Firebrand Tours To The Galaxy Now Boarding. Kevin Colbran

that saves cleaning the tailpipes every week or so.”

      “Hell, buying heavy water could be expensive, I have heard it starts at $300 a litre up to near $700 depending on purity,” Kev calculated, “This shuttle holds about 5000 litres.”

      “Distilled water at dollar fifty would do, with a ten percent performance penalty and the by-product not quite as useful,” Mike said.

      “Preliminary costing for a new plant I am trying to organise, should come in at a few hundred dollars a tonne with quantity savings,” Steve said, “It delivers a thousand tonne miles per litre.”

      “The going rate for Galactic supply runs from fifty to a hundred credits per tonne which would make it economical,” Mike provided, “The principal suppliers draw their supply from a source that is nearly pure D2O with freight the main expense. When you are off the beaten track so to speak, it is easier to mine it yourself from an asteroid; Humph has a little kit behind my farm which produces a couple of tonne per year using solar power.”

      “I suppose so; I remember reading that the top of the George Washington Spire has the rarest metal of the day, it used half the world’s supply of Aluminium,” Kev said, 'Now they stick soft drink in it, and best price for recycled is $2 a kilo.'

      “The market drives the price, a hundred million dollar plant wouldn’t be viable with the output less than a thousand tonnes a week. The total market for Heavy water is currently seventeen thousand tonnes a year,” Steve assessed, “My proposed plant is to be attached to a desalination plant that is producing twenty-five megalitres of water per day, so taking the one percent would mean about 250 tonnes of D2O per day. The main running cost being for a dozen workers supervising the output, this can be quadrupled with the reverse osmosis plant running at full capacity.”

      “We can leave it to white man’s magic; let’s plan the trip to Hobart and the South Pole,” Bill suggested, “We are in Darwin so with a three-hour flight to there, wave the flag then off to the frozen south.”

      “Sounds like a plan let’s do it,” Mike said.

      Crossing the centre from north to south, this time, each taking command watching the airspace as the land passed underneath. At the two and a half mark, Bill called Hobart airport and requested descent path for helicopter landing of a twenty-ton aircraft. The controllers approved, despite struggling to maintain their professional cool. It was planned to stay overnight and leave early for Antarctica so that the flight could be completed in daylight by the shuttle, not too much of a problem as being near summer most of the day it was light.

      Departing from the Hobart aerodrome, the shuttle pointed the nose up and ascended to flight level 100. Then increasing to a ground speed of Mach 5, the high altitude increases the flight length by a factor. After an hour or so the coast of Antarctica appeared ahead and with that in view descent, and the crew initiated deceleration; Kevin called ahead McMurdo to advise of the intention to overfly, and the air traffic controller informed, though there was some query about how high and fast they were still going.

      “RAAF shuttle A78-010 descending from suborbital flight path over your position in 5 minutes mark,” Bill advised, “Inbound for landing at the South Pole; do you wish a visit over.”

      “Copy A78-010 are you rocket powered?”

      “Confirm guess, helicopter landing capable, footprint equal to Chinook with no heat stress to the pad.”

      “Visit appreciated carry on 010,”

      “Roger, McMurdo, see you in a couple of hours.”

      “As these blokes are scientists should be no drama letting them have a look and not making a fuss about being foreigners,” Bill assured.

      “They have plenty of Aussie visitors so there should be no dramas to land if there is any we just stay on board in Australian sovereign territory,” Kev added.

      “Okay if my calculations are correct we descend to ten thousand feet using a radar altimeter then we should see the permanent station and then request landing at minimal speed,” Bill suggested.

      As the base radar spotted them, they were challenged and with responses from a surprised air traffic controller, given permission to land and visit the site of the geographical South Pole.

      “Minus 20 Celsius so rug up, so we can have a look round,” Mike advised assuming the gel spacesuit. The overall effect was wearing another flight suit with a visor covering the face, “The suit will keep you warm and comfortable for as long as you are here.”

      The party exited the shuttle and greeted by the admin head who was busting at the seams restraining himself from asking too many questions as while rumours and stories abounded about the spacecraft; this was the last place he expected to see one.

      They were invited over to the new dome building recently completed after doing the obligatory happy snaps at the flagpole and marker.

      “Well as you have seen one ice planet you have seen them all,” Mike quipped, “Much the same as Hoth which is about as good as it gets at the equator.”

      After spending a couple of hours with the admin staff conducting a tour through the facilities; this was down with the expectation of the return favour seeing the inside of the shuttle the team wished their hosts farewell and headed back to McMurdo to pay a visit.

      Arriving there, they parked as directed and a bus was waiting to take them to the main base to talk to the commanding officer, Major Chris Felton, who greeted them making an effort to show them around the base also with the expectation of a tour of the shuttle.

      “What sort of power plant do you have?” Chris asked, “If this is orbitally capable it should be gigantic.”

      “Field stimulated room temperature fusion using heavy water,” Mike provided, “Fits in the back of a Kombi van.”

      “I am near the production of ground-based reactors big enough to run this place,” Steve advised.

      “We have just shut down and removed a nuclear reactor as it could have contaminated the area, so now we run on diesel and perhaps that is not much better,” Chris said.

      "I have a design for an extractor for D2O. which can be attached to the desalination plant and cut transport costs. The reactor should be on the market in a couple of years,” Steve said, “The emissions from this reactor would be non-radioactive helium and nitrogen. If you use ice water for the extractor, there should be little saline requiring disposal.”

      “Sounds good to me I will put an order in for a set of those,” Chris enthused.

      “Always willing to sell to the needy is my motto, I noticed a few of my sidearms amongst your police,” Steve said.

      “Are you that Firebrand character? Those guns are handy as no one gets hurt if they used,” Chris asked.

      “Just doing my bit for peace,” Steve said.

      “Well, it has been great meeting you,” Chris said, “Happy travels.”

      “Thank you; it has certainly ticked off one of my bucket list items. Though I will send the boys for the installation,” Steve said.

      The visit over, the team boarded the shuttle lifted off and made a straight run to Canberra delivering Bill and Kev to their base, after which onto Gympie to drop off Mike at his farm.

      Over the next week or so morning runs to Gympie with general practice, racking up the hours to qualify for a commercial licence and with the maintenance experience building up as well, Steve was ready to sit type exams as available. By then Humph's ship the Yella Terra arrived and picked up Mike for him to resume his employment.

      Becoming bored with circuit training Senior suggested to Bill and Kev that they make an interstellar trip.

      “Great idea but how long would that take?” Bill asked.

      “About a week there and back so if we carry provisions for a month it should be sweet,” Senior advised,