Below Mercury by Mark Anson Read Free Book Online

that big mining accident a few years ago, and they need someone who can be spared from more important duties to take them there. I thought you fitted the bill perfectly.’
    He smiled, and waited for her reaction.
    Clare’s heart, which had lifted slightly at the prospect of a space mission, sank further, and it hurt the more because she knew that Helligan wanted it, and she knew that it must be showing on her face.
    Mercury. The hellhole of the Solar System. Nothing there but high levels of solar radiation, a tricky and dangerous orbit insertion manoeuvre, and some empty, abandoned mines. A damned ferry mission, taking her closer to her lifetime radiation limit, and all the time she was away, Helligan would be at work back here on Earth, making sure that she never returned to an interceptor squadron.
    ‘So, Foster, shall I say you’ll be taking it? If you’re not interested, I can offer it to someone else. Tyson’s been doing well in his assessments, and I know he wants a mission to command.’ Helligan’s smile disappeared, and he looked pointedly at his watch. Clare, who had been about to ask how much time she had to decide, saw that asking was pointless. Tyson was a schmuck – he would pilot a ship into the Sun if he thought it would get him promoted.
    ‘What are the pay terms?’ she asked.
    Helligan’s composure faltered a tiny amount at the question. He had to look away, out of the cockpit windows onto the blue projection screens, as he replied.
    ‘You’d be on full captain’s space pay for the duration of the secondment.’
    Full space pay? Clare scanned Helligan’s face for some sign of a catch, but she could see how much he hated telling her the good bit, so it must be true. That wouldn’t happen if there was a catch, she thought.
    So, it was stay here and endure Helligan, or get a few months on space pay away from him. There wasn’t any decision to make.
    ‘Okay,’ she nodded slowly. ‘I’ll take it. When should I report to them?’
    Helligan seemed to relax slightly at her response.
    So. He had been worried she would refuse it. She couldn’t tell if that was good news for her, or bad.
    ‘You’ll get your orders. In the meantime, you’re to continue on instruction and tanker duties until your secondment comes through.’
    Helligan heaved himself up and away from the copilot’s seat, and turned to go. At the cockpit door, he stopped for a moment with his back to her, and said over his shoulder: ‘Oh, and don’t crash the fucking ship into Mercury, Foster, because there’s no way they’d waste another mission on rescuing you. They left two hundred and fifty-seven bodies out there and declared it a space grave, rather than going to get any of them back.’
    His last words were almost lost as he went down the access ladder.
    ‘A few more won’t make any difference to anybody.’

CHAPTER EIGHT
    When the United States established the beginnings of a forward base for B-29 bombers on Guam in 1944, they could have had little idea that 200 years later, Andersen Base would be one of the principal launch sites for the spaceplanes of the US Astronautics Corps.
    The island’s location, just over thirteen degrees north of the equator in the western Pacific, made it ideal for launches into low-inclination Earth orbit, and it had Apra Harbour – a deep-water port that could accommodate the largest of vessels with ease. Two long, military-grade runways at Andersen Air Force Base, and an almost unrestricted airspace, made the location particularly suited for the development and trials of the early spaceplanes. Ninety years ago, test squadrons operating from Andersen Base had pioneered the technique of in-flight refuelling of spaceplanes, and the base was still a major training centre for the Corps.
    By the middle of the twenty-second century, Andersen Base had grown into a sprawling complex covering most of the accessible land at the northern end of the island. Separate control towers now managed the