Читать книгу Proxima B - Pulvirenti Giorgio - Страница 5

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.

Once Andrew was back in front of the group, he picked up a tablet, and then he said,

“Well, gentlemen! You’re going to hear your name now, and receive your uniform! After hearing your name, move forward and go towards Mr. Carter and the girls that are handing your own uniform over to you. All the uniforms are exactly the same except for their patches, whose color differs according to the professional category to which you belong! Engineers are going to wear yellow patches! Biologists are going to wear green patches! Blue patches are for chemists and physicists! Doctors are going to wear red patches! Soldiers are going to wear brown patches! Let’s start with the group of engineers! James Miller!”

From the group standing to the left of Andrew, a tall and slender man went forth. As the manager suggested, he walked towards the post where some men were waiting for him and were ready to hand his uniform over to him and show him where his accommodation was. About five minutes later, it was David’s turn.

“David Garcia!” Andrew cried out. He was on stage and was scrolling through the list of the names on the tablet. David took a few steps forward and did exactly what any other of his comrades had already done. He walked towards the officers and picked up his new uniform.

“This way, please. You can go,” a uniformed girl said to him, gesturing for him to walk towards the building that looked like a hotel.

Once the whole list was read, it was the turn of the biologists. Everything was carried out very quickly even on this occasion: all the new members got their own uniforms with their patches.

“Jerry Vandcamp!”

When Andrew uttered the name of the young biologist from Chicago, the latter went forth, as is normal, and he, who was very excited, received his uniform, too.

“That way, please,” the officer told him; she was actually a nice girl, and Jerry did not hesitate to wink at her. But she replied with a kind of ironic laughter. Among the biologists, Korin was called, too; just like Jerry, he went to his accommodation after receiving his own uniform.

Then it was the turn of the chemists and the physicists, and Abigail belonged to this group.

“Abigail Sanders!” Andrew cried out, and the woman went forth, trying to conceal her emotion mixed with tension.

“You can go, please,” the girl in charge of the delivery of the uniforms said once again.

“Thank you,” Abigail replied with her usual gentleness.

Then it was the turn of the doctors, and so it was Amelia’s turn. Her name was uttered after about thirty names.

“Amelia Fisher!” Andrew shouted. He was certainly used to a role as an orator, since his voice was as fresh as it was twenty minutes earlier. The surgeon from San Diego was asked to go forth, and so she did; she was given her uniform with the red patch on, then she walked towards her accommodation.

Finally, it was the turn of the soldiers. Both Michael and Emily belonged to this category. Michael was the second to be summoned, and even he took his uniform with the brown patch on and headed for the building used as an accommodation. Emily was one of the last soldiers to be summoned.

“Emily Parker!”

On this occasion, Andrew’s voice was a bit different due to the hour that he had spent scrolling through the list of the one thousand five hundred names on his tablet. The young girl went forth as she tried to conceal a little her emotion as well. She came up to her post, got her uniform and headed for her dormitory. The sorting was over. All the one thousand five hundred members had their own official roles in the project called For the benefit of all!

Each member had two hours to tidy one’s own belongings in his own accommodations, and then the introductory tour to the remaining buildings and structures of the base would start. Each room had been conceived to house two people belonging to the same professional category and, obviously, of the same sex. The structure was a six-story building, one per professional category. The first story was used as the area for engineers; the second story was used as the area for biologists; the third story was used as the area for chemists; the fourth story was used as the area for physicists; the fifth story was used as the area for doctors, and the last story was used as the area for soldiers. The large entry hall was furnished with dark leather sofas that were part of basic furniture that was designed in a modern style. Whenever members needed to reach any floor, they could make use of ten ultramodern and roomy lifts. Still, if someone used to avoid elevators, he could use service stairs as well. Finally, a huge hall that would be used as a canteen was arranged in the basement: every member would have one’s own breakfast, lunch and supper there.

David was busy tidying his own belongings and had already met the man who would be his new roommate throughout his stay. His name was Giovanni Rinaldi; he was an architect and engineer of Italian origin in his forties.

“You were telling me that your son’s name is Leo, isn’t it?” Giovanni asked David while arranging his things on his brand new bedside table. He was nearly finished doing that.

