Rasputin of the East

＜ Episode 348 >

Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire.

I was in the garden of the Winter Palace.

It was still fine. At least he wasn’t in the state of being able to rely on a cane.

I was able to stand on the ground with my two legs and see the world with my own two eyes.

But just because I’m overflowing with energy today, I can’t be sure that tomorrow will be okay.

‘Still, I think we can live another 10 or 20 years if our hearts are the same.’

Even if I die tomorrow, it’s been a long time since I thought that I wanted to leave a trace of my existence in the world.

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Maybe it’s my obsession, I don’t know.

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My obsession in my past life.

Well, the name of the country was engraved on a continental basis in a very large way, so one thing became certain.

“grandfather.”

“Anastasia, are you here?”

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My eldest granddaughter, Anastasia, walked in. She is the red-haired princess of the imperial family that Victor gave to me.

Even the child had grown a lot.

“What do you see?”

“Okay.”

I sat on the bench.

“President Kennedy declared that he would send people to Mars during his tenure. It’s a nuclear-powered spaceship, and the crew…”

“Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, they’re both going to land.”

“Did you know?”

“It is often mistaken for me to be indifferent to the affairs of the world, but there are still many who are loyal to me.”

12-year-old Anastasia pouts her lips.

“If I was in office this time, it would be four years at the most, but I don’t know what kind of guts it is, and if I fail, there will be a lot of backlash.”

“It’s an extension of his brother’s declaration, since the 1970s are only a few years away. Even if the space shuttle plan is difficult within this term, I am confident that it is being carried out so smoothly that if I am re-elected, I will be able to start commissioning for my own term.

“Aren’t we like that?”

“Something is already being prepared. Around the same time as the Americans, we’re going to put a more advanced spacecraft into space, Meriya.”

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Meriah (Мрия), his name is Dream.

“It’s nuclear, but it doesn’t use the same ignorant method as the Americans. I mean, you mean, you’re going to ignorantly load nukes and blow them up from behind? It’s too dangerous.”

Since it was a full-fledged military space shuttle with space war in mind, there was a high possibility that it would be equipped with equipment such as machine guns and missiles, but we did not talk about that.

It didn’t fit the name of a dream.

The name given to small, efficient, and firepower-coated, formalized military equipment, the dream.

Isn’t it funny, if it was given a name like Molniya (Lightning), I would understand.

Although it had a mission to further develop humanity, NASA was absorbed by the US Air Force and reborn as the US Space Force, and outer space, which was supposed to secure the future of mankind, has turned into an arms race of another meaning.

How many nuclear weapons and satellite weapons of the US Space Force will be aimed at this place? There are probably more than 10 satellites aiming at that muzzle with the momentum to at least pierce my head.

The number of tanks and armored vehicles pointing at each other has decreased slightly, and the number of nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers has decreased, but military satellites are densely filling low-Earth orbit.

The concept of mutually assured destruction also works.

After China’s nuclear explosion, massive anti-nuclear protests took place in the United States, and anti-war groups sprang up one after another, but that was all.

“I’m going to write.”

“Yes?”

As Anastasia tilted her head at the words that came out of nowhere, I stroked her hair.

“After the process of handing over power to your father is complete, if our Lord Almighty grants me life, then I will write.”

“Writing…. nice writing, what are you going to use?”

“Well, should I write a novel or a thesis? It would be nice to go back to my main job after a long time, since my main job is a doctor.”

“to?”

“Well, I didn’t take the Hippocratic Oath, but I am a doctor anyway. Unlicensed…… It was, but there was no such thing as a license in those days. Well, it’s worth a try. Going to medical school and enjoying the campus life. That was my wish.”

It is the same in a previous life.

I’m a college graduate, do you think it makes sense to say that I’ve never seen a university building until the day I graduate? I didn’t even know the names of the guys I went to college with, except for those who did the group assignment together.

‘Suddenly I’m mad.’

-I’m sorry, I can’t hold the Zoom meeting because I have an urgent business.

I really wanted to lose. So when I asked what was going on, I read it. starter. In the end, I dropped the name, but honestly, it didn’t solve the problem.

“……Are you grandpa?”

I couldn’t help but laugh when Anastasia put on a trembling expression on her face.

“I’m joking, I wonder what the professors will look like if I suddenly show up in the classroom saying I’m an undergraduate.”

Or, how about anonymously publishing a commentary on the current government’s policies in a newspaper… But was that what the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary did in the past?

Even if he did, Victor’s blood pressure would rise beyond control, so he decided to quit.

***

Outer space, the United States Space Force’s space station ‘Freedom’.

This ‘object’ is a space station.

Of course, countries doubt whether it should be called a space station.

