by Water Walker
The flight was listed at GHQ as Project Songbird. It was sponsored by Space Medicine Labs.
The goal was simple: circle the planet Equus at the highest altitude ever attempted.
The pilot was Captain Rainbow Dash.
A hand-picked pony, Captain Rainbow Dash was chosen for the most important project of the year because she and her VX-3 had already broken all previous records set by hordes of V-2s, Aerobees, and anything else that flew in low orbit.
Rainbow Dash, first pony to cross the sea of air... and to sight open, unlimited space... a pioneer flight to infinity.
* * * * * * * *
Rainbow had been hand-picked and thoroughly conditioned to take it all without more than a ten percent increase in her pulse rate. So Rainbow worked as matter-of-factly as if she was in the Space Medicine Lab’s centrifuge... where she had been schooled for this trip for months.
She grinned and hummed to herself as she settled down for the long jaunt. Too busy to be either thrilled or scared as she considered the thirty-seven instruments she'd have to read and adjust, the twice-that-many records to keep, AND keep the ship on an even keel!
Rainbow kept up a running fire of oral reports through her helmet radio, down to Rough Rock and her CO: "All is good Colonel Spitfire - temperature falling fast but this rubberoid space suit keeps me cozy, no chills... Doc Bee will be happy to hear that! Weightless sensations are pretty queer and I feel upside-down as much as rightside-up, but no bad effects... Taking shots of the sun's corona now... huh? Oh, yes, ma'am... it's beautiful all right, now that you mention it. But, hell, ma'am, who's got the time for aesthetics now?... Oops!... that was a close one!... another meteor just whizzed past. Kinda reminds me when the Diamond Dogs launched gems at us during the Great Skirmish!"
Rainbow couldn't help wincing when the meteors peppered past. The "flak" of space. Below she could see the meteors flare up brightly as they hit the atmosphere. Most of those near her position were small... none bigger than a hoofball. Rainbow took comfort in the fact that her rocketship was small - compared to the immensity around her. A direct hit would be sheer bad luck, but the good old law of averages was on her side.
"Yes, Colonel, this tincan I'm riding is holding together okay," Rainbow continued to Rough Rock. If she paused even a second in her reports a yell from the Colonel's throat came back for her to keep talking. Every bit of information she could transmit to them was a vital revelation in this exploration of the space beyond Equus's air cushion.
"Cosmic rays, ma'am? Sure, the reading shot up on the Geiger ... huh? Naw, I don't feel a thing ... like Doc Bee suspected, we invented a lot of Old Mare's Tales in advance, before going into space. I feel fine, so you can put down cosmic ray intensity as Midnight Mare story stuff. What's that? Yeah, yeah, Colonel, the stars shine without winking. What else?... Space is inky black—no deep purples, or blacker-than-black, like some jetted-up writers dreamed up—just plain old ordinary dead black. But there is a BIZZILLION stars! Equus?... Well, it does look dish-shaped from up here, concave... Sure, I can see all the way to Griffonstone and—say! Here's something unexpected. I can see that wild storm off the coast of Baltimare.... You said it, ma'am! Once we install permanent space stations up here it will be easy to spot typhoons, volcano eruptions, tidal waves - what have you, the moment they start. If you ask me, with a good telescope you could even spot forest fires the minute they broke out, not to mention a sneak attack on a —-"
Rainbow broke off, and almost retched as her stomach turned a flip-flop to end all flip-flops. She gulped oxygen from the emergency tube at her lips and felt better. The VX-3 had reached the peak of its trajectory at over 1600 kilometers of altitude, and is now leveling off, lazily at first, but with the grace of a ballet dancer going in slow motion.
"Leveling on schedule, Rough Rock. Peak altitude 1668 kilometers. Everything fine, no danger. This was all a cinch.... HEY! Wait.... Something not in the books has popped up ... stand by!"
Rainbow had felt her ship swing a bit, strangely, as if gripped by a strong force. Instead of staying even with the planet - the ship, with a slight pitch, slanted sideways, and spun on its long axis.
Then Rainbow saw what it was... a tiny black worldlet, 1606 kilometers above Equus.
It was beneath the ship, and intercepting her trajectory, coming around fast over the curvature of Equus.
It might be an enormous meteor, but Rainbow felt she was right the first time. For it wasn't falling like a meteor but swinging parallel to Equus’s surface on even keel.
She stared at the unexpected discovery, as amazed as if it were a fire-breathing dragon. For it was, she realized in swift, stunned comprehension, more amazing than any dragon could be.
Rainbow kept her voice calm: "Hello, Rough Rock... Listen ... nobody expected this ... hold your hat, ma'am, and sit down. I've discovered a second moon of Equus!... Uh huh, you heard me right! a second moon! Tie that, will you?... Sure, it's tiny, about five kilometers in diameter I'd say. Dead black in color. I guess that's why telescopes never spotted it. Tiny and black, blends into the black backdrop of space. It has terrific speed. And that little maverick's gravitational field caught my ship.... Of course it can't yank me away from Equus's gravity, but the trouble is— yipe! my ship and that moonlet may be in for a mutual collision course..."
