The Journey of Atlantis_Leaving Home

by jeff knoblauch

  “Sam, could you elaborate more about hibernation?” Raj asked. “Mostly, I would like to hear about some of the research work your departments are looking at.”

  “Sure, I can give you some details,” replied Sam. “First off, we looked at all the research that had been done from all over the world since the beginning of time. Then we looked at what kinds of research were going on now in this area and whether they were going in what looked like the right direction. Currently, we are conducting experiments on volunteers and criminals. It makes discoveries come quicker when you don’t have to go through some of the animal trials and jump right to human studies. You can cut corners on some ethics when you are on a time crunch. We have five individuals that are in a hibernative state. They have been this way for two years. We will wake them each year and intensively examine their physical condition. We’ll abort this experiment and wake the rest early if a new discovery warrants new experiments. The hibernating pods will have to have a few necessities. First, they need to keep the subject in a hibernative state. Second, they need to have a standalone backup power, if for some strange reason the pods loose main power. Third, they need to have the capacity to wake the subject up without intervention from the outside. The idea here is to be able to remotely wake people in an emergency. Lastly, they need to be able to be controlled by the central computer. This will be necessary to ensure minute to minute monitoring, and if needed, to intervene in an emergency. That is a rough outline of what we are looking to accomplish.”

  “Thank you, Sam,” Hari said. “I wish you luck in those endeavors.” And now we will hear about developments in the Security section. If you please, general," Hari prompted.

  “Thank you, chairman, general McCormick nodded as he replied. Military missions are mostly going according to plan. We are always alert to interference to the Project. As you can imagine, things take place that are not of our control. We learn from these experiences and make it increasingly harder for attackers, and people who would threaten the Project to carry out their missions. Even now, there are the occasional attacks and assassinations. We are now currently working on a two-pronged approach that could sharply reduce attacks in the future. First, research and development department has invented a material, that upon impact with sufficient force, will crystallize to a substance harder than steel. This allows the wearer to be mobile and comfortable while also protected. They are made as jumpsuits so the material is continuous. I am wearing such a garment. As you can see, it does not appear to be cumbersome, and allows for full range of motion (the general moved about to show off the garment). The material will even protect you from knife attacks, not just high-speed projectiles. It has more to do with pressure per square millimeter. These are very new and we’re trying to get these out to security units all over the world, as well as dignitaries, high level officers and diplomats, and workers in dangerous areas. That is a lot of suits. I also have suits for each of you. Especially after the attempt on the chairman, I prioritized suits for our protection immediately. They will all reflect the consortium logo and branding. You can pick them up at the end of the day. If you need any alterations, let me know.”

  “The second avenue we are taking to reduce violence against the Project is psychological. I know that because of the time schedule, we are raping the planet of resources without regard to environmental issues. We believe that the people of this planet that are not going (which is more than 99% of us), need a little TLC. We think that this would be in the form of making sure that people all over the world have enough to eat, enough shelter, and purpose in their lives. We know that we’re fighting a vicious circle of discontented people. Discontented people will always find avenues of revenge for their lot in life. We self-perpetuate this by reacting to this violence which in turn make people discontent. So, I have recommended that we allocate more FAB plants and manufacturing sectors to make more products for the masses to make them more comfortable and secure. What good are we as a race if we get where we are going over the bodies of our brethren?”

  “I could not agree with you more General McCormick,” Hari commented.

  “Space security updates. We’re not blasting as much junk as we once were. Notably, one of our cannon units had to vaporize an unidentified cargo ship on an intercept course with the Project ship. Every attempt was made to contact the vessel, but in the end, the risk was too great. It was determined later that a cargo vessel was taken from the Houston space port. We don’t know what their objective was besides the obvious. Video shows that two men killed the pilot and copilot, then unloaded the containers in the hold, and then loaded containers of their own. The craft didn’t explode excessively, so if there were any nuclear device(s) aboard, they had not been armed yet. No one has taken credit for the attempt. The upshot of all this is that from our prospective, we are seeing less overall attacks, but more sophisticated attacks. We have people working on plans to address this very thing. Some of these I have already outlined earlier. Thank you.”

  “As much as I hate to admit it,” Hari said with a defeated frown, “I have to concur with the general about the suits. I believe as the general does, that more than likely, our situation will only get more violent the closer we get to departure. I pray that we can persuade people to live out what time we have left with dignity and altruism toward our fellow humans. It is asking a lot of most people, but these are unique times. Thank you general. And now, if you’re ready Dr. Deng, a report from Logistics section,”

  “Please call me Cheng, Hari,” Cheng scolded with a smile. “As the general indicated, since security measures have stepped up, schedules are being made with only occasional snags. We continue to requisition more space ports and vehicles to shuttle product to the Project. A couple of logistical feats we have had to pull off were supplying air, water, and soil to the completed rings. With thirteen rings completed, we continue to be very busy.

