The Project Manager

by Terry Connolly

  Rotation wouldn’t begin until the engines were in place and tested. This was encouragement enough for everyone to put in the hours necessary. In four months’ time, if they kept to schedule, finally they could sleep lying down without being strapped in, and they would know what direction down was so they could lie that way! They would be able to eat normally, work normally, and go to the toilet normally. Nobody grumbled about ten hour shifts when that was the prize. From experience John suspected that they would overrun by about two weeks. The engine housing unit had been tested on Earth, in conditions similar to those which they now worked under. Then the engine had been assembled within it to check that it all fitted together nicely. It did. The engine housing unit had already been installed before John and Alex had arrived. Through this, like a giant wall socket, all the power cables, coolant pipes and access shafts would connect to the engines. It was a beautiful piece of engineering, John admired the work the Cadarache team had done, but already one or two snags had been found, and once all the potential snags were put together it would add up to delays. A wire wrong here, a fuse blown there, tiny problems, but as the old saying went: “for the want a nail the shoe was lost”. Well, John wasn’t going to let the Zheng He be jeopardised for the want of a blown fuse. He had already insisted that in the second and third (hopefully final) generations of the colonists, their brightest and best would be trained in how the engine worked, down to the finest detail. He had made sure text books, instruction videos, manuals and practice kits were being prepared by the top engineers on the project. They could lose spin, even shielding for a while, but if they lost the engines they could slowly freeze in space, light years from any help.

  That afternoon after an in-depth discussion about her new shoes and after he had sent his virtual hugs to Abby and her grandparents, John and Alex suited up to go outside. It was 14:30 GMT+1. It would be his first inspection of the magnets which would provide both radiation shielding and part of the propulsion. It’s inventor, Michael Eddings, had overseen the prototypes himself back on Earth, there were even rumours he was on a shortlist for the Nobel Prize, but the committee wanted to wait and see if it worked properly first before giving it to him. If the whole thing flopped they didn’t want the embarrassment. Neither did John, he was on record backing this magnetic fuel collection method and it was one of the many big things that could cost him his job and reputation if it failed. Right now though, his concern was outweighed by expectation; he was going to pay a visit to an old friend. The graveyard for people who wanted their ashes sent on the voyage to Amrita was on their way to the magnets. John wanted to pay his respects to his old mentor and friend and maybe even introduce Alex to Graham. He had mentioned Graham to Alex once or twice but never in detail, he wondered perhaps if he impressed upon this young man his part in a chain of people that were making this project possible, then maybe he could persuade him to open up a little more. John and Alex were getting closer but there was still a barrier there.

  The airlock opened and they attached themselves to one of the many tether cables that now criss-crossed the surface of the asteroid. They were accompanied by one of the mining engineers, it was their first spacewalk, and until they had put in a full thirty hours outside they would be accompanied by someone with more experience than them. The huge water tank they had trained in was a good approximation of how it felt to move but what I didn’t prepare them for was the disorientating feeling of seeing the Earth, rather than underneath them as they expected, but whizzing by overhead. Right now they were over Australia; or rather it felt as though Australia was over them, it’s red, yellow and orange desert landscape on the ceiling as though Michelangelo had painted it there. Alex turned and looked at John:

  “I expected it to be beautiful but not like this, it makes me feel tiny,”

  The engineer with them laughed over his communication system: “enjoy it, and keep enjoying it, you never get used to being reminded of your place in the universe.”

  John opened his comms too: “you know that feeling, at least I get it, when walking close to the edge of the footpath or close to the edge of water, that tug towards danger, it’s pretty overwhelming to just want to jump into the sky. I don’t like this.”

  “Don’t worry Mr. Peeters” said the engineer, “that you do get used to, and very quickly when you imagine the slow and lonely death you’d suffer. You’d probably run out of oxygen and suffocate first. It wouldn’t be painful, but it would be slow and lonely.”

  John shivered at the thought, “Yes, that thought does overcome the pull of the Earth. Ok, lead on, we only have two hours to get this inspection done”.

  It was slow going at first. John and Alex had to get used to “clip, check, check again, unclip” routine every time they moved tether, and more than once they were tugged backwards onto the ground when they didn’t change tethers at a junction, every time the engineer laughing and telling them they’d get used to it soon enough. After twenty minutes they arrived at a small field studded with three thousand dinner plate sized brass plaques. Graham’s was twelve rows up and three rows in.

  “Alex meet Graham, Graham meet Alex,” said John.

  “Hi Graham,” replied Alex.

  “I’m sure if he could reply he’d apologise for not getting up,” smiled John. “You know Alex, this whole huge rock, the one that all those people down there stare up at every day and every night, this wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.”