With a smile upon his face, David answered, “Yes, it is! He’s a pest, but I’ve always tried to bring him up quite strictly and I think I finally did.” He had a thick Montana accent. Then he kept on saying, “And what about you? Are you married? Do you have any children?”

“I’ve been married twice, but it was a failure on both occasions. As for children… No, unfortunately I don’t have any, but you know how much I’d like to have some, my friend,” the Italian architect replied in an almost regretful tone.

“You come from Montana, don’t you?” he asked David again. David turned to him and answered, “Yes, I am!” Then he asked him, “How do you know that?”

“Your accent is unique,” Giovanni added. That question stimulated David’s curiosity, so he wanted to take advantage of that moment in order to try to know as many things as he could about the person with whom he would share his room, and not just over the next five months.

“And what about you? Where are you from exactly?” the American engineer asked him.

“It’s a long story, my friend… My grandparents and my parents were of Italian origin, and I was born there too, in Genoa, precisely. I moved to the United States when I was nineteen, that is to say when I finished high school and decided to attend the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Boston. After graduating, I worked several years for a company in Boston, but then I decided to go back to Italy in order to start an architecture firm of which I’m still the owner and that is the top in its own sector and in my own country. Then I was summoned by New NASA Corporate and so, here I am! My ex-wife left me just because I’ve accepted to come back here in the United States to take part in this project.”

While he was uttering these words, he was not tidying his things. He had just finished doing that. “What’s your idea about this mission?” he finally asked David.

David, for his part, was caught off-guard by the question.

“Well, I’ve got to admit that taking such a decision wasn’t easy for me, either, especially due to my family, but, as I’ve already said to you, I’ve always helped save our planet. Unfortunately, I am very much like a drop in the ocean, and it seems to me that this mission is the only way to save our species from a certain doom.”

He had just uttered these words when a knock on his bedroom’s door was heard.

“Please, come in!” Giovanni said. One of the officers of New NASA Corporate appeared on the other side of the door.

“Everybody downstairs in ten minutes!”the bald man said. Then he closed the door.

“These are men each one uglier than the last,” Giovanni added ironically, which got a laugh from David as well, who was pleased in his heart to have met a new friend.

Upper floor, room 103. Jerry was glad to know that Karin, namely the funny Asian biologist whom he had first met during the sorting, would be his new roommate.

They were both arranging their own belongings in their own lockers in their rooms, and after choosing in which beds to sleep, they resumed the discussion they had started shortly before.

“So, how is Chicago?” Korin asked Jerry.

“I guess it’s not much different from the cities in Japan that you know,” he answered ironically. Then he continued by saying, “Tall buildings are everywhere, streets and air space are invaded by all kinds of means of transport. You know, I believe there’s nothing you haven’t already seen. As you told me, you were born in Osaka, weren’t you?”

The young Asian man did not hesitate to answer, and even if his English was not perfect, it was not so difficult to understand him.

“Exactly! But as I was telling you, I moved to England a few years ago in order to pursue my studies in biology in London, where I learned to speak your language as well.”

“And I must say that you speak it very well!” Jerry praised him.

Korin thanked him and asked him, “Do you live with your parents?”

Jerry answered, “I live with my mother. She’s a hyper-apprehensive woman and I had to struggle to persuade her to make me leave and take part in this mission. I think she’ll never accept my decision, but I hope we will meet again on Proxima B!”

“Every mother is like that… And what about your father?” the Osaka biologist kept on asking him. Jerry froze and it took him much longer than usual to answer.

“Unfortunately, he passed away when I was a child.”

Jerry uttered those words just sorrowfully; it was a sorrow that reemerged every time someone reminded him of his dead father. Korin realized that, too.

“Sorry, I didn’t know that,” the Asian guy tried to explain himself.

“Don’t worry. But tell me something about your family,” Jerry encouraged him.

“My dad and my mom still live with my grandparents in Osaka. My eldest brother, Jin, lives in Australia where he runs a domestic robot factory, whereas my sister Akiro, who is younger than me, has just moved to Tokyo in order to attend the Japan Art Academy. Her dream is to issue a graphic novel of hers,” the Asian guy told Jerry.