  “We must supply the equivalent of about one metric ton of liquefied air for each mile section of ring. About eight years ago we developed the easiest way of supplying this much air. Since it would take too long to generate the needed air, it was easier to just take it from our own atmosphere. Areas on the planet that have clean air are compressed to liquid, stored in a special container that just fits the bay of the cargo ship. The cargo ships containing the liquid air are then transported to the ship and docked to special ports that evacuated the liquid to a container on the inside of the ship. The warmth of the ship boils the air and is vented into the ship. Normal activity on the ship eventually homogenizes the air. We do not open a new ring to the rest of the ship until it has had its load of air delivered. That way air is not “diluted” filling in the empty space. That operation has been completed thirteen times now.

  "Shuttling the equivalent of five times the volume of Hoover dam to the ship has been daunting. It is not as neatly compressible as air. Why any soil you may ask? First, you cannot terraform without using soil. We are planting trees, gardens, flowers, and grass. Tree roots can go down far and wide, depending on the tree and water access. Our section has calculated that we need as much as fifty feet of soil in most places. In the soil itself, we will be carrying our bugs, microbes, small animals, and invertebrates. They will help us with gardening. For instance, worms aerate the soil and provide fertilizer. Bees will help pollinate the flowers, etc.… So not all species of this planet will be frozen storage. They will be put to work too. Also, as the Project progresses, we can best judge what is going to work on our journey and what will not. Not everything will prosper uprooted from Mother Earth. Only certain trees may adapt, or certain animals. We will try them out and make our plans as we go along. I will let the PAM section fill you in more on this area."

  "Water also takes up a lot of weight and space. The water jackets that line the ship for radiation shielding will be salt water from the ocean. This will serve two purposes. First, we need water for radiation abatement. And secondly, we will use it as a source of salt. Of all the minerals
that we need to take with us, salt is one of the major needs of this trip. We can recycle urine when we are living, and blood when we die for minerals like salt, but we have been made aware from the PAM and Resources section that what will most likely happen on a long journey is the slow loss of salt among other things. We can pull the salt out of the ocean water in the jackets and then replace it with non-salted water. At some point, we don’t know when, we will run out of this salt. But it should last quite a while. We will also have fresh water for the ponds and lakes that we will intersperse throughout the ship. These ponds and lakes will have fish and aquatic life for the dual purpose of being a part of the biosphere, and food."

  "We’re running about 2500 launches per month. Sixty percent of those launches are hauling water, air, and soil. Our section has been running logistical projects inside the ship for six years now. Those missions are mostly related to the terraforming. Since the first few ring completions, Project construction and support personnel have been living on the ship. The original space platforms are still used for protection, security and visitors. The construction crews have been the guinea pigs for making day to day living in space practical and even comfortable. We continue to make ongoing improvements.”

  “Thank you, Cheng,” said Hari genuinely pleased. “I have seen the scans and it is really something.”

  “Just a moment,” Cheng fumbled with the hand-held device. “As you can see,” he said motioning to the screen behind him. “We have thirteen rings built, but about two thirds of them, which is about nine, are mostly terraformed. The closer you get to the beginning of the Project the more complete they are. When all of us sat down and drew out the plans of this leviathan, we knew the only way to make this the quickest was to make things modular wherever we could. That means that each ring is very much a duplicate of each other. Each ring has four power plants, at least two FAB plants, a series of manufacturing plants, and storage underground for sleepers and frozen storage. Along with this, we have housing structures that support about 25,000 crew members. This means we know how many toilets we need, how many stories of building we need, how many transport vehicles we need etc.… This in turn allows us to make a sixty-five-year schedule for making x number of toilets, buildings, power plants, transport vehicles and so on.”

  “Wow, that really is something,” Raj said. “I too have seen the scans and numbers, but to actually see them on this scale, kind of takes your breath away. I have not seen the inside of the ship in person yet, but I can imagine its majesty.”

  “I have, and it does,” said Hari. “So, now we will hear from Malcolm and the Construction section.”

  “Thanks Hari, Malcolm said. “All areas of construction have had adequate personnel, since a lot of that work doesn’t require a lot of skill. On the other hand, we are running into shortages of planners, engineers, and people with metallurgical skills. Our research shows that these areas are aging more. They are not being replaced to keep pace with outgoing personnel. Since the beginning of the Project, companies have melted away, there is no retirement, and there is no money. People work if they can contribute to the Project, and that has helped in the beginning years, but we will have real shortages in the long run if we cannot convince the masses to go to school. It doesn’t cost anything. People see their shortened lives and do not see the point in going to school. ‘I’m going to school to do what; die?’ They say. It is going to be a real problem in all the areas if we don’t do something now.”

  “We have made the new alloys for the FTL drive, but we need more improvements in the areas of conductive alloys and armament technology. Currently we are on schedule with thirteen rings completed. The construction and finishing on the inside necessarily lags behind. Besides landscaping, there are roads, cities, infrastructure, manufacturing, power and FAB plants to build. Construction of the power plants, as well as FAB and manufacturing plants were finished first so that they can be used to make products there on the ship. As time goes by we will need less and less of finished products, and more raw materials. Our inside crews have more to do now than the outside crews.”

