soviet needs to rest. He sits on a large coach.

“My child, I am getting old. At my age, I don’t think I can rule the empire for long. It is time to choose a successor. Since you are my only child, would you like to rule the empire? It has everything it needs”.

Ana looks surprised and thinks. Then, she says:

“The Old Soviets never chosen one of their children to take power. I don’t think it is a good idea. This will make people angry. And I don’t think I am prepared for this at all”.

“Then, we have a major problem. You see, one day I will pass away. If the empire will remain without a ruler, it will break apart. Everyone will fight for power around us. That will destroy all what we’ve built”.

“Dad, let’s took a look in history. How was the next Supreme Soviet chosen? The Politburo selected the next one. I think the same would happen this time”.

“No, my child. We live in different times. The Politburo is under my command. Without me, they will choose one of them to take my place. Most probably, they would choose general Kotov. I don’t like him. He is a good strategist and a good organizer, but he is cruel. We don’t want a new Stalin to take power. Remember what Lenin said: Violence is accepted when there is no other way. I could chose Iakobov, but he is too greedy”.

“The administrator of the Central Bank?”

“He is very good on finances. Well, he is only looking for profits. He will turn the empire into his personal property”.

“I don’t see anyone for the job”, says Ana, thinking about all politicians.

“That’s why I ask you to take my place”.

“Dad, I am not like you. I am too ambitious. I walked over dead bodies to win the space race. Today, it haunts me. When I remember all those prison inmates which died at the cosmodrome, I feel guilty for their lives”.

“Sometimes, you have to take radical decisions. Sometimes, you have to sacrifice something in order to save the rest. This is why it is so hard to be in my place. I had to do many similar sacrifices. Remember the Baltic Rebellion? At some point, I was ready to send you all to Kolyma, as a desperate solution to keep the peace. I killed tens of thousands. Without this sacrifice, our empire would had been conquered by Rosenstein. Now, I am no longer able to work like I did before. I need your help, at least until you find a good replacement”.

Ana has to accept. There is no other way. She wants to return to Aral, but she has to help her dad.

“I grant you absolute power. You will be Second Supreme Soviet, second in command after me. You are the only one suitable for the task”.

The next day, Ana puts on a woman uniform and steps in front of all the people. Soon, she finds out how difficult is to be in such an important position. Her first meeting is with chiefs of the army. Twenty generals come to her office with strategic problems.

“Comrade, we have satellite information that the Americans are building new forts on the Canadian shore. They have ballistic rockets stationed there”.

“Do we have any official information from them?” asks Ana, lighting a cigarette.

“Not yet, comrade. What should we do?”

“Are they building forts among other borders too?”

“I have no information for the moment”.

“Find out and tell me”.

“Comrade”, says another general, “our military is inferior to theirs. We need more funds to upgrade our army. I request that you cut down the funds for Aral. The space complex is nearly self-financing itself”.

“Nobody touches the Aral!” shouts Ana. “It is not your business. Use the funds you have. Or is there something that I don’t know? Is money flowing in another way?”

“No, comrade”, says a third general.

“Aral is self-sustainable. Do you produce your own tanks and your own airplanes? Do you produce your own guns?”

“No, comrade. We buy them from existing factories”.

“Well, that is your weakness. Build yourself what you need if you want to reduce costs. The budget is fixed and it will not change”.

Then, comes a delegation of teachers. They also require more money for their salaries. Ana looks at them and says:

“How much do you think is my salary? How much do you think people on Aral Cosmodrome get?”

“We don’t know, comrade”.

“What is the average salary of a teacher?”

“1200 rubles”, says someone.

“My salary is 1450 rubles. A worker on Aral gets between 1000 and 1400 rubles. You are people, not gods. I don’t accept your request”.

“If you don’t increase our salaries, we will start a strike”.

“In that case, you will receive no more money until you end the strike. The money allocated to you will go to Aral”.

“That is unacceptable, comrade! The future of our children depends on us! You have to help us!”

“Listen! I want to see results. I want to see some graphics. I want to see the level of illiteracy now compared to what was last year and so on for the last ten years. I want to see results. Your job is to give children education. I will accept to increase your salaries only if you convince me that you have better results. I want you to convince me that children are better prepared now then they were before. You will get more money only if you show me some results. I don’t talk here only about the elite. I am talking about all children from all classes and in the whole empire. Don’t lie to me! I will ask the KGB to give me a report too”.

Then come a delegation from the Siberian Tatar Autonomous Republic.

“Comrade, there are four Tatar villages beyond our border. They would like to be incorporated in our republic. If you sign this decree, the border will be changed”.

“You come to me with a printed decree? I have my own people writing staff. I want to see a map. I want to see a referendum from the people in those villages”.

“We have all what you asked for”.

“This looks good. But, if I change border, aren’t some people belonging to other ethnic groups in the middle?”

They don’t answer. Ana wants to see an online map. She finds two villages in the way. She checks and finds out that they are inhabited by ethnic Russians.

“Here is the deal. I want to see what those people think about. Is there a way to move the border without affecting them? Where do they want to be, in your autonomous republic or in their oblast? Give me an answer. Depending on that answer, I will accept your request or not”.

Then, Ana has a meeting about rail transportation. A new railway is planned to bypass the city of Omsk. This would take part of the traffic out of the city. She takes a look on the project.

“I like the idea”, she says, “but I see the new railway goes on a strange path. Are there mountains or hills in the way?”

“No, comrade. People in that area don’t want a railway to cross their land”.

“That’s the reason? Then, what is a station doing in an area wit only two houses? And as I can see, they are luxurious villas”.

“The owner requested a railway station”.

“Who is the owner?”

Nobody answers. Ana checks online info and finds out. She reads the data:

“Nikolai Surohov is the owner. He is a railway director over Omsk sector. Don’t tell me that he wanted a station for himself. You diverted the railway that far to build a station for a director, letting a village with limited rail access! Is it true? How much did Surohov gave you for this? I don’t accept! Build the railway in a straight line and reach that village! I want to see a petition signed by at least 50% of the population if they want or don’t want a railway to reach their village”.

“Comrade, they don’t want a railway!”

“Really?” asks Ana. “I will contact them myself!”

She searches phone numbers. She calls the mayor.

“Comrade, this is Ana Leonova. There is a railway under project around your village. I want to know what the people think. Do they want a railway or not?”

“Comrade! It would be a great thing to build a railway close to our village”.

“Give me the phone numbers of the teacher and the priest in your village. I want to talk to them”.

Ana calls both the teacher and the priest. They both say that people would be happy to have a railway close to them, but not crossing inside the village. The priest asks for a few passages under the railway, so that tractors can go to the fields without waiting trains to pass.

“If such things happen in our empire, where is the socialism? Why are we building railways? They are built for the people and not for the richest. The railway will be built close to the village. Dismissed!”

Then comes a delegation for culture. They require more money. The argument is that painters, sculptors, writers and other artists are ruined. Ana looks at their report and finds out that most of the money is actually going to state employees who give authorizations for art events and licenses for artists.

“What a fuck is this?” she says, surprised. “I see no money going to the artists, only to you, greedy state employees. Do you know what I think? While artists survive by selling their own pieces of work, you sit there in your offices and take money from them. This is an insult to all artists in our empire. I think you should start working instead of feeding on workers’ money. Artists are workers! The only difference is that they don’t use a hammer or a sickle. They use a pencil. From now on, there will be no authorization! Anyone is able to make art and sell his or her work! I will only keep 20% of you in your sits. Those 20% are more then enough. 70% of your budget will be cut-off right now!”

Ana calls her dad and tells him about all acts of corruption. The Supreme Soviet answers immediately:

“I told you are the best for this job. You remember me of my youth”.

Ana’s first day at work comes with many reforms. But, by the end of the day, she is exhausted. Second day comes with other challenges.

“Comrade, I am the leader of Soviet Atheistic Movement. I request that the Orthodox Christmas should no longer be a national holiday”.

“As long as more then half the population is Orthodox, it will remain as it is”.

“There are also Pagins, Catholics and Muslims which don’t agree with this”.

“They have the right to have their own holidays if they are a majority in a certain area. Religious freedom is granted”.

“Comrade, both Lenin and Stalin were atheists. We should follow the same line as they did before”.

“I am a religious person, but unaffiliated with a religious group. Isn’t this a significant change in our history? Dismissed!”

A group of people comes in.

“Comrade, we come from Celeabinsk City. We have major problems with pollution. There are two factories that pollute the air and the water. Our children are getting sick. We came to ask you to do something”.

“I want to see some documentation, medical reports or something else”.

“We brought some analyses to laboratories. You can see that the air is polluted”.

“I see…” says Ana, looking at the papers. “Factories are built for workers and not workers for factories. I want now to see if those factories can remain pay for air and water filters. I want their names and their financial report. Who is owning them?”

Ana searches online for data. She gets what she wants. Then, she calls the directors of both factories. Air and water quality should improve significantly in 100 days, otherwise both factories would be nationalized.

Then come a delegation from Ossetian and Ingush autonomous republics. Each part claims that the other faction attacks civilians over their borders. Ana carefully analyzes the problem. She asks for clarifications. After half an hour, she gives a statement:

“The border will be changed, to separate Ossetian and Ingush villages. I can see some villages, which are impossible to be separated by the new border. They will be resettled. Each ethnic group is not allowed to commit any acts of treason over the border. If someone crosses the border into the other group and commits any acts of aggression, the other group is free to interfere on its own territory, as it likes. Respect this simple border. If tensions escalate, I will send you all to Northern Siberia!”

Things go on this way for over two months. Ana identifies some critical points in the system. It’s no surprise that the empire would collapse once Iosif Leonov will die. He didn’t put loyal people in key positions. At Aral, Ana gave departments to trusted people. She named directors and executive people. Each one is responsible for a certain part. To make things work well, she used a system named meritocracy. People got higher ranks based on their achievements. She quickly finds out many problems in the state. There are corrupt state employees.

Another major problem she encounters is the tax system. She talks to businessmen, merchants and peasants. Each time, she encounters problems. She finds a mafia system trying to take control over the markets in major cities. Ana asks more and more questions, forcing them to tell her all their problems. She gives then specific orders. Peasants will be allowed to enter a market by only paying a fee, which is correlated with the number of peasants willing to sell their products there. Merchants will pay a fixed percent of what money they earn.

The New Soviet Empire uses a single currency; the ruble. The value of the ruble is fixed and controlled by the state, linked to the value of gold. To take control over the black market, Ana makes an ambitious step. She decides that money will no longer be paper. All money will be in an electronic form. She states this loud and clear:

“We don’t need credit cards. Each person has fingerprints. If those prints are compromised, we can use the eye map, teeth prints or DNA samples. Everyone has a different bioenergetic signature. We can use that as well. We have banks able to work with this. We have the technology, but we don’t have the will to do it. Why? How can bribery survive if we no longer use cash? How can drugs be sold if paper money will no longer exist? Illegal transactions are still possible, but they will be much harder then they are today. Internet connections were never easier then today. Many of us already pay with the cell phone or with credit cards. I challenge you to make one further step and pay with your fingerprints or bioenergetic signature. I want research to start immediately. I let banks to study this for two months. Then, we will take paper money out of circulation and replace them with this new technology”.

Some people argued that this would be a huge mistake, as all money will be under control from the banks. Paper money is safer, as you actually ‘hold’ that money in your hands. With all money flowing in a virtual way, things are getting more complicated. Banks can control the whole system.

Things like renting or leasing were never popular among Russians. They want to own their homes, their cars, their lands and their money. People protest against this. The Orthodox Church is completely against this.

In Orthodox belief, at the end of times, Antichrist will come. He will force people to wear his sign on the right hand and on the forehead. Orthodox priests believe that the sign of Antichrist is a microchip. The microchip worn on right hand would be used as an identity card, driving license and credit card. The microchip on the forehead will interact with the brain, transforming all humans into his loyal followers.

Realizing this, Ana invites the Orthodox Patriarch for a discussion.

“The church is strongly against virtual money”, he says. “I started a petition against virtual money, comrade. There are already protests in Moscow and other major cities, as you well know”.

“Virtual money will not use a microchip. The identification system reads what God gave us: fingerprints, DNA and bioenergetic signature”.

“Do you guarantee that no microchip will be used or inserted in a human body?”

“I guarantee. Today, identity cards, driving licenses, passports and credit cards have a microchip. I believe this is no longer needed”.

“With all paper money transformed into virtual money, people will no longer have control over their savings. Banks will control our money and ourselves”.

“This is a big concern for me, too. This is why I want all money transactions to be seen by the state. A bank or another one can host money. I also think that the Imperial Bank can host money too, which is owned by the state. People must have control over their savings and their transactions. Anyone must be able to ask for his or her personal account at any moment”.

“I am still against it. Nobody tested your system yet”.

“Both systems will run in parallel. People will have both paper rubles and virtual rubles. It is their right to choose what kind of money they want to have. This is people’s empire, not mine. The reason for our existence is to serve the people and not to serve us. The next month, terminals for virtual ruble will be available for free to anyone. All shops and all merchants will receive them. My goal is to combat corruption and black market. If the virtual ruble proves to be a wrong thing, I will abandon it and give people paper money instead”.

“Comrade, do you believe what the Orthodox Church says about the Antichrist and his seal with the number 666?”

“To be honest, I am a religious person, but not affiliated to a religious organization. The biggest part of me believes this. It is my freedom to believe what I want. I guarantee that there will be no seal and no microchip. I personally asked that there will be no triple six used inside identification numbers for anyone. For me, the most important thing is to serve the people. If people want no triple six in their personal numbers, I respect their decision. As you and all clerics are Soviet citizenships, I respect your decision and your point of view”.

The virtual ruble is introduced to the people. Exchange terminals are delivered for free to all shops and merchants. All state institutions receive them too. They are placed all over the empire, in post offices, town halls, squares and schools. They are also available for low prices to anyone. Some people start using this new currency, while others keep distance. Slowly, more and more people accept the system.

It is like in the old times, when cell phones started to be used. Some people went immediately to buy a cell phone, while others were against it for long time. As years passed, more and more people started to use cell phones. In twenty years, almost anyone had one. What makes things even easier is that many cell phones are able to read fingerprints or bioenergetic signatures of their users. Money transactions can be done very easy by phone.

At first, the Orthodox Church was against the virtual ruble. After some time, even priests started to use it.