“I wish I had visited Japan once in my life,” Jerry said almost regretfully.

“You would have liked it, but look on the bright side. We’re going to land on what is our own planet! Can you believe it?” Korin’s voice was filled with excitement while he was uttering these words. “Come on, let’s get ready for seeing the whole complex!” he concluded.

Jerry followed his young comrade’s advice. They both got ready for leaving their room and start the tour.

Michael, Amelia, Abigail and Emily were staying in their own rooms on the upper floors. Each one of them would share it with one new comrade, so the time had come for each of the four people to meet their own roommates.

Michael was so surly and gruff that he felt he had to set him straight regarding who would be in command of that space of 216 square feet that he would share over the next five months.

Amelia immediately made friends with a Russian doctor that specialized in cardiology as well. Just like her, she was single and had no children.

Not even Abigail hesitated to make friends with Gloria, who was a young Spanish chemist that had just graduated with honors.

Emily was quite lucky, too. Just like her, Nicole was a soldier. She enlisted in the National Guard (Garde Nationale). Each comrade would be of a nationality other than that of one’s own country. And this was just the first evidence that New NASA Corporate had concocted for new guests, that is encouraging the integration between different people who shared their job, namely the sentiment that no peoples of the Earth had known for quite some time now.

The alarm clock indicated 7:59 AM and Jerry and Korin were still sleeping deeply. A minute later, there it is, on time: the electronic thingy began to ring like a symphonic orchestra and it woke Jerry first, then the young Asian biologist.

“Damn it, Vandcamp! Destroy that thing!” Korin muttered. He was referring to that deafening noise.

“I’ve been here for less than half an hour and I already hate this place!” Jerry exclaimed. He sat down on his bed, trying to understand what was going on.

Ten minutes later, all the members of the expedition gathered in the canteen. A hum was filling the room. People were talking to each other as they all were sitting at the table; a few others, including Michael, were still looking for a seat in order to have their breakfast and talk with their other colleagues.

Michael stood there and held a tray. He was getting ready to occupy one of the last vacant seats near the huge hall. The pilot took his seat at the same table where Jerry, Korin, David, Abigail and two other young chemists were already sitting. He took the central seat, and so he sat down between Jerry and David.

“Oh no! You again! You’re like a persecution!” Michael exclaimed in his usual “gentle” way, as it were, after identifying Jerry, who in return extended a kindly greeting.

“Where do you serve?” Abigail asked Michael with a hint of a smile. The question triggered the curiosity of those who were there, too.

“I am not a soldier!” Michael answered contemptuously while eating his eggs and bacon.

“Well, the patch on your uniform is brown, so you are supposedly a soldier!” Abigail echoed. Even if she knew she had bothered him, she kept on looking at him defiantly.

“It’s a wrong supposition, woman!” Michael replied, mocking her self-confidence. Then he concluded by saying, “I’m a retired U.S. Air Force pilot. Actually, I don’t even know why I’m here.” After that, he swallowed the last mouthful of food, stood up and went away, leaving the other members perplexed.

“Probably that man will have some problems with any other person. It doesn’t bode well,” David stated in his usual calmness before finishing his breakfast together with the other people.

That same morning all the members of the military department had reached their own sectors for a lesson on the equipment that they would have at their disposal during their expedition. The hall looked like a large lecture theater with large windows that let the light in on one side, making the place very bright. Probably this hall was previously used to hold some lectures or give some courses.

“As you have probably understood, our task in this mission is going to be both the easiest and the most difficult one. We’ll have to keep this people alive. We’ll be their bodyguards, their police, and their law. We can’t know what to expect once we’ve got there or what it could happen during the travel, but there is one thing we certainly know: we must be ready for anything!” Matthew cried out in front of his future fellow travelers.

“What a loudmouth! He can’t be more than thirty, and he tells us these things!” Michael said to himself in a barely audible tone of voice while he was sitting in his seat some rows behind him.

“Bring them there!” the General told two girls holding some duffel bags just behind him.

“Thank you! So, yesterday we saw some procedures under regulation as for facing any hostilities. Today we’re going to see what to use when we have to face them,” Matthew kept on saying. He pulled a weapon out of his duffel bag. It looked like a little, light and black Glock pistol.

