2026
While the media representatives were all on solid ground on Earth, only some of their interviewees were physically present. Vice-Admiral Jonathan Woodcock, backed up by the Fleet spokesperson, Lieutenant-Commander Jason Quinn and head of Fleet Survey office, Lieutenant-Commander Bethany Thompson, sat behind a table covered with the PATO Survey Command flag. Next to them, a widescreen monitor showed the smiling face of Commander Billy Giles, captain of GEV Albert Einstein, the first geological survey vessel of PATO, soon to depart for its first mission.
“The Inner System Survey Mission will start with Luna, our moon, then proceed to Venus and Mercury. After those two, it will survey the comet Van Biesbroeck, as the comet is currently passing through the inner system. Then it is the time for Phobos, Deimos and Mars itself. Two more comets are in suitable position between Mars and Ceres, Comas Sola and Reinmuth to be specific. Then Ceres and that completes the Inner System Survey Mission”, explained Thompson. “The ship will not actually land on any of them, everything is done safely from close orbit with a multitude of scanners. If the scanners find something interesting, then yes, Survey Command will send a manned mission to investigate further”, she continued.
“What about Luna City?” One reporter asked. Thompson shot Woodcock a look but Quinn took the question:
“The survey of Luna will actually assist Logistics Command in determining the best location for Luna City. Those plans are progressing but, as I’m sure you can understand, we do not want to put down colonists until we’re certain of their safety and of the viability of the colony in the first place”, the man smoothly explained, then quickly pointed to an attractive blonde sitting to the side.
“Amelie Wist from E Entertainment. Commander Giles, how are you prepared for a close encounter with alien lifeforms?”
Thompson gave Woodcock another glance, as if to ask who let celebrity gossip site to take part - but the Admiral merely shrugged. Meanwhile, Commander Giles smiled disarmingly and proceeded to charm the panties of Miss Wist and her viewers, somehow making quarantine procedures sounding sexy.
“And that is why Giles is the first captain of a survey ship and not you Bethany”, Woodcock later explained, as the officers were walking to the Mission Control. “He is just as good with the media as Quinn is, which is important at this stage. Don’t worry, your time will come.” Thompson nodded but inside she was seething, even if she understood her admiral, on a logical level.
***
The numbers were coming in to the Survey Command Mission Control Center at the Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. Since NORAD and the now obsolete US SPACECOM already had the base as their headquarters, it made sense for SURCOM to move in with them as well. Vice-Admiral Woodcock monitored things from the tranquillity of his office, allowing Lieutenant-Commander Thompson to run the actual situation room. Since they only had a single vessel to monitor, it was surprisingly packed. Transport Squadron had been grounded on Earth while Albert Einstein surveyed Luna, just in case. Woodcock thought it was paranoid safety but he didn’t want to interfere with how Thompson had planned the mission. LOGCOM had acquiesced nicely, probably because Richardson had overruled Hanson and would not let the construction of Luna City to start before PATO could effectively protect them, though that wouldn’t last long, what with the fervor among parts of the civilian population.
“Okay, so this is fantastic!” He heard Thompson shout out loud. Checking the numbers, Woodcock had to agree. Sorium levels on Earth were down to just slightly over twenty thousand tons, so finding over million and a half of it on Luna was good news indeed. Finding Tritanium, Boronide and Gallicite was a nice bonus on top.
“Admiral Woodcock, sir. I would like permission to immediately begin planning for a manned survey mission”, Thompson had switched channels and was now speaking to the intercom.
“Agreed Thompson, go ahead.”
Woodcock made a note in his file - the next generation survey ship would need better sensors. Spending 35 hours just scanning a body as small as Luna seemed wasteful to him. He made that an official recommendation to the ship planners once he learned that scanning Venus had taken five days.
***
Admiral Richardson and administrator Hanson were the last two to arrive in the conference hall. All the senior staff of the Fleet as well as PATO civilian management side were present. With the results of the Inner System Survey Mission at hand, it was time to formulate some concrete plans for PATO and its expansion into space.
“Can we get the mineral situation on the screen please”, Richardson asked.