First, according to the plan, dozens of additional modules should be connected to form a shape, and three company-level troops should also be able to reside there.

For this purpose, artificial gravity compartments will also be built, and the basic systems of all of these will be tested on the currently docked spacecraft, Athena.

But right now, Freedom is just one module docked in Athena under construction.

No, to be honest, it is only an area where the astronauts who build Athena are reorganized and receive supply ships, so it would be unavoidable for astronauts to self-proclaim Freedom as a ‘lodging for highly educated construction workers’.

Of course, if everything goes according to plan, Freedom will end up docked with Athena.

The purpose of Freedom’s development is the cornerstone of the ‘Mars Gateway Project’.

A nuclear pulse-powered spacecraft heading to Mars, Athena is the world’s first spacecraft assembled. Russia succeeded earlier in the project of docking two or more spacecraft, but the United States was the first in the world to build a spacecraft by assembling several parts in outer space.

-Freedom, this is Houston, I need video information about ‘Gorgon’ of ‘Aegis’.

-This is Freedom, please resend it.

Aegis (American pronunciation of Aegis, shield of Athena) is a huge shield designed to convert plasma generated from a nuclear explosion, which is essential for the operation of a nuclear pulse propulsion system, into propulsion, and at the same time prevent the body of the spacecraft from being damaged by the nuclear explosion.

And ‘Gorgon’ refers to a system that discharges nuclear warheads piled up in a spaceship, just like extracting Coke from a vending machine. The hero Perseus beat Medusa’s head and offered it to Athena, and the mirror shield that was lent to Perseus had Medusa’s or Gorgon’s head embedded in it.

Therefore, it was inevitable that the nuclear launch system was nicknamed Gorgon, and the nuclear warhead itself was nicknamed Medusa. The ship was named Athena.

-The Athena command line reported that the Medusa cartridge’s dispensing system is not responding, and the opening and closing system is not working. It is difficult to determine the cause on board, so a spacewalk is necessary.

-copy.

The astronaut, who cut off communication, sighed.

“Are you on a spacewalk again?”

It’s the most fantastic experience in the world and it’s a naval experience, and it’s only when you’re dazed at first, and you can afford to take a commemorative photo or take a commemorative picture. It has completely disappeared since a couple of years ago.

The reason they do spacewalks is because they have very complex and demanding missions that must only be done in space.

And astronauts in spacesuits learn how tricky it can be to hold a single screw in a spacesuit in zero gravity.

In other words, for them, spacewalking is not a time to appreciate the wonders of the infinite universe, but a time of hard work, and it is nothing like changing clothes and going to work after the alarm bell rings to announce the time to go to work in the morning.

From the emperor to the finale, there are very few people on Earth who like to go to work, and few outside of Earth.

“Uh… Athena Crew, try opening and closing again.”

-enforcement.

“……Opens and closes normally. Inform you, Gorgon is working fine. It seems to be a display problem on the computer.”

-Confirmed. We will test the Medusa pile discharge as scheduled. Visually check if the medusa is being ejected.

“Okay, I’m going back to the safe zone. When you signal, get out.”

-i get it.

“You can take it out, Crew.”

-3. 2. 1. Emission.

A cylindrical object separated with a ton of sound.

The shape was the same as a standard nuclear warhead used in reality, but it was not a real nucleus, but a dummy object that was painted blue and the weight and volume were matched by putting reinforced concrete in the center.

The dummy nuclear warhead quickly fell into the Earth’s atmosphere and disappeared as a meteor because it was deliberately directed towards the Earth.

“If I had been hit by that, I wouldn’t have been able to pluck the bones, Crew. The dummy re-enters the atmosphere.”

-Check, check the normal operation of the system, check the lighting error of the open/close indicator.

The size of the spacecraft was literally ignorantly large.

Carrying only three people in such a spaceship seems like an extreme waste of space, but it requires space for various types of food, oxygen, and water, and it was not good to increase the number for nothing.

Crucially, as the development of the shuttle was pushed back to the next priority, the number of passengers on the first manned Mars expedition was also set to three.

“There has been no news of where the Russians are going since they went to the moon, but at least they would want to see the far side of the moon.”

The reason Russia no longer went to the moon after the Lunar Project, which set foot on the moon once, is simple.

Because the astronomical budget was invested, the accompanying profits were not large.

On the other hand, the United States, whose pride was crumpled, was a profit and a naval for Mars exploration, and had to go anyway. If Russia lost the honor of the world’s first exoplanet exploration, the story was a little different because the United States really had to send people to other stars or something, and most of what should have been originally invested in the military budget was going to the cost of space development.

Obviously, the military class that currently takes the most money from the US was the Air Force, followed by the Navy, and the Army was treated the most.

And, it probably won’t change for quite some time.