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“Mom, I told you I’m not hungry!” the boy answered, shouting at her for the umpteenth time, which rendered him almost impatient.
Jerry was lying on his three-quarter bed while turning a letter over and over in his hand. It was a special letter for him. He had written it after the lecture in Washington and it had to be handed over to Isabel. When? How? He did not know it yet. He read it again, for the umpteenth time, looking for the slightest mistake, but his attention was seemingly distorted by other thoughts at that moment, namely the project called For the benefit of all! in which he had decided to take part. He still could not believe what had been proposed to him during the lecture. He had not showed any hesitation, since that mission was a chance that he or any other young biologist that was passionate about astronomy as well could not let pass by. There were two other issues to deal with, though, namely his mother and Isabel. He had not had the opportunity (or, rather, he had not been brave enough) to tell his mother, Francesca, about his decision; she thought that her son had gone in Washington for an internship that the University of Chicago had organized. His days were going by and maybe the time to broach the subject with his mother had come. As for Isabel, he had arranged to ask her on a date after work so that he could deliver the letter to her and tell her anything. Or at least that was his plan. But first he had to face his mother. Finally, he plucked up his courage and left his room. He knew that she used to take her seat in the armchair and watch one of her favorite TV series after suppertime. He walked through the tiny hallway and saw her sitting there. She was calm and relaxed. The right moment to tell her everything had come.
“Mother,” he said in a thin voice, as if he did not want to disturb her.
The woman did not even answer him at first, since she was focused on watching how the first episode of the TV series was going on, but Jerry did not give up.
“Mom!”
This time the woman could hear her name clearly; she turned to Jerry.
“Oh, finally you’re here! Your supper is in the microwave oven,” she said while she went back to watching the TV series on the Smart TV screen.
“Mom, I didn’t go out for lunch, but to tell you something important,” he said.
Jerry could barely speak, but that was the right moment to speak. The woman kept on not looking at him. She glimpsed in passing and she could only say, “When the episode is over we will talk about it. Okay?”
Jerry did not like to be ignored. He could not really bear it, especially if it was his mother that did it whenever they needed to talk about something important. And it was just then that Jerry did something that he had not done before. He picked up the TV remote control and turned off the television. The sudden silence in the sitting room was something strange. Seeing the monitor of the device overwhelmed his mother for a while. Jerry was still standing next to the sofa. The remote control was still in his hand. Suddenly his mother came round.
“Are you out of your mind? Turn on the TV immediately!” she yelled as if she were pretty hysterical.
“I can’t do that, mom. I need to speak to you!” Jerry tried to explain, but the woman got off her armchair in order to take over the remote control that he was holding.
“Give me that remote control!” she shouted at her son.
He took two steps back.
“MOM, LISTEN TO ME! I NEED TO SPEAK TO YOU!” he yelled back resolutely.
Those words made her stop suddenly. She stared at her son.
Jerry did the same and leaned the remote control on the sofa. He was sure he had succeeded in catching his mother’s attention.
“What’s so important, huh?” she asked him quite angrily.
“I need to tell you about my future,” Jerry answered. His tone was getting more and more resolute.
His mother did not say anything. She was ready to listen to her son’s words.
“I know that what I’m telling you may seem absurd to you, but you must believe me when I tell you that it is true,” he said to her.
Hearing these words, the woman began to get suspicious, but Jerry did not care about it too much and continued by confessing, “I lied to you when I told you about my trip to Washington. No internship was organized. No University had organized anything. Nobody said anything. What was organized was a special lecture by the U.S. Government in collaboration with NASA.”
“What are you…?”
“Please, mom, let me speak,” he interrupted her firmly. He meant to keep on talking. “I was offered a position as a biologist in their mission in order to colonize a new planet called Proxima B!”
The woman’s eyes got weird; they revealed fear and amazement.
“That means that I’ll have to leave. I can’t return to Earth anymore,” Jerry kept on saying.
Uttering those words made him feel like dying, but he had finally succeeded in telling her mother everything.
“Just so, mom,” he concluded, leaving her speechless. After a few seconds, she looked for some place to sit and could not say anything for some more time.
“Jerry, do you realize what you’re saying to me?” she asked him in a tone that was quite worried.
“Mom…,” Jerry tried to go on, but she resumed asking him, “Should I stay here all alone?”
“Mom, it’s not like that,” he tried to clear himself. Then he kept on saying, “If all goes as planned, a second voyage is already projected. On that occasion the first colonizers’ relatives are going to be taken there. So, you’re going to be there, too.”