There we go. Note that the estimated time to depletion ignores what the Chinese and Russians are doing, as we do not know their exact mining capabilities. We have a decent stockpile of all materials but, as you can see, some TN-minerals are running out soon, like Neutronium, and some of the critical resources, like Sorium, are not much behind. This certainly puts PATO in a tough position - we have a clear deadline in sight", Richardson lectured. “Once the minerals on Earth run out, that’s it unless we get off-planet mining operations going on”, he passed the turn to Hanson.
“Thank you admiral. Unfortunately PATO is not in a position to start large scale excavation operations immediately. We must build up our infrastructure further. However, before we delve into that topic, let’s see what minerals are available in the Inner System. Most importantly, we can get more Neutronium from the comet Van Biesbroeck. My mining office has drafted a plan, utilizing a mass driver and robotic mining facilities that only require minimal human supervision. We’ll have months, if not years, of time to harvest that comet before it leaves the inner system. The surface area of the comet is at least 314 square kilometers, probably more as it certainly is not a uniform sphere. So room is not an issue. Cargo lift is the issue. It will take Buffalo five trips to move the mass driver and then five more trips for each automated mine. While we are building more freighters, PATO ultimately needs a bigger one, which means that the commercial shipyards must be built up as well. This takes money, minerals and time”, Hanson sat down as he finished his explanation. Richardson motioned to Woodcock, who stood up.
“Survey Command would recommend building emergency infrastructure in the inner system. Currently, if there is a problem somewhere, we cannot really handle it at all. Furthermore, as it is likely that civilian projects start operating and that space tourism is now reality, both Schelleis and I agree that setting up few bases would be useful. Certainly one at Ceres is required, to support missions going beyond the asteroid field. Phobos is a good candidate for another base. For the moment, we recommend a tracking station at both and some fuel stored away. To safeguard them against our enemies, some ground troops would be a bonus. Meaning that we need to develop a tanker and a transport, in addition to the bigger freighter that administrator Hanson talked about. While all this is happening, ISSM will proceed with surveying the asteroids, a process which will take months. Once Niels Bohr is completed, it will form the Outer System Survey Mission and head straight to Jupiter. Our last first generation survey vessel, Isaac Newton, will, once ready, support OSSM”, Woodcock concluded. Rear-Admiral Martin Schelleis stood up.
“Logistics Command agrees with the previous speakers. While Trans-Newtonian materials allow us to operate purely from Earth, it would be prudent to enlarge our network to Mars and Ceres for the time being. Eventually, it would be wise to push it to Jupiter and Saturn as well. There are several moons there that have sufficient gravity for permanent habitation without undue health risks. Especially if the hypothesis of Sorium, in a gaseous form, existing in gas giants turns out to be correct, as we can and should then harvest it directly there, saving solid form Sorium for engine construction. This may all sound outlandish but you should realize that it is now faster for Buffalo to fly to the Moon than it is for you to drive to your nearest McDonalds”, this brought up laughter from the crowd. Rear-Admiral Tomohisa Takei took the podium in turn.
“Orbital Defence Command is halfway between happy and unhappy”, the diminutive Japanese officer smiled tightly. “The OWP24A is a solid platform and in the time that we have been operating them, a remarkable lack of issues has proven the work of the engineers who designed it. There are ten platforms currently in service, divided into two Orbital Divisions of five each. In addition to simulation training, my boys and girls have been cleaning up the neighbourhood from space debris. But this is just a start. ORDCOM would like to transfer the current divisions to guard Luna and Mars, respectively, while two new divisions, utilizing the OWP24B platform, would be set up on Earth orbit. Such deployment would give all PATO assets in the local area a good umbrella of protection from”, Takei grinned, “more space debris”.
Then it was turn for Vice-Admiral Michael Hood to speak.
“Planetary Defence Command finds itself much in the same position as our orbital brothers-in-arms. We have two divisions equipped with the Hellstone missile, with another two still using conventional missiles. For the moment, we’re all good. However, on the long-term, our forts should be built on Luna and Mars as well. The scientists assure me that constructing a long-range laser, one that could protect Mars from missile attacks, while based on Deimos or Phobos, is altogether possible. Otherwise, PADCOM is good, thank you”, Hood announced and sat down.