  “I have a question Monty,” said Samantha. “Since this is such a long project, technology will improve things over time. Can you tell us how we are dealing with the old technology at one end of the ship, and the newer technology at the other end of the ship?”

  “That is a good question Sam,” Monty replied. “Most of it will take care of itself. As time goes by, regular maintenance will replace some things. At about the T-minus fifteen-year mark, we will put together a retrofit team and retrofit and upgrade anything we can do in the time allowed. If we don’t get to everything, we will work these things out along the way. We will try to prioritize the more labor-intensive things to be done here and the smaller issues can be done on the way if we have to. One of the things that were essential to our situation was the fact that once the ship was on its own, it was REALLY on its own. That means that we need to be able to fabricate every part, for every device, infrastructure, vehicles, computers, etc.… There are no part stores in interstellar space that I know of. All of the 'recipes' for fabricating everything that makes up that ship will be stored in databases for access when needed.”

  “Thank you, Montgomery, thank you Sam,” Hari said. “I was wondering about that myself. Now I will bring you up to date concerning the PAM section. Collecting every plant and animal specimens have been difficult and ongoing. It was easy at first, since we were in a “target rich” environment. However, after we had collected most of these samples, it became increasingly difficult. There are many places in the world which are not safe to travel for one reason or another. Weather can be difficult to deal with. A specimen may only reside in outcroppings on the side of one mountain for instance. And there is of course, the Enders and the like stirring up violence. We collect DNA, sperm, and egg samples (in triplicate) for every animal on earth. We are continuing to collect seeds and bulbs for every plant. However, that is not the most difficult part. The most difficult part is collecting microorganisms and insects. Some of these are on the bottom of the ocean near volcanic vents. Some of these live on the highest mountains. Some of these live in the air under certain conditions. Some insects live less than twenty-four hours once a year during some season. Still, we keep collecting, because we know that we may have to “make do” with a planet that is not optimal. If we can bring as much of the biosphere with us as we can, we may get some number of plants, animals and insects to take root and help build a biosphere on the new world."

  "We do not know if we are on track or not to finish before the departure date. Our best guess is ninety five percent. Since the human race has never cataloged all the life forms of the planet before it is impossible to know. We are discovering new life forms on this planet about every month. Our section appreciates the support we have been given by the other sections to help carry out our tasks. And I would like to say thank you to all of you personally."

  "On the mineral front, we have been working closely with the construction metallurgists in the FAB plants to put together new alloys and materials that can be useful to the Project. For instance, forging steel is no longer necessary since the invention of 'tough stuff' as it has been coined. Several times stronger than steel, it has been used for all building and construction of the ship and general use throughout the Project. The best part is that the material lends itself as a medium for 'printing' using the fabricators. We need to make sure the ship has all the necessary raw materials to make these and other alloys for use on their journey. And now we will hear from Raj and our Resources section.”

  “Hello again, and thanks Hari,” said Raj. “We continue to work closely with Logistics, PAM, and Construction sections to get material to them and make schedules. We’ve had an adequate workforce so far. It turns out that working instead of twiddling your thumbs waiting for the neutron star to arrive seems to be therapeutic. Less suicides in areas of construction and mining where general labor is needed. People
say it gives them purpose and pride in helping humanity to survive."

  "New manufacturing techniques are paralleled on the ship’s FAB plants. The FAB plants in general have seen improvements and are producing things more efficiently and thusly more production. There have also been generational improvements in the fabricators themselves that should prove to expand their capabilities even more. We expect to convert other manufacturing plants into FAB plants as their techniques are absorbed by the new fabricators. This will also serve to increase production significantly for those parts, once the tolerances and quality control checks out as we expect."

  “Some years back, as you know, we were given the task of accumulating the sum of human knowledge and archiving it. This project will be ongoing right up to departure and beyond. To that end, we have pushed to create the first truly artificial intelligent machine from our successes with quantum computers. The A.I. has been quite helpful and intuitive from the start. We are feeding it the human information project as we get it and it has been very helpful categorizing, archiving, and collating the information. The A.I. is also using the information to build on its sense of human affairs and history. We made sure to plant a strong need to help humans, see to it that we depart on time, and get us to another world where we can live. It has already given us 'blue prints' on how to accomplish many tasks more efficiently for all the sections. It never sleeps or gets tired, and is always 'thinking'. We are working to hook the A.I. up to various facilities so that it can collect information on its own as it sees fit so it can work out problems that it has discovered more quickly. Soon, we will ultimately move the A.I. to the ship for security reasons. We cannot risk putting all our 'eggs in one basket' and leaving it at risk for sabotage. The A.I is currently designing its new home and sending the requirements to construction for completion.”