Orphans of Apollo - S1 E3
September 2055
From the ashes of forgotten space dreams, a new era of exploration begins.
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Previously: as Lana and Logan packed up to leave, Lana tried to take the opportunity to talk to Logan about his failure in the recent sim, but she decided not to push it too far.
As they exited the building, Logan’s father saw him searching the row of cars in the car park and chuckled to himself.
“You bought another new car?” Logan asked theatrically.
“Well, you know your father. It’s one of his few indulgences.”
It was relatively uncommon for private individuals to actually own their own vehicle. Why pay all that money to have it sitting around in a car park or on a driveway? Most private vehicles were used for two per cent of the time. Unless you were fairly wealthy, it made little sense to own a car. For a reasonable annual subscription, you could simply ask your virtual assistant to book a vehicle whenever you needed one.
The Meyers were a relatively affluent family, but except for the car, they did their best to not make this known. Glenn Meyer, Lana’s father, was a second generation Software Engineer.
After his dreams of becoming an astronaut were dashed by his poor eyesight, Lana’s grandfather had pursued a career in computer science, inspired by the Apollo missions of his early childhood. Along with wanting to fly the spacecraft, he became fascinated by the computers which made their missions possible. So it was a natural step to study computer science at Stanford when it became obvious his dreams of becoming an astronaut were not to be.
Graduating in 1983 Glenn Meyer Snr, Lana’s grandfather caught the wave of the personal computer revolution and worked for several Silicon Valley giants through the 80s, 90s and 2000s. Glenn Meyer Jr had followed his father’s footsteps through Stanford and into the tech industry. He was now a lecturer at Stanford.
“So, can you find it?” Glenn asked.
Logan looked up and down the line of cars one more time.
“Of course it has to be this one.”
He started walking towards a dull grey SUV. This had to be the one, a perfect colour to blend in. When you purchased your own vehicle, of course you got to choose the colour. Why not go for bright red or yellow or something a bit more fun and stand out from the thousands of boring pool cars? No, that was not Dad’s style.
“How did you guess?” teased his mother.
“Well, I like it,” said Lana.
“Of course you do. You are boring and conformist, just like Dad.”
Ayako looked at Glenn with a knowing smile. “Now kids, we have a long journey ahead of us, lets not start now.”
Glenn touched the bodywork to the side of the trunk, it opened with a smooth and effortless motion. They deposited their bags. Lana and Logan climbed in to the back and their parents the front. Glenn occupied the front left seat, still often referred to as the driver’s seat, although the vehicle could be controlled equally from either side with the large touch screens which dominated the panel on both sides. Glenn selected the family home from the list of shortcuts on the navigation page. The display informed him it would take approximately three and a half hours and the vehicle had sufficient charge to make the journey non-stop. After reviewing this, he pressed the green ‘Go’ button, which was now pulsating softly at the bottom of the screen. A red button in the centre of the console marked ‘Emergency Stop’ now lit up and the vehicle slowly backed out of the parking space.
The foundation headquarters were located in Lompoc, California, about 200 kilometres northwest along the coast from Los Angeles. As they made their way out of the industrial complex on the south side of Lompoc Airport, Lana’s parents chatted idly - as infrequent visitors to a place do - about how things have changed since their last visit. It probably would have been easier for Lana and Logan to fly from Santa Maria up to San Francisco, but their parents valued the family time they could enjoy by making the journey together. Between the various busy work and school schedules, plus spending time at the Foundation in the holidays, the family had precious few times when they were all together.
They emerged from the industrial complex onto West Central Av, then at the next intersection turned left to head north. Logan noticed his father seemed to be paying close attention to the part of his screen which showed the view from the rearward facing camera.
“What is it Dad?”
“Ah, nothing,” his father said without breaking his gaze.
“You don’t trust the autodrive?”
“No, just that car behind us was acting a little strange.”
“Like they were driving manually?”
“Maybe. It was just a bit strange how they pulled out when we passed them.”
“You mean like are tailing us? Come on Dad, you watch too many spy movies.” Logan replied jokingly.
“No, it’s those “tradecraft” books he reads,” said Lana.
Neither of them saw the slightly concerned look in their mother’s eyes when she shot their father a quick sideways glance.
Lana was craning her head forward now to see.
“Hey look.”
Suddenly, blue and red lights started flashing from the front fender of the car behind the one they were watching. It was an unmarked patrol car. The other vehicle immediately signalled and pulled over to the side of the road.
“Ha. Unlucky.” said Logan.
“I don’t know why people still drive manually. Everyone knows humans are not good drivers,” said Ayako. Their parents exchanged a brief look and the barely perceptible tension disappeared.
They were now leaving Lompoc behind and heading out onto the open road. There was a soft chime and an extra set of controls appeared at the bottom of the front screens. As they were no longer in what was considered an urban area, there was no requirement for “active monitoring” of the cars autodrive. The front seats could now be rotated, either ninety degrees to face each other, or 180 degrees to form a club seating layout. Lana’s father made a couple of taps on the screen and their seats slowly spun around to face Lana and Logan.
“Did Aiden not need a ride?” Lana’s Mother asked her, slightly disappointed.
“He had to be back home today for a family engagement, so he left yesterday. He took a red eye back to New York last night.”
“Oh, I see, that’s a shame.”
Even if Lana would not admit it to herself, her mother knew there was a spark in there somewhere, despite Lana’s attempts to suppress it. Secretly, she blamed herself. After all, they had chosen this life for their children, from before they were even born. She did not regret it, but was now beginning to see some of the things that perhaps were not fully appreciated or thought through before the children were conceived. They were now twenty-one and perfectly happy young adults, but Ayako knew there were some parts of childhood they had missed out on. They had become so singularly focused at a young age; they did not have time for all the normal frivolous elements of a childhood. And now she saw how Lana and Aiden acted around each other. He was one of the few people she could tell Lana was totally at ease with. She wanted her to experience love. If only she would open up. Ayako knew that mentioning this to Lana would only have the opposite effect, so she resolved to continue her attempts to subtly coerce her.
The family chatted idly for several more minutes before the car slowed as they approached an intersection. The car stopped at a red signal waiting to turn right. On the left was the entrance to Vandenberg Space Force Base.
“Did you go to any launches while you were down this time?” Asked Glenn.
“There were a few, we only got chance to see one,” said Logan.
“I see they got the replacement parts away on a launch from Kennedy.”
“Yeah, that’s been delayed a few times, it’s good it’s finally away.”
“Yes, it was a bit worrying when we heard about one of them breaking down,” said Ayako.
“According to Christian, it’s not going to affect the schedule. There is enough of a buffer build in. We’ll still be on the Moon by 2059.”
“By then you might have learned to land without having to abort,” said Lana snidely.
“Hey!” Said Logan, throwing the jumper he had sat on his lap into Lana’s face.
“Now, now, children, we have a long drive ahead of us,” said Ayako.
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I hope you enjoyed the latest episode. It’s been a pretty hectic week, so not much of an update here. Other than to say, I know it’s at the bottom of every post, but if you do know someone you think would like to read “Orphans of Apollo” please share it with them. It really does help to increase the readership.
Look for another behind-the-scenes post in a few days.
Thanks for reading,
Alex