“This one represents the first piece of your equipment, a Junker 15! It fires mid-range beams of light and it is perfect for point-blank shots but it is not recommended for long-range shots. Its frame is extremely lightweight thanks to its carbon fiber construction,” the General explained as he leaned the pistol near the duffel bag on the counter.

“Gentlemen, here it is, Baiman 3! Thanks to its high fire power, it looks like an old-school assault rifle. It fires extremely powerful mid to long-range laser beams. After fifty shots, the gun magazine is empty and you have to replace it. Ah, I was forgetting to say that, without exaggeration, an inch of steel could be clearly cracked by shots fired at a range of sixty-six feet! Not bad, I’d say.”

Then Matthew leaned the rifle on the table and noticed a hand raised out of the corner of his eye.

“Please, Miss Parker!” he said after seeing the girl who had raised her hand. It was Emily, who was sitting in the front row on the right.

“It’s all very interesting, Sir, but… well… I was wondering why all these weapons for a mission of colonization. Is there something we should know, Sir?” the girl asked without leaving her seat; she looked at the General and pointed out, “Sir, it’s more like an offensive military mission than a mission of colonization!”

“Soldier, these weapons will do what you want them to do!” Matthew exclaimed. Then he turned to the rest of the group and kept on talking.

“We are going to be hundreds and hundreds of miles away from here. More than one thousand people will have left their loved ones, their wives and children by that time. It’s a one-way travel!” he pointed out. Then he paused for a while, looked into Emily’s eyes. “None of us can know what we are going to come across up there!” he resumed. “It’s up to us to be ready for any situation, even if it were the most dangerous or the strangest one. Some might go crazy! Some others may argue among themselves. Some riots or uprisings may occur, and we have to be prepared for anything, soldier! What we have to do is keep these people alive, don’t forget it!”

These were Matthew’s words, and then he continued with the explanation of the onboard arsenal.

It was at the same time that, in the nearby building, the group of chemists was preparing to face its fifth day in the training, which did not take place in a high-tech hangar, as at first sight it appeared.

“Where do you think we are being taken to?” a young chemist asked Abigail while walking down a hallway together with the other members of the group.

“I have no idea,” the woman answered frankly while she kept on looking around.

At the end of the hallway, under the guidance of a member of the team, they approached the entrance of the hangar, which was a shed on the side of the building and whose roof was covered with photovoltaic solar panels that not only absorbed eighty percent of the sunlight, but could also become clear-glass, allowing light to filter and leaving the visitors of the hangar amazed as they enjoyed the blue Colorado sky. It really looked like a crystal structure.

“And who has ever told that functionality and ecology can’t go together?” The question was made by a high-pitched female voice. It was the voice of a woman in her fifties whose hair was copper red and whose silhouette was slender. Abigail had been appointed as member of the group whose training that woman was in charge. Her name was Lisa Horn.

“Hello, everyone, my name is Lisa Horn! I’m here to supervise you during your training period as well as to be with you during your mission! I hope we will achieve great things together!” she exclaimed, introducing herself to the whole group while some of them were still intrigued by the strange honeycomb crystal structure surrounding them.

“Follow me! If you’re here today, it’s not to watch the structure, but to accomplish the duty that is crucial to the whole mission: to terraform Proxima B!” the chemist said as he led the group to an area where there was a weird gray and white cylindrical machine that was about sixteen feet in height and five feet in width.

“What you can see here is a plasma gasifier,” LISA explained.

“Excuse me, are you saying that we are supposed to… you know… make that planet similar to ours? I mean… weren’t we supposed to live in structures with an airtight closure or something?” a girl in the group asked with puzzlement.

“Not specifically, darling! What we’re going to do is recreate an environment where life is, you know, alive!” LISA answered. Then the red-haired trainer added immediately, “The process is going to take some time, of course, but that’s what we’re going to do. In three steps, in fact.” Finally, she pointed at the machine and began her speech.

“What you’re seeing behind me is only a scale replica of one of the thirty plasma gasifiers that are going to be established along the Equator of the planet,” LISA was explaining when suddenly a young Chilean chemist interrupted her, asking her, “Doctor, can you tell me what these machines exactly do?” Diego Felisao's question aroused the curiosity of all the other members.

