“Had this happened even fifty years ago, we would have lost all ability to manage our resources and the Project would not happen. Understanding that more and more reliance on technology and ‘delicate’ devices, Alice and myself long ago introduced a standard of manufacturing and design to include shielding and surge mitigation in all new equipment and other manufactured devices. That all paid off during this past solar maximum.”
“The project has been hampered to a degree; however, my projections currently indicate that the Project will finish on time instead of ahead of schedule. Alice is coordinating planet side repairs to the infrastructure and I am coordinating repairs aboard ship. The process of going through the whole ship, bit by bit, checking for instabilities from this event will be ongoing for some time after departure. The schedules and data pertaining to the presentation is in your data packets.”
“Thank you, Sonny,” Izzy said. “I know that the solar max crisis was almost five years ago, and the Project ship have only recently moved back to its original stationary orbit. A certain amount of this is ‘old’ news, however, a lot of details related to the solar max are rife with lessons that we could take with us at departure.”
T-Minus 15 Years
“Momma, can we go to the park?” The little boy tugged on his mother’s pant leg. Being four years old was rough. Everything was always taller, bigger, stronger, and sassier than you.
“You always want to go the park sweetie,” Ellen Parker said with a tone that was both loving and exasperated at the same time.
Ellen and Clint, with their four-year-old son Louis, came to the Mars facilities just two years ago and were settling in fairly well. Louis was the most enthusiastic. He looked at the whole affair as an enormous adventure. And it was an adventure! Even with all the advancements the Project spun off to all humanity, living on another planet was still rare for the average citizen of Earth. Ellen worked in production, adjusting inventory and preparing shipments at the mining facility. Clinton worked construction, building more domes and apartments for people like themselves. It seemed like an excessive amount of buildings for just the mining facility. Maybe they’re expanding operations or taking on tourists. She didn’t know. Both of them worked things out so that they would overlap shifts a little to do some things together, like going to the park. This way, babysitter time was kept to a minimum. Family was important. Her shift was coming up soon, so maybe a quick trip to the park would be alright.
“There really isn’t much else to do,” Louis pleaded; “besides, I wanna watch the shipment launches. I checked, and the next launches will be in about twenty minutes. If we go now, we can catch it! Can we go PLEASE?” Louis knew that if he also gave her the charming toothy grin when he said PLEASE, this increased the odds greatly. Unbeknownst to Louis, his mother had already decided to grant his wish.
“I suppose we can spend a little time at the park, but we have to go back when I say, because I have to go to work in a while,” Ellen negotiated.
The boy squealed, “OK! OK! Where is dad at?”
“I think he’s getting up from his nap. See if he wants to go with us,” she replied.
“OK!” And off he dashed to the bedroom. He opened the door quietly, in case he was sleeping. He peeked around the corner and saw that not only was he awake, but was almost dressed. “Hi dad, mom and I were going to the park. Do you want to come with us?” Clint arrived home about an hour and a half ago, and just finished taking his hour nap so that he would be a little fresher during the family’s overlap time.
“Again, eh? Sure thing buddy; I don’t mind going to the park. It is the prettiest part of this dust hole. Tell your mom I’ll be ready in a couple of minutes.” Louis raced back to his mother and delivered the message, and soon they were on their way to the park.
The ‘park’ as it was called, was one of four currently constructed. They were an oasis in the desert that was Mars. It was a pity that this will all be laid to waste when the neutron star arrives in the neighborhood. The techniques that were learned in its construction could have led to the eventual terraforming of Mars. As it was, it was merely an end to a means. It really was beautiful! The whole settlement was in the northern latitudes to take advantage of the local water. The soil was Martian soil. It was imported into the dome because it had a base, and was not open to the environment. The soil was porous, and so held water very well. This made planting easy. There were groves of fruit trees and sections for growing food. All throughout the dome were walking paths to take you anywhere inside the expanse. Along the farthest outward ring that ran along the transparent dome walls, was a wide strip of grass seventy-five feet wide, dotted only occasionally with trees and flowers. This was called the ‘observation ring’ since this was the closest you could get to the dome wall and see what was going on outside. A particular spot on the observation ring had Martian stone bench seats and sculptures. There were lots of benches arranged like a chapel. Here you could watch the shipments being launched and heading for Earth and the Project ship. It also served multiple uses as a worship place, ceremonies, and the number one place to be married. Most people did not marry anymore, although they were generally monogamous. The family arrived at this ‘launch observation’ spot just in the nick of time. In the distance, the end of an enormous ramp was visible. The spaceport was ten miles away and was different from the ones on Earth. Because the gravity was less on Mars, you could launch about three times the payload with the same amount of energy, which is what they did. There were three spaceports on Mars, and they were busy all the time. Unlike on Earth, Mars suffered from dust storms from time to time. If they were severe enough, they would halt launches. Today was one of those ‘catch up’ weeks from a particularly nasty dust storm that lasted two weeks.