“Greetings. I am Major-General Charlene Taylor and am currently the commanding general of PATO ground forces”, the stacked female introduced herself. “We have activated 16 battalions as TN-capable. The battalions are capable of independent operation and in fact, that is the only thing they are capable of at the moment, as the forming and development of brigade and divisional headquarters goes on. As some of you are aware, the aim of the first wave of reorganization and activation is to have ten divisions fully operational, whether on or off Earth. While there have been repeated calls for the creation of a multinational unit, I am completely opposite to it. Perhaps, in the future, a multinational-division can be created, perhaps even a multinational brigade, but for now, those countries not tapped for the first ten divisions, please be patient and wait for your turn. I would wish for additional TN-standard training facilities but the Army will make do with what it currently has. The plan remains the same - that each division will have a mixture of heavy and light brigades, thus ensuring independent operations capability. The Fleet has not yet asked for any sort of Marine contingent, so we haven’t really looked at the feasibility of such operations at all. They would be highly premature in any case. This concludes my presentation”, Taylor gazed directly at all the senior officers present before sitting down.
“Thank you all for contributing. I will list a preliminary listing of priorities, after which each team should move to their allocated work space to continue for planning. First, establishment of Luna City. Second, establishment of mining operation on the comet Van Biesbroeck. Third, establishing emergency stations on Ceres and Phobos. Fourth, the growth of ORDCOM and relocating of assets to Luna orbit. Fifth, the continued survey work. Sixth, establishment of a Martian colony, alongside feasibility studies of terraforming Mars. Seventh, creation of Mobile Command. Eight, continuation of the Army reactivation. Ninth, improvements to PADCOM, and tenth, general scientific progress. Dismissed”, Richardson had listed the priorities off the top of his head but the audience largely nodded to him. Hanson especially looked satisfied, having convinced Richardson that Luna City could not wait for the military to get there first.
***
It took three days after the meeting for Leonard Container Group - a consortium created by DHL, Cargolux and Martinair - to launch its first two freighters. It suddenly became obvious why Hanson had pushed so hard for the Fleet to allow Luna City creation as the ships must have been under private construction for months already. Month after that, Leonard launched its first colony ship. Nothing could stand in the way of private enterprise in space.
***
WELCOME TO LUNA CITY
The large sign was gently floating in the near-microgravity of Luna over the main airlock. Without a proper space port, Markus and Maria had, just like the other fifty-thousand colonists, slowly walked their way through the flex-tube from the colony ships loading bay into Luna City. It wasn’t quite what the young couple had expected. There was no reception committee or anything, just the banner, which certainly looked like it had been just made. Luckily, the Wi-Fi worked and an instant message on both their phones gave them directions to their habitat. The entrance dome was massive but not nearly big enough to have all the colonists stumbling around it simultaneously. At least the first batch of colonists were all well educated and of above average intelligence - the dome emptied fairly quickly as people found their bearings and moved on.
“Room 3 slash 58”, Markus read out. The door was unlocked and Maria eagerly stepped inside. This would their new home. It was a simple room - a double bed against the far wall, a wardrobe and a tiny desk. Above the bed, a screen had been embedded in the wall. No windows, as the level three was underground. A slide door showed a tiny bathroom with a standing shower and a folding toilet. “Well, they didn’t exaggerate when they said that life would be spartan over here”, Maria observed. “And the TV works but shows no channels”, she continued. Markus shrugged: “Probably teething issues, you know they weren’t expecting colonists here for at least six more months. Now, we have an hour before reporting for duty, Madam Enviromental Engineer, so how about we christen the bed?” Maria giggled: “Very well Mister Hydroponic Farmer but we should christen that shower too!”
Markus kicked the door shut while tearing his overalls off.
***
Hanson electronically signed the document and shot copies off to his staff. Planetary Resources had just become the first company to mine in space. Well, actually on Mercury. Hanson would have thought that an asteroid would be the first place and not the Sun scorched planet where temperatures fluctuated between 100 K and 700 K but apparently the presence of water ice in the craters and plentiful TN-minerals made the risky operation profitable for them. And since Hanson had just agreed to purchase their mineral output for PATO use, their plan was certainly sound.
“Note to self: flag strategically important bodies forbidden for commercial use as soon as possible. Email Richardson”, Hanson thought out loud and his electronic secretary did the rest.
Leonard Container Group transported Planetary Resources assets and personnel to Mercury and before the year was over, three mining complexes would be up and running, using a mass driver to “shoot” mineral packets to Earth and it’s ever-hungry factories.