“I was about to tell you exactly what these gasifiers are for. So, they aim to recreate a hospitable environment for algae and plants, but… not for us, by exploiting some elements that are in the soil and the subsoil of the planet in order to create an environment with high carbon dioxide levels, which means “greenhouse effect”! Later, our fellow biologists and their genetically modified algae will create an environment with oxygen, but that’s another matter. Let’s get back to the point: a gasifier is only sixteen feet in height, as you can see, but what matters is how it works. The one we are building and use on Proxima B is going to be almost one hundred feet in height and entirely powered by photovoltaic panels, just like the ones that you can see above your heads,” LISA clarified as the members of the mission took notes in their own electronic devices.

“Excuse me, doctor, how long would this procedure take?” Abigail asked while she was holding the e-pen that she would use to take notes.

“It would last about fifty years!” was LISA’s straight answer, which left those who were there petrified.

“So, tell me if we get it: how long are we staying on board that ship? Fifty years?!” Abigail asked a little scared to hear the answer.

“No, it isn’t so… We are not staying the whole time on board the mothership… We are living in orbit inside it until we move inside the structures that are installed on the surface of the planet. And only when a favorable environment is recreated we can live out of those structures!” the doctor paraphrased.

“Come on, look at your screens. We have sent you all the data regarding the instruments at your disposal and how to set the gasifiers. Study them! And if you have some ideas how to improve them, you will be welcome!” Lisa Horn concluded. Before leaving, she said to all the male chemists taking part in the mission,

“What we shall face won’t be easy at all. We can get over those difficulties only if we work together, not as single members with one’s own objective to be achieved, but together as a whole species. It is the last chance we have, my dear ones! It’s time for you to leave, now! Everything is in your own hands!” After giving them her order, she concluded, “Study!”

Finally, she withdrew by disappearing through one of the four exits of the hangar.

At 12 o’ clock the same day, Jerry and Korin were in the biology laboratory and seemed to be entranced by what they were seeing and learning with their competent colleagues. They reached a side of the lab led by Doctor Francesco Preparata, who was an esteemed and eminent Italian biologist that until then had led their training, in front of a sort of aquarium in which a blue fluid was gurgling.

“My dear boys, here is Caeli!” Doctor Preparata exclaimed as he pointed at the metal spherical aquarium with a glass window in the middle.

“What’s in that liquid, doctor?” Korin asked in amazement and out of curiosity just like the whole group.

“It’s a special blue alga that was genetically modified by us in order to make it ultra-effective,” Doctor Preparata answered proudly.

“Why is it effective?” Jerry asked in wonder.

“These four specimens have been modified in order that their reproduction may be thousands of times faster and their production of oxygen may be hundreds of times more effective than the initial species. What you can see in front of us is phase II, which starts after the use of the gasifiers,” Doctor Preparata answered.

“How are we supposed to use them?” a biologist of South-American origin that was in the room asked him.

“Here is the beauty of this alga. All you need to do is set it free, lowering it back into the solid waters if you want it to spread; you can find it in more temperate zones, and it feeds on greenhouse gases that make it able to produce great amounts of oxygen that it releases automatically in the atmosphere. After fifteen years or so, all the oceans will be already full of algae and, thus, the oxygen released will be enough for the third phase to begin. We shall be given a chance to plant trees and plants on the surface. And we shall be able to breathe without the aid of breathing apparatuses, which is not irrelevant. So, the process of terraforming the planet will be complete,” the doctor concluded.

“Excuse me, Professor, I can understand what you’ve said about algae, plants and trees, but I think we’re underestimating a problem that has been gripping our planet for over a century… I’m talking about the animal extinction. What about the animals?” Korin asked in a tone that was both worried and curious.

“That’s a very good question, Mr. Tamura! A great question, actually! Follow me!” Doctor Preparata cried out, and then he entered a small hallway and led the group in a room that was next to the previous one.

“As for the issue raised by Korin, we have developed what we call THE MOTHER!” the doctor stated. Then he stopped in front of a machine that was unique. It looked like a huge box; a holographic display allowed interaction with it.