Rainbow's trained eye suddenly saw a grim possibility. Barreling around Equus in a low orbit, with a speed of something near or over 19,000 kilometers an hour, her ship was yanked from it’s scheduled course — towards the tiny new moon! It was a chance in a thousand for a direct hit, except for one added factor — the moonlet exerted enough gravity to pull the ship into its path. And the thousand-to-one odds were thus wiped out, becoming even money.
"Nip and tuck," reported Rainbow, answering the excited pleadings and questions from Rough Rock. "It won't be a head-on crash. I may even miss it s entirely.... Oh, Celestia! Not with that spire of rock sticking up from it.... I'm going to hit that ..."
Rainbow had felt the vibrations of her ship’s rainboom. This felt like a string of them as the ship smashed into the rocky prominence.
The rock splintered!
The ship splintered!
But Rainbow was not there to be splintered likewise. She had punched THE BUTTON, at the critical moment, which blew the ship's emergency escape-hatch, then she and the seat was was ejected... a split-second before the violent impact.
But Rainbow blacked out, receiving some of the concussion of the exploding ship.
* * * * * * * *
When her eyes snapped open she was floating like a feather in open, airless space. Her rubberoid spacesuit, living up to its rigid tests, had inflated to its elastic limit. But it held and, within its automatic units, began feeding her oxygen, heat, and radio-power. She had a chance, because she had been ejected cleanly from the ship... without damage to the protective suit.
The stars wheeled dizzily around her. Rainbow finally saw the reason why: She was not just floating as a free agent in space, she was circling the black moonlet; at perhaps a distance of a thousand meters from its pitted surface.
"Hello... Rough Rock," she called. "Still alive and kicking ma 'am. Only now, of all crazy-mad things, I'm a moon of this moon! I must have been ejected in the same direction as the moonlet's course, in its gravity field.... I don't know. Let Twilight Sparkle figure it out some other time.... Anyway, now I'm being dragged along in the orbit of the moonlet—how about that?... Yes, ma'am, I'm circling down closer and closer to the moonlet.... No, don't worry, ma'am, It has a weak gravity pull, only a fraction of an Equus-g force. So I'm drifting down gently as a cloud.... Stand by for my landing on Equus's second moon!"
The bloated figure in the bulging space suit circled the black stony surface several more times, in a narrowing spiral, and finally landed with a soft skidding bump that didn't even jar Rainbow's teeth. She bounced several times from a diminishing height of 18 meters, in a grotesque slow-motion before she finally came to a stop.
Rainbow sat still for a moment, adjusting to the fantastic fact of being shipwrecked on an unchartered moonlet, slowing down her pulse rate — which might be over ten percent by now.
"Okay, Rough Rock, I hear you.... You're telling me?... Obviously, I'm marooned here. No ship to leave with. No way to get back to terra firma ... what? If you'll pardon my saying so, ma'am, that's a silly question.... Of course I'm scared! Scared green. Sorry about the ship, ma'am, losing it for you.... Me, ma'am? Thank you, ma'am, but stop apologizing, will you? I know you haven't got any duplicates of the VX-3 ready... no rescue ship..."
Rainbow listened a moment longer then broke in roughly. "Oh, for Celestia's sake, will you stop crying over me, ma'am? So it ends here. I might have bought it during the Diamond Dogs event... forget it."
Rainbow grinned suddenly. "Look, what have I got to kick about? I'll go out in a flash of glory—at least one headline will put it that way—and I'll get credit in the history books as the pony who discovered that Equus has two moons! What more could I ask, really?"
Rainbow blushed at the reply from Rough Rock. "Will you lay off please, Spitfire? How else should a pegasus take it? I'm still scared silly inside. But, look, I've really got something to report now. This little runt moon makes tracks around Equus probably every four hours. If I remember my Spacenautics right, I'm already looking down over the Everfree Forest. I'm going to get a pretty terrific view of the whole world in four more hours, which is just about how much oxygen I've got left.... Lucky, eh?"
Rainbow looked down, watching in fascination the majestic wheeling of Equus below her. Rainbow's little moonlet did not spin, rather it rotated once for each revolution around Equus, as the Moon did, keeping one face earthward, giving her an uninterrupted view. The Macintosh Hills on Equus came into clear view, then The South Luna Ocean... No, what she saw was slanting southwest. It would be across the equator, past Arimasti Territory, then perhaps near the South Pole, then up around over the top of the world, past the icy north territory, then back over the Everfree Forest... in that great circle around the globe. In any case, it was the speediest trip around the world ever made by pony!