Not to be outdone, a month later Deep Space Industries applied for operation licence on Rheinmuth. Hanson gladly signed it as well and immediately contracted their output for PATO use as well.
2027
“Good morning sir”, Lieutenant-Commander Nicholas Joyce greeted his boss as Admiral Richardson stepped in to the secure room. Hidden in the basement of the First Fleet Headquarters building, it was protected by a Faraday cage and had no electronic connection to the outside world. Any material discussed in here was printed out beforehand.
“Morning Nicholas. Did the alphabet agencies give you any trouble?” the Admiral asked. “Yes and no sir, they have finally come aboard but organizational paranoia and old habits die hard. Obvious space related stuff is forwarded to us quickly but peripheral things aren’t and I need to go digging for it. But I’m managing”, the intelligence officer replied and handed over a thin dossier.
“That’s our most up-to-date summary of both China and Russia. We suffer from a lack of good HUMINT, which SIGINT can never truly replace, so we have solid data on their inventories and construction, while estimates on their plans and motivations are quite shaky, I’m sorry to say”, Joyce explained. Richardson grunted and glanced over the summaries.
“Are you sure these numbers are correct? That PATO industry is this far ahead of them?” Richardson asked, surprised by the numbers.
“Yes sir, we are. Vast majority of Chinese manufacturing is still of very poor quality and tied down with producing junk for the consumer market, though they are shifting more and more of that to the Philippines and Vietnam. Russian industrial base has always been smaller than us once the Soviet Union collapsed. While we could fairly easily upgrade our plants, they are playing catch up. We have roughly 2.17 times the construction capability of China and 4.6 times of Russia. In the mining sector, it’s 2.36 times of China and 4.46 times of Russia. It is unlikely that these ratios change in the short term unless something drastic happens in the world.”
Richardson nodded. Since such a large percentage of the industrial powers were working together under the PATO banner, it made sense.
“Both of them have a functioning Mass Driver and the Russians have a second one ready to go off-world. Don’t ask where they will send it, we don’t know. China has recently opened some ordnance factories for manufacturing TN missiles but they have been idle as far as we can tell. It might just be planning for future. Russians have not built any fuel refineries, which is curious. Obviously they have reserves, as they likely used conventional refineries, like we did at the start. Since their construction base is so limited, it is likely that they are prioritizing other projects first, relying on that reserve to see them through until they get refineries running”, Joyce explained.
“What about the Chinese space port? The media has been raving about it being bigger than ours”, Richardson asked and looked quite unhappy when Joyce confirmed it:
“It is true. Again, no idea why they went for such a massive construction right off the bat, when a smaller one would have suited them just fine to get things started. Russians have almost finished with their space port, which looks to be similar to ours.”
“Fine. Let’s move to shipyards. What’s the status there?”
“Right. So we have Vollenhoven and Hilton on the commercial side for a total of forty thousand tons. China has Tan which has only one slipway but is twenty thousand tons on its own and then Chiang which is the same size as ours but again with only one slipway. Both are being expanded as well, though it looks like they are not making more slipways. So it’s likely that the Chinese will be able to put out bigger freighters quicker than we can but only one ship at a time, while we can put out two. On the military side, NAVAL-1 has three slipways of thousand tons though it’s being expanded now and NAVAL-2 has a single slipway of three thousand tons and another slipway under construction. The Chinese also have two military yards, named Shi and Zhau. The former is just one slipway of thousand tons while the latter has one slipway of two thousand tons. Both are being worked on and it seems that Zhau is going to be the big yard while Shi will get multiple slipways.”
“And the Russians?”
“No shipyards yet and none under construction. We’re certain of that, you can’t hide anything that’s up in orbit.”
“Ground forces?”
“Both have created some TN-standard units but of pretty poor quality, intended for population suppression and defence. General Taylor don’t have to worry about them for a while”, Joyce smiled.
“Well that’s something. Let’s round this up with research. Do we know anything?” Richardson was curious - penetrating the research facilities of either country was notoriously difficult.
“Chinese are working on sensors and ground forces, Russians on space ship things. We don’t know the details. We know the Russians are ahead of us in lasers, but aside from that, we’re holding a comfortable lead on all fields”, Joyce finished.
“Good, good”, Richardson mused as he got up. “Thanks for the briefing Nicholas, keep up the good work”, he commended the junior officer.