“Hey mom, dad, look!” Louis pointed as they approached the rows of benches at the observation spot as the first of the ships launched. They were magnificent and enormous transport ships. Most of them were easily a kilometer long, and a half a kilometer wide. They shot out of the end of the ramp at a deceptively slow speed. They only appeared to be moving slower than they really were because they were so large. Louis never got tired of watching them speed off into space.
“Dad, why doesn’t the Project ship have a name?”
“Well Louis,” his father began, “a ship is typically named when it is christened. Currently a name has not been chosen, so we just call it the Project ship. When the ship is ready to depart in about another ten years, a name will be chosen. What name would you choose for our mighty ship to the stars, Louis?”
“How about ‘The Enormous’,” he proffered.
“Well,” his father said, “that sure is a descriptive name. However, I’m sure that whatever the name that is chosen, it will be a fitting one.” They sat and watched the launches for a while longer before taking the tube back home so that Louis’s mother could get ready for work.
∆∆∆
Consortium Meeting
“Section chiefs, the meeting will begin in five minutes,” Sonny reminded them over the inner-comm. The inner-comms had been standard issue to every man, woman, and child above the age of ten for about eight years now. They were the same sort as the military and other sections used for decades, but were more sophisticated. Sonny could have had the power to stun people with the device as well, making policing and controlling aggressors moot. It was decided in the end, that this was too much power to give to any one entity, even a benevolent A.I.; maybe, especially an A.I. machine.
“Thank you, Sonny,” Izzy said appreciatively.
“You are quite welcome, Izzy,” Sonny replied as Isabela asked to be addressed. It was OK to be informal when someone was speaking to you in your head. The biggest advantage to the inner-comms was that Sonny could address any specific person or persons that needed to hear the information. This made cross talk chatter a thing of the past, and ‘need to know’ issues targeted precisely, no matter where the person was on the planet. As time was growing neare
r to departure, it was more and more necessary for Sonny and Alice to be able to alert and address any member of humanity for efficiency and coordination. As the members were filing in and taking their places, Izzy wondered if she would make it to the departure time. She was sixty-two now and reasonably fit. Ten more years should not be too much to ask. It wasn’t that she would be on the list to go, as the entire consortium members were, but to see the Project through to completion. To see the ship heading for its destiny, knowing that humanity would survive this unfair tragedy.
“Good morning everyone,” Izzy began. “I know that we have a lot to talk about today, so we will get right to it.” Izzy motioned toward the dais, “if you please, Dr. Allen.”
“Thank you, Chairman Rocha,” Matt began. “As some of us have feared, people leaving for the Mars facility has triggered a panic that is small now, but promises to be the uncontrollable panic we feared before departure. We started migrating people to Mars a few years ago. Although we used a recruitment campaign as a ruse to select the people who will be traveling in the sleepers, conspiracy theories are growing concerning the mass of people selected for a relatively small mining community. More and more people are seeing this as the ‘signal’ of the mass exodus, and that departure is eminent. Sonny recommends that we try to be more ‘transparent’ to the public about the hiring of people for the Mars colony. Actually, do what we say we are doing. If we say that we are expanding operations at the mining facility, then we should expand it. We do not need to expand the facility, but it will provide the ‘transparency’ that we need to convince people. Essentially, the fewer lies that we must tell for the sake of the Project, the better off we will be. With the increasing paranoia, it is really about the only way to keep a lid on this. So, starting next week, we will be making some announcements, and strategic ‘leaking’ of information, in an effort to make this campaign work.”
“We are filling apartments on Mars and more are being built. We will have completely moved everyone that is going in the next three years. Personnel on the Ship have already been replaced over the years and stand at ninety two percent selectees. The mining colony, and the construction crews building the domes and apartments, currently stands at ninety six percent. Our numbers are looking good in this critical area, except for the potential unrest that we are attempting to handle. Oddly enough, the fifty million frozen sperm and egg donation project is complete. We thought that would be harder to complete since people would determine that since they might be of good stock for freezing of their seed, they may not be going at departure. We avoided this by telling approximately seventy five percent of people that we genetically tested in the first phase, we needed their seed for ‘further testing’. We discarded about ninety eight percent of those collections and kept the seed from the people whose genes tested out favorable. This way we clouded the selection process, and people believed that the collection was for additional tests since there were too many people getting ‘additional testing’. It was more work, and so it took longer, but we had the time to do it this way. The human seed has already been stored aboard the Project Ship in the same holds as the sleepers. Those holds or chambers have additional layers of radiation protection. If everyone on board parishes for some unknown reason, Sonny and Alice can complete the mission. Once at the destination, there are facilities ready for Sonny to wake some sleepers, and if necessary, incubate fetuses, and raise them to adulthood. I must tell you, that is the biggest trick of all. To build in the infrastructure of the entire ship so that if necessary, Sonny and or Alice, could autonomously manage all phases of ship operation. This is of course a failsafe contingency plan.”