"Before we're out of mutual range, Rough Rock, I'm going to explore this new moon. Stand by for reports."
Rainbow did her walking in huge leaps that propelled her 15 meters with each step with only a slight effort, due to the extremely feeble gravity of the tiny body. What did she weigh here? Probably no more than an 30 grams.
"Nothing much to report, Colonel. It's a dead, airless pip-squeak planetoid, just a big 10 kilometer thick rock, probably. No life, no vegetation, no ponies, no nothing. Guess you might call me the Pony in the Second Moon—and the joke's on me! Well, one and three-quarter hours of oxygen left, by the gauge, or 105 minutes—sounds like more that way.... What's that, ma'am? Your voice is getting faint. Any last requests from me? Well, one favor... maybe. Pick up my body some day with another ship... Yeah, it'll stay preserved up here in this deep-freeze of space.... Thanks, ma'am... Can't hear you much now. Going out of range. Give Applejack my fondest. You know, the blonde.... Well, Spitfire — goodbye now."
Rainbow was glad that Rough Rock's radio voice faded to a whispery nothingness. It wasn't easy to stay casual now. There was nothing more to say, really, and she didn't want to hear any more crying from the CO. Spitfire had sounded almost hysterical. Rainbow wanted just to be alone with her thoughts now, making her final peace with the universe....
Rainbiw checked the gauge with her watch—ninety minutes of oxygen to zero. Or, she thought with a grin, eternity minus ninety minutes.
She was beginning to have trouble breathing. But it was awesomely grand, watching the sweep of Equus above her, the procession of dots that were islands strung across the South Luna Ocean... like a necklace of green beads. She was still within radio range of ships below at sea. Yet she didn't contact them. Rainbow had nothing to say, like a ghost in the sky.
Idly, she kept pitching loose stones, watching their rifle-like speed shoot away from her. Again a phenomenon of the weak gravity of the moonlet. Actually, she was able to pick up a boulder 3 meters across and heave it away with ease.
We, who are about to die amuse ourselves, she thought.
Then, because a thread of stubborn hope still clung in a corner of her mind, she got an idea. It had lurked just beyond her mental grasp for some time now. Something significant...
Abruptly, face alight, Rainbow switched on her radio and contacted a ship below, asking them to relay her to Rough Rock with their more powerful transmitter.
"Ahoy, Rough Rock! Stop adding up my insurance, Colonel! I'm coming back... No, ma'am, I haven't gone out of my head, ma'am. It's so simple it's a laugh, ma'am... See you in a few hours, ma'am!"
* * * * * * * *
Rainbow grinned when they hauled her dripping form from the sea. Aboard the research search ship, they cut her out of the space suit which was still attached to the emergency twin parachutes. But her helmet was gone, for she had ripped it loose, Rainbow had been breathing fresh Equus air during the long parachute descent.
They stared at her like she was a dead pony come alive.
* * * * * * * *
"Impossible to escape?" She chuckled, repeating their babble. "That's what I thought too, until I remembered those data tables on gravity and escape velocity and such — how, on the Moon, the escape velocity is much less than on Equus. And on that tiny second moon—well, my clue was when I threw a stone into the air and it never came back."
Rainbow gulped hot coco.
"I got off the moonlet myself, then I got up to more than a kilometer above it where — I was free of its feeble gravity. But I was still in the same orbit circling Equus. I'd would have continued revolving as a pony/satellite forever, of course, but for this emergency gadget hooked to my belt."
Rainbow held up the metal gun with its empty tank and needle-nose half burned away.
"Reaction pistol. Fires hydrazine and oxidizer, ordinary jet-rocket principle. Aiming it toward the stars, opposite Equus, its reactive blasts shoved me Homeward, thanks to Scholar Newton. I needed a speed of about one-quarter kilometer a second. The powerful little jet gun had only my small mass to shove in free space, without gravity or friction. That broke me from a free-fall to Equus.
"Then I spiraled down under gravity pull. I reached lung-filling air density just in time, just before my oxygen gave out. One more danger was that I began heating up like a meteor due to air friction. I flung out a prayer first, followed by my twin parachutes, designed for extreme initial shock. They held. Slowed me to a paratrooper's drift as I descended the rest of the way down."
"Wait," a puzzled pilot objected. "Your story doesn't hang together. How did you get off that moonlet? How did you get up there, a hundred kilometers above it, away from its gravity? There was nobody to throw you, like a stone."
"I threw myself," said Rainbow. First I ran as fast as I could, maybe halfway around that moonlet, to get a good running start. And then—"
Rainbow Dash's grin then was undoubtedly the biggest grin in history....
"Well, since the feeble gravity couldn't pull me back again, what I really did was to jump clear off that rock!"
If you liked this, please consider reading science fiction stories written durning the 1930s thru 1950s... a lot of it is STILL great stuff.
*the artwork is by gordonfreeguy