The God Experiment

Chapter No.60. Space Job.

Chapter No.60. Space Job.

The new Steris family had just gotten settled into their new home when Janet got a call on her cellphone. After a brief conversation, she sighed. "NASA has a new mission."

"I wonder if we can trust them after what has happened," James said.

"I don't think that they're planning anything against us," Robert said. "At least we can go and listen to what they want us to do."

They agreed and appeared in the JPL Mission room in their superhero outfits. Jason and Janice, the space station mission expert, were there waiting on them.

"We're happy to see you again," Jason said. "We heard about the . . . the situation concerning you."

"We resolved it." Robert said. "What's up?"

Jason was momentarily dismayed at Robert's abrupt response, but he realized that his terseness was the result of political stupidity. "We've completed the construction of the new Space Station and we were hoping that you can put it in its proper location."

"Show us the exact location," Robert responded.

Janice brought up the information concerning the Earth-Moon Lagrangian point on a large computer screen. The superheroes looked it over for a few minutes before Robert said that they were ready.

"Where is it?"

"It's at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville."

"Okay, we'll go check it out."

"Do you need the low Earth orbital data?" Janice asked.

"No. We're going to teleport it to the location."

Jason and Janice exchanged glances before Jason nodded his approval.

After the superheroes vanished, Janice turned to Jason. "You realize how crazy this is."

He shook his head. "Yes, but it's the only way it's going to happen."

The superheroes appeared over the Huntsville, Alabama location and flew around the location before landing near the new space station.

"Wow!" James exclaimed. "This thing is huge!"

"It shouldn't matter," Robert said. "If we all concentrate on it, it will go with us to the proper location."

Two security men came over to them. "Hey, this is a restricted area!"

Robert turned to look at them. "It doesn't matter. We're here to take this to where it belongs."

The two men nearly fainted when they witnessed the disappearance of the space station.

The space station appeared in its proper location. The superheroes looked it over to make sure there was no damage.

"I think this thing is supposed to spin," James said.

"We can spin it, but we have to know how fast," Robert said.

"You guys stay here," Janet said. "Sylvia and I will go back and find that out."

"We're not going anywhere," Robert quipped.

Janet gave him a rebuking smirk before she and Sylvia disappeared.

Jason and Janice were surprised to see them.

"What's wrong? Jason asked.

"Nothing. We have it in the proper location. We need to know the rotation speed."

Janice sat down at a computer station and after a few minutes had an answer. "It's 1.21 rotations per minute."

"Okay, we'll get that going," Janet said.

"Wait!" Janice blurted. "Would you check out the interior to determine if it has no leaks. There are several air tanks that you can activate to fill the station to one atmosphere. We'll have to send more oxygen up there to replenish the supply."

"We could take care of that," Janet said.

"There are some extra tanks at the Huntsville facility . . . "

"We don't need that. We'll just make it on site."

Janice had to hold back her emotion before she added one more wish. "Take some pics for us."

"No problem," Janet said before she and Sylvia teleported back to the station's location.

"It's 1.21 rotations per minute," Janet said.

Robert raised his hand, and the station slowly began to spin. After several minutes, it was spinning at the exact value.

"They want us to activate the air tanks to bring the interior up to one atmosphere. I assume that we can replace the oxygen in those tanks."

"Let's go check it out," Robert said.

Janet took some photos of the space station from outside before she joined the others inside.

"This thing makes the ISS look like a model T," James quipped.

"Yeah, it's more like the one in '2oo1 A Space Odyssey'."

They appeared inside the rotating station in a large corridor. As they walked along the interior passageway, they marveled at how elaborate it was.

"Where's the air coming from?" James asked.

"There are several large tanks in the maintenance module," Robert said. "I've activated them."

"Maybe we should have created one of these to hang out in," James said. "We could have put it somewhere they couldn't get to."

He sighed. "Yeah, we could have, but we can't hide from our mission to save mankind."

"Sometimes I think that they don't really care."

"I fully understand, but we can't deviate from our mission."

"In other words, we're going to save them whether they want it or not."

Robert waved a finger at him. "Right!"

"We should add more oxygen to the supply tanks," Janet said.

"I already did that," James said.

"Good," Robert said. "Get some good pics of the inside before we go back."

"It's cold in here," Sylvia said. "How do they heat it?"

"I think it has to do with the spin, which exposes it to the sun part of the time."

"I'm done," Janet said.

"Okay, let's go back."

They appeared in the JPL Mission room. Robert gave them a thumbs up. "It's ready for business."

Janet downloaded the photos and they appeared on a large screen, which prompted people to stop what they were doing and gawk.

"Thank you for doing this," Jason said. "We appreciate all that you have done."

"We're here to serve," Robert said. "Our main mission is to save mankind. We're prepared to avert any possible devastating asteroid or comet collision. Feel free to contact us if you detect a possible thereat."

Jason nodded and watched the superheroes vanish.

"I get the impression that they're not too happy with things," Janice said. "Evidently, this latest attempt to destroy them made them angry."

"I can appreciate how they feel. The stupid politicians are idiots when it comes to doing the right thing."

Janice totally agreed.

The Steris family returned to their new home and settled in. Things appeared to be normal, but in their case normal was not what most people would expect.