“Thanks to this machine, you can recreate embryos and perfectly developed specimens from the DNA of over ten million animal species that was collected over the last century. Dozens of such machines are ready-to-use on board the three motherships,” he added.

Everyone who heard him was astonished by his words.

“How does it work exactly?” Jerry asked him. He was getting more and more intrigued by the machine.

“The genetic code on file will allow the development of stem cells inside the database of the machine by means of... let’s call it... an incubator. This is only a type of incubator, but bigger incubators will soon be available for taller or bigger human beings that will develop outside the planet later on. It could be defined as a sort of printer of living beings!” was Doctor Preparata’s answer to the boy that could scarcely believe his eyes.

“Can we try it, Sir? Please!” Korin requested. He hoped to see the machine working.

“Of course, kid! But only in order to demonstrate what it can create,” the professor replied, then he turned to the machine and started it; he was tinkering with the holographic display in order to find a species whose recreation would take only a few minutes.

“Hmm, here it is. This one should be a proper one!” the doctor exclaimed. He started the machine and begged the group to keep away and for a little patience until a living being would be released at the bottom of the particular contraption.

“CREATION LIVING BEING FIVE MINUTES LEFT,” the automated voice informed.

“Professor, do all the creatures need the same time of creation or rather it changes according to the species?” a German member of the group of biologists asked him.

“The time of creation changes according to the species and the dimension. The machine has to be powered by chemical substances so that tissues can be synthesized and the living being can develop, you know,” Doctor Preparata explained.

“CREATION COMPLETE. PROCESS OVER SUCCESSFULLY”.

They had been informed once again that the process had been carried out successfully.

“Look. It’s ready!” the doctor exclaimed enthusiastically. Then he opened the compartment at the bottom of the machine and pulled out what looked like a big coleopteran.

“This is a titan beetle,” he explained proudly. Then he handed the specimen of insect over to Korin, who seemed almost afraid of the new animal at first, but after being reassured by the doctor, he held it willingly.

“We shall do great things together! We only have to want it, my lads! Life needs nothing but a thrust, then it will find its way forward! You only have to want it. Remember that!” the Italian biologist concluded. Then he released the animal into his custody and before saying goodbye to them all, he informed them about the next things to do, including the directions for using the machine that they would need shortly.

The group of engineers used to meet very early, but it was not a problem at all for many of them, including David. That morning they would start studying and being familiar with the new tools that they would have to use on Proxima B for establishing new buildings. After having their usual breakfast at the common table (they used to go there first), they talked a little with the other guests of the complex, and David and his group found themselves within the building no. 1 where the training would begin. They, too, would have at their disposal a device similar to a handheld to take notes, read and study the information that their superiors, including a man of Indian origin called Dinkar Kanak, who was one of the most important people in the world in the field of architectural engineering, would transmit to them. Kanak was a rather short and half-bald man in his sixties; he used to wear a pair of thin glasses that, most of the time, he allowed falling down on his nose. Most of the time, he used to walk by dragging his left leg due to a bone disease. Yet, he maintained his sense of humor throughout – all in all, a person that may have looked funny at first, but instead he was an inexhaustible source of resources. Powell had desired him so keenly that one of the engineers that took part in the realization of the whole complex of the Rocky Mountain National Park as well as the owner of the company that produced particular 3D printers that could build buildings in no time by using zero-impact products. David and Giovanni were together with their group of twenty-five engineers. They were sitting in their own places, waiting for their superior to explain the situation. Kanak appeared before the front door of the hall, that is the same door through which the other people had come, and he was accompanied by two other uniformed men that were his assistants.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” he said with his unequivocal French accent.

The engineers said good morning to Kanak, who immediately took his seat behind his writing desk.

“So, as I mentioned yesterday, what we’re seeing this morning is the structure of our kiddo in detail and how to obtain the highest efficiency from it. After you!”

Kanak asked the two assistants to introduce the machine that was leaned on a movable table behind a marquee. As soon as they uncovered it, that particular 3D printer appeared.

“Here it is! Our own Engineer X!” the Indian engineer cried out while introducing his creation enthusiastically to the pupils. The curiosity of David, Giovanni and many other colleagues of theirs was aroused as soon as they saw that weird machine despite most of them had already had to deal with similar instruments during their own works.

