Chapter 5

Orange Colored Fire

It was late summer. A week before the launch date of Mars One Project. Jay Robinson was driving towards Vision Mars Center in Florida. Jay breathed nervously while driving his car. He heard his heart beating loud. The call last night was a grand surprise.

“It’s me.” It was Tina. If She called, either she accepted or refused the interview. “Hi Tina, have you decided to go for it?” Jay said. Jay was working for a small professional magazine company named . It had been about a month since Jay exchanged contacts with Tina. They became comfortable with each other’s call. A month can be a short time, but it was a long enough time for Jay, as he persistently persuaded Tina for an interview during the time.

Tina said, “Yes, I decided to do it. But..” “But what?” Jay asked. “I have a condition,” She said. Jay's voice became brighter, “Tell me.” “The interview must be published after the launch,” Tina told him the condition. “Don’t mention it. I understand,” Jay said joyfully. It wasn’t only for the interview that Jay had chased her. When Jay met Tina for the first time, he thought that they exchanged a strong sign. Jay thought Tina too was attracted to him.

“Can you come over?” said Tina. “You mean to Florida?” Jay asked. Tina was saying that she did not intend to do an online interview, “Yes, right here.” Jay jumped up from his bed. he actually wanted to see Tina one more time before she left. “I suppose I'm not allowed to enter the facility?” Jay thought there were some problems to solve. However, Tina's reaction was unexpected,“I told you many times...you are silly.” Jay said, “Deal! I will be there.” Tina hung up right away.

Jay stared at the ceiling for a long time. He wanted to check if he had been talking to her in real, and checked his call record on his cell phone once again. He blinked his eyes a couple of times and shook his head. “What are you thinking about?” Jay felt as if he was looking at her, a smile on her face showing the dimples. It was impossible not to be in love with that expression she made.

The day was 2 days in advance of Tina entering the clean room before Rocket Stumpalos of Mars Project One take off. Nobody knows exactly why, but all astronauts are required to be segregated from everybody and stay in the clean aseptic room for a week before the departure.

Jay did what Tina asked for. He arrived in front of the Vision Mars building and got off from his car. Approximately 10 minutes had passed by. Suddenly a roaring sound of an internal-combustion engine was heard. An exploding sound occurred when air meets carbon inside a metal block. It was a rhythmical sound of an engine. A yellow colored sports car was approaching fast. It was none other than the 2009 Chevrolet Camaro. Tina was in the driving seat. parking breaker at the gate was down, but Tina refused to slow down. The parking breaker broke and flew away with a “pow” sound. The sports car stopped in front of Jay. A visible skid-mark was drawn as the car stopped. It was Tina.

Tina’s Camaro roared its engine as it headed out. The two people arrived at cape road near the Pintail river. Tina kissed Jay as soon as she stopped the car. She reclined Jay’s seat and climbed on top of him. Jay was surprised but willingly accepting. Tina went on without hesitating. Then, she stopped as if an emergency button was pushed upon, and stared into Jay’s eyes. “Would you believe in me if I tell you this is the first time I make love?” said Tina. Jay was searching for words to say. Tina did not wait for his answer and kissed Jay on the lips.

...

After the moments of passion, Tina said as if talking to herself, “I was alone in this world from the beginning. All alone.” Jay sighed. He regretted that he did not know much about Tina, and thought that he might not even be able to meet her again on earth. Tina continued, “I was found in the ex border line area of North Korea and China. That was when I was only a tiny baby, less than 1 year old. No pictures, no letters, there was nothing with me. No, not nothing actually.” Tina pulled off a little ornament which was attached to her silver necklace. It was a coin with a hole in the middle. “The baby was gripping this coin with her hand. The person who found me tried to open up her hand but she was holding onto it so tight that he wondered if she had a disabled hand or something,” said Tina.

She passed through several tests and became a pilot, and before that she was a guitarist at a fusion punk group. Jay know these kind of facts about Tina but it was the first time he heard about the real Tina inside of her.

“My parents who had adopted me passed away. They were shot dead actually. I really do not have any warm childhood memory,” said Tina. Jay patted Tina gently on the back and said, “Are you leaving because of that?” “Hmm..yes, kind of. Out there, we are all alone,” said Tina.