The major problem the empire lacked is qualified, trusted people. Many state employees are corrupt. Ana finds herself working hard, all day long. Endless audiences break her down. She realizes that she cannot take it forever. She needs people to take part of her responsibilities.

She finds better people for each job. However, it is hard to choose who is the best for a job and who should be avoided. Trying to solve this problem, she goes to the Psychology University. She asks all experts to find a way to test people. This takes over a month. Finally, she has what she wanted. It is a complex psychological test.

Testing is done over a period of two months. During this time, subjects receive various tasks. They also have to complete a quiz roughly every four days. The most important aspect is that these tests find out if the subject lied or if he knew the answers before.

Ana uses two different methods to select people: meritocracy and fear. She once said that fear is an efficient tool of management and that people should be rewarded based on their achievements. She carefully selects people for each job. She wants ambitious people, people willing to make the world a better place. Anyone must be fighting for the Soviet Dream. She dislikes people seeking for themselves, for money and for power.

But, under her rule, space exploration seems to go to a halt. She calls Alex for a report.

“I left the Aral for two years and I see no significant progress”.

“All projects are going on. What do you want us to do? We have space colonies almost everywhere. We rule space exploration and space colonization”.

“Is that all?” asks Ana. “But I see no progress. I see no new ideas. You just continue what I started and nothing else. I want to see new achievements”.

“What new things can we do?” says Alex. “We built the scheduled service. We have passenger and cargo ships going to all directions, except for Venus and Io. For Titan, we are still working on. Its atmosphere is a major problem”.

“I know the Titan problem. It has a thick atmosphere. Well, do I have to give orders to any problem? Remember how we returned the first human from Venus? Build a ship with wings, an airplane design. I want you to find a similar model for Venus too. There must be a way to build a reusable Venus lander. That is the order!”

“I got the order! We will work on this”.

“You have two months to build them! Also, build a reusable lander for Io! I give you three months to build all them three!”

Ana closes the phone.

She wants to be back to Aral. She wants to build new spaceships and continue space colonization. She is angry to sit here, at Moscow, while the Aral remains behind.

Her reforms make some people angry. Still, most of the people love her for what she is doing. She is cutting down corruption like never before. Placing loyal people in all- important points, she gets everything under control and fixes all problems.

Then, her father calls her one evening. Se tells her this:

“My child, you’ve done an amazing work. But there are many problems ahead of us. People are not made to live in a large empire. Sooner or later, all three empires will break apart”.

“What do you say, dad?”

“Check out the history! No empire lasted forever. At some point, each one broke apart. No union and no federation lasted forever. Ethnic tensions will rise at some point. Separatist movements will be more and more powerful. Today, these three empires are held in place because of fear. Nobody can survive alone in this world. The surrounding empires will engulf a small, independent state. This is why anyone sits inside each empire. But if you look closer inside any empire, you notice there are tensions”.

Ana lights a cigarette and things about.

“Look at the American Empire. The Japanese built their own space colony. The Australians did the same. Look at the Jewish Empire. You can see that the Ethiopians built a colony too. Even in our own empire, you can see this. The mayor of Moscow wanted a colony. Provinces are fighting for autonomy in different ways. Sooner or later, they will seek independence. I will not live to see that day, but you might. This is what the future brings”.

Ana looks sad, thinking about the Aral.

“What would happen to the Aral if that happens?”

“My child, all factions will need the Aral. They will need it because they want control over their space possessions. The Aral will remain vital, no matter what the future holds. Sooner or later, people will move to space by the millions. When I sent you to start the space race, I never knew where it would end. All I wanted is to distract all empires from a nuclear war. At that time, you had in your hands the fate of Earth. You did a great job and I am proud of you. Now, you must be prepared for the next century, for challenges that you might not even imagine. I can only estimate what the future holds”.

“I want to return to the Aral, dad. That is my place”.

“Perhaps you are right, my child. But it is not the moment. Before you go, make sure you leave the New Soviet Empire on good hands. Find someone as good as you are to take care of the state”.

“I will”.

“There is one more important thing. Many dictators before me tried to mix populations. They tried to move people from a place to another, to make a homogeneous mass of people. That is not the way. When the empire will finally break apart, people will fight in each new state. This is not what you want. After the empires will be gone, people must live in peace. If not, they will fight until another empire will engulf them too. This happened when the Soviet Union collapsed. This happened when the British Empire collapsed. This happened when Yugoslavia collapsed. Divide ethnic groups by borders! I fought all my life to keep ethnic and religious groups separated”.

Ana takes a deep drag from her cigarette and blows a cloud of smoke in the room. She thinks about this. She never thought that one day the New Soviet Empire would break apart. The Romans thought that their empire would last forever. They called Rome ‘Eternal City’. The Old Soviets thought that their union would last forever.

“This won’t happen during my lifetime!” says Ana, with a strict voice.

“I hope so, but one day, it will”.

After this discussion, Ana looked for a replacement, for a person able to do her work. She ordered the KGB to secretly test people. Every Soviet citizen was considered a potential candidate. Soon, the KGB restricted the number to a million. After a month, this number was reduced to 1000. Even the KGB did not know what this is about. Ana said that she needs people recruitment for important state jobs.

Ana ordered all candidates to be brought to Moscow for further testing. Yet, nobody knew what this is all about. Ana told them that she wants to see their loyalty to her and the Soviet Dream. She called all experts from the Psychology University to test them. Yet, nobody knew what this is all about. They had to conduct many tests. Here are some of the tests:

At some point, a contester was placed with a picture of a loved one (a brother, a parent, husband, wife or a child) and a boat filled with people. They were told that they have to choose between the live of the loved one and the lives of all people in the boat. The correct behavior is to save people in the boat, sacrificing the loved ones. However, the contester must show attachment for the loved ones, a state of emotion and suffering.

Another test is done with 10 angry workers. The workers are instructed not to obey the orders. The contester must make the workers to build a tower of bricks. There are two ways to convince the workers: by force or by offering them something. The correct behavior is to use both force and offering, but not to go beyond a certain limit.

Each contester is placed then, alone, in a building where an aggressor comes to kill them. They must think fast what to do: hide or fight. Both options are good if you manage to escape. After that, the contester must find a way through a maze. All over the maze, there are false inscriptions. The goal is not to trust fake signs, to think for yourself.

With each test, 10 % of all contesters are rejected. After ten tests, 349 people remain in the challenge. After other ten tests, only 151 people are still standing.

During one test, a contester is exposed to a lot of verbal humiliation. People (actors) are shouting and accusing the contester of many things, real or not. In another test, someone accuses men that ‘you slept with my wife’ and women that ‘you slept with my husband’. This is done in a tribunal, with real judges.

Tests don’t stop here. After other ten tests, only 49 people remain. They are the best of the best. Ana adds other ten tests, reducing their number to only 15. These ones are very hard. At some point, she orders each contester to hold the New Soviet flag in an arm, while they receive electric pain stimulations in increasing doses. In another test, they are forced to fight their greatest phobia: snakes, spiders, horses, worms, anything. One test is to choose between your life and the lives of other people. An important leader must not sacrifice its life for a few people, but must be ready to do this for many. The idea is that the leader grants stability to all the people around. A dead leader in a war means that most soldiers will lose their moral. However, a leader sacrificing its life for many would be followed without discussion. The test is real. Contesters have to put the gallows on their necks and hang in the air.

After all 40 tests, Ana selected 15 people. They are the best of the best. Yet, they have no idea why they were selected. She looks at them. Surprisingly, 9 are women. Ana remembers what her father once said, that it should not be a surprise for anyone to see one of the empires ruled by a woman. Could it be true? It appears so. Ana will have to select one of these 15 people if she wants to return to the Aral.

This is her main will, to return to the Aral. She wants to explore space and not to sit on a golden throne. After all, she never imagined how hard was for her dad to keep rule over a vast empire. Every day, she has hundreds of auditions and takes many decisions.

At some point, she has to talk diplomacy, to talk with the Jewish Emperor David Rosenstein. Unlike his cousin, David is not a monster. He struggled for years to repair the damages. Samuel was a monster. He transformed his empire into an endless gulag. David, by opposite, tries to rebuild what can be saved.

David wants a cooperation agreement between the two empires. He wants peace and to stop all conflicts. He offers to all defectors a chance to return to their homelands, which now are almost completely depopulated. Ana does not know much about foreign politics. She doesn’t know how to trade with her Southern neighbor. In past, her father offered a substantial aid to David to rebuild the empire and consolidate his position. The Supreme Soviet was afraid that David might seek help from the Americans and change the balance of power.

Realizing that she doesn’t know what to do and what to ask, she consults her 15 selected people. They come with ingenious suggestions. The New Soviets would give an aid to their Southern neighbor in a different direction. The Jews will receive help for schools and education, mainly in areas destroyed by Samuel’s aggressive politics. The New Soviets will help some heavy depopulated territories to boost their economies. In exchange, David promises a larger autonomy to each territory and opened borders.

Things seem to work well.

On August 22nd, year 44, something unexpected happens. Leonard Bohr, the American Marshall, dies of a heart attack, without establishing a successor. This is a shocking event. Huge political tensions start to rise. People want to break his empire apart. They want freedom. They want out. They ask for elections and for an elected president. Bohr was very old when he died, but he still was in power. He never allowed anyone to step in front of him, even his children.

Ten days later, Japan asks for a referendum for independence. South America is almost at war. Australia seeks neutrality during the conflict. Twenty days later, war erupts in Brazil. People burn imperial flags. Ana urgently goes to her dad and asks him for an advice.

The old man listens his daughter and says:

“My child, things are not good. If the American Empire breaks apart, David Rosenstein would not hesitate to take advantage of this situation and extend his empire. He would conquer new lands. You have to take actions. You have to help them and restore the peace”.

“How could I do that?”

“Go on American soil, my child. Go to New York and offer them any help they need”.

Ana does not hesitate. She takes her dad’s airplane and goes straight to New York, followed by her 15 experts. She lands in the midst of chaos. People are protesting on the streets. There are fights with police officers. The army is on alert.

“This doesn’t look good”, she says.

“Give us back Alaska!” shout civilians on the streets.

Force orders help Ana and her 15 experts to go to the White House. This ancient building is where Leonard Bohr ruled for all this time. When she arrives, her first question is:

“Who is in charge here?”

She finds the prime minister, which rules the empire until a new marshall is chosen. Ana looks at everyone: generals, state secretaries, ministers, they are all here. Soon, all televisions come. She sees a lot of problems. She already heard people complaining about them. So, she starts talking:

“First of all, you should decide who is in charge here. You need a new ruler. Second, you see all people protesting. What do they want? I heard them. They want elections, they want to break-up the empire. Why? They see you as an occupation force. I am asking all the people on the streets this question. If you break apart from the empire, what next? Why was the American Empire formed? It was formed to stop Samuel Rosenstein. Now, that he is dead, you think that the danger is passed. Is it so? What if it’s not? What if David Rosenstein would invade from the south and I would invade from the North? Are you prepared for that? Any separated province would be engulfed by another empire. You asked me to give you back Alaska. I won’t. I am looking for a sign of weakness to take Canada or even more”.

People listen to her, shocked.

“Are you prepared to risk an armed conflict between our two empires?” asks the prime minister.

“I am. But this is not why I am here. The world is changed. As I hope you are aware, I made a lot of reforms in my empire. I came here and I found chaos. Why is there no chaos on the streets of Moscow?”

“Because you keep people under terror”, says someone.

“Come and see for yourself if my people is under terror. I came here to give you two choices: change yourselves or be destroyed”.

“Mind your words”, says the prime minister. “They sound more like a declaration of war!”

“They are a warning and could be a declaration of war if you wish. It is all up to you. I don’t want your empire to split. But if it will split, I will collect part of the fragments. David Rosenstein will collect other fragments. The world will change from three empires to two. If he starts collecting pieces, I will do the same”.

A black man comes straight to Ana and says:

“No non-American tells us what to do!”

Ana answers with a smile.

“Russian bitch!” says the black man. Other people ask him to shut up.

“This is something you need to improve right now”, says Ana, lighting a cigarette. “Aggression is not good. You have to be firm, but not aggressive. Many times, when you use force, you get the opposite result. I brought you fifteen experts to help you solve your problems. They can help you rebuild your empire. If not, I am eager to collect pieces from it, one by one”.

“What do you want? To transform our democracy into a gulag?”

“Maybe”, says Ana. “I came to say what I had to say. Now, move out of my way. I take my experts and return… for now”.

She gets back in her airplane and heads back to Moscow. This is a powerful wave of shock. Ana knew well what she did. It is close to a declaration of war, but also a powerful message. This stopped many rebellions and forced the American Empire to select a new ruler, Marshall Adam Brown. His motto is ‘Don’t let the Reds take our land!’ Well, after a few months, both empires sign a peace and cooperation treaty.

All over America, Ana is considered a bitch and a witch. She played a dangerous game, but won. They seek an alternative way to launch space probes without using the Aral facilities. Ana’s actions united the American empire but restarted the space race.

When she returns to Moscow, she finds her dad very surprised by her actions.

“You insulted them”, he says.

“I know, dad, but honestly, it was the only way”.

“I know. They will think twice before doing any economical trade with us. It is a good thing that you united them, but a bad thing that you destabilized political relations. And I know them very well. They will do anything to boost their economies again. I don’t think we can keep the step with them”.

“I don’t know, dad. I don’t think it will take long until all three empires will start to disintegrate”.

November 23rd, year 46. Iosif Leonov, the Supreme Soviet, closes his eyes forever. He dies of old age at 6.27 AM, Moscow time. The empire was prepared for this. He died at 87 years old. Ana Leonova is named the Supreme Soviet in his place. The Politburo meets in public and makes this official. It is a sad day for the whole empire.

The whole empire is mourning for three days. Many people come to see this event. His body is placed in the Red Square for a whole day. After many days, it was decided that his body would be preserved just like Lenin’s body. Soon, a mausoleum was built for him. People gathered by the thousands to see him.

Many newspapers from the other empires quoted the event. They named Iosif Leonov as New Lenin. It is true. His achievements were somehow similar.

During the winter, people just kept on coming, to see the Supreme Soviet’s body. The idea of a mausoleum came to protect the body from the elements. So, now, there are two mausoleums, one for Lenin and one for Leonov. They are both designed to look identical. It looks like, after two centuries, Lenin’s dream did not die. The Soviet dream did not die, it was just transformed into a new version.