Francesca looked straight into her son’s eyes. Jerry did not know how to interpret that gaze.
“As you know, life is expected to be not so good on Earth. There are too many people on this planet and I have to regard myself as lucky not to have caught any disease. We’re being offered the opportunity to change our lives completely, you know…” Jerry tried to insist, but his mother looked more and more upset by what she was hearing.
“It’s all so absurd… How shall we get through? How long will the voyage last? Who’ll let me know if you’re alive?”
Francesca, like any other mother, bothered about her son.
“I don’t know yet, but we’ll be told everything before leaving,” Jerry answered her, trying to reassure her. He approached her, put his hands on her cheeks as a token of his fondness and kept on saying to her,
“Mom, I’ve always done what I’d been told by you. I only ask that you let me do what feels right to me this time. I must accept this mission. It’s too much important for me.”
After hearing these words, she looked up and, after a few seconds, she hugged him and burst into tears.
Chapter 3 – The training
2099, 28 October. MATER 1, 522 miles above the Earth, 4:00 PM.
J
ust above the third generation modular space station called ISS (International Space Station), three enormous spaceships were about to be finished. Dozens of men were working non-stop inside them within what looked like a genuine yard.
“Come on, guys! We don’t have all the time in the world!” a young foreman shouted at two workers whose task was to set some weird capsules inside a passageway that was placed on the ship’s lower side.
“Oh no! It’s slipping!” one of the two laborers exclaimed, bringing the capsule as if it were only a refrigerator. The capsule slipped and fell to the deck, but, luckily, it was undamaged.
The foreman arrived in a flash, his eyes were angry, and then he said,
“You idiots! How many times have I told you to pay attention to how you handle this kind of things? Thank goodness it didn’t rupture. Come on! Get back to work immediately!”
The two laborers stood silent at first, but then they picked up the capsule immediately and brought it back to the agreed place.
“Excellent! It should be okay!” one of them said after leaning the burden. They took a breath. They did not even have time to rest a bit. They were called to muster by the foreman.
At the same moment, some people led by the foreman Alejandro Fring appeared in the passageway. Mr. Fring was a man of South-American origin that would be responsible for the work on the MATER 2.
“Good, General, this is the cryostasis compartment,” the man told Arthur Stone who was behind him. The General was there with his staff, which included politicians and founders of the project. They were just touring before being finally transferred onboard.
“Good morning, General!” the three men in the passageway said to Arthur with one voice as soon as they saw him appearing with his men and the foreman.
“Rest, boys!” Mr. Stone exclaimed and he came up to one of the capsules that had already been installed.
“So, these are the cryogenic capsules… I thought they were bigger,” he pointed out. The foreman, Alejandro, did not hesitate and answered, “They were bigger, actually, but technicians have succeeded in dealing with some issues concerning the liquid nitrogen containment, and so we have succeeded in recovering space within the whole surface.”
“Fine. Let’s go on!” Arthur told him. He looked around and came back to the passageway leading to the ship’s other sections together with his men. The three workers were left to their work.
“He was General Arthur Stone, wasn’t he? It is he who’s going to lead the expedition on board the ship,” one of the two laborers said emotionally.
“I’d rather it were Mr. Ross. I don’t like Stone because of his mindset that isn’t comfortable at all,” the other man replied.
“What can you know about that? He was the one who solved the conflict with India in 2089! He’s just a great man!” the first laborer said. He sympathized for General Arthur Stone.
“It may be so, but this guy is full of himself, which does not let him be someone to trust,” the other laborer pointed out.
“Shut up, slackers! Let’s get back to work!” the foreman shouted at them. Then the three guys resumed their work.
In the meantime, on another floor, Alejandro and the few men reached what looked like an artificial botanical garden. Every kind of plants and thousands of trees stretched over dozens of feet. Even an artificial stream flowed among the trees and the whole thing was lit by hundreds of lamps that re-created the light of the sun on the ceiling.
“Gentlemen, this one is called `The Cathedral?. Its name comes from the shape of the roof, which is precisely the shape of the roof of a cathedral, and it extends throughout the whole surface. Six hundred twenty-one miles of forest! There are thousands of plant species. This is going to be the ship’s green lung!” the foreman stated under the stunned gazes of all of us.
“Are there any animals in this special greenhouse, too?” one of the members of the group asked the foreman.
“No, Sir, there are no animals here. We won’t transport any live animals on this ship, but only their data in the form of DNA,” Alejandro answered firmly.