***
The raucous crowd erupted into yet another cheer. The other patrons in the pub seemed annoyed at their antics but nobody dared to say anything. If the Fleet uniforms hadn’t been enough, the fact was that everyone recognized the woman of the hour, Lieutenant-Commander Bethany Thompson. Her appointment as the commanding officer of Niels Bohr, the second survey ship of PATO, had been front page news that day across all media.
“All right you monkeys, one more round and then I’m off to bed”, she laughed, her face reddened by alcohol and laughter.
“I’m going to miss you Beth, you know”, a statuesque woman said to her. “As if Freya! You’ll be watching over my shoulder as much as the comms allow now that you’ve usurped my place in the staff!”
“Well, maybe. Thanks again for mentoring me in, I know it was a hassle for you while you were preparing for this command”, Freya Long said sincerely. Bethany just waved at her, lifting the pint to her lips: “Don’t worry about it, it was my pleasure. How often do you get to train your successor?”
Their conversation was cut short as someone got the jukebox running and Spaceman started playing.
“Let’s drink for the first human on Jupiter orbit!”
***
“What is on Corduba?” Hanson asked, annoyed that he couldn’t remember off the top of his head. “Less than twenty thousand tons of duranium and about fourteen hundred tons of uridium”, answered one of his assistants. “Huh”, Hanson grunted.
“I guess Deep Space Industries doesn’t want to keep all their eggs in a single basket. Approved and we’ll buy the output, we can always use more duranium”, Hanson thought out loud as he signed the paperwork.
“Oh and Mr Frost, congratulations. You’re the best man to oversee that operation. Enjoy!” Hanson said, wide grin on his face. William Frost had a background both in naval construction and mining, and had been for some time considered as a possible successor to Hanson. Now the man could cool his ambition on some miserable asteroid.
Hanson laughed out loud when, that evening at his stately home, he checked Corduba out and found out that it was mere 106 km by diameter and floated outside Ceres orbit.
***
Bethany Thompson stared through the viewscreen at Jupiter. Despite spending over a week scanning the gas giant and finding no Sorium whatsoever, she wasn’t disappointed. Niels Bohr was enroute to Ganymede, so she could spare some time to once more take in the beauty of the Red Spot and the magnitude of being among the first humans to observe it first-hand. Some in her crew had grown bored of the view in just few days but not her. The fact that the stable, eternal storm was twice the size of Earth never ceased to amaze her.
“Entering Ganymede orbit in five minutes, ma’am”, the helmsman announced. Thompson concentrated on her ship. The Jovian moons were fascinating as well as dangerous - some of them produced volcanic eruptions tens of kilometers high and the area was, astronomically, quite crowded. Crossing through the dust rings had been a visual feast.
“Very well helm. Take us in slowly. Survey, double check that all cameras are recording. We’re going to see the largest moon in the system up close and the scientific community back home is salivating at the prospect. Let’s make sure we’re doing this properly”, Thompson reminded everyone.
Disappointingly, the Jovian system was completely devoid of TN-minerals but at least the four Galilean moons were confirmed to be habitable, gravity wise. During the two weeks that it would take the ship to reach Saturn from Jupiter, Thompson had ample time to upload to Earth thousands of pictures and video across the EM-spectrum that her crew had taken.
***
Hanson signed off the application for Vibilia. Half way between Ceres and Jupiter, only carrying twenty thousand tons of Duranium, it was no prize location. Deep Space Industries did not care. Planetary Resources had steadily grown their operation on Mercury, so DSI - instead of focusing on their existing two sites - went for another asteroid. Once again Hanson bought their entire output for PATO use. He wasn’t looking forward to telling Robert Gallagher that their poker nights couldn’t continue but at least the younger administrator could bring his guitar with him.
The fact that two days later Thompson found over two hundred million tons of Sorium in the atmosphere of Uranus was just icing on the cake. Jupiter would have been so much better but Hanson could work with this.
“Note: increase priority for tugs and gaseous Sorium harvesting ships”, he dictated to his personal computer.
***
“With Italy online, we’re reorganizing and forming a third division. Old first will become third division and Commander Charles Pritchard will assume command. Ali, you’ll move from America to Italy and that platform will become the flag for the new first division. Once we have enough OWPs in orbit, we’ll do a similar thing with Benjamin’s second division. Questions?” Rear-Admiral Takei looked at the three men facing him. Captain Benjamin van Eekelen cleared his throat.