Just like in case of Lenin, the cold winter conserved Leonov’s body. As more and more people went to say goodbye to him, something needed to be done to protect him from snow and wind. The people demanded that a mausoleum should be built. Leonov didn’t say much about his burial. He thought about the empire until his last second of life. Outside the empire, people thought that the cult of personality is still strong. None of these happened with Leonard Bohr or with Samuel Rosenstein. Rosenstein was buried in Jerusalem in a relatively modest tomb. People were rather happy that their leader died. Bohr was buried with a large ceremony, but people did not come by the thousands to say goodbye to him. The Red Square got filled with candles and flowers.

Was Iosif Leonov a communist? His actions were different. He was nevertheless a dictator, but just like Lenin, he took a different approach. This is the moment of truth. This is the moment when you see if a person was good or bad. It is the moment after death. The moment you die shows who you were in life.

Just like Lenin or Stalin, Leonov had no fortune. He personally owned nothing. In the other empires, people thought that he left a huge fortune behind, like the other two dictators did.

BACK TO ARAL

Have you ever seen a king or an emperor giving up the crown? Is it possible to see something like this? Kings do this only when they are constrained by massive revolts or by another state. Would you give your house, your land and all your fortune to get something smaller? Would you give a luxurious palace to live in a ghetto? Nobody would ever do that. Alex Leonov talking to Ana.

June 12th, year 49.

Ana is unhappy with her important political role. She wants to go back to Aral, to continue space exploration. After her short but shocking visit to America, the American Empire decided to put all the money down and build a better space transportation system. Until now, they failed. They found themselves unable to build better ships. The New Soviets use the old Lenin ships. Their design might be over 30 years old, but they are all functional and produced on assembly lines.

Well, things are about to change. The Americans are planning to build their own rocket assembly lines, their own fuel production facilities and their own interplanetary ships. They want to build their own network of space stations.

Some time ago, Ana chosen 15 people after a rigorous selection. They are the best of the best. Her idea was to place them in the most important political positions. Now, seeing that the space race is back on, she knows that she has to return to Aral. So, she makes a historical decision.

She chooses the best of the 15 to take her place. The chosen person is a woman, Anastasia Melnikova. The other 14 people took important places. This decision shocked the world. All over the world, press commented about this. Still, all 15 are loyal to Ana and ready to give their lives for her.

It is the first time that such a thing happens in history.

Ana leaves Moscow and returns to Aral at once. She is now 67 years old. She might be getting old, but her ambitions for space exploration are just like when she was 18. She calls all scientists and investigates the situation. It doesn’t take an hour until she notices a lot of problems. Soon, she starts to make order.

All space projects continued in her absence. What was once a space exploration agency now looks more like a big train station. Ships fly according to a schedule between space stations and planets. It is a large transportation network, which covers the whole Solar System. Suppose you want to travel from Earth to a colony on Iapetus, Saturn. First, you take a Lenin III from Aral to Earth Space Station. Then, you take an interplanetary ship towards Helene Space Station. Then, you take a lander from Helene to Iapetus Base. And then, you take the train on Iapetus to your destination.

“Is this how things should be?” asks Ana.

“Comrade, this was your will, these were your directives”.

“These were my directives, but the Americans are planning something even greater. It is time to invent something better then what they are going to do”.

“What should we do? We did all what you told us”.

“One day, I will die. What would you do? Come to my tomb and ask me what to do? You have to start thinking by yourselves. What is the factor that increases costs the most?”

Ana knows what is the most expensive part: Earth liftoffs. Most of the fuel is used to send something to space. Scientists developed vehicles able to advance through an atmosphere like an airplane. During Ana’s absence, the first such ships successfully landed on Titan and returned to Helene Space Station. After four failed unmanned flights, the first such ship managed to land on Venus and return. The ship glided through the atmosphere with its wings until it reached high altitude, then it flew like a rocket to Venus Space Station. Manned missions are planned. A new technology will allow cosmonauts to live on Venus. The first base was built on Io.

“We need to build a cheaper vehicle able to pierce through Earth’s atmosphere”, says Ana. “We need it and fast. I know two ways to make this possible. First option is to build the Lenin VI. Second option is to build a magnetic elevator”.

Ana finds another job to do for her scientists. What if parts can be built in space? Ships are being reused, but they need to be refurbished on Earth Space Station. Other celestial bodies also have significant metal ores. She focuses on an asteroid in the Main Asteroid Belt, which has rich metal ores. Five Lenin V ships bring to space equipment needed. Other four bring a habitat for workers. This is a hard task, but if it works, many parts will be built in space.

Engines are the first to be replaced. For ion engines, the cathode grid usually needs to be changed after three years of work. For chemical engines, replacement is usually done after an hour of use. All these things need to be sent to orbit from Earth at high costs.

For over a century, scientists though about a cheaper way to send payloads to space. At first, people thought about building a space cannon. A powerful enough cannon can send a projectile fast enough to pierce through the atmosphere and reach space. With enough speed, the projectile would reach Earth orbit or even escape Earth’s gravity and reach heliocentric orbit. The major challenge is that you can only send a projectile and nothing else. Any equipment would be destroyed by the huge speed involved.

Then came the rockets. They are the main way to send payloads to cosmos. A rocket burns huge amounts of fuel in powerful engines to gain speed. Well, this comes with huge costs. It takes a vehicle weighting 700 t to send to space 5 t. So, for each ton sent to space, you have to sacrifice 140 t. That is a lot of weight. That is the main limitation to space colonization. Actually, a rocket could be more efficient. Even if Soviet engines are the best in the world, they have to sacrifice a lot of power.

The main limitation is the atmosphere. Any space rocket must at first accelerate slowly. If it accelerates too fast, it will face huge friction forces with Earth’s atmosphere. Those forces could destroy the rocket and make it burn in the atmosphere. The TWR (thrust to weight ratio) shows how much fuel is actually wasted.

Let’s look at the tiny Lenin I. When it is launched, it has a TWR of 1.346. At launch, only 25.97 % of the energy produced is used to accelerate, 74.03% is used to counter Earth’s gravity. So, much of the fuel is wasted only to oppose Earth’s gravity. This gives the rocket a smooth acceleration. When Lenin I is 5 km above Earth’s surface, the TWR is 1.55. Engines still have the same thrust. The major difference is that part of the fuel is burned. The engines use 35.17 % of their force to accelerate and 64.83% to counter Earth’s gravity. The first stage, with all its four boosters, produces a delta-v of 5.514 km/s. Without Earth’s gravity to counter, it would produce 9.124 km/s, enough to reach Earth orbit.

Is there any solution to improve this? The amount of force needed to equal Earth’s gravity is fixed and depends only on mass. By adding more engines, you can increase the TWR. Engines will burn faster and will use more energy to accelerate. However, this comes with a price. The ship would pierce faster through Earth’s atmosphere. Friction will make the ship lose speed. The rocket would be exposed to huge thermal stress and would burn.

The Old Soviets preferred a TWR around 1.5. The Americans preferred a TWR around 1.3. Ana opted for a TWR a bit higher then 1.3. Since hydrogen tanks are very large, at a higher TWR, they would require atmospheric shields… and all this would come with higher mass and higher launch costs.

It is all a dead end. There seems to be no way to improve the efficiency of a rocket.

In the 2000’s, scientists were thinking about another solution to reach space cheaper. That is the moment when the idea of a cosmic elevator and a magnetic elevator came to the drawing boards. But, both ideas were abandoned over a century ago.

The space elevator is an interesting concept. The idea is similar to a yo-yo. The elevator would be a long cable connected with Earth surface. At the end of that cable, there would be a space station. Beyond the geosynchronous orbit, a space station rotates slower then the Earth. Connected to Earth by a cable, it would be forced to rotate faster. This would create a centrifugal force. Elevators could then climb on the cable to space.

The idea looks good in theory, but in practice, it is impossible. The cable would need to be over 35000 km long. There is no known material strong enough to resist that. Also, the cable would be exposed to space weather, extreme hot during day and extreme cold during night. The space is also full of debris, which would impact the cable from time to time. Another major limitation is that the cable needs to be attached to the equator for the system to work. The New Soviet Empire has no territory close to the equator. Ana refuses to think about this idea from the start. It is impossible.

The magnetic elevator is a different thing. It uses electromagnets. The idea is to use a deep vertical pit, filled with magnets. With the help of magnets, a probe can be accelerated to the speed required to achieve Earth orbit. The technology is available and is not so expensive.

Well, there are some major challenges. The acceleration needs to be uniform, so the probe would not impact the walls. Inside the pit, air needs to be drained out. The probe needs to move through void. And once the probe exits the tunnel, it is suddenly exposed to the atmosphere, at speeds over 10 km/s. Until now, this was the major challenge. Many experimental probes disintegrated or lost trajectory when they hit the atmosphere. Is it possible to pass this inconvenient? Then, once in the atmosphere, the probe needs to have a strong atmospheric shield in order to survive. Basically, it pierces through all Earth’s atmosphere in only a few seconds. At that speed, no known alloy can survive.

At some point, the New Soviets came with the idea of building a magnetic elevator inside the highest mountains, in the Himalayas. The main advantage is that the probe will hit atmosphere at 8000 m high, where the air is less dense. However, those mountains have an intriguing Geology. There are many fracture lines and powerful earthquakes. After years of study, they concluded that such a project is impossible. Also, you will have to build all facilities in the Himalayas, including a railway connection to the Aral. This is too expensive.

Another option would be to build a magnetic elevator at Aral.

Scientists searched through pages of history about an atmospheric shield able to resist such extreme challenges. They found one. The only space mission that experienced similar conditions was the Galileo Probe. It entered Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1995 with a tremendous speed of 47.8 km/s. The probe was about 1.3 m wide and was protected by a 152 kg metal shield, which lost roughly 80 kg. The onboard instruments were made to resist a deceleration of 228 G.

There are a few other space probes designed by the New Soviets, which entered the atmosphere of the gas giants. None of them entered at such a great speed. Instead, they were launched from closer orbits and at a much lower speed. But the idea seems feasible. An atmospheric shield could protect a spaceship during ascent to orbit.

Ana was always skeptic about this method and never wanted to study it in detail. But now, she has no option. She must ensure that ships can be launched at smaller costs. Also, if you give to your probe a more aerodynamic shape (a longer and thinner nose cone), you get less air friction.

The main challenge is acceleration. Earth’s gravitational acceleration, G, is 9.806 m/s. Humans can tolerate an acceleration of 4G. Unmanned items can be accelerated to much higher speeds. Most components used by spaceships survive at an acceleration of 25 G. 30 G seems to be the limit for unmanned payloads.

At first, the scientists calculate what can be done with a vertical pit. You cannot dig deeper then 12 km. A 10 km deep tunnel is the first studied model. With an acceleration of 1G, you get at the exit a speed of only 0.45 km/s. The probe will need 46 seconds to pass the entire distance. At an acceleration of 4G, you get out of the tunnel in 23 seconds with a speed of 0.90 km/s. This is far too slow. At 25 G, the tunnel is passed in 9 seconds and the exit speed is 2.21 km/s. This is still too slow to reach orbit.

Scientists are unhappy with the results. This is too slow. They focus on another idea. What if the tunnel is longer and not vertical? Can more speed be gained this way? They calculate that at an acceleration of 25 G, the tunnel needs to be 206 km long to achieve a speed of 10 km/s. The payload would cross entire tunnel length in 41 seconds. They do the math. Such a tunnel would have one end buried at 10 km deep and the other end at the surface.

Ana orders a 10 km long tunnel to be built for experiments. She contracts the Moscow Subway Constructions for this task. The tunnel needs to have sealed walls, so that neither water nor gasses from the ground could infiltrate. It would be just as large as an average metro train. Powerful magnets need to be installed along the way. Construction lasts a few months and Ana is anxious. She wants everything to be done faster.

At the exit, she finally finds a solution. Air is kept away from the tunnel with a closed door. When the ship is approaching, the door is opened and air is kept outside with the help of powerful magnets.

The major concern is power needed for the project. The powerful electromagnets need a lot of energy and for a very short time. All the electricity needs to be provided in a very short timeframe. This is something that was never tried by the New Soviets. A huge energy capacitor is needed. Surprisingly, building the tunnel itself is not so expensive compared with the costs needed to store all the needed electricity.

After an year of work, the tunnel is ready. It starts at 1 km underground and ends reaching the surface. Ana has the honor of firing the first experimental probe. The huge capacitors needed a few days to charge themselves. Ana pushes the button… and in nine seconds, the experimental probe, weighting 1 t, exits the tunnel with exactly the estimated speed of 2.2 km/s. It works! The test probe flies like a projectile through the atmosphere, then opens its parachute and lands somewhere 1000 km to North.

Some problems became obvious. First of all, when the probe went into the atmosphere, it received a powerful shock. The transition between void and atmosphere was not smooth. Second, it left Aral without electricity. But, nevertheless, this method sounds promising. Unmanned probes can be sent to space at lower costs this way.

Immediately, Ana orders the construction of a magnetic elevator. The project is much more complex then anticipated. There will be not one tunnel, but ten, 300 km long. This would allow for speeds of 12 km/s to be achieved. One tunnel would be used for electric cables and one to transport ships to the underground launch site. The other eight tunnels will be used to launch probes into space, one at a time. Each probe would spend 50 seconds inside the tunnel before escaping to the atmosphere. For the first part, the tunnels would be horizontal and then they would slowly curve towards the surface. The underground end of the tunnels would be close to the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Nobody ever attempted such a big construction so deep underground. The main problem is that Ana wants all to be built as soon as possible. Tunnels will be 10 m wide, allowing for 8 m wide payloads to be launched. There is a lot of material that needs to be excavated and placed somewhere else. Vertical pits are built at every 50 km. Boring machines are placed at each end of the 50 km sections. With 10 tunnels, 300 km long each, this implies for 120 boring machines and a lot of rock to be removed. Down there, almost everything is solid rock. Around 0.1 cubic km of rock needs to be excavated, enough to build a small mountain. Well, Ana takes this as an advantage. She extends the tunnels above ground, using excavated rocks. The tunnels are extended with 4 km and end 400 m above surface.

During this time, many tests are run on the experimental first tunnel. Many problems are found. First of all, not anything can be accelerated with this technology. Sensible equipment still needs to be shipped with rockets. The acceleration is too fast. The shocking moment is when the ship exits tunnel. At that point, acceleration turns into deceleration, as the payload hits the atmosphere.