“We have lost many good people completing this part of the Project. Smuggling people in and out of places that were not so nice in an effort to have the most genetically diverse stock possible was a noble cause. Just because you may be a selectee, this does not change who you are, or your beliefs. We have had to leave many potential selectees behind because of some of the answers on the questionnaires. The questions were essentially, if you were chosen to go, would you? Would you go if that meant leaving everyone else, including family, behind? There were about half of the people answering no. They did not want to leave family, friends, or the planet behind. A significant number of these people believed that whatever happened was divine destiny, and should not be interfered with. You would think that when someone wins the lottery, they would be jubilant to accept their luck. However, that is not always what we experienced. The good genes are not often shared. One spouse may have the selection grade genes and the other spouse does not. Their children would only have a twenty-five percent chance that they would inherit the selection grade genes. When you explain this to them in the interviews, it can be a very upsetting scenario for them to digest. Watching all this transpiring has made my soul tired. I know that all of us are automatically allowed to go, but just us. I am close to my family, so I can relate to how other selectees feel. I am OK with spending the rest of my life together with family for however long that is.”
“I also know that it’s important to have purpose. I have been uniquely lucky to be able to help steer this monumental task and to have some of the biggest effects on human existence. I have all the purpose and productive contributions that humans seldom get to be a part of in their tiny life spans. I’m satisfied to stay. Having said that, I’m in a minority with this viewpoint. It’s really a hard thing to wrap your head and your heart around. It is hard that odds are you will be staying behind. Destined to see all that you love and cherish sacrificed to the doom that is the neutron star’s arrival. It is hard that a select few will be spared to live out their lives at the expense of ninety nine percent of everyone else. It’s the ultimate lifeboat scenario. Some people must live at the expense of others; and the others are not always so altruistic about their situation. It is ironic that the most massive project humanity has ever mustered, in all its history on this planet, is so puny that they can only save less than one percent of its inhabitants from destruction. I don’t think if we had a thousand years to save everyone, we could do it. I just hope that as time goes forward, and humanity is on its ‘great journey’ (which will only be easy for the sleepers), that they remember our sacrifices and hope for the future.”
“I’m sorry my friends.” Matt was just a little something. It wasn’t just depression. It wasn’t just hope. It wasn’t just someone who had seen a little too much ugliness. Nobody spoke, coughed, or sniffled. Matt was on a roll, and he was saying out loud what the whole group had just under the surface all the time. “I didn’t mean to babble off topic like that,” he apologized.
Loke stood up, “What are you talking about? I don’t know about everyone else, but I felt the catharsis through you that has made me feel better.” He walked over to Matt at the dais and shook his hand. “Thank you, my friend. I needed that. I didn’t know I needed that until you finished, but I did. Don’t apologize. It’s not like there is any kind of group therapy for us. We just keep driving on day after day and don’t look up; because if we do, we will see the doom that is always just a little closer than before, and it will paralyze us.” Everyone at that point also stood up, and approached Matt at the dais to shake his hand, offering their encouragement.
After a few minutes, Izzy needed to call the meeting back to order. “That did feel good, Matt, and thank you. But, as Loke has just mentioned, we must ‘drive on’ with the rest of the meeting. So, if everyone will take their seats again, I think it’s time we heard from General Zhou. Proceed whenever you’re ready, general.”
“Thank you, Chairman Rocha,” he replied. “I just want to add that it has been an honor working with all of you. I know that we usually only take this time of reflection when going to retirement parties or funerals. Especially in my line of work, you know that unpleasantness is just another part of the life we deal with. We don’t think about it, because it’s a distraction. However, it doesn’t mean that we don’t care. I will remember this mom
ent we all shared together, and revisit it from time to time, to remind me why I am here.” The warmness, that was rare to witness in the general, was gone now as he returned to being the General.
“As was mentioned by Dr. Allen, there is a shiver of panic that’s gripping the world. It’s hopeful that the campaign will help stem the panic. It is my opinion, and Sonny agrees with this logic, is that time will be our friend more than anything else. As a few years go by, people will see that we’re not leaving. More than that, they will see that we’re just expanding the mining facility on Mars; and will eventually drop this idea for a while. These events do illuminate what we supposed decades ago; that as we get closer to departure, we will see more knee-jerk events and paranoia will increase. Moving the sleepers to the mining facility will prove to have been the only real way to rescue as many selectees as we can.”
“It is fortuitous that the cochlear implants for human communications some years ago were already in place. It was difficult to persuade the planet about the benefits of the implants. It was pointed out that ‘the machine’ could also be listening in on every spoken word as well. While this was true, it was thought that a dispassionate machine listening in was much better than humans. People were using it seamlessly to converse with each other all around the planet, access Sonny or Alice anytime, anywhere, and people with the right access could control remotely many aspects of their work. This also made policing much easier. Had the implants notion happened now, the paranoia that has set in would never have allowed the implants to take off. There have been isolated cases of people having the implants removed secretly, but we are notified when a unit goes offline. It is possible to remove it and keep it online; however, it would be difficult to circumnavigate the diagnostic and security software. So, even though there has been a spike of lawlessness, we have been able to easily handle it so long as we have the manpower to deal with these events. There were two events that were both dealt with successfully that involved the perpetrators using old style sign language to communicate. Alice used holographic projections in both instances to impersonate members of the attacking team and misdirect them into custody.”
The Journey of Atlantis_Leaving Home Page 18
