Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin' 60s - Volume 8: Way Out Worlds- by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

Introduction

“You can't tell this man anything about anything.”

Well, as I recollect it, it was back in May 2021 when the the Moon was in the early stages of being colonised. It was then a new frontier drawing in folks to lunar settlements like Moon City and Farside 5. It was almost like the Wild West all over again with hoards of folks heading in from Earth to escape, to settle, to mine and perhaps make their fortunes. It was as if they took the spirit and sentiments contained in a particular old song to heart to the Nth degree:

♫“Go find the world you're seeking.

Where stars are new in the making.

It's time to fly.

Deep space is calling you.

Go far, go wild, go lonely.

New worlds are there for the taking.”♫

And took the worlds they did….

Into this rough and ready new lunar society strode one free-spirited character, Bill Kemp, former top-notch astronaut pilot turned satellite salvager. He was best remembered as being the first man to set foot on the surface of Mars, which I’m sure you’ll recall. He was of the old-school type of astronaut cowboy who was more interested in the adventure of space exploration which is why he resigned from Space Corporation which was only interested in the commercial side of space flight, namely operating commercial passenger flights to and from Mars and Venus. In fact, these days the damn Corporation in its present iteration is interested purely in the commercial exploitation of space and ripping the guts out of planets and asteroids in both conjunction with and in competition with other corporations.

Anyway, old Bill along with his pal, engineer Karminski was perfectly happy salvaging broken satellites and dragging them back on board his rather small outmoded moon lander vehicle, Moon Zero Two. Of course, he like many others had to run the gauntlet of Luna city bureaucracy and its regulations at its space port haggling with customs officials over obtaining clearance for his salvage items. He and Karminski were canny enough to bullshit their way through the red tape though.

Even though Kemp earned a modest living as a salvage pilot, I can’t tell you how often other people tried to convince him to return to the Corporation as a commercial pilot, but with no success. Kemp had no interest in being “one of the future captains of the universe.” Hell, who could blame him?

Now there are two others that feature in this little recollection of mine. On of them was JJ ‘100%’ Hubbard, a wealthy businessman, which is euphemism for asshole and crook. More about him shortly. The other was Clemantine Taplin, a real easy on the eye gal who was in Luna City looking for her brother. Wally who had been mining a claim on the far side of the moon, but had disappeared for some reason. Knowing that Kemp was a space pilot who was familiar with the far side of the moon she felt that perhaps he could help her. In order to get to the nearest base, Farside 5, it would’ve taken a slow 6 days to traverse the 2000 miles distance by means of a wheeled mining bug vehicle. Kemp’s old space ferry could have done it in 20 minutes. Even sending a message to find out the whereabouts of Clem’s brother would have presented a problem with one of the communication satellites (the one hauled in by Kemp) having been knocked out of action by a meteor strike. Yep, even in this later part of the 21st century technology still continues to breakdown and become unreliable. Anyhow, Kemp didn’t know Wally but in the mean time he settled for showing her around the city and what it had to offer.

One thing I’ll say about Kemp is that he was real ladies’ man. His girlfriend at the time was Elizabeth Murphy, a law enforcement officer of all things! She was one of those who especially gave him a hard time about his refusing to rejoin the Corporation and ceasing his salvaging business in his clapped out space craft. Kemp felt that the Corporation was out to get him but it was more like his ship it wanted to eliminate along with what it represented. It’s continued operation threatened the business of Corporation Express which depended on the travelling public’s perception of the safety of space travel which back then was relatively new. Under pressure from the Corporation and her personal feelings for Kemp and concern for his safety, Liz gave him an ultimatum to have his ship made space worthy or to give up being a salvage pilot and return to the corporation. He had only two weeks to decide. Kemp however, had already made up his mind that he wasn’t going back into the corporation on “passenger runs” and that he was “a space pilot, not a mechanically minded wet nurse.” But the feeling was that the days of the maverick space cowboy were just about over.

There was one factor that was patently true about operating in space, especially in relation to Kemp’s line of work. Hell, it’s even true enough these days despite the shiny glow of optimism, arrogance and complacency surrounding human activity in space. Namely, that space is dangerous and it will kill you if given the opportunity. One of his fellow pilots had his name added to a plaque honouring those who had been killed in space. His retro engines had failed on landing and he crashed on the moon’s surface. He had been piloting the same kind of craft that Kemp operated but as Kemp noted it was just “a little bit older,” as if that made any difference.

Kemp was sure a complex man. Despite his desire to remain a free and independent space pilot, hew often reflected on the purpose of mankind’s presence in space. Take the moon, for instance, “so bleak” with “no air, no vegetation, 1/6th gravity, 14 days sunlight, 14 days night.” Who in their right mind would want to make their home there? As he put it, it was as if “we're all foreigners here” and “we always will be.” He even questioned whether we should ever have come. Nowadays there’s hardly a spot in the solar system where humans have spread to that remains pure and pristine.

As a counterpoint to that negative view of mankind’s presence in space was Kemp’s knowledge of the legacy exemplified by the monument that had been erected where Neil Armstrong landed on the moon back in 1969. Who’s Armstrong you say, as many these days would ask? The monuments still there so why don’t you all pay a visit some time and learn something about your past. Since then humanity’s dream had been realized with the presence on the luna surface of power stations turning sunlight into energy, as well as ice mines containing layers of ice that were me;ted down to produce water for drinking, oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for rocket fuel. Then there’s the hydroponics laboratories for growing plants that process oxygen and provide food to consume. Back then there was “nothing like it anywhere else,” but these days they are almost commonplace throughout much of the settled parts of the solar system.