Something needs to be changed. The solution was to make a gradual transition between void and the atmosphere. As the payload reaches surface, in the last 4 km of surface tunnels, air is gradually allowed to enter and acceleration is gradually decreased.

Also, not all parts are accelerated with the same speed. It is very important to keep the payload in a good state of equilibrium. Hitting the walls with 10 km/s can produce a disaster. Tunnels are 10 m wide, while the probe is 8.

Still, the hardest task is to provide the needed energy for this. Many more wind turbines had to be built in the West Aral. The needed amount of electricity is more then double of what was needed before. Ana’s ambitious plan is to launch something at every 50 seconds. The magnetic elevator should be able to send to space up to 1000 t at each launch. All produced electricity at Aral can only support a launch of 1000 t to occur at every 10 hours. Well, this is far more then enough for the moment.

Ana uses many resources for this tunnel, diverting money from other sectors. Nobody opposes her. Everything is finished on October 4th, year 53. This coincides with the Sputnik anniversary, which went to space a long time ago.

The first launch contains a bronze statue of Lenin, just like the first rocket that took off from Aral Cosmodrome 43 years ago. The statue weights 1 t and is covered with fairings. The probe also carries a nitrogen tank, solar panels and a nitrogen ion engine. The goal is to send the statue on a Sun escape trajectory, to interstellar space. Overall, the rocket weights 14 t. It is a small payload compared to what the magnetic elevator can push off the Earth. The rocket is sent underground from Aral Cosmodrome into the loading tunnel. There, magnets push it with an average speed of 300 km/h to the end of the tunnel system. After a few more checks, the rocket is placed inside tunnel 1 and held into position. Magnets are turned on and after four seconds the rocket is sent. It accelerates fast, just as expected. There are many sensors onboard. But, as long as the rocket is underground, nobody can see what is happening clearly. Then, the rocket exits tunnel with the desired speed of 10 km/s. It pierces through the atmosphere at this tremendous speed. The launch angle is 10%, so, with every 10 km, the rocket climbs 1 km. In 50 seconds, it is flying at 50 km above Kizilorda and in other 60 seconds it is South from Balkhash Lake, in space.

The rocket opens its fairings and deploys its solar panels. The nitrogen ion engine is turned on. This is very important to achieve low Earth orbit. The engine fires at full power to rise the periapsis and make sure the rocket would not fall back to Earth. Ion engines have little thrust. So, they have to work for hours to slowly shape the orbit.

Scientists wait nervously for results. After the first orbit around the Earth, the rocket communicates. It is traveling over Western Siberia now. Scientists see the data. The launch occurred just as planned, but the rocket experienced far more vibrations and atmospheric stress then expected. Nevertheless, it is in one piece.

At the fourth orbit around Earth, the rocket detaches its fairings and protective lateral shield. Everything is planned so that these parts will land on East Aral. It is very important to make sure parts will not land anywhere else, mainly in territories belonging to other empires. This is in fact the major risk. Fairings work as an atmospheric shield for reentry, carrying the side shield with them. They have a guiding computer onboard. At the correct moment, a parachute is deployed. Fairings land on West Aral Desert, on salt. A recovery team is sent. Meanwhile, the nitrogen ion engine is turned on and the probe spirals away from Earth. Scientists gather to see the result of their work. The fairings survived, but lost a part of their mass. The side shield is almost unaffected.

REDS DID IT AGAIN

We are just sitting and watching how these people defy the logical and defame us in every day of their lives. There is a high demand to do something. Why can’t you build something better? What is wrong with you, people? I gave you enough funds and you wasted them on feasibility studies, while these people built something without telling anyone in the world. You said that you need more funds to study. Well, you should better go to work or be replaced! Marshall Adam Brown talking to space researchers.

Next day, the event is on the news. The first spaceship took off without a launch vehicle, without one of the five Lenin ships. Construction of the space elevator occurred with some budget cuts in many different domains. This affected the New Soviet Empire, as not 5%, but 15% of state budget was diverted to the project. Many other projects had to wait. People were not told what this is all about. They trust Ana. They know that she is building something for them.

Her biggest achievement is the trust she got from the people.

News all over the world shows the first successful launch from a magnetic elevator. Televisions comment this in long talk-shows.

Reds did it again! We see the first spacecraft launched without a rocket coasting in space! Former Supreme Soviet, Ana Leonova, says that launches will continue and that they will be available for the general public.

Surprisingly, launches with this technology are far cheaper then with rockets. It is almost a hundred times cheaper. Ana keeps the tariffs a bit higher to recover the money invested. She wants to give all that was above her share of the imperial budget back. At these costs, any medium-class worker can afford to send a payload of 1 kg into space. But, surprisingly, the first request comes from an American family. They lost their daughter. Her biggest wish was to fly to cosmos and become an astronaut. They offer the money to send their daughter to space.

Ana accepts this without taking the money. She puts the body with the next payload to be sent. The body would reach space and would be buried on the Moon. The parents are amazed by her generosity. This charity act breaks to the news, too.

The space demon has a heart!

This is the title of an article. This is how many people called Ana: the demon. Her ambition to reach space got many people asking why is she doing all this. Why is she pushing space exploration beyond any limit? Especially after her brief visit to America, her rude words and lack of manners shocked people.

Adam Brown, the American Marshall, was the angriest man on Earth when he saw this. He even got to the TV, telling people that Ana used this as a way to increase her popularity. He said this:

I think this woman has a mental problem. She left the most important political function she could have, that of Supreme Soviet, to continue the space race. Don’t be surprised by her actions! The only thing she wants is to make us suffer by any means. How many children died in the New Soviet Empire? Do you think there were no children willing to be astronauts? Do you think their parents didn’t want to burry them on the Moon? She chose an American child for a reason, to humiliate us. That’s all she does! That’s all she did during her reign at Aral. All her space missions were designed to humiliate us. All her rockets were launched just before ours, to humiliate us and to show us that we are inferior. It is high time we do something!

Adam Brown calls his most trusted people for a secret conference. He demands something to be done. He calls all experts from NASA and private space operators, trying to build something that would be greater. Scientists work on a project that would beat the New Soviet transport system. Soon, he realizes that this is impossible. The needed costs to win the space race would be around 10 % of GDP for ten years. He realizes this is impossible to fund.

He even considers a plan to sabotage the New Soviet space transportation systems. Is that possible? It would lead to a military conflict. Then, an old state secretary comes to him and says these words:

“Marshall, please consider my words. Stop fighting. The space race is lost. If you continue with an aggressive campaign, the New Soviets would do anything humanly possible to keep their supremacy in space transportation. We have to stop. After all, they offer their transport services to anyone, even to us, at a low cost, far cheaper then anything we could do”.

“You are right, old man. I will stop”.

That day, Adam Brown sends a diplomatic team to Aral. He offers Ana a medal for her contribution in space exploration. The diplomatic team goes to negotiate future cooperation and future space missions. Ana is very happy of this. In fact, this is what she wants, to offer a powerful space transportation network to serve the whole Earth.

THE LARGEST SHIP EVER BUILT

Aggression pushes us further. Carl Marx.

Fearing that the Americans would try to win the space race again, Ana Leonova decides to build something that was never tried before.

The space is more crowded by the day. Scientists realize that at some point even the mighty Lenin V is not enough. While supplies are sent to space with the magnetic elevator, people and sensible equipment needs to be sent by rockets. What about a new rocket, Lenin VI? This one would be far more powerful and it would be able to deliver 300 t to a Sun escape trajectory. The new rocket will be able to send 1500 t to Earth Space Station in a single launch.

This is how big the mighty Lenin VI is compared to Lenin V:

This huge rocket uses 24 boosters to get into orbit. Its total height is 260 m. This makes the Lenin VI the largest rocket ever built. In order to build it, scientists had to develop a far more powerful engine, the RS-6. This monster engine produces 30000 kN, far greater then any rocket engine ever created.

First stage is 180 m high and 30 m wide. Building a wider fuel tank is not feasible, as it will require a lot of metal to strengthen itself. It uses nine RS-6 engines. Because of the huge weight of the upper stages, part of the weight is transferred to the boosters. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the rocket to sustain its own weight during flight.

There are three types of boosters. The large ones are 150 m high (187 m with their nose cones) and 30 m wide. There are 6 large boosters and they use 9 RS-6 engines. The average-size boosters are 20 m wide and 135 m high (160 m with their nose cones). The 6 boosters use 5 RS-6 engines. Finally, there are 12 small boosters, each one using a single RS-6 engine. They are 50 m high and 6 m wide. Overall, the first stage uses 105 engines, which is a premiere for any rocket. At this high number, there is a high chance of a malfunction. So, the ship will instead have 26 more engines, to be activated in case of a malfunction, replacing the failed engine.

The second stage is 80 m high and 25 m wide. It uses three RS-5 engines. Third stage, powered by nitrogen ion engines, is 25 m wide and 10 m long.

This beast is able to send to heliocentric orbit 1400 t of cargo and to a hyperbolic orbit 300 t. To make sure everything works according to plan, Ana orders all engines to be tested, then all boosters and parts.

As a payload, she wants to send to space something that nobody ever tried. How about a mission to another star? However, in order to accelerate to a significant percent of the speed of the light, you need a different type of engine. Long time ago, many scientists thought about this. Over a century ago, this technology was tested on one of the last space missions ever flown. It is a fission-fusion nuclear engine, which uses plutonium and deuterium for propulsion. The engine itself would weight 50 t and will use 200 t of fuel. On top of it, there is another, smaller nuclear engine, weighting 10 t and carrying 39 t of fuel. The ship itself weights only 1 t. It is a standard orbiter but with a more powerful RTG. The plan is to achieve 7% of the speed of light and arrive to Barnard’s Star within 90 years. Ana knows well that she will no longer be alive when the probe will arrive there. Construction of the factory needed to produce the Lenin VI takes a few months. The rocket is so large, then a special crane is needed to put all parts together on its launch platform on Aral.

Launch occurs on October 4th, year 55, at 4.23 AM.

Ana knows that, if this works, nobody would try to fight with her ever. Nobody else can build something like this. Ana received the medal from America a few months ago and signed the space commercial agreement, but she still fears that the Americans are planning something in secret.

The monster rocket is placed on its platform carefully. Everything is ready. Scientists checked everything over and over. With such a big rocket, there is no room for errors. There is no way to hide its existence. The countdown starts. Everyone is watching. The whole world is watching this.

Before the countdown reaches T-20, Ana pushes the button, approving the launch. Now, there is no way to stop the launch at all. She watches how seconds pass. Five seconds before launch, engines are turned on at 1% capacity. Two seconds before launch, all 105 engines are turned to 100 %. The monster ship is on.

From the control tower, scientists can see a big cloud of smoke and a powerful light. The rocket is starting to rise into the atmosphere. It weights 254000 t, more then anything ever launched in space. Soon, scientists see the monster rocket climbing in the air. They feel a powerful vibration in the ground and a very powerful noise. In 12 seconds, the rocket climbs more then its own height. In other 12 seconds, it is over 1 km in the atmosphere. Its powerful engines make light in the dark. The cosmodrome is illuminated by the flare and engulfed by the trail of smoke left behind.

Two engines fail soon. There is no problem. The ship is prepared for that. The onboard computer commutes other engines on to replace the loss if thrust. Then, after a minute, the rocket vanishes in the clouds. Everyone can see how the clouds are illuminated in red and orange. Other three engines fail, but the system is prepared for this.

110 seconds after launch, when the ship is 24 km high, the small boosters run out of fuel. All 12 are separated. They will head back to Earth, as planned. Scientists watch this and confirm separation. Exactly 239 seconds after launch, the 6 average-size boosters are separated too. Then, 332 seconds after launch, the big boosters go silent, as they run out of fuel. The core stage runs out of fuel at 398 seconds. With 25 objects flying back to Earth, things get complicated. All boosters must land back in Aral.

Second stage is turned on. It will fire for 986 seconds or 16 minutes. This is also confirmed. Second stage was turned on and scientists can see a pale red light through the clouds. Everything works according to plan.

After the second stage runs out of fuel, fairings are detached. The third, nitrogen stage, will be turned on once the ship performs a Moon flyby.

“Success!” says Ana, lighting a cigarette.

“I think the launch was seen and heard as far as the Caspian Sea”, says a scientist. “Even after twenty minutes, the smoke didn’t clear off the cosmodrome”.

“The best thing is that the nuclear fuel didn’t ignite”, says Alex. “That could destroy us all. 300 t of nuclear fuel, including 77 t of plutonium…”

“I think I pushed things too far”, says Ana. “I just wanted to be the first to launch a spaceship towards another solar system. Sometimes, you have to risk. I risked too much for this mission. There will be no missions with such a huge risks. There will be no nuclear payloads of over 1 t launched from Aral from this point on”.

Scientists agree. A failure could mean doom to all of them. The nuclear blast would have been hundreds of times worse then the Chernobyl disaster.

Within a few days, Ana receives messages from the other two empires, concerned about the potential failures of a Lenin VI launch, mainly with nuclear fuel onboard. Even inside the New Soviet Empire, people are worried about this subject. Ana answers short:

“I wanted to be the first to launch a spaceship towards another star. Don’t worry, such missions will never happen like this one. No payload will have more then 1 t of nuclear fuel onboard. We launch the Barnard Express mission because we wanted to be the first to do such a thing and to show our superiority in space exploration”.

Three days later, the ship performs a Moon flyby. The nitrogen ion engine is turned on. It will fire for two years, increasing speed gradually. The ship will also take advantage of a Jupiter flyby on the way. Still, this acceleration is nothing compared to what the nuclear engines will produce. The goal is to achieve 7% of the speed of light.

Well, most of cargo goes to space with the help of a different launch vehicle. The magnetic elevator sends most of payloads into space. Technically, the launch vehicle is not a rocket, but it looks somehow similar.

The launch vehicles are called Stalin. They have a very sharp nose cone, which is in fact an atmospheric shield. The whole payload is covered with a layer of metal, which works as an atmospheric shield. The end part is also aerodynamic and looks like a cone. It contains a nitrogen ion engine, a nitrogen tank and solar panels. Once in space, the atmospheric shield is detached. It also deploys small wings used for navigation. Then, close to surface, it deploys a parachute to land on the Aral.

The nitrogen stage at the back deploys its solar panels and turns on its engine, ensuring orbit insertion and arrival to Earth Space Station. The needed delta-v for that transfer is 3.468. Flight to the Earth Space Station might take two weeks, as the thrust of a ion engine is very little.