“Start being familiar with it, since it’s with it that you’re spending most of your time on Proxima B, even if this a reduced sample. The models that you are using on the planet are much bigger,” the professor explained. Then he kept on saying, “But they work exactly like the one you are seeing right now. And even the raw material that we’re using there is the same! Some samples even more reduced of Engineer X are to appear in front of you!”

While Kanak was still speaking, from their own desks all the engineers could see appear a 1:50 scale model reproducing the machine.

“That’s it, gentlemen! All you have to do is not difficult to explain. You’ll have to assemble and make a 1:100 scale model reproducing a building that is similar to the one that you’re going to erect on Proxima B!”

David and his fellow engineers paid attention to what they were ordered as they were busy watching the particular printer. One of them, a certain Bryan Stone asked his professor, “Excuse me, Professor, and what about the material that we’re going to use?”

“That’s a very good question, Mr. Stone! I was about to explain exactly that point!” Kanak cried out. These words caught the attention of those who were there, whose eyes were now upon him.

“What is peculiar to this special machine is the fact that it works with waste material only,” he specified.

They began to hum in their soft voices. The professor did not care so much about that hum at first. He turned round, pushed a button on a remote control and a big holographic display appeared behind him and showed the internal structure of the machine on one side and a list of materials on the other side.

“This outline, which you can find in your own devices, clearly explains how the printer works. As you can see, all our waste, including cans, plastic and glass, are put into this sort of funnel.”

While Kanak was speaking, his two assistants were showing concretely how to carry out the process.

“Once all our waste is inside, all the material is ready for being collected in this particular tank and undergoing a process of molecular alteration that, after compaction, results in a new form of state-of-the-art composite material. We call it ?the clix?”.

The printer next to Kanak’s writing desk let each clix filament flow out of particular hoses that were being positioned by peculiar arms in order to compose the model that would be built.

“Amazing!” David cried out while he was sitting next to Giovanni that, for his part, kept on watching the printer compose the pattern.

Suddenly Giovanni himself raised his hand. He needed to ask something. The Italian engineer’s requirement was immediately fulfilled.

“Please, go ahead, Mr. Rinaldi!”

“Sir, I was wondering what models of houses and buildings we should compose.”

Kanak stopped for a while.

“That’s a good point! I guess I’ll turn this over to my assistant, Mr. Ward!”

So, Kanak’s assistant was given the floor.

“We have already loaded fifteen different samples of houses and ten different models of buildings within the software. You ought to know that we have monitored your work over the last few years and we have finally mixed your best buildings in order to get a city that we could define as ideal,” he explained as he pushed a button on the remote control in order to scroll through some images on the holographic display behind him.

Then the representation of the model of a dwelling on Proxima B appeared.

“Behind me you can see a prototype of a dwelling on the new planet,” Jim Ward explained once more. It was a one-story house whose area was almost nine hundred square feet; it had a sloping roof and a small garden was all around.

“Almost nine hundred square feet in one story! The kitchen, the living room, one bathroom and one bedroom,” the assistant added.

“And there’s more! Near each house, a garden with certain types of plants will be tended by each inhabitant; on the back side of the house, a small vegetable garden will be tended in order to have something for one’s own livelihood and, if necessary, to help the community!” he concluded.

The engineers were all dumbfounded. But David had to ask something that had been gripping him since their superiors had showed them all the shape of the dwellings and how to make them work.

“Sir Garcia!” Kanak said, inviting David to ask his question.

“Sir, I was wondering how the system of water supply works on Proxima B,” he said.

“Please, Alan!” the professor said, inviting his assistant to explain in his place.

“Every dwelling is being equipped with a special machine for purifying water so that the whole community is not obliged to deprive itself of its own. The whole thing is being monitored by particular tools and no water will be wasted. Actually, nothing else will ever be wasted,” Alan Mose explained.

“Well, gentlemen! I shall go straight to the point, now. It is time for you to work. Let me see what you can do. Come on!” he incited them.

Professor Kanak invited the engineers to start their process of creation of the prototypes of the buildings. David could not wait to start his new device.

