WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD: FIRST MISSION TO ALAMO. (Part 3)

October 24, 2112, 11:55 A.M.

Nana looked at her watch. She was almost 10 minutes late. She rapidly slipped into the elevator. The door closed silently and almost immediately reopened. At the elevator exit door her adjunct was waiting for her. “Only a routine exchange,” Nana thought, “A leftover from a previous age!”
- “Good morning, Captain Olbrich. How are you?” Sergeant Don Wright asked.
- “Good. Very good. Thank you for asking! And you?” Nana answered.
- “Thank you very much. I am good, very good...” Sergeant Don automatically repeated.

Nana entered the meeting room. On the commander’s desk laid the latest map of Alamo. Nana went to the centre of the room. She stood there and looked very tense. General John O’Keefe approached Nana and asked her the question:
- “What happened? You look very nervous,” General O’Keefe asked.
- “I have a strange premonition that if we do not sent a suitable fleet to support Alamo, the expedition will not succeed,” Nana answered slowly.
- “You know that suitable plans already are undertaken,” General O’Keefe said strongly and directly.
- “We are not ready to go there. You know it! We will lose our people!” Nana stated with a great deal of self-possession.
- “You know that those decisions are not mine! I just follow instructions! Do you want to go there or not?” Captain John asked, his voice getting louder.
- “Yes, I do, but… not now. We are not ready!” Nana tried to say this clearly.
- “If you’re scared, we can choose someone else! This is not professional behavior, Nana! The President is expecting success!” He knew immediate he said too much. His rising blood pressure reddened his face.
- “Ok. I understand Captain. Still, we don’t know enough about this place. That’s all… Can I go now, General?!?” Nana saluted him and expected to go.

Nana looked at him few seconds. His face was like marble with no any emotion. He looks like a programmed machine. Nana bent her head lightly as a sign that she has nothing more to say.
- “Yes. You can go!” General O’Keefe said. He knew that – ready or not – this mission had to go.

Nana left the National Air Force & Royal Council Room and disappeared in the shadows of the dark corridor.
- “Good bye, Sergeant Wright.” Nana tried to smile to cover her emotion.
- “Good bye, Captain Olbrich.” Sergeant Don said quietly.

Discipline in the army was of the utmost importance. The rules were very clear: subordinates can talk to superiors only as a slave would with his master. One had to ignore one’s own ambitions and ideas. The procedure was clear from elaborate discussions in previous decades in Military Association Forces (MSA). The same was true with Air Force which cultivated the best traditions of the past epochs.

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD: FIRST MISSION TO ALAMO. (Part 2)

October 24, 2112, 9:00 A.M.

This morning, Nana Olbrich, known better as Captain Olbrich, was expecting to receive a new order. She was from the 3rd Fighters Squadron nr 303, nicknamed Alpha Group Team. Her office was on the USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier. At the moment, Nana was lying down and looking out the big window in her small cabin. She was proud of her position in the General Department of Defense (GDD). However, this day was her day off. She was listening music. Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World was her favorite today. She started to sing it loudly along with Armstrong -

I see skies of blue, and clouds of white
The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night
And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces, of people going by
I see friends shaking hands, saying “how do you do?”
They're really saying “I love you.”

Lying on her bed and singing this early morning, her black hair framed her face like a dark wave against the military color of her khaki pillow. Army regulations which determined so much of her life even determined the colors of her room. Without this rules her small cabin would be in the same color.

October 24, 2112, 10:00 A.M.

Finally Nana got up. She took a refreshing, soothing bath and ate quickly her tasty croissant. As usually, it was a chocolate croissant – her favorite. This was her standard breakfast ever since she became captain and had her choice. Depending on her humor, she would occasionally have a coconut croissant - or a strawberry one. Whatever the flavor, the croissant was delivered by robots directly to her kitchen. Everything in her room was arranged exactly as she remembered it from her childhood. Her father, a retired marine, would be proud of her. Nana got today her new orders today. They still glow on the pulsating small flat screen on her night stand. Nana had been feeling that this week would be a special one. She received a promotion and now her fears grow with every minute. She was afraid that her new duties would overwhelm her. The last time she felt like this was when she was a little girl. Her grandfather Emil saved her life pulling her out of 20 yards of an air-shaft. It had taken him over 16 hours.

The massage on the Nana’s cell phone screen was simple:
- “See you at the “GDD” at 11:45 A.M. They chose you to go to the mission on Alamo. Alex.”

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD: FIRST MISSION TO ALAMO.

People’s eyes watched the big screens showing the latest information about the coming trip to Alamo. New York had transformed. It was not the same city it was 100 years ago. People had been changed by the relentless production of bombs, guns and other military accessories. War was everywhere in the Galaxy. The Defense System in New York worked 24/7. Cannons were oriented to all possible directions through the sky. People knew that aliens could descend fast, very fast, unannounced in a swift descent from above. This is why people had taken to building their homes in black and silver oval bunkers. They were created from layers of new material named Animatron.

October 24, 2112, 8:00 A.M.

This story begins on a warm, sunny and humid morning.

New Moon Station was prepared for the new mission. A few years ago, Satellite Explorer SAT-E-13, discovered planet FDH-AM-5969, abbreviated into Alamo. Now was the moment to explore the new land of Alamo. This project absorbed the monstrous sum of $144 billion. The mission was prepared by the most technologically advanced scientists, specially selected for this mission. They used new biotechnology computers to preplan this important mission. Since Congress decided to green light this project, the Earth, named now “Old Planet”, had become a simple dock for loading and unloading huge barges. They melted an enormous quantity of carbon, ores and iron. Manned space flights became a thing of the past. The new pilots are robots now. A newly discovered material called Animatron was produced as an alternative energy source. It was not too costly to transform it into a form useable as fuel. Thanks to Animatron, space travel became fast and cheap. One pound of Animatron had cut down the cost by a factor of seven. It was universally known on the “Old Planet”.