It was later at a bar while having a drink and watching a floor show that Kemp was approached by one of Hubbard's goons, a tall ugly bastard by the name of Harry who presented Kemp with an offer to good to refuse to accompany him to meet with Hubbard. So at gunpoint Kemp was directed toward Hubbard’s quarters.

“A 6,000 ton jewel. How would you like to meet the broad who

could hang that around her neck?”

JJ Hubbard was a bit like a caricature of a an evil villain one might’ve seen in an old space opera serial. You know, Flash Gordon and such? Yeah, before anyone;s time, I guess. Anyway, Hubbard had apparently learned about the existence of a small 6000-ton asteroid made of pure sapphire that was in a low lunar orbit. It was found to be “quite similar to aluminium, but an aluminium that has been squeezed and roasted in the heart of an exploding planet hundreds of millions of years ago” that resulted in a “ceramic crystalline form of corundum aluminium oxide.” In other words, sapphire, “6,000 tons of gemstone sapphire.”

Hubbard’s intention was to hire Kemp to retrieve it with his old Moon 02 space ferry. Having accomplished this, Kemp was to transport it down to the surface of the moon’s far side, where it would crash. Of course such an act would have been scrictly against Space Corporation law.

But why go to the trouble of retrieving the asteroid and then crashing it on the moon’s surface? Why not mine it? Well, back then, Hubbard knew that you couldn’t just “set up a mine on an asteroid. The cost of flying the equipment up, the supplies, bringing the ore back,” it wouldn’t have paid. Not like these days where we set asteroids to be mined on a trajectory that places them in Earth’s orbit. Tricky business that…...

Hubbard’s plan was to use the sapphire for building improved rocket engine thermal insulators, thereby profiting from the demand for more powerful rockets to colonize Mercury and the moons of Jupiter. Hubbard was aware that Kemp was the “only other pilot on the moon with a ship for charter.” He also knew that Kemp could come and go from the moon without arousing suspicion and as an incitement, he offered him a new space craft in return for participating in his plan.

Kemp and Karminski soon prepared for the mission and were joined by Whitsun (the man with the portable computer and the brains) and Harry (the muscle for heavy lifting). Whitsun’s role was to assist with the navigation to the asteroid. As he later explained to the others, the plan for getting the asteroid onto the moon’s surface was by the attachment of rockets to the asteroid in order to bring it into orbit around the moon and then set it on a trajectory to the moon's surface.

Two days later, Kemp and the others managed to land on the asteroid and attach three rocket engines to it in order to redirect it into orbit around the moon. It was touch and go for a while as Kemp remained on the asteroid after the others returned to the ship. He did this to ensure that all three rockets ignited at the specified time. He only managed to release himself with seconds to spare before the velocity was too great for him to escape and he “ended up in his socks.”

“Nobody dies slowly on the moon.”

Upon his return to Moon City, Kemp met up with Clem in the bar and inquired whether she had located her brother yet. It appeared that no-one had seen him in nearly 4 months. There also seemed to a problem involving moon mining laws in which the ‘Two-Year Rule’ stipulated that “you got a claim for 2 years, and if you haven't found anything, at the end of that time, you get thrown off. Somebody else gets it.” The problem was that Clem’s brother would have had his claim for the 2 years in 3 days time and that as far as anyone was concerned he hadn't struck anything yet. Clem assured Kemp that he had and if so he had to get to Moon City and prove it before he lost his claim.

With radio communication out and the convoys not being quick enough, Clem naturally appealed to Kemp to fly her over in his space craft. With the terrain being too rough, they would have to land at Far Side 5 and take a moon bug to Wally’s claim from there. So, on a promise of being paid later if Wally had indeed found something, Kemp agreed to fly Clem out.

Meanwhile, big Harry had overheard what transpired between Clem and Kemp and he foolishly tried to lean on Kemp to change his mind and remind him that he was working for his boss, Hubbard. Now I know for a fact that Kemp wouldn’t have appreciated being threatened by anyone, least of all by an ugly guerilla like Harry. Inevitably, a bar room fight erupted involving everyone in the bar. As the low grav melee continued, Kemp and Clem slipped away just before the local law enforcement got involved.

Kemp and Clem soon managed to arrive in one piece at Far Side 5 base from where they intended to hire a moon bug from Smith, the base commander. They would then use this vehicle to continue the rest of their journey on the lunar surface to the location of Wally's claim.

Smith informed them that he had not seen Wally in nearly four months. He then went though all the possible means of communication which he explained wouldn’t have done any good such as “chancy” radio communication in the mountain country and not bothering to declare an emergence with a 6 day delay sending a message by convoy. All somewhat convenient if you ask me. But as Smith pointed out to Kemp, “nobody dies slowly on the moon.”

Kemp and Clem’s journey to the claim was through “a part of the moon the tourists don't usually see” where it gets “awfully cold out there, 200° below zero” and horrendously hot during the day. These days on the moon and other settled parts of the solar system, such bleak and pristine places are harder to find what with so many national flags sticking up out of the ground, so many claims struck, so many machines ripping the guts out of worlds and so many piles of junk being strewn all over the place by human “foreigners.”