Scientists developed several models for the Stalin vehicle. The launch tunnels are 10 m wide, so the largest launched vehicle is 8 m wide. Ten different models had been built. All of them have some common features.

Stalin I is 14.5 m long (maximum payload 10 m) and 1 m wide. It weights 5.26 t (2.44 t the shield, 0.66 t the nitrogen stage and 2.15 t maximum payload). Stalin II is 29 m long (maximum payload 20 m) and 2 m wide. It weights 32.69 t (10.15 t the shield, 5.32 t the nitrogen stage and 17.22 t maximum payload). Stalin III is 39 m long (maximum payload 30 m) and 2 m wide. It weights 42.98 t (10.55 t the shield, 7.66 t the nitrogen stage and 24.78 t maximum payload). Stalin IV is 58 m long (maximum payload 40 m) and 4 m wide. It weights 224.03 t (43.75 t the shield, 42.56 t the nitrogen stage and 137.72 t maximum payload). Stalin V is 78 m long (maximum payload 60 m) and 4 m wide. It weights 306.33 t (46.88 t the shield, 61.25 t the nitrogen stage and 61.25 t maximum payload). Stalin VI is 87 m long (maximum payload 60 m) and 6 m wide. It weights 713.91 t (105.47 t the shield, 143.63 t the nitrogen stage and 464.82 t maximum payload). Stalin VII is 107 m long (maximum payload 80 m) and 6 m wide. It weights 899.08 t (112.50 t the shield, 185.68 t the nitrogen stage and 600.90 t maximum payload). Stalin VIII is 127 m long (maximum payload 100 m) and 6 m wide. It weights 1084.26 t (119.53 t the shield, 227.73 t the nitrogen stage and 736.99 t maximum payload). Stalin IX is 116 m long (maximum payload 80 m) and 8 m wide. It weights 1642.24 t (200.00 t the shield, 340.45 t the nitrogen stage and 1101.79 t maximum payload). Stalin X is 136 m long (maximum payload 100 m) and 8 m wide. It weights 1971.43 t (212.50 t the shield, 415.21 t the nitrogen stage and 1343.72 t maximum payload).

The first vehicles can lift to space a payload about half their mass. The last vehicles are too heavy and require too much energy for a launch. The most used and most efficient are Stalin VI, VII and VIII. The last one is used in 70% of all launches. It sends to space many probes in a single launch. A single launch can take to space 5000 communication satellites.

This is how a Stalin VIII looks like compared to a house:

As one can see, it is huge. It is the cheapest way to send something into space. Such launches occur every week. It is no surprise that the Aral now owns 99% of all space transportation.

WAVE OF GLORY

You have to know when to stop, because nothing will grow on forever. Many companies collapsed because their business reached the maximum peak and they did not know to stop. In the 80’s, entire cities were left depopulated after companies reached the highest position on market. After a continuous development phase comes a peak and then a possible decline. In most cases, people, thinking and hoping that the growth period would never stop, make a catastrophic mistake. No continuous growth is self-sustainable. This happens many times, in different eras, on exchange markets, trade centers and real estates. After a continuous period of growth, there is a high chance to see a decline. If we don’t understand to stop, we make the decline become catastrophic. How many times the world entered recession because of this? Car factories produced automobiles until the market became saturated… and then ran out of business. Real estates grew-up until the demand for new homes became too small… and ran out of business. Banks offered loans to everybody until the demand decreased. Then, they offered loans with very low interest rates. People could not pay the money back and caused several banks to run out of business. Will the world ever understand this? Quotes from an economic magazine.

On January 10th, the year 56, Ana draws a line. She looks at all the achievements done in all this time. After 46 years, the Aral Space Facilities rules space transportation. Almost everything is sent to space from here.

There are space stations all over the Solar System. Each planet has its own base used for spaceships. Mercury has two bases, Moon has three and Mars has two. There are many bases located on over 100 asteroids and on 7 small planets in the Kuiper Belt. Giant interplanetary ships travel between space stations almost at every planetary alignment. They are made to carry 20 people. There are thousands of people living in space today. Railways stretch for thousands of km on most planets and moons, connecting bases with colonies. Many parts are already being built in space.

The asteroid Psyche is almost entirely made of iron mixed with other metals. It has become a major mining source for building spaceships and parts. Over time, fewer materials will be shipped from Earth. The New Soviets control Psyche and a few other important sources of materials. It looks like borders are expending into space.

On Earth, scientists come with many proposals. They want to test new technologies, to upgrade existing facilities and to build even more powerful rockets then the mighty Lenin VI. Money seems to continue to flow to the Aral. Now, the space complex is self- sustaining. It brings to the empire more taxes then the money it receives.

Some people see colonization as the future.

In the past, ships went to their destination carrying supplies, people and equipment. They returned almost empty, with rock samples and cosmonauts. Now, they are returning to Earth Space Station with products needed elsewhere. It even became profitable to ship to Earth goods from cosmos, like platinum or uranium.

If you ask an economist, he will tell you to invest in the most profitable market. Currently, space seems to bring ever-increasing profits. The only problem is that a single company rules space transportation. There is no room for competitors and there is no other company able to compete with it.

Since things are going like this, Ana is pushed by many people to continue, to build more and to upgrade the Aral facilities.

There is something else on Ana’s soul. She remembers the atrocities committed a long time ago, when she used prison inmates for building the Lenin V. Thousands died at that time. She suffers for this. Almost every day, she remembers their faces and their suffering. This memory is haunting her.

At some point, an unseen force pushes her. After work, she doesn’t return to her apartment. She tells Alex that she needs to take a walk in the city. She goes directly to a church. It is one of the Orthodox churches she built for the workers. She enters. It’s almost empty at this hour. From time to time, someone enters, kneels in front of an icon and prays. Orthodox churches don’t have statues, but icons. She sees a woman going to the altar’s left door. A priest comes out. Ana waits for the woman to finish, then she goes too.

“Comrade Leonova, it’s an honor to have you here”, says the priest.

“I think I need your help”, says Ana.

“Me?” asks the priest surprised.

“I think I did a horrible sin”.

“Sins are forgiven if you confess them”.

“Then, I want to confess”.

The priest gets out of the altar and sits on a chair. He says:

“You have to kneel here, so I can prey for you”.

Ana kneels and the priest puts a part of his veil on her. He prays something. Then, he says to her:

“You are not confessing to me, but to God. Don’t hide a thing from me, cause I am just a messenger to God. If you hide something, you will double your sins. What is on your heart, comrade Leonova?”

“You promise me that you won’t tell anyone what I will tell you”.

“All Orthodox priests had sworn not to tell anyone the sins people confess to them. I won’t”.

“Sometimes, you have to take drastic measures when you have an important job like I do. But there is something that gives me hope. I heard that even Stalin did confess his sins at some point”.

It is true. Even Stalin, a convinced atheist and one of the most evil people on Earth, did confess his sins. He did this four times in his life, during and after World War II.

“I had to kill”, says Ana. “When we were building the Lenin V rocket. I needed labor force. I asked my dad for help and he sent me prison inmates. Almost all of them died. They died from my order. They died of extensive hard work and malnutrition. I had no other way. I had to make sure we land on Mars before the Americans”.

Ana cries while she says this.

“I forced people to work more then they could do. I blackmailed them. I told them that, if they don’t work properly, they would end-up in Kolyma. I had no other way. We had to win the space race”.

“Being in your position is very hard”, says the priest. “Sometimes, we had to sacrifice something, even the lives of our loved ones”.

“It haunts me every day. I remember those prison inmates, how they starved and how they died before my eyes”.

Ana spends more then an hour at the church, telling the priest everything. When she was the Supreme Soviet, she had to do a lot of things. At some point, she had to send people to prison. When she was young and the space race was raging, she had no mercy for the weak. The only thing that mattered was to win the race.

The priest asks her if she is an Orthodox.

“I was baptized as a Lutheran, like my mother. But that was a long time ago. I spent all my life among Orthodox people. So, my heart is Orthodox, but I was not born this way. You know that I am half German”.

“I know”.

Then, the priest asks her if she had an extra-marriage relationship and if she commits some of the other well-known sins. She never had any of these.

“May God erase your sins…” starts the priest praying for her.

He takes his veil away from her head and gives her a crucifix to kiss. Ana raises and kisses the crucifix. She leaves the church smiling and almost dancing of joy.

The next day, Ana orders a status report of all what the Aral Space Complex has in cosmos. Results show how large and complex is the space transportation network Ana has built.

Mercury: a space station and two bases, one at each pole. There are 427 km of railways connecting 26 colonies (7 New Soviet), located around the poles. Population is 376 people. Mercury fleet consists of 3 landers and 3 interplanetary transporters. Four people live on the space station. Both bases produce propellant. Colonies produce most of the goods and technological parts they need.

Venus: a space station and a small base. There is a single colony (New Soviet) with 7 inhabitants. The lander is the only one using solid fuel. The station has a small interplanetary transporter. Three people live on the space station. The space station, the base and the colony are dependent on supplies brought from elsewhere.

Earth Sector: There are four space stations, Earth Space Station being the largest. The former International Space Station is more a tourist attraction. The other two stations are also on low orbits and operated by Jewish and American empires. The Earth Sector has over 1000 operational satellites. The transportation flotilla includes 10 manned interplanetary ships and 200 unmanned ships, linking nearby asteroids to Earth. There are 3 bases on the Moon with 6 landers. The Moon has 4323 km of cosmic railways and 223 colonies (76 New Soviet). Population on the Moon is 13836 people and on the space stations 5261. Small bases and colonies exist on 7 near Earth asteroids, with a total population of 44 people. The Moon already produces many parts needed for spaceships and propellant. Space stations started producing most of the goods needed. Raw materials are brought mostly from the Moon and from near Earth asteroids.

Mars: There are a space station and two bases. Mars has a population of 7213 people in 41 colonies (12 New Soviet). Mars has a network of 825 km of cosmic railways. There are a base and a New Soviet colony on Deimos, with a population of 9 people. Phobos Space Station has 31 inhabitants. Mars Sector has 3 interplanetary transporters and 4 landers. Currently, the bases produce propellant for the landers. Deimos base produces many goods needed for the colonies and parts for the ships.

Ceres Sector: There is a single space station around Ceres. However, there are 17 bases on various asteroids. Ceres has 3 colonies, while on other asteroids there are 16 (7 of them are New Soviet settlements). Total population of Ceres Sector is 1883 people. The sector has 4 interplanetary ships, two landers for Ceres and seven inter-asteroid ships. The only cosmic railway is on Ceres and it has 64 km. The colony on Psyche is very important, as it produces many parts needed for ships. This includes fuel tanks and engines. Recently, Psyche colony started to produce solar panels.

Jupiter Sector: There is a space station on Himalia, with 129 inhabitants. Bases exist on Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. There are 24 bases (8 New Soviet), with a total population of 5104 inhabitants. Most of them are on Ganymede and Callisto. Jupiter Sector has 6 landers and 5 interplanetary ships. Space railways cover 771 km. All bases (except Io) produce propellants. Himalia is rich in minerals and materials, used for building many things, including parts for ships, glass and even RTG units.

Saturn Sector: There is a space station on Helene, with 18 inhabitants. Bases are on all major moons: Pan, Mimas, Enceladus, Dione, Tethys, Rhea, Hyperion, Titan, Iapetus and Phoebe. There are 24 colonies (8 New Soviet). Total population is 4223 people. Railway network is 1314 km long. Saturn sector has 5 interplanetary ships and 13 landers. Each base produces propellant needed for space transport. In part, colonies are self-sustaining. They found a way to produce construction parts using tholins.

Uranus Sector: There is a space station on Perdita, with 16 inhabitants. Bases are on Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon and Sycorax. There are 16 colonies (6 New Soviet) with a total population of 1825 people. Uranus Sector has 887 km of railways, 8 landers and 5 interplanetary ships. Each base produces propellant. Colonies produce part of the items they need.

Neptune Sector: There is a space station on Halimede. Bases are built on Triton, Nereid and Proteus. There are currently 9 colonies (3 of them are New Soviet) with 774 inhabitants. The sector has 513 km of railways, 4 landers and 6 interplanetary ships. All bases produce propellant. Colonies started to produce plastic from natural tholins.

Kuiper Belt: There is a space station on Styx. Bases exist on Pluto and Charon. There are three colonies (2 of them are New Soviet) with a population of 67 people. Additional bases are on Haumea, Eris and Sedna. Each base has a small colony (Sedna colony is New Soviet). Total population in the Kuiper Belt outside Pluto is 32 people. Railways exist only on Pluto and Charon and are 44 km long. The sector has 4 interplanetary ships (traveling to Earth), 4 Kuiper ships (traveling within the Kuiper Belt, with an incorporated lander) and two landers. All bases produce the propellant they need. Since metals are in very low amounts, colonies learned to use tholins to build parts they need for construction units.

“Soon, these colonies will no longer need our help”, says a scientist. “They are developing fast. In isolation, they learned to use natural resources”.

“We tried to build borders in outer space, but colonies seem to interact one with another like if there were no borders”, says another scientist.

“We see more and more products built in space”, says another scientist. “If we die tomorrow, these people will continue to live out there”.

Ana listens to the scientists. She witnessed how people out there act on their own. For example, the American Orleans colony on the Moon decided on its own to build a railway to a subsurface glacier located at 15 km. They did not call home for permission. Instead, they directly contacted a base and requested this. The base accepted and built the extra railway without asking Aral for permission. It seems like in outer space people cooperate in a natural way.

Ana realizes that soon these people would no longer need help from home. Currently, there are 15000 people at Aral Space Complex. There are already more people in space. Even more, people in space are almost ready to build their own spaceships. In these conditions, there will be less demand for supplies from Earth.

There is another thing that shows how everything will change in the space colonies. People born in space seem unable to return to Earth. They muscles are smaller. Their bones are unable to sustain their weight on a planet with high gravity. People born on Earth are able to accommodate to other planets. On the return journey, they are exposed to a gradually increasing centrifugal force. When they arrive back to Earth, they are able to walk on Earth’s gravity. However, it appears that people born on other planets and moons cannot adapt to a too high gravity at all.

“I think this is enough”, says Ana. “The space transportation network is developed enough for the moment. We clearly won the space race and there is nobody who can compete with us in the near future. As anyone can see, the amount of cargo we send to space has decreased by 7 %. This is not much, but it tells us something. On the other hand, we sent this year with 18% more people to space. There is no significant growth compared to previous years, when we’ve seen in each year that the number of people and staff doubled. I think we need to slow down”.