  “And you surely?” enquired Alex

  “I was only his assistant at the time, his apprentice, much like you are to me now. I intend to see this project to the end, but, I hope this won’t be the last ship we send out into space, they have already discovered two other inhabitable planets, not as close as Amrita, but still, if this launch is successful there might be more.”

  “I’m not much good on the technical side of things John, not like you,” he replied. At last a touch of modesty from Braun the younger.

  “I won’t lie to you Alex, you’re right, but the technical side of things will not be as important and exciting once this first ship is built. They’ll need a people manager with experience; you’ll be good at that”.

  Alex bowed his head “Graham, for the good things you have done, may the Lord hold you in his arms and may you enjoy an eternity in his light, Amen”

  “Amen” answered John

  “Amen” answered the engineer from behind them.

  As they walked, or rather stumbled on towards the first of the three magnets they would inspect that day, John reflected on what had just happened. He realised he was starting to like Alex and that he actually meant what he had said about him; one day managing his own project teams. He shook himself back to reality, firstly because he remembered who Alex was the son of, and secondly because daydreaming was a dangerous pastime on his first spacewalk, he needed to focus on “clip, check, check again, unclip.” Finally they came to the first magnet. It was the size and shape of a small fridge and for the purposes of the first tests it would have other properties similar to a fridge. Six ridges of a special plasticised concrete, formulated for use in space, radiated out along the ground from the magnet. It connected to the six closest magnets, which in turn connected to their six closest like a honeycomb net across the surface.

  The engineer knelt and knocked on one of the ridges. There was no sound, being a vacuum; “set nice and solid. Amazing stuff this, we dug narrow grooves a meter down, laid the cables and backfilled with rubble and concrete. It sets almost immediately. Took months to do though.”

  “I still wonder if it’s deep enough” said John, “though it must be, any impact that can dig a crater a meter deep is unlikely”.

  “We don’t know if there’s an asteroid belt around Gliese 451 do we?” asked Alex.

  “No, we don’t which is why we assumed there is. The network of magnets can take three or four large impacts before it fails. If they are that close to Amrita in the event of an impact, then the thickness of the rock wi
ll protect them from radiation the rest of the way. The real danger is any interstellar rocks they might meet, we don’t think there will be many, but then again we used to once think the sun revolved around the Earth.”

  The accompanying engineer had a question too: “How big an impact can it take? If they are at twenty percent the speed of light then surely that has an effect.”

  “A big effect” said John, “under normal conditions, at that speed, a small pebble in the Zheng He’s path could blow its way through several meters of the surface. Don’t be alarmed though, we have four layers of protection in place.”

  “What are they?”

  John loved questions like this, they helped him go back over old plans and sometimes could identify problems they had missed, “well, firstly there will be detectors around the ship, several lasers will shine infrared pulses forward at wide angles and any reflected back by approaching debris will allow the ship to detect it a few hours in advance. These same lasers can be focused on the oncoming debris and used to ablate its surface, this should be able to move them out of the way on time. That’s level one. Level two is the magnetic shield, it can automatically focus its energy on one area to repel most small to medium sized lumps of ice or metallic rocks. Level three is the rock itself. Most side glances by debris shouldn’t be able to penetrate into the living quarters but in the event one does then level four comes into play, bulkheads can seal off damaged areas of the ship from open space, of course it will hopefully never come to that.”

  The engineer still wasn’t satisfied though, “What if it’s larger than a pebble or a small lump of rock? What if there’s another asteroid in its path?”

  John had an answer to this too, “The same principle to an extent. Something that big should be detectable a week in advance. If its trajectory will lead to collision, again laser ablation should move it aside. If that fails there is one last option, a lateral jet could be fired to move the Zheng He out of the way. The acceleration to one side at that speed would cause substantial internal damage, but less than slamming headfirst into another asteroid.”

  “By the sound of it, it will be a miracle if they make it to Amrita” said Alex

  “Not at all,” replied John, “all these scenarios, even over the time it will take them to get there, are very unlikely. The fact that we have planned for these unlikely events makes it even more probable they will get there. As I keep saying Alex, it’s a precious cargo we have been charged with”.

