Aupes, Page 2

CHAPTER 2

  That had been two years ago. The decision had been made to look seriously at the possibility and that decision led to Bryn, aided by a small team he built up, creating a computer model of an interstellar vehicle. Now, that vehicle was a reality, and it sat a hundred miles to the north. Two years of work in the utmost secrecy had given a hope of survival to a few, yet to be chosen, people. Sarah Gifford again sat in her office with the same three people as two years previously. Bryn had been talking for a long time.

  "That's it, really. In simulation it gets off the ground and can achieve orbit, then, provided that the theory about travelling faster than light speed is right, we can get there, wherever there is."

  "I think you should tell us," said Marge, "if only for the record, what happens if that theory is wrong."

  "We'd still get there. But we'd have been dead for millennia when we arrive."

  "There is no choice in my opinion." Sarah still believed that it was the only chance for human survival. "The poison spread is still accelerating and survival here in any acceptable way is probably now down to five years. What we now need to do is to decide who goes and who stays. Of those of us in this room I have made a decision, and I confess I have shed tears every day for many weeks over this, and I'll cry again after this meeting, I have no doubt. But I expect you to accept and abide by my decision.

  "Bryn must go. He is essential to the efficiency of this operation. Nikki, your level of expertise and payload knowledge dictates that you must also go, and you will go as mission commander. I will stay, as will you, Marge. I'm sorry that I am ordering you to die an unpleasant death."

  "It might be just as unpleasant to die a million miles from anywhere. I've never wanted to go. I agree that Bryn and Nikki are vital and, Nikki, you'll be a great commander. May whatever God you believe in smile on you."

  "No comments from you, Bryn, or you, Nikki?"

  "I feel staggered that you think I can command the mission. Are you sure?" Sarah just nodded.

  "For myself, I'd hate to let anyone else loose on my bird. I know her and can keep her flying; thanks for letting me go with her, Sarah."

  "Good. From now on mission headquarters will be on the vehicle, where Bryn and Nikki will base themselves. Assemble a list of those you want with you up to payload maximum and let me have it. If I think you're leaving anyone because they'd do more good here I'll overrule. Now get on with it."

  Sarah sat back in her chair as the others left. It was curious that nobody had asked where they were supposed to be going if the vehicle actually got into space, but Sarah supposed that, just at the moment, it was a small detail. She'd tell Bryn when she visited mission HQ. That was that, then, she thought. Still only Bryn's team, Marge, Nikki and Sarah herself knew of the mission, and no-one who was to be left behind would be told until after the leavers had gone. Cowardly? Perhaps, but it would help to maintain order until departure and prevent any possibility of riots or worse, which the community would be ill-equipped to deal with. Feeling exhausted, Sarah left her office for some rest, well-earned in her opinion.

  Bryn drove back to the vehicle site, now mission HQ. He stopped his transport and looked at his creation. God, he thought, it's ugly. But it should work. An element of doubt crept unbidden into his mind. Humans had been planet-bound for two centuries, and the last time they went anywhere only three of them went and spent months in a weightless environment just to get to Mars. Now, with no testing other than computer modelling, he was expected to take a large contingent of people, and herds of animals as well, in a vehicle, vast by comparison, that had untried artificial gravity, untried earth-launch engines and a speed capability that defied the imagination. The Mars ship approached five per cent of light speed at its fastest. This object in front of him was designed to go a thousand times faster, and then some. Bryn shuddered at the thought and realised that, for the first time, he was scared. Not of dying - that was going to happen in a few years anyway - but of failing.

  His small team of engineers and large numbers of intelligent robots were working flat out, just as they had every day for two years. It had used all the creativity that could be mustered over that period and everything that could be drawn from the databanks they had been able to raid. Bryn gave silent thanks to whoever had inspired the late twentieth century free exchange of information between the European Space Agency and the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA had downloaded vast amounts into the ESA computers and all that data was still being used. The Russians had also provided data to ESA, but that contained little that NASA hadn't done better. The one thing that the Russians had unwittingly provided was base data about long-term space flights from their old Mir programme. Nikki had spent days working on that in preparing her payload schedules, then weeks trying to adjust the base data to make it relevant to an artificial gravity environment.

  Nikki caught up with Bryn while he was under a control panel, only his legs sticking out onto the Bridge floor.

  "Got a minute, Bryn?"

  "Hold on, got him! Get in there! Right, Commander, what can I do for you?" Bryn had slipped easily into using Nikki's new rank. She was one of only two people for whom Bryn had total respect. He didn't allow himself to think about the other one deciding that she must remain on Earth, but he would have expected nothing less from Sarah.

  "I was wondering if you could say when this thing will be ready to fly."

  "Big question. I'll never say it'll be perfectly ready, but give me another week and, apart from one computer with nothing to do, it'll be as good as it'll ever get."