“Are you immune to physical diseases on Earth? Neither are you in space, where you will likely suffer from osteoporosis, space nausea, muscle and bone mass loss, heart diseases, space blindness or diabetes due to solar storms and space radiations. What I’ve just mentioned is just a part of the dangers you may encounter,” Doctor Ezekiel Phin informed us. His voice, which was almost raspy, resounded through the room where he, who was the head of the London Clinic Centre as well as one of the world’s leading experts on neurodegenerative diseases, was together with the members of the Medical Division of the expedition in a large hall surrounded by a dark atmosphere due to Doctor Phin’s necessity of resuming his lesson in a low-light environment.

“We hadn’t ever traveled so far before. Of course we’ve been on Mars and it took us six months to understand we were not able to colonize it, but it won’t happen this time. The travel will have to be eight times longer and we will need the best doctors, nurses and medical experts to succeed. So, that’s why you are here!” Ezekiel cried out. He gazed at the audience and paused for a while before pointing at a hologram representing an X-ray of a human femur behind him and asking, “What can you see here?”

Somebody raised their hands up and he began to call them out one by one.

“Stand up, please, and let us know who you are and what you think about this figure!” the professor cried out, referring to a young brown-haired girl.

“Hello, everyone, I’m Justine Poirot, I come from France and I’m a specialist in orthopedics and traumatology. I can firmly say that what we are seeing here is the image of a femur of a woman in her sixties suffering from severe osteoporosis,” the girl replied with self-assurance, being sure of her answer.

Doctor Ezekiel Phin, in his turn, replied, “Well, it isn’t really that way. You are right, this femur belongs to a woman – not an old woman, actually, but a thirty-year-old one, and more precisely one of the women that took part in the project for the colonization of Mars called “HELIOS” ten years ago. And this is her femur after staying in space for six years!”

Ezekiel’s words fell like a stone into the hall where there were several doctors and other surprised people. Then he kept on talking.

“This is one of the issues that we must resolve. And now look at this one! What do you notice?”

A video about a pulsing heart was broadcast behind him.

“I believe that this one is more… let’s say… particular!” Phin added before giving the floor to the corps of the doctors.

“You in the second row with your hand up, please!”

The doctor consulted by Doctor Phin was an athletic and attractive man, with light eyes, in his mid-thirties that got attention from the female audience.

“Hello! I’m Mirko Ivanov. I’m a heart surgeon at N.V. Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine in Moscow. Well, I think this is a case of spherical heart. Observing its shape and given the irregularity of its rhythm, the subject must have lived six months in space,” the Russian man stated firmly. Then he exchanged a look and a smile with Amelia that was a few rows in front of him and finally he took his seat again.

“That’s a good remark! This malformation is due to the less exhausting work of the heart in space. A solution will consist in the supervision of the members of the expedition during their training period,” Phin explained.

After other basic concepts of applied medicine in space life, he deliberately talked about another topic and his tone became much more serious.

“What we’re going to talk about is a very important topic: repopulation. I’d like to ask you how many men and women may be needed to repopulate a planet like Proxima B,” the doctor stated, trying to foresee the possible reactions of the members of the mission.

“Excuse me; you said “repopulation”, didn’t you? Weren’t we supposed to build some bases so that the other people could join us on this planet?” was the question of a rather alarmed oculist in the second row. People in the hall began to mumble. Doctor Phin’s countenance grew strange when he noticed their strange reaction.

“I may have been misunderstood! The mission implies that people are moved from this planet to that one, but… let’s assume that something unexpected happens…” Doctor Phin tried to explain, but he did not even have time to finish his sentence. A female voice stopped him.

“Ten thousand or so! Ten thousand men and women!” Amelia cried out, drawing all the focus towards her. Everybody looked at her, including the man that was the chief in London, who cried out in amazement, “Can you repeat, please?”

“Well, you got it. Should we put it approximately in order to avoid any cross between kinsmen and re-balance the high mortality rate taken into account for space travels, an intergenerational mission should involve at least ten thousand people,” Amelia stated once again. Those who were in the room fell silent while waiting for some explanations for what they had just heard. Some moments of silence followed. In the meantime, the professor stared at Amelia.