People listened to Ana shocked. Nobody ever expected her to say something like this. They are used to hear her always pushing on. It could be because of the age. She is now 74 years old. She is an old woman now.

HIMALIA NOW AND THEN

I witnessed many space launches. I’ve seen cosmonauts returning to space. Today, it is easy to get to space. Many people pay the price of two luxurious apartments to go for a week in space or for a Moon flyby. I wished I could get to space too. If you ask me why I didn’t, the answer is I never had time. I never had a vacation in all these years. Each year I said that maybe the next year I’ll go. Now, I am too old. I don’t think that I can survive the acceleration onboard a rocket at my age. I have to admit that I am too old for space flying.

If you ask me if I would like to go to space, the answer is yes. Where? I would like to go to Jupiter’s moon Himalia. It was my favorite moon since the first time I’ve seen it. When we sent the Jupiter Express, I insisted that we have a flyby of Himalia. It was the largest outer moon of Jupiter and the only one suitable for a space station.

Himalia is my favorite moon. This is where I would like to go. Ana Leonova in an interview in the year 52.

At Aral Space Complex, work never stops. However, the place is no longer as it were in the past. Until recently, something was always being constructed or updated. People expected Ana to continue building massive projects. Someone came with the idea that a massive magnetic elevator should be able to send people at low costs to space. To ensure an acceleration of 2 G, which is acceptable for the human body, the tunnel would need to stretch all the way from Moscow to the Himalayas and end at high altitude. A group of scientists come with this idea. Surprisingly, Ana is against this. She answers to the challenge in this way:

“I don’t see the need for that”.

Instead, she does something completely unexpected and without asking anyone. She decides to enlarge the Himalia base. She builds there a spaceship factory, which would produce interplanetary ships and landers. Parts would come from all over the Solar System. Even more, she decides to decorate the Himalia Space Station. It will have a large dome where travelers would enter when they arrive. Inside the dome, there will be a huge planetarium.

Unlike in previous projects, Ana tries to use as many things as possible from space. Himalia Space Station will contain rocks from all around the solar System. It will be large and modern, offering all facilities to its visitors.

Himalia will receive raw materials from the Asteroid Belt, from the Kuiper Belt and from elsewhere in the Solar system. It will be almost like a capital city of the Solar System. It will assemble parts. Habitat modules, waste recycling plants, engines, fuel tanks, RTG units, solar panels, sensors, all needed parts will come here to be assembled into ships and station units.

Surprisingly, Ana decides to send people from Aral to Himalia. She doesn’t force anyone, but she offers this chance to anyone working at Aral Space Complex. From 15000 people working or living here, around 2000 agree to go. She gives no public explanation to her decision.

In the other empires, some people wonder if she is insane. What does this mean? Others fear that she might be trying to conquer the space by populating it with Soviet citizens. Still, many people think that she or the New Soviet Empire has a secret agenda. Nobody knows, even people inside the empire.

What could be the cause of her actions? She certainly knows something that the rest of the world doesn’t. Alex, asked about this subject, says this:

“Himalia is her favorite moon in the whole Solar System. That is all I can tell you”.

Well, Alex is old too. He is paralyzed and can walk only with a wheeled chair. He prefers to stay in the apartment and not go to the cosmodrome any longer. He is too old for space exploration, but still he watches all what is going on. He will die on August 14th, year 56. From that moment on, Ana is living alone, but she remains active.

PART SEVEN – RISE OF THE FALL AND FALL OF THE RISE

Karl Marx liked to change the order of words in his works. This gave the text a surprising new sense and sometimes underlined hidden meanings.

BOTSWANA

“My child, you’ve done an amazing work. But there are many problems ahead of us. People are not made to live in a large empire. Sooner or later, all three empires will break apart”, said Iosif Leonov.

“What do you say, dad?” asked Ana.

“Check out the history! No empire lasted forever. At some point, each one broke apart. No union and no federation lasted forever. Ethnic tensions will rise at some point. Separatist movements will be more and more powerful. Today, these three empires are held in place because of fear. Nobody can survive alone in this world. The surrounding empires will engulf a small, independent state. This is why anyone sits inside each empire. But if you look closer inside any empire, you notice there are tensions”. A private conversation between Ana Leonova and her dad.

March 7th, year 58. A powerful rebellion starts in Botswana. Once an independent state, it was divided between the American and the Jewish empires. Both empires took a part of it 70 years ago, dividing the population. The delimitation line crossed through villages and fields, blocked roads and railways. For seventy years, people from the North and from the South lived under occupation. But, on this date, something happened. A man living in the North tried to go to South, where his mother died a few days ago. He was refused to cross the border. Angry, the man attacked two custom guards and got killed by gunfire.

Other people at the border attacked and burned the customhouse. People started to cross the border in both ways without a checkpoint. Soon, rebellion spread throughout all Botswana. People took off American and Jewish imperial flags and burned them. They vandalized banks and institutions.

Both empires try to respond by force, to bring order. People refuse. Inhabitants block the streets with anything they find. They throw stones and handmade pikes into soldiers. On all streets of Botswana, you can hear people demanding freedom, demanding to have their state back.

In the midst of chaos, the gubernator of South Botswana goes suicide, while the administrator of South Botswana is captured and killed by protesters. They quickly organize into a self-proclaimed state and chose a president. They form an army and prepare to fight the armies of the other two empires.

Why is this happening? Could nobody see this coming?

Two centuries ago, huge tensions existed between various factions in Europe. Even if it were a time of peace, a little spark is all what was needed for World War I to erupt. A Serb student started that war. That was the spark that triggered a worldwide war. Huge tensions exist now too. It was just a question of time until everything will erupt in chaos in certain parts of the world.

Rebellions are not something new. An year ago, the Jewish Empire stopped a rebellion in Central India in a bath of blood. South America is also trying to separate. Australia and Japan tried many times a diplomatic way to increase their autonomy. Poland, The Baltics and parts of Siberia also wanted to break apart from the New Soviet Empire. However, anyone knows what would happen in case of a separatist movement. All other empires are looking for a way to incorporate fragments that break apart.

However, Botswana is different. It lies at the border between two empires. It tries to break apart from both. In this case, the newly elected president asks for help from the New Soviet Empire, which could not possibly annex a territory that far.

A few days later, force is used to break the newly formed state. Both empires act together, attacking each point of opposition. But, the people don’t stop fighting. They get together and hand each other’s hand, forming human fences around their villages and towns. Will a whole state be imprisoned?

Tensions are high. Many more provinces want out. No matter what an empire tries, more and more people want to break out. Tensions rise in other areas. Protests are seen on the streets of New York and Jerusalem. In Moscow, it is peace for the moment. Meanwhile, the war continues in Botswana, where many people are killed. Something needs to be done.

On June 1st, year 58, the Supreme Soviet interferes and says that people has the right to chose what they want. They demand that Botswana should be a free state. By the end of June, the other empires accept and withdraw their armed forces. Soon after this, two major rebellions occur in the Baltics and in Italy. This time, after two months of fighting, both states are recognized free. Japan follows. Japanese people don’t go to war. Instead, they take off all American flags and put on back their Japanese flags. They chose their own emperor, a descendant of the imperial family. The same happens in the Caucasus, where people refuse to pay taxes and remove all New Soviet flags.

Then starts a bloody rebellion in Arabia. Arabs want to rebuild Mecca, which was destroyed by Rosenstein’s troops.

Ana Leonova urgently goes to Moscow for a secret meeting with the Supreme Soviet, Anastasia Melnikova. It is late in September. Ana is now old, but Melnikova is young. She is only 27 and very ambitious. Both women meet in a room and light a cigarette.

“It is an honor for me to receive your visit”, says the Supreme Soviet.

“We live difficult times now”, says Ana. “It’s been a difficult period since I was born. But now, it is even harder”.

“Despite all my efforts to make our empire a modern place, there is something that I cannot do. People want to be free. I am afraid that this will lead to a worldwide bloody war”.

“I can see that”, says Ana. “All three empires are losing territories as rebellions are getting more common”.

“I am more worried about a possible nuclear war”.

“After all these years… This is what I fought to stop and prevent. This is why I fought to win the space race, to take the fight out of Earth. Now, what should we do?”

“I don’t know exactly, comrade Leonova. I preferred to let the Baltics out, to sacrifice a small territory so that the rest can remain united. But, I see escalating tensions all over the empire. It would be acceptable to lose some border territories. This could create a buffer zone between empires”.

“But now, rebellions occur anywhere. Comrade, we have war in Arabia, very close to Jerusalem. I heard that even the Syrians are getting ready for war. In the American Empire, Texas is seeking to become free. The same happened with an Amerindian reservation”.

“The problem is what will remain after this. I expect one empire will remain stronger then the other ones and will start conquering the small free states. It looks like we are the least affected for the moment”.

“That is good”.

“I don’t think so”, says the Supreme Soviet. “If we conquer the fragments, we have to fight with all local factions. They will fight against us. This would only increase our problems. I thought if there is a solution to the problem. Then, I found out that we are also a problem. Our empire would one day collapse under its own weight”.

“You see that?” asks Ana.

“Yes, I do. The New Soviet Empire was formed as a mean to stop the other two empires. People joined us to save themselves. Local governors preferred to join us instead of being conquered by the other empires. But now, they have no reason to be with us. We have nothing to protect them from”.

“It looks like in the colonial period. All major European powers had colonies throughout the world. At some point, they decided to lose their possessions. I always asked myself why they did this. Now, I understand”.

“Comrade Leonova, we already have a plan. If the other empires will split, we will split too. The 15 you selected will each one take a part of the empire. Even if we are divided, we are one and we all respect your authority”.

“I am old. Soon, I will no longer be able to mind my space business. Besides, people around the Aral are also willing to break apart from the empire. This is why I decided to move most factories to Himalia, to space”.

The Supreme Soviet looks at Ana, thinking about this. She never thought that is why Ana is building so many things on Himalia. That must be why she stopped developing the Aral further.

“I see it coming”, says Ana. “When the Old Soviet Union broke apart, their cosmodrome, Baikonour, was left outside. I think this would happen to the Aral too”.

“You need to set the Aral as an autonomous republic”, says the Supreme Soviet. “I will make you chief of Aral Autonomous Republic”.

“Yes, that would be good. I thought about it. What about the rest of the world? What would happen next? We are out of control. I fear the worst, a nuclear holocaust. In that case, only what is in outer space will survive”.

“The bad things are already happening. The KGB reported me that Botswana is seeking to build atomic weapons to defend itself”.

Ana finishes her cigarette and drops it in the ashtray. She thinks for almost a minute, then says:

“What if we help Botswana and the other small states reach space? Could it be possible to move the conflict from Earth to space? How about a new space race?”

The Supreme Soviet looks puzzled. She also throws her cigarette in the ashtray. Could that be a solution?

“I can go there with a diplomatic delegation. It would be a good start point. This would make the other empires angry, but it could still motivate other small states to go to space. It is a difficult gamble with an unknown outcome”.

“I am moving my headquarters to Himalia”, says Ana. “This could motivate more people to go to space. There is plenty of room out there for all of us”.

“There is a big thread in outer space that scares me”, says the Supreme Soviet. “It is the former Jewish military base. It has a powerful atomic arsenal and it orbits the Earth without any military personnel. If anyone pushes the trigger, the whole planet is at risk. I suggest we secretly prepare a ship to push it out of Earth orbit and detonate it somewhere in space, where it will not harm anyone”.

“That is a good idea, but the Jews will not be happy about it. It is their base, after all”.

“I hope they would understand the risks. Any of the ships parked at Earth Space Station can do this. We always have at least two ships ready at anytime”.

Just as said, the Supreme Soviet goes to an official diplomatic visit to Botswana, trying to offer her help to the local population. She offers to the locals a chance to build a colony in space, like all the three empires. The president accepts this challenge and sends four people to Aral, to establish the first base on Mars. Ana accepts and plans the construction. Then, the president contacts Ana again and says that he would like to build a small space station orbiting the Earth. That is easier to do, but Ana is suspicious.

The other empires are strongly against this. They want to prevent this from happening. However, there are other newly formed states willing to go to space, to show their power. Ana accepts all commands from anyone, as long as people pay the bill. However, Botswana is the first to be served. To show the world her neutrality, Ana accepts an offer from the Baltics to build a colony on Mercury.

With most of the freed border states willing to go to space, the Aral Space Complex gets more money.

FIRE!

Every empire rises and falls. Those not willing to accept this face a long agony. The Romans did not understand this and perished. The British understood this coming and slowly gave away their possessions, still remaining a ruling power on Earth. A comment on a history book.

The date is October 4th, year 60. Botswana Space Station has been orbiting the Earth for over an year. On Earth, conflicts are more violent then before. It looks like almost every territory is trying to break apart form its ruling empire. All three empires are in a desperate situation. They accepted border provinces to separate, but not mainland territories.

Ana makes a historical decision. At 78 years old, she is no longer the person she once was. She decides to move the headquarters to Himalia, the moon of Jupiter. Aral will only be a possession of Himalia. She also chooses her successor: Svetlana Himaliova, a woman born on Himalia and one of the first children born in outer space. Her perents are the legendary Svetlana and Vuc, the first cosmonauts that landed on Venus. Ana hopes that this way the Aral Space Complex will keep a neutral position and will be out of the crossfire between any groups.

But up there, in the sky, something is happening. Botswana Space Station made a surprising course correction, heading it to the former Jewish Space Station. Cosmonauts claimed that they did this to avoid the Van Allen radiation belts. They also said that they will use the flyby to show the world what Samuel Rosenstein planned to build in orbit, to start a nuclear war.

Ana gives her power to Svetlana at 9.17 AM, Aral time. This decision is followed by a parade in Moscow. People all over the world watch as Ana Leonova resigns from her space throne at this old age. In fact, Ana will remain second in command to ensure a gradual power transition.

At 10.24 AM, Botswana Space Station detaches its rescue capsule, which was supposed to bring the astronauts back to Earth in case of an emergency. The four astronauts turn on the engines and abandon their space station, heading for the Jewish station. They say nothing and try to get the event unnoticed by anyone. At 10.37, they dock at the Jewish Space Station. Docking is impossible, as the station has different types of door locks. They just leave the rescue capsule behind and cut a hole in the fuselage. They enter Jewish station and go directly to the control room. Nobody is inside. All electronics are put on a sleep mode. Nobody on Earth notices this. From there, they simply cut down all wires, disconnecting onboard computers. They go to where the nuclear warheads are stored and open the lock manually. And then, they start activating each rocket manually. The Jews notice a lack of signal from their military station and call Aral for a survey.