“How do you get the energy you need to supply it all?” General Stone asked in a tone that was curious and pleased at the same time.
“In order to answer your question, General, we have to move to another point on board the ship. Please, follow me!” Mr. Fling said.
Then he led the group to the lower zone in the ship. A few minutes later they reached the engine compartment in whose middle a metal column with some particular ports by which a blue light was given off could be noticed.
“This is the engine compartment, gentlemen! Eighty percent of the energy needed for supplying our ship comes from here! The remaining part comes straight from the sun and the cosmic radiations captured by means of special panels covering the outer side of the spacecraft,” the foreman explained. Mr. Stone was listening to those words, and was intrigued by the blue light that was given off by some particular ports with which the metal column in the middle of the huge passageway was equipped.
“What happens in here, Mr. Fring?” Mr. Stone asked him.
“What happens there is a nuclear reaction, Mr. Stone,” Alejandro replied, and his answer aroused the astonishment of all those who were there, including General Stone himself.
“Nuclear? Isn’t it dangerous to have a nuclear reactor on board the ship? Don’t you consider the risks?” Mr. Stone thundered.
“Well, if it were a matter of hot nuclear fission, it would be dangerous, but we produce energy through cold fusion. So, you have nothing to worry about. It is safe and clean. According to our calculations, it would supply the ship with enough energy to last one hundred years or maybe even more,” Mr. Fring reassured us.
“I see,” Arthur asserted. He stared at the nuclear reactor, thoughtful.
“What kind of technology do its engines use?” one of the founders asked Alejandro.
“That’s a good question,” he pointed out.
He moved a little farther and came up to a control unit, he pressed some buttons and let some holograms appear; they depicted its own engines.
“The engines of all three motherships exploit ionized plasma that is accelerated in order to generate the thrust. Such engines are hundreds of times more efficient than the chemical ones, namely the traditional ones. But that’s not all. We’re talking about engines that don’t pollute at all and with no moving parts. They are accelerating the ship to eight-tenths of the speed of light and are arresting it by means of nonstop progressive braking maneuvers. During their flight maneuvers, the pilots are helped by “LISA”. As it was said, gentlemen, the cream of the crop!” Alejandro stated proudly.
“LISA? Who is LISA?” the founder asked him. His curiosity was to its maximum extent.
“I am the artificial intelligence that is helping the members of the expedition throughout the mission. I am collaborating with them in order to let their travel be less stressful and more comfortable. I was named after my programmer Lisa Fletcher, who died prematurely last year. General Stone, it will be a pleasure to serve under your command!” the onboard female voice said, leaving all the men astonished, including Arthur.
“As I said, gentlemen, the cream of the crop!” Alejandro concluded.
Then he smiled with satisfaction.
2100, 21 March. Denver, Colorado.
It had been a long time since the Rocky Mountain National Park had ceased to exist. It had happened just when this beautiful landscape had been chosen as an integral part of the project called For the benefit of all! It was just in these mountains and in these woods that New NASA Corporate in cooperation with the U.S. Government had arranged to build a base that would serve as a sort of subsidiary of the headquarters in Washington D.C. It was a rather secluded spot and not everyone could easily reach it unless one had some precise permissions. According to the schedule of the government agency, this area would have served as a place where to train all those who would take part in the project and get them ready to it. The whole structure was composed of five big cube-shaped establishments intended for doctors, chemists, engineers, biologists, pilots and soldiers, a bigger multi-story building that looked like a hotel and served as an accommodation for guests, and finally, at the entrance, a smaller building that served as both a reception point and other accommodations for several administrative offices. The whole thing, which also included a small airstrip that was intended for medium-size aircraft, was surrounded by a wire fencing that circled its perimeter.
Soon after midday on 21 March – that was the time when buses transporting the future members of the project should have arrived –, not far from the main railings outside the front entrance of the structure, an impatient man in a suit was waiting for the vehicles to come. He peered through his dark sunglasses. A long boulevard was in front of him while behind him another mysterious man wearing a jacket with a New NASA Corporate tag on approached him.
“Sir, they’re about to come,” he said.