  "Why does one computer have nothing to do?" There was a trace of a smile on Nikki's face, expecting a complicated answer that would be obvious as soon as Bryn said it.

  "Well now. It's the one thing nobody has mentioned. Too final, I suppose, or something. Navigation, Commander. It's the box of tricks that will point us to wherever we're going."

  Nikki, like everyone else who knew about the mission, had shied away from considering a destination. Thinking about that meant thinking about being the first group of humans to leave Earth, never to return; the first people to establish a human civilisation on another planet without the means to return. She shuddered at the thought.

  "I agree, Commander," said Bryn reassuringly, "best not to think about it until we have to." That need was close, and getting closer as Sarah drove up to mission HQ.

  Sarah was experiencing some strange emotions as she drove with Marge Dorowitz and saw the big, ugly vehicle in the cold light of late afternoon. She intended to agree with Nikki who went and who stayed. She also needed to tell both Nikki and Bryn where they were going. In other words, she thought to herself, I'm telling Nikki which people get five years and then certain death, and which get sent off with an evens chance of dying sooner. And I have to tell Bryn to aim his untested vessel at a planet that exists only in theory. For the first time she had doubts about the mission, but immediately put them aside: it was too late now for her resolve to weaken.

  Sarah and Marge met up with Bryn and Nikki in a cramped room, that was to be Bryn's cabin, aboard the vehicle.

  Marge looked about her, as she had since coming aboard. She was as glad now that she was staying behind as she had been on every other visit here. "What are you calling this thing - the Jenkins Model T?"

  "No, Marge," Bryn replied with a smile, "unless the Commander objects, she's going to be KonTiki."

  "I see," said Sarah, "it shouldn't get where it's going, but come hell or high water it will?"

  "That's it. It seemed appropriate."

  "I like it, as long as it's as successful as its inspiration." Nikki looked happy enough with the name of her command.

  "Good." Sarah's expression became more serious. "Nikki, I have to ask you now about your decision as to who goes and who stays. Do you have a list?"

  "Yes. It's not been easy. I started with a complement of 206, but as the computer projections proved that I needed m
ore food than could be produced, I ended up with a reduced complement of 180 and sufficient seed and livestock to farm effectively on arrival. It allows for an accelerated mortality rate among the livestock during flight, which might happen. I've tried to construct a balanced mix of skills combined with the correct genetic types to start a colony with a realistic chance of growth. To do this I've weighted the complement heavily towards females of child bearing age, with an overall age limit of 40. Bryn is the one exception." She passed her list to Sarah, who scanned it quickly without comment.

  "I'll look at this in detail with you later. I have been dreading this moment for a long time, but we must address the question of the destination. I decided this before we first discussed the possibility of leaving Earth, and although it may be a weakness on my part I've found it an awful burden to bear. Bryn, do you have a star chart?"

  "Give me a minute, I'll call it up." He sat at his computer terminal and produced the chart. Sarah looked at it for a moment, then used the mouse to highlight an undistinguished-looking star a little further out on the sun's arm of the galaxy.

  "There," she said quietly, "research carried out with space telescopes suggested that there is a planetary system. All that I've seen, and I spent a long time studying that star, makes me believe that one of its planets will be sufficiently Earth-like to support you when you arrive. None of you will be surprised when I say that the latest research was carried out pre-war and we may have lost some relevant data, so we can't be sure that I'm right. But it's where you're going, and if I am right you can name your first city Gifford, OK?"

  Nobody spoke as Marge sat back, more relieved than ever that she was destined to die on her own planet, and the others stared in silent contemplation at the screen.

  "Think of it this way," Sarah said quietly in an effort to lighten the mood a little, "you go there, get organised, travel the planet and have children and grandchildren. No-one on Earth will ever know the pleasure of grandchildren, or be able to travel freely again. The risks are very, very high, but there is a chance. We who are staying have no future, no chance at all."

  "If the space telescopes were still up there we could have a closer look." Bryn said this in a matter-of-fact tone, but it prompted a reaction from Marge.

  "Let me see if I've got this straight. A hundred and eighty people are climbing onto this bucket of bolts full of untried systems, travelling for years if they're lucky and then hoping that the planet they've aimed for firstly exists and secondly might support life. Is that about right?"

  "I think you do the research and the engineering some injustice, but essentially you're right. Do you still want to go, Nikki? Bryn?"

  "I don't know what the Commander feels, but I reckon there's enough work gone into this vehicle to give us a fighting chance, unless we've made any major mistakes. Yes, Sarah, I want to go."

  "And I support what Bryn has said. I am still prepared to command the mission. I think we should keep any doubts about the destination to ourselves. Those going need to know that there is a viable destination and those staying should, I think, know that there's an outside chance of us coming back in the future, if they survive."

  "OK, we're agreed. Nikki, you and I must go through the list of leavers. I'm sure Bryn and Marge can get to work programming the computers now they have a destination."