At 10.42, Aral Cosmodrome tries to contace Botswana Space Station, but gets no answer. What is going on? Ana runs to her office and tries to get an answer. She orders s ship to be immediately dispatched from Earth Space Station to see what is going on. A few minutes later, telescope images show the Botswana rescue capsule floating in space at some distance from Jewish Space Station. Immediately, she realizes what is going on. She calls the Supreme Soviet and says shortly:

“Cosmonauts from Botswana Space Station have abandoned their ship and entered Jewish Space Station. Be prepared for a nuclear attack!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I am sure. I don’t know what they are up to, but it sounds like a suicide mission. There are no life support systems onboard that station. They abandoned their station and rescue capsule. It is a suicide mission”.

“I call the army. We might be at war”.

Everybody looks shocked at Ana. She also sends a message to Himalia, but Svetlana will get it in 31 minutes.

At 10.51, rockets start flying from Jewish Space Station. They are released one by one and form three groups. Soon, they appear on radars and satellite images. 300 rockets are released in only a short period of time. At Aral, scientists calculate their trajectories. They are heading towards the three capitals: New York, Moscow and Jerusalem. Ana immediately calls the Supreme Soviet and gives an order:

“300 rockets launched. 100 are heading to Moscow. There is no way to stop them. Call anyone to abandon the city or go to the subways. There is no way we can fight with this. We cannot take them all down. Get out of there, comrade! Also, be prepared for electromagnetic pulses. I am sure some rockets will explode on the way”.

Ana calls Earth Space Station and orders all electronics to be shut down on all stations and on all satellites for three hours. This is the only way to save them. Only military satellites will be left active.

What can you do to defend yourself? Since they are launched from space, rockets are very small. They are only 2 m long and they detach the empty fuel tanks, making them appear double as many. Each rocket carries 30 kg of plutonium. That is certain death. How many of them would fail target? How many of them would hit and destroy?

Ana lights a cigarette and waits. The other empires are aware of this only at 11.17, Aral Time. They try to fire anti-satellite guns, but it is too fast. There is nothing to do. They can take down only a few bombs, not more then 50. Nobody ever anticipated this to happen. Nobody.

At 11.29, New York is hit. Jerusalem is hit at 12.41 and Moscow at 12.57. All three towns are engulfed in massive nuclear fireballs. No electromagnetic pulse is detected in outer space. The explosions occur almost only very close to the surface.

New York was hit hardest and at night, when most people were sleeping. Ana can see images from space, bright spots of light anywhere. These bombs fall on a wide area. It is not like in the case of a massive explosion, when you have only a single impact site. Here, you have many multiple sites. There is no escape.

Ana watches what is happening to Moscow. All defense airplanes are launched, trying to stop anything they can. But the bombs are too small! Pilots shoot at random, trying to hit something. Suddenly, the first bomb explodes. The fireball is visible throughout the city. People tried to live, but are blocked on the way. Cars can only travel for 100 km without a recharge. Many people left by train, but even trains are too slow for this. Second explosion occurs. Then comes the third one.

One bomb detonates on the Red Square. Its flames engulf the historical churches. The city is in chaos. Bombs keep on falling as far as 200 km from Moscow. Everything is destroyed all around.

At 13.18, the last nuclear warhead explodes in the midst of ruins. The sky is black and smoke is all over the place. Fires can be seen anywhere. The smoke is so dense, that satellites cannot see through. A thick cloud of radioactive ash mixes with the clouds.

Ana falls on her chair and starts crying. She hits the desk with her punch and lights a cigarette.

“All my life I fought to stop this!” she says. “This is the reason why we are here. This is the reason why I started the space race! It was the only way to avoid a nuclear war… and now I see it happening. Curse you, Rosenstein! May you suffer forever in the afterlife for all your crimes and for all what you did in your life and what you did today! Without you, we would not have this disaster!”

All scientists look shocked at the images. They never imagined this to ever happen. Some people try to call their loved ones. Ana can see them. Desperate, a man tries to call his wife:

“Natasha, are you there?”

No answer. He falls on the ground and cries. He is not the only one. All over, people seem to lose their minds. Then, Ana gets a call. It’s the Supreme Soviet.

“Comrade Leonova, what is your status?”

“I am fine. No bomb hit Aral. What is your situation?”

“I am on an airplane, flying to Novgorod. Moscow is lost. I bet less then 30% survived. The area is badly contaminated with radiations. I cannot send rescue teams. I will risk their lives too. Those locked in the city will die of radiation”.

“So, there is nothing we can do”.

“Nothing. I am ordering a mass evacuation in the surrounding areas. The radioactive cloud is heading South-West. It will hit Ukraine and the Balkans. I am warning people to evacuate the area and store water and food”.

“Anything from the other empires?”

“I am focusing on our empire. I presume the situation is similar and their capital cities are compromised. Their governments are annihilated”.

Ana can see satellite images. The disaster is of epic proportions. Nobody ever expected something like this to happen. In all three empires, the governments and all major institutions were annihilated. Only Ana’s warning saved the 15 Soviet elites. They managed to run in time. They are trained to save their lives so that they can work later to save the others.

At 16.27, Aral time, a spaceship reaches the Jewish Space Station. Ana ordered a ship to come and see what is going on before the nukes were released. Two cosmonauts reach and look inside. They find the four astronauts from Botswana. They are running out of oxygen and will die soon. They are unarmed. Ana gives the next order:

“Kill them! No! Better, let them die in outer space! Push the space station on an impact trajectory with Earth! Let them die like all those who they killed. Then, return to Earth Space Station”.

“You let them die?” asks a scientist.

“They should be brought to justice”.

“What better justice do you want then this one? They will die at reentry. With that wrecked station, they will have no chance. They don’t deserve to live another day”.

FLARES OF DEATH

Three billion human lives ended… The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines. Terminator 2 entry monologue.

The explosions took the world unprepared. Empires lost their governments and all institutions. The American Marshall and the Jewish Emperor died in the explosions, without having a successor. Who could take over? Second in command died. Third in command died. There is nobody to take power.

The world took a devastating hit. It all happened too fast, so fast that most people could not even realize what is going on. People were shocked. They would ask for help… but who is to help in this case? Who can interfere from the outside world? What is the outside world?

The first to react were territories willing to separate. Greedy generals, governors and land administrators used this as an advantage to siege power. The world changed in only a day. Arabia self proclaimed its independence. Iran did the same thing. South America broke apart, then started to split into smaller regions. The whole world is falling apart.

Before the climate change, Antarctica was ice-covered. Now, it is large tundra, inhabited by many people. It also broke apart. The same happened in the New Soviet Empire. The Supreme Soviet dissolves the state. Each oblast and each autonomous republic becomes a state on its own. It all happens so fast, that people have no time to realize what is going on. Even the United States break apart. Without a government, people don’t know what to think. What next? What would happen now?

Moscow is a ruin. Desperate, the remaining survivors call for help, but nobody dares to come. The aria is too irradiated. No helicopter can cross over. The same happens to the other two capitals. They are destroyed beyond recovery. There is no way anyone can do anything to save the people left behind. It all happened so fast, that most people had no time to run. And where to run when you have to cross 300 km of radioactive land? There is no escape for those left behind. The rest of the world is facing massive radiation problems, as radioactive clouds circle the planet.

October 5th, year 60. The Aral is an independent state covering the former Aral seabed. The fate of all three empires is doomed. The world is in chaos. Nobody knows what to expect from this point.

The world continues to split. The first to separate were territories with secessionist movements. Arabia was the first state to declare its independence after the conflict. Then, each autonomous republic of the Caucasus broke apart and very fast. All these changes took less then a day to happen. In Africa, Namibia was the first to declare its independence. A big surprise came to America, when a few Amerindian tribes declared independence by themselves and formed four small states. Soon, it became clear that the new borders will not look like the old ones. New states will be different.

Many of the last remaining Germans decided to go to their homeland and try to rebuild it. This movement amazed most people in the world. This remembered the world how Israel was built, around the time Hitler was killing so many Jews with no mercy.

Surprisingly, many people come to Aral and ask for a ticket out to space. They want to go anywhere. The cosmodrome offers its services to anyone at far lower costs then other space agencies, but by far not for free. While an average person can sell anything he or she has for a flight to space and back, living in space is not cheap. You have to pay for your house to be built on another celestial body. This is not cheap. It is only for the richest.

Ana sees the problem in a different way. She tries to move more people from the Aral to space, to all construction sites in outer space. Still, the richest people on Earth want to get out and fast. They offer anything: money, jewelry, gold, land, factories, anything they have. The world is scared to death by what is happening.

Aral produces its energy, but it depends on other parts for supplies. It needs water, which comes from the Irtysh. The pipeline crosses now three states. It needs food, which used to be shipped from other places. Things are getting very hard if something is not done. Ana negotiates an agreement with newly formed nearby states to purchase water and food. The agreement is to send some people to space in exchange for water and food.

Things become even harder as the newly formed states start to fight one with the other. Without an organization to keep peace over the world, there is nobody to stop the conflicts. A nuclear war seems imminent for many people. So, more and more of the richest go to Aral to ask for a possible home in space. This appears to be the only safe place to go.

Meanwhile, Himalia becomes a massive working place. There, scientists come with a new idea: a ship with wings, able to land on Earth and return to space. It is a giant glider able to take 50 people to space in one flight. Svetlana Himaliova takes her role seriously. She sees that many people would leave the Earth to space.

Like the Venus Lander, the Earth Lander will use solid fuel, to make it smaller. It will fly like an airplane to high altitudes. There, it will turn on its chemical engines to reach orbit. A small nitrogen stage would push it to Earth Space Station. Svetlana knows that this reusable rocket is the cheapest option to take people to Space. She is not so interested in money, but in valuable people, able to work on space stations and build homes for others. Ana accepts this new proposal. The Earth landers will use solid fuel produced on a near Earth asteroid. Surprisingly, it will be a cheaper way to transport people out.

Still, there is chaos on Earth. People fight with each other. The newly formed states continue to fight, conquer each other and break apart in smaller states. For the moment, the Aral is safe, but nobody knows for how long. People live with fear. The greatest fear of all is a military attack against the Aral. There is also another fear: breakup of irrigation networks. If that happens, water will flow into the Aral, blocking the railway that connects Space City, Space Factory and Aral Cosmodrome.

This state of conflict continues for almost an year. Then, Anastasia Melnikova, the former Supreme Soviet, starts fighting to bring peace. She talks with many of the small states, all over the planet. She convinces everyone to join some sort of mutual defense network.

After all this time, almost any state has atomic weapons. Each state that agrees with Melnikova’s ideas is forced to take actions if a state violates a border or merges with another state. If such thing happens, all nearby states are free to invade and destroy the attacker.

A new, unusual form of peace is created. Most states agree with this, as it guarantees mutual protection. Now, the wars stop, but tensions don’t. Since almost any state has atomic weapons, a nuclear war is possible at any given moment.

FATE OF THE ARAL

1. Any state signing this agreement will not violate its neighbors’ borders in any way. Any state is free to do whatever it wants on its territory, but has no right beyond its borders. 2. Subjects like rivers flowing between states, pollution or transport routes should be discussed in local talks between border states. 3. Any state signing this agreement is forced to interfere by force if a neighboring state violates any border. Atomic weapons shall be used in this situation. Any state violating borders should be annihilated. 4. Any state can be further divided into smaller states if the population requires so. It is forbidden for two or more states to merge. Border Peace Agreement.

June 13th, year 62. The world is divided into 2621 small states. Their borders expand not only over land, but also over water. 2127 states sign the border peace agreement. Finally, the war is over. Earth is divided like it never was before. There are all kinds of governments: democracies, dictatorships, anything that human mind can imagine. World map changed beyond recognition. Every ethnic group formed a state. Many greedy governors and generals took slices of land and built their own states. There are even corporations that built their own states where they could.

So many things happened. At some point, the Aral was at risk of losing its source of water, the Irtysh adduction pipeline. Then, tensions rose along the states inside Aral Sea Basin. Once, the sea received water from two large rivers, Amu Daria and Syr Daria. These rivers and dammed and diverted for irrigation purposes. However, in times of war, tensions are high. Upstream states refuse to open their dams and allow water flow in summer, when it is needed for irrigations. They left water to flow in winter, reaching the Aral. This is a major risk for the space complex, because it can flood the railway and the salty desert used for landing ships. Excess water had to be diverted towards depressions in the desert, creating temporary water ponds.

The main irrigation canal is the Karakum, which links the Amu Daria with the Caspian Sea. This canal is over 1300 km long. In past, it was just a long waterway dug in the desert soil, with huge amounts of water infiltrating the ground. Now, the canal is made of concrete, limiting water losses. This allowed the irrigation scheme to be extended. The New Soviets enlarged the canal and made it navigable on its entire length. It also has branches that extend further North. The canal starts very close to Afghanistan border, a territory prone to terrorist groups. A terrorist organization captured the starting point and closed the canal, leaving large crop fields, cities and villages without their vital source of water. All that water was heading for the Aral again. Finally, Turkmenistan took control of the canal and the conflict ended.

Borders cross also over the oceans. The American Empire built forts in the ocean. Usually, those forts were massive ships anchored to the bottom. Sometimes, artificial islands were built. There are new states formed only over water territory. People started to build settlements beneath the seas, in submarines or in submerged domes.

More and more people look for a way to leave the Earth. Some people try to escape corrupted governments, while others just look to become pioneers on other worlds. Some people decide to sell anything they have for this purpose. Space colonies continue to grow all over the Solar system.

There are three white areas on the map, former territories of Moscow, Jerusalem and New York. These areas are now neutral land, not claimed by anyone. The land is highly radioactive and the few survivals prefer to hide.

Anastasia Melinkova, the former Supreme Soviet, moves to Aral. Ana asks her to become the ruler of Aral Free State. She accepts. Now, Ana Leonova is 80 years old. She is no longer able to work like she did in past. She lives in her apartment, alone. People can see her on the streets only with rare occasions. Her generation is almost all gone. But even at this age, she continues to watch what is going on in space. Space program is no longer controlled from earth, but from Himalia. Ana is happy of this. The only person that visits her every week is Anastasia Melinkova. One day, the former Supreme Soviet comes to Ana and finds her sitting at her computer. Ana is watching an old video with the launch of a Lenin II. They both salute each other and light a cigarette.