“Okay, Jimmy. You can go!” Andrew Powell answered firmly. Andrew Powell, who was fifty-two years old, was one of the most important members of New NASA Corporate as well as the first promoter of the realization of the project called For the benefit of all! He was an astrophysicist by profession and for passion that was chosen by the heads of the U.S. Government and the ones of the aerospace agency for his excellent knowledge and his patriotic nature with the aim of “reviving” the national corporation after the dark age previously experienced. After the semi-achievement of the Aurora program from the ESA that had succeeded in taking men on Mars for the first time in 2035, but not to let them establish there, NASA did not mean to lag behind the European space agency, so it came up with a new mission called Europa, which in fact had been in the pipeline for some time. According to the data that had been collected by the probe Flyby launched in 2020, the satellite of Jupiter had some features that made it habitable for humans. So, fifteen years later, on June 15, 2050, twenty American men took off from ISS on board a spaceship in order to reach the satellite of Jupiter with the aim of taking human life there. The travel was estimated to last for four years. Everything seemed to be going perfectly until a sudden meteor shower damaged the spaceship irrevocably on July 2, 2051. Since then, as for the crew and the spaceship, no news had ever been heard. The mission was a total economic and, above all, human failure. Consequently, NASA was shelved and space control over our planet was entrusted to ESA alone with the consent of the U.S. Government that was helpless against the failure of the mission. The U.S. Agency entered its “dark hour”, as historians call it, during which not even ESA suggested other space missions (probably because it was deterred and scared of any other failure). In the meantime, NASA kept on working quietly, though, and recruiting the best astrophysicists of the world in order to create a genuine rebirth. The main command was assigned to Edward Turner, who became the President of New NASA Corporate in 2081 and chose a young astrophysicist to be his right-hand man. His name was Andrew Powell. He immediately proved himself to be an ambitious man; he did not hesitate to put in place a great plan to find ways to identify Proxima B and organize the new mission.
The gloss black automated buses appeared at the end of the long boulevard under Andrew Powell’s gaze. They were special electric buses belonging to the government and made available for the journey from the meeting point (Washington) to the Rocky Space Center. Each vehicle was driven by an artificial intelligence and held one hundred passengers. Once the buses stopped in front of the main entrance of the base, the passengers that were in got off. David, Michael, Amelia Jerry, Abigail and Emily were also among the passengers; several escorts in gray and orange uniforms were beside them.
The group of people included 1,500 Americans, Europeans and Asians and was already divided into several categories that drew up opposite the main gate of the base; every one of them was almost disoriented and sought the other people’s gazes while looking around.
“Welcome! My name is Andrew Powell and I am the head of the whole project in which you, too, are taking part!” he cried out. Then he advanced towards the group and looked into each member’s eyes while his voice echoed in the open space surrounded by the mountains.
“What you can see behind me is the Rocky Space Center, which is the operational center of the project. Please become familiar with this place, since it’s going to be your home over the next five months!” Andrew kept on saying.
No one dared speak. Everybody looked around, rather disoriented. Andrew waited some more minutes before speaking again.
“Fine! Follow me! The sorting is beginning,” he concluded as he turned round and walked towards the entrance of the base.
“Ah, I almost forgot: you can find your nearest and dearest straight in your own accommodation,” he added before moving forward.
The group of people began to follow Andrew, even minding the directions given by the uniformed officers of the base.
Once the future colonizers found themselves in the main open space, it did not take much time before someone murmured in amazement.
“They really spared no expense,” Jerry muttered. While he was admiring the buildings around him, he was also trying to catch the eye of a young Asian biologist that was beside him.
“Well, it isn’t very much different from the photos we saw in the Tanegashima headquarters, in Japan,” the young Asian man replied.
“You’re really at an advantage, huh? Anyway, I’m Jerry. Nice to meet you,” the young biologist from Chicago said as he held his co-worker’s hand. The latter greeted the young biologist back, stopping for a while and bowing quickly.
“Good to meet you, I’m Korin Tamura!”
“Wow! So, you still do that!” Jerry exclaimed more loudly after noticing the gesture made by his new friend. Michael, who was just up ahead, heard Jerry’s voice and he reminded their turbulent encounter in Washington on the day of the lecture. The man looked back for a confirmation and once he recognized him, he shook his head. One of the officers escorting the group asked Jerry and Korin to sit down and not be even more alarmed.
The group moved forward and went farther and farther into the structure. The buildings appeared to be even bigger, and so did the mountains surrounding them from the external area. David was near the front and he that was an architectural engineer appreciated so much the way those buildings had been conceived and built. After walking one thousand feet or so, the group stopped in front of the five cube-shaped establishments where a sort of small stage was set. Andrew got ready for getting up on stage. Several men stood on both sides of the small structure; other members of the personnel were even farther – they could be noticed if one looked near some tables on which several gray uniforms were straightened.