  John bent down and inspected some of the connectors to the liquid nitrogen vats they were attached to. Far out from the sun the low temperatures of space would ensure that he superconducting magnets would, or at least should work normally, but for testing in Earth orbit they needed to be artificially cooled to their operating temperature. Their strength and their separation had been calculated to provide a strong enough shielding for the ship against radiation and the pattern meant the magnetic field could be rapidly altered to create the screw type motion which would allow the ship to both refuel by gathering interstellar hydrogen or help push it forward by energising the radiation it was deflecting, jettisoning it backwards to provide extra thrust. The majority of the forward motion would come from the hydrogen and oxygen reaction, but the extra thrust from the magnetic screw surrounding the ship would cut a couple of years off the mission, and earn Dr. Eddings his Nobel Prize. The theory seemed sound enough and had been rigorously tested on scale models under different conditions. What he didn’t like was its complexity. Like everything else aboard they had tried to minimise its components, but some things needed to be complicated to work.

  They only managed to inspect one more magnet before they had to head back inside. John would check some more tomorrow but for now he needed to gather all the senior people on board for their daily meeting. In two days’ time the first part of the engine assembly would be slotted into the housing unit. No problems were expected but they would do a run through anyway. ‘Measure twice and cut once’ as Graham had always said. One last look at the sky and they were back indoors. It felt good to have solid walls around them again. As they unclicked their helmets Alex received an urgent message over his radio. It was for both him and John together.

  “Hello Alex, hello John,” said the familiar voice on the other end of the line.

  “Hello Leon” said John. “Hello Dad” said Alex”.

  “Good news, there will be a hefty bonus for both of you in your paycheques this month!” Leon Braun was practically shouting, in the background they could hear cheering and clapping while someone that sounded like Harry Smith was giving a speech in the distance. Leon’s voice faded as he turned away from the receiver, “In fact there will be a bonus in everyone’s paycheque this month!” More cheering, louder this time. John and Alex looked at each other, this could only mean one thing but they waited to hear it in Leon’s clipped German accent. “The call came through thirty minutes ago from Geneva, we won the contract, we will be in charge of recruiting the Amritian colonists.” John and Alex clapped each other on the back and laughed. For Alex it was genuine joy, but it was acting time again for John, this was what he wanted, but not for Ephrem, and not for Leon Braun and Harry Smith. “You’re both on loudspeaker here” said the voice of Harry Smith in the distance. John was the first to speak, “Congratulations everyone, we’ve just been out for a stroll on the surface here, so sorry if we sound a little out of breath. She’s a big ship, with lots of space to fill, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Alex?”

  “Thanks John” said Alex, “He’s right, you have to see it to believe it. The bonus is great but there’s no shops here to spend it in,” there was laugher over the radio. It was important to leave gaps between sentences. There was a one second delay, not much, but it could be annoying if you spoke too fast.

  “John, Alex, this is Harry here. On behalf of us all we want to say thank you for all the work you put in to advising us. The committee said the insight we had into the future working of the colony was one strong factor in persuading them to choose our bid. You can’t see me but I’m raising my glass. To John and Alex, may they stay safe up there and good luck. After all the colonists need a ship to get there.” Over the muffled laughter he shouted “to John and Alex!”

  “To John and Alex!” replied the rest of the room in the background of the call,

  “To John and Alex!” said the mining engineer who was out of his suit already, smiling beside them.

  Once the applause had died down Leon’s voice came back on, “son, take care of yourself, I pray for your safety and your mission every day. We have to go now, I guess it’s not an international call, it’s more of an interplanetary or interlunar one. Make sure to give John that other good news I told you about. Take care!”

  “Bye dad, bye everyone”.

  Mixtures of “good bye”, “bye” and “good luck” came from the Ephrem office before the line went silent.

  John turned to Alex and placed a hand on his shoulder, “take the evening and half of tomorrow off Alex, you deserve it. Wander around the ship and get your bearings, catch up on some light reading or even some sleep.”

  “Thanks John. I’m not going to protest against that offer, I’m still tired after the launch. Is there anything you need beforehand?”

  “Maybe you can tell me what Leon meant by the “good news” you have to give me?”

  Alex looked around the corner to check that the engineer had moved out of earshot. He lowered his voice, “that didn’t take long” he grinned “I may as well just spit it out. Dad told me, that when we won the contract I was to offer you one last bonus, or rather a bonus for Abby.”

  John felt genuinely surprised, “for Abby? What do you mean?”

  “You don’t have to give an answer now, in fact you don’t have to give an answer for another ten years as it will be Abby’s decision too. John, she will be in her mid-twenties when the Zheng He launches. If she wants a position aboard, she has one.”

  John didn’t know w
hat to make of this. Sure it had crossed his mind once or twice whether his little girl could one day be a colonist, but he had always shaken the idea out of his head. Yet here it was, presented to him as a reality, or at least a possible reality, “but Alex, I couldn’t, places are precious on board, this would be a scandal if it was uncovered. No, she will have to earn her place if she wants it; I don’t want her growing up here thinking her dad had gotten it for her.”