“Greetings, comrade Leonova! Do you need anything from me?”

“It’s good that you came. I don’t need anything. I have all I need. There is only one thing bothering me”.

“What is it?”

“You see this, comrade?” says Ana. “This is the launch of Venera Express. I was young at that time. Many people you see here no longer live. I ask myself. I fought to keep the peace, to give the world an alternative for fighting. What happened in the end? The nukes did finally fall. We have three capitals destroyed. We have sixty millions dead. I just delayed the inevitable”.

“No, you did not”, says the former Supreme Soviet. “You brought something new to the world. Human race will never be extinct. Even we will destroy the Earth, people would still live in space”.

“But what would had happen without the space race? Wouldn’t it be the same? I mean… I talk about the number of dead people”.

“I don’t know. You can tell me, you lived in those times”.

“I started the space race to give the empires something else to do and show their muscles. It was never meant to go where it went. All I wanted was a competition”.

“I think it is better the way things are now. Space prices are still lowering. I hope that in few decades anyone would be able to pay to get to space”.

“But still, we have sixty million dead people”.

“I know, comrade. But there is nothing we can do. We cannot bring them back to life. We got peace on Earth and colonies in space”.

“One more thing, Anastasia. Did I do more good or more bad to humanity?”

“Comrade, you did a lot of good. You started the space age, the colonization era. I think this is very good. What would it be a nuclear war in your youth? You had the chance to know Rosenstein in person. For me, he appears to be a demon in human flesh. I don’t think history had seen a more cruel person. You stopped him. Without you and your father’s help, he would conquer the world. You know what he did. After killing all Germans, he turned against other ethnic groups, killing anyone. When he almost exterminated anyone else, he turned against his own people. If I imagine Rosenstein ruling the world… He would kill anyone in the most horrible tortures one can imagine. No surprise people say he is the reincarnation of Hitler”.

“I thought about that too. After exterminating all Jews, Hitler would have turned against other ethnic groups: Gipsy people, Slavs, until only his Arians would have been left alive. And then what?” Ana looks around, thinking about it. “And then, he would kill his own people. He had an ambition for superweapons and megastructures, just like Rosenstein. All of them proved to be not feasible, but he continued with the idea”.

“I know, comrade. Don’t consider yourself guilty for what happened. Think about a world without space exploration. Without you, we would have nothing out there”.

“I know”.

The former Supreme Soviet lights another cigarette. She continues to say:

“If there is something that I regret, is that the New Soviet Empire failed apart. I did anything I could to boost its economy, to make reforms and to see people happy. But it all was in vain”.

“I don’t think it was in vain. Your legacy lives on. When the empire broke apart, people got almost perfect states, with anything they need: infrastructure, a good ethnic structure, anything. It was far better then in other places around the world. Don’t accuse yourself for this. Instead, try to think further. The empire would had collapsed under its own weight. I am convinced about that”.

“Me too, but I still think there could had been a way to save it. Nobody had any idea that those cosmonauts from Botswana would destroy all empires in just a day”.

“Maybe, it was the work of God”, says Ana.

“Maybe. There is no way to know that”.

“I might not go to church too often, but I do believe in God”.

“Your legacy, comrade, is Aral. Once it was a toxic, barren salt desert. Now, it’s Earth’s gateway to the cosmos. This is where people will fly to space from. People will always remember you as the one who opened the door to space colonization”.

“You know, Anastasia, I don’t want fame. All I want at my age is to die in peace. My last wish was to go to space, but I am too old to survive a space launch. When I will die, let the people decide what to do with me. You must take care of Aral Free State. Up in space, Svetlana will take care of space projects from her home on Himalia”.

The former Supreme Soviet realizes that Ana is tired. She leaves. Now, Ana is unable to talk for more then two hours with someone. She simply needs to rest. The only thing that surprises the world is that she still smokes at her age and has no health problems. Her smoking addiction crossed over all logical barriers.

THE FALL OF A STAR

There are many names in the history books, but most of them are forgotten. Only a few people remain in the memories of people. To be one of them is probably the greatest goal a human can ever achieve. From a public speech in memory of Lenin.

January 10th, year 63. Sixty-three years ago, Iosif Leonov conquered the Kremlin with his paramilitary troops. He killed the president of that time and abolished the government. That is the day when the New Soviet Empire was born. When he died, people cried him like they cried after Lenin. People demanded a mausoleum for him just near Lenin’s. Now, both mausoleums are in ruins after the nukes destroyed Moscow. Still, people remember him as a glorious leader and a hero. Everyone speaks about him with dignity and respect.

Now, his only child, Ana Leonova, is 81 years old. She sits on her bed, feeling the end is coming for her life. A few close friends come to her. She did not eat anything the last day, but she doesn’t feel sick. As people look at her, she closes her eyes. Her last words are:

“I think I did not waste my life in vain. I hope I did something good for the world. I had to be rough with some people, but I won. Go to the space, my children!”

Then, she falls asleep. Knowing that she will die, people light a candle. It doesn’t take much. In half an hour, she stops breathing. Her heart stops.

Sow many assassinate attempts did she survived? How many times her life was in danger? Not the Americans, nor Rosenstein could dtop or kill her. She won space battle after space battle and she won. Her life was hard, but she never gave-up.

The news of her death reaches everyone in Aral Free State. Bells ring in all churches around Space City. Everyone wants to say goodbye to her, so she is moved to the central square of the city. She is then sent to Space Factory, which she built. The next day, her body is sent to Aral Cosmodrome, where she worked and watched most of the launches. People from all over the Aral come to see her body for the last time.

The news reaches the world. Her death is on the news on all televisions. Many people from all over the world come to see her for the last time. Endless crowds wait in Space City.

People bring flowers and candles. The central square becomes filled with flowers. It is something that the world has never seen. People also bring replicas of the spaceships launched from Aral: orbiters, horses, habitat modules, space stations and the Lenin rockets. Everyone is trying to say goodbye to her. At some point, people wait up to three days to have a chance to see her for the last time.

Once an ambitious teen, Ana is now an old woman. Her face is aged, her hair is white, her skin is like an ancient sheet of paper. This seems to last forever.

After many days, Anastasia Melinkova decides to say what should be done with her body. People thought that Ana’s body would be conserved like Lenin’s body. Well, things don’t go like this. The former Supreme Soviet has a public speech:

Comrade Leonova lived more then many of us. She opened the door to space, which remained closed for almost a century before her. She gave us the chance to go to space, to live there and to colonize other worlds. Before her, we never thought it possible. Before her, the world was Earth and nothing beyond.

All what she did was for a reason. She wanted peace to prevail. She opted for an additional challenge, to stop world empires from fighting each other. The space race distracted other empires from a possible bloody nuclear war. We lived to see only a bit of the war, the destruction of our former capitals. Does anyone imagine what could be a large-scale nuclear holocaust? Could the human race survive to that? It appears that a few people could survive, but over 80% of world population would have died. She protected us from this nightmare.

Now, the space is opened for almost all of us. Until recently, if anything happened to the earth, the human race would have been extinct. Now, we won’t die at all, because we have the space.

How many space missions did she order to get done? How many technologies did she test? I am afraid that I don’t have the answer. She rebirth the space exploration era, ended it and started the space colonization era. She changed our lives beyond anything. Before her life, there were many people saying that we, humans, never went to the Moon, that we never sent a spaceship beyond Moon orbit or even that the Earth is flat. How many people still believe that? I guess nobody.

Thanks to comrade Leonova, there are now over 35 thousand people living in space and the number is growing. Without her, we would be still living only on this tiny ball that we call Earth.

She sent many manned and unmanned probes into space. She witnessed as many cosmonauts went to space. From her office, she watched how children were born in space and families were formed. Why did she want families to be formed in space? She knew what would come. She was a visionary. It might be surprising to you, but she had seen the end of all empires before other people. She knew that space could one day the only way to save the human race from the deadly weapons we have created.

But, even if she ordered so many space missions to be launched, even if she created factories and colonies in space, even if her ships are roaming all over the Solar System, there is something she never did. She never went out to space. Many of you might ask me why. There are many, if not all people living on Aral that went at least on a suborbital launch. She never went to space because she never left her work. She never had a vacation, not even a birthday party. All her life, she fought with all her powers to get her dream fulfilled, to conquer space.

I can tell you that she wished to go to space, to see with her own eyes how it is to be out there.

I think that the best place for her body is in outer space. We shall send her to Himalia, her favorite space station, to be buried there. She deserves it. She deserves to be buried there.

This is what Anastasia Melinkova said in public near Ana’s dead body. People agreed with her decision. Ana will be loaded on a Lenin rocket and sent to space, to Himalia. She will travel along the space transportation network she built.

A Lenin II takes Ana Leonova to space. Launch occurs on February 26th, year 63, at 11.27, Aral time. Her body lies inside a sarcophagus made of sculpted glass. The rocket goes to space. Boosters are separated, then the first stage runs silent. Second stage is turned on. Her body is secured inside the capsule. After two hours, Ana arrives at Earth Space Station. Her body is put inside the central hall, where most people come for the first time when they head for space. It is a giant, spherical room. People move around by floating into the air. They all come to Ana, to show their respect for her.

After staying two days here, Ana’s body is sent with an unmanned ship to Jupiter. It is not a good planetary alignment. The ship will need more fuel to reach its destination. Ana’s body cannot stay for too long on Earth Space Station, as it starts to decompose in heat. On Aral, it was winter that conserved her body.

The ship takes her body and turns on its nitrogen ion engines to reach Jupiter. The flight lasts two years. Then, Ana’s body finally reaches Himalia, the small, outer moon of Jupiter. This will be the home for her body forever.

Svetlana Himaliova, chief of space transportation network, is the first person to receive Ana’s body. She is a young woman from the super-cosmic race. She is tall, over 2 m high, with narrow arms and legs. Her bones are thinner and far weaker then those of people born on Earth. With little sunlight, her skin is pale white.

Like all people born in microgravity, Svetlana has a different approach to terms up and down. She finds natural to sit on the roof or on the floor, to talk with someone sitting upside down, to read or watch TV sitting upside down. This is how people in the super- cosmic race behave like. They cannot live on a planet like Earth. They cannot live even on the Moon. People born on smaller bodies, like the moons of Jupiter and Saturn belong to the cosmic race. They still have the notions of up and down in a similar way as people from Earth. Still, they have far weaker bones and muscles.

Svetlana lights a cigarette. The time when cosmonauts lived with limited air and food supplies is gone. Now, they have many of the luxuries people on Earth can afford. She looks at Ana’s body. She also has a speech.

It is the first time I meet comrade Leonova face to face. It is a great honor for me to see her. It is an honor for Himalia Space station to have her body. I wish she could come here when she was still alive, to see with her own eyes all the things we built here.

The very existence of our space station is a gift from comrade Leonova. She wanted Himalia to be the gateway to Jupiter. She wanted us to be here. She wanted my parents to go to Jupiter and establish a family here. This is where I was born and where I spent my entire life. My personal existence is a gift from her.

This woman had the courage to challenge anyone. She did not move back even when Rosenstein’s armies were advancing towards Moscow. She did not quit when the other empires started an embargo, accused her of using forced labor and showed their nuclear arsenal. Not even the death of her father and protector stopped her. She refused to be the Supreme Soviet and returned to Aral only to win the space race again. She continued even when the empires collapsed and everything seemed doomed.

We have to continue the work she started. We have to make the Solar System home of all humans. She restarted the space exploration era and helped us enter in the era of space colonization. The history has not seen another woman so devoted to her ideas, fighting over all obstacles to win.

We have to go on. We have to terraform the worlds she sent us to. We have to make them new Earths, new places where life will thrive.

Ana’s body is placed in the central dome, where all visitors come first, when they reach Himalia. Her body will be buried here. The dome sits on the surface of the moon. Workers already built her tomb. It is made of cement made from rocks that exist on the moon. Surrounding it, there are pieces of rock from other places in the Solar System. A big piece of rock is placed above the tomb, with the following inscription:

Comrade Ana Leonova (-18 – 63). The woman who won the space race.

The New Soviet flag is also depicted on the tomb. It is red, with the hammer, the sickle and the red star. Even if the New Soviet Empire is gone, its legacy will still live on for centuries. Everyone visiting Himalia Space Station can see Ana’s tomb. Visitors are free to touch it, to feel it with their own hands.

Svetlana Himaliova wanted to name Earth Space Station Leonova. However, she stopped doing this. Instead, she decided to build a large colony on Callisto and name it so. Leonova colony soon became the largest human settlement in Jupiter sector.

October 4th, year 67. Svetlana Himaliova speaks to the people.

“Not too long ago, there was a person among us, who always pushed us further with space exploration and colonization. That person used to address us all, calling us comrades. She is Ana Leonova. We are here because of her. Without her, we would have never leaved Earth. She envisioned a future where humans would live in outer space and would colonize the Solar System. Today she still is among us. Even if we cannot see her soul, her body is here in our space station. She is still here and she orders us to continue her work. I am here to continue what she has started. She ordered me to do so while she was still on Earth. Because of the long time signal needs to reach us, we could never have a conversation. However, she explained me for hours what my mission is. We are here to create a new home for the human race. On this day, but two centuries ago, the Sputnik was launched. On this day of October, the New Soviet Empire launched many space missions. Today, we will go further with our conquest for space. This is the date when I sign the new space project. Terraforming. We are here to transform planets and moons into new, habitable Earths. We might not live to see the transformation completed, but our children and our children’s children will see it done”.

After announcing this, Svetlana Himaliova goes to Ana Leonova’s tomb and puts a flower close to it. With little gravity, you have to fix flowers with some glue. Otherwise, a small air current can push it away.

She lights a cigarette. For Svetlana, Ana is a model to follow in life. Even the way Svetlana smokes is similar, with almost the same moves. She blows the smoke in the air, watching her feet encased in thigh boots and her hands covered with long gloves. The dome is quiet now. No spaceship is ready to launch or just arrived. The walls are decorated with pictures from the Solar System. Above, there is a planetarium protected by a transparent wall of glass. Svetlana takes another inhale from her cigarette. She says:

“Comrade Leonova, thank you for bringing the human race to space! I will continue what you started. I will make you proud. You started and won the space race. It is now my time to start and win the terraforming battle”.

THE END