“Is there any schedule for the relocation to Luna and Mars?”
Takei shook his head: “None whatsoever. Rumours say that Hanson is trying to accelerate the tug program but who knows. It will not happen for at least six more months and probably will take longer.”
Since the others had no questions, Takei stood up from behind his desk. “Well, let’s go see this marvel of modern technology then. I was quite impressed by the specs, of putting four barrels on that turret instead of one and having increased the armour by fifty percent. I’m sure we would all like to see it personally, so shall we?”
Ali, van Eekelen and Pritchard enthusiastically agreed.
***
“Sorry to say boss but we found nothing. Albert Einstein did too good of a job”, Alex Sullivan explained to Vice-Admiral Woodcock. His team members were all military and vinced over the friendly attitude of their civilian-scientist team leader but Woodcock had long ago grown used to to peculiarities of Survey Command, like working with academics and other civilians.
“That’s a damn shame Mr Sullivan. Now that Earth ran out of Neutronium, finding few million tons of it on Luna would have been godsend”, the Vice-Admiral responded.
With a smirk, he continued: “I hope you enjoyed the amenities of Luna City. I assume you took part in the celebrations when the population passed the thirty million mark. Einstein is enjoying some R&R at Earth, having finished with the asteroid belt, so I’ll have it relocate your team to Mars. Easier to work there, with no distractions around!”
Sullivan groaned. He had a difficult conversation ahead of him with a certain coffee-shop waitress who would be hard-pressed to believe that he was genuinely being sent to Mars.
***
Lieutenant-Commander Olivia Willis was happy to gain her own command so early. Isaac Newton was the third Einstein-class geological survey ship. Her sisters had done such an exemplary job of surveying that she was to be last of her class. There wasn’t much left for Willis and her crew of sixty, mostly just comets and the distant planetoids past Neptune mixed with asteroids. That didn’t bother Willis at all, in fact it excited her more. Ship captains had, over the years, become more and more tightly roped into networked systems and had to suffer under growing amount of micromanagement from their superiors. With a delay of hours in her communications, she would not be quite as cut off as her heroes from the Age of Sail but it was the closest thing available.
“Please find us some Neutronium out there and stay safe”, Woodcock had said as he stepped off the ship. Willis had agreed.
“Helm, take us out. Navigation, plot a course to Halley’s Comet, we’ll start with that”, she ordered.
***
“I hear congratulations are in order”, Hanson said once the waiter had retreated from the table. Richardson looked at his civilian counterpart questioningly. “I meant that your spymaster caught the Chinese with their hand in the cookie jar”, the administrator continued before savoring the succulent steak.
“Oh that. Yes, Joyce has been quite overjoyed, though credit goes to MI5. Though they do think that they managed to get some information sent back home before we caught up with them”, Richardson explained. The admiral tried to be nonchalant while checking out their surroundings, he couldn’t believe that Hanson would bring up such a sensitive topic while they were out in public.
“Relax, the acronym agencies are all leaking information to their political masters. Everyone in this place is either a government employee, a politician or a lobbyist”, Hanson calmed him. “Or hell, maybe all three. Most of the people in here probably know the general outline of what happened anyway. So let’s have a toast to the blundering of foreign agents!” He raised his wine glass and reluctantly Richardson agreed.
“Oh, I’m sure your people will be happy to know that Vollenhoven is retooling for the tug and should finish constructing the first one next year. My eggheads finalized the plans for a troopship for Taylor’s boys as well as for the tanker but we don’t have the shipyard capacity to build them for a while. Hilton will be completely tied down for years. They’ve building two Buffaloes right now and I’ve placed an order for another two after that. That’ll give Martin ten of them to tide him over until we get Bisons ready. There’ll be ten of them too, eventually”, Hanson exclaimed, looking smug and proud.
“What about that third shipyard”, Richardson asked. Hanson waved his fork: “Yeah, it’s coming along but it will not be ready to build either class anytime soon. Maybe next Christmas if we’re lucky.”
Richardson focused on enjoying his steak as Hanson switched topics and the men stopped talking shop. Outside the panoramic windows, a light snowfall made London look almost magical.