Tina was a lively and energetic person. Her Korean was not fluent, so Jay thought that perhaps her family immigrated to the States several decades ago, but never had he imagined that she was an orphan who nearly starved to death near a North Korea – China borderline.

“Before saying goodbye to the blue planet, I wanted to leave a meaningful trace so that I could be remembered by someone,” Tina said with a pitiful look. Jay kissed Tina on her forehead as if putting a full stop onto Tina’s monologue. Just for this moment, Jay wanted Tina to feel the warmth in his arms. When the two of them drove the car back to Vision Mars, the sun began to rise. Tina let Jay get off of her car, and showed him her crossed fingers.

“Cross. This is a sign of good luck. I am not sure who showed it to me, but this is my very first memory.” Tina raised her hands to her eyebrow, with her fingers still crossed. Then, she drove off without looking back.

...

The sky was clear with no cloud in sight above the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 at the Merritt Islands, Florida. This complex was simultaneously planned with the Apollo project and thus, the Apollo 11 Saturn V rocket was launched right here – a symbolic place in space history. The Rocket Stumpalos is now taking over the legend. Humankind had reached out for the moon and now they are challenging for the Mars. It is said that Space Odyssey has spent quite a sum of money to the parliament in order to launch at this launch complex.

Instead of the Saturn series, The Falcon Heavy of Space X were in charge of taking the crews upto the orbit of the earth. This gigantic rocket made of three Falcon series tied up, having been stocked up on fuels and oxidants, was waiting for the launch. Each propellants had already been re-used more than 20 times. The main body was surrounded by a thin ice layer, due to liquid oxygen and methane.

The live broadcast team were chatting among themselves while the count down proceeded. There was time left till the actual launch. No audio was on broadcast yet.

“I heard the Mars One Project will be merged,” said commentator. “Is that so? Then, this launch would be their first and the last? I also heard about the rumour...” said the host. “Yeah, same here. They don’t have the capacity to send supplies to Mars. This is so damn crazy. Who on earth would take over such reckless project?” said commentator. “We’ll go live in 10 seconds. No more chatting,” the producer noticed the team.

Jay took a day off work and was sitting on the front row of the launch observatory. He bought a telescope to see better. Jay knew that he cannot get anywhere near Tina nor could he wave his hand at her, but he desperately had to be there. That was all he could do. Jay drank water from his water bottle again and again, as he felt his mouth dry. Tina was seated at the very top part of that dangerous thing which was about to blast off. Rockets are the most monstrous creation mankind had invented. They were weapons at first...

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 Engine start.”

The 27 clustered merlin engine started to spit out fire simultaneously. Water spread from the launch pad in order to beat the heat, were immediately vaporized due to the massive fire. The unmanned camera fixed at the launch pad was quaking. People started shouting out the count down like a chorus.

“4, 3, 2, 1 Lift off.”

When the launch pad let go, Falcon Heavy started moving slowly. The underneath of the rocket shone bright with orange light. The high pressure of oxidized energy from the chamber pushed off the massive weighted, the 1,420 ton rocket. People applauded aloud. The number indicated on the top right side of the live broadcast screen changed from minus to plus. “May Mars One Project bring new hope to mankind...” the commentator siad.

At that moment, Falcon Heavy tilted sideways, and started collapsing. It was the most dreadful instant. The rocket hit the launch pad so hard that a spark bright enough to blind the eyes soared aloud. Then, as the liquid fuel and oxygen oxidized, everything was gulped down. Terrible explosion and blinding light blew up and flared altogether. At the top of the rocket, the command module’s emergency escape engine did activate. However, the module did not succeed in separating from the rocket’s main body.

Everybody got petrified. They could not believe in the scene unfolding before their eyes. Jay screamed. He ran out of the observatory building. Yet, all the doors connected to the launch pad were already locked tight. Jay pushed the guard and tried to approach nearer to the barbed-wired fence. He heard the CLUNCK sound of the gun loading.

“One more step closer, I will shoot,” the security guard warned. Jay knew. It was meaningless. Even if he reach the launch pad, nothing changes. It’s now over and nothing could change what had happened. Tina, Tina disappeared into the bright orange colored fire. Jay wailed.