The Stepping Stone of Mars

Space travel is an unrehearsed dream. Many men have looked up at the night sky and thought about traveling to those pinpoints of light out there. First man went to the moon and now Millions lived there. The next place we went was Mars. It is only a stepping stone out into the great unknown. Men using their own minds to battle the vastness of time and space. Men who are always imagining new ways to further themselves and mankind as a whole. Even now shuttles are landing and departing from the red planet. This is a story about Milo, one man who is determined to tame the new frontier. Milo, who traveled to the new west to make his claim on history and make his fame and fortune here on the red rock and beyond. His shuttle landed and he made his way into the station and from there he was able to take a tram to his hotel. The gravity did feel lighter here than on Earth. As well it should but Milo thought about how much less gravity he felt here after spending his whole life on Earth. Knowing that the gravity was about a third of Earths was one thing but feeling it, experiencing was quite another thing. Milo felt so light on his feet. The fact that he could jump fifty feet at a time when running was exhilarating. But that was not why Milo had come. Milo was an inventor. Milo knew that the corporations that were on Mars wanted to go further. Those companies wanted to go out into the stars. Those companies wanted to do the impossible. Mine for Diamonds that rained down from the sky on Jupiter. Some companies had faster than light travel and were preparing to go out into the vast black emptiness of space. To explore those worlds that until now had been beyond mankind's reach. The corporation called Lightwill had designed an engine that would travel faster than light. Lightwill had a major problem though and that was stopping fast enough to make the trip worth it and not smash everything inside of the ship. That is where Milo came in. Milo had invented an artificial gravity machine. Arriving at the hotel Milo got very little sleep and was excited about presenting his idea to the board of Lightwill. Milo was up early and ate a very small meal as his stomach couldn't handle more. Milo thought for a few moments that maybe his loss of appetite might be due to an illness and that was something he couldn't have right at this crucial moment. Then Milo thought maybe it was due to the low gravity. As soon as he got up he knew it was just the excitement and nervousness at the life changing technology that he brought to the red planet.

Milo took the tram to Lightwill's headquarters on Mars. Milo gave the receptionist his ID.

Taking the ID the receptionist said "Top floor sir they are waiting."

Milo thought how could she sound so bored. I am bringing the future and it's passing by her desk right now. What if Einstein had brought the atom bomb by her desk would she have been so board by that? Oh well, maybe she didn't know why I was here. Maybe they didn't tell her.

Milo took the elevator up to the top floor. The trip was a longer one as when the elevator stopped Milo didn't. Milo unintentionally did a small hop as the elevator slowed down. Looking up Milo now knew why the elevator was built a bit taller than most of the ones he had ridden on earth. So that if a taller man was in the car he wouldn't hit his head while riding this thing. Maybe Milo's invention could do something about that as well.

Milo got off the elevator and walked into a large circular room. The entire board was sitting behind a semi-circular desk.

"Good morning gentlemen" Milo said.

"Good morning," The man in charge started to talk then looked down and shuffled some papers. "Good morning Milosh" The man said after a long pause.

"The names Milo." Milo said.

The man waived a hand "Yes, yes, Milo, sorry about that. What is it that you have come to show us?"

Clearing his throat Milo blushed a bit, again wondering if Einstein had to go through anything like this during the course of his life. Milo brushed it off and cleared his throat and continued. "I am here to demonstrate my gravity device. I believe that it can solve two of the major problems you are experiencing in deep space travel."

The man leading the meeting said "We don't really have any problems with our deep space program. We are planning on launching our first rocket to Alpha Centauri within six months."

Milo said, "Really I heard that when your ship stops everything crushes to the front of the ship and that the resulting mass would kill everything living aboard. Not only that but there isn't a way for men to exercise on longer trips. This could leave them atrophied on any trip longer than a month. Granted that your new engines turn what takes a year for light to travel and turns that into only a day. I know the trip to Alpha Centauri will only take about nine days round trip. But what about from here to Orion's belt or further?"

There were murmurs and whispers from the board to one another and the head of the table spoke once again. "We are just going to do probing missions mainly using drones and robots to explore. It is just too expensive to have the ships for human travel."

Those words were exactly what Milo wanted to hear.

"Well, what if it wasn't?" Milo asked.

The head of the table spoke up "But it is, we have been in development on correcting those issues for the better part of a decade now. It is just too expensive for us to keep going down this road. I am sorry Rylo but human faster than light travel is just not in our future."

"I think you're wrong. Not only do I think you're wrong but I am here to prove it. Also my name is Milo."

The head of the table just shook his head "I'm sorry Philo, we have heard from so many people over the past few years that thought they had the solution. Yet here you stand now claiming the same. Another charlatan in a long line trying to get us to invest in another product that doesn't work."

Milo sighed, "Look, sir I can appreciate your situation on things. I can see why you are going a different way as a company. But as you say here I am standing before you. I have patents on my tech. I have tested it and I know it works. Unlike the others I came with working tech and a prototype."

At the last part of it the boardroom reacted with louder talk and rumblings.

Milo continued "The reason I am even standing here before you and talking with you is that you still hold out hope that something can be done to make all of our dreams come true with the reality of faster than light travel and the ability to actually go beyond our own solar system and out into the universe. I am here to tell you all that we can."

There were a few laughs at the table. Many men were shaking their heads. One man even shouted out the word "Liar!"

The head of the board waving his arms for quiet said "Everyone quiet down. I was elected by the board to conduct these meetings and I will do it. If anyone has a question please use the system we voted on at the formation of the board. Thank you."

The head of the board then looked straight at Milo and said "Well you do have the board's interest. You claim to have a prototype, well let's see it."

"I am prepared to show it to you. But I feel like a demonstration would be better to convey what I am talking about way more effectively than were I just to hand over the prototype." Milo said.

The head of the board said "Please get on with it. We don't have all day."

Milo reached into his pockets and pulled out two objects. "Does anyone know what this is?"

The man who called Milo a liar shouted out again "It's an egg, any fool can see that."

"Very good, an egg." Milo said and continued the demonstration by placing the egg into the other object he had in his pocket. "Now everyone, this is a normal metal box. I've made it so you can see inside it." Holding the box with the egg inside it everyone could see the metal edges of the box and the egg inside it. Milo then cast the box at the wall as hard as he could and in the low gravity it whipped into the wall faster than any major league pitcher could throw. The egg exploded in the box and the box rattled to the floor the insides coated with yellow for all to see.

"Now," Reaching into his pockets again Milo produced another egg and metal box with see through windows. Again Milo loaded the egg into the box. This time the egg locked into the center of the box. Milo held up the box for the entire board so everyone could see the egg floating in the middle. "Watch the artificial gravity box."

Again Milo threw the box at the wall as hard as he could. This time the box hit the wall and floated down to the floor. But the box never hit the floor as it just hovered for a bit just a few inches above the carpet. Milo walked over to the box and picked it up. Looking inside the egg was unchanged whole and uncracked inside. Milo walked around the semi-circular desk showing the box to everyone. Stunned silence and dead quite hung undisturbed in the air as Milo walked around each of the board members had their mouths hung open. Until the head of the board spoke up.

"Milo we are going to be rich. Sorry I lied to you, as it turns out we do have all day."

Six months later the first manned mission to Alpha Centauri was launched. Milo sat in misson control watching the ship take off into orbit. Milo was a very wealthy man but that wasn't what he wanted. But Milo would get what he wanted on the next launch. Milo would be one of the first people to walk on a planet outside of our own solar system. That is if the first mission was successful. That, my friends, is a story for another time.