The Project Manager

by Terry Connolly

  “Houston, do you copy?”

  “Houston here, we copy, all according to plan so far, over.”

  They could all hear this conversation on their headsets. It was strange, but somehow approval from the Earth felt good, like approval from a parent.

  “Check in again in two hours forty minutes. Over”

  “Affirmative, over, enjoy your coffee break.”

  Captain Morrison turned to them all, “toilet breaks and coffee breaks if you need them, leave your communication channels open if you leave the room, and don’t wander too far.”

  For some of them it was the longest two hours and forty minutes of their lives. It was a pivotal moment in their careers and suddenly they found that they had nothing to do other than wait. Some consulted their tablets or read through their checklists so that they could look busy. More experienced, which is just a nice way of saying older, crew members such as John or the Captain chatted to each other.

  Two hours forty minutes passed and everyone was ready. “Houston, this is the Zheng He reporting back in, do you copy? over.”

  “Welcome back Captain Morrison, we read you loud and clear, over.”

  He turned towards the wall mounted touch screen and selected an internal schematic. He zoomed in on the engines; “Engine room, do you copy? How is it looking?”

  “Engine room here, captain, we copy. All three tori are reaching optimum operating temperatures. We are ready for first plasma.”

  The Captain turned to John and to the fusion engineer beside him: “Do you both think we are ready to go?”

  They both nodded and replied in unison, “Yes Sir.”

  “Ok then, Engine room, go ahead, initiate first plasma.”

  Everyone crowded around the screen to view the engine readouts. They showed the frequency of the magnetic pulses in the engines increasing, and then there it was, spikes in temperature as the hydrogen atoms spinning around inside each torus broke apart into their constituent parts. A voice came through over the radio from the Engine room; “first plasma achieved captain.” A round of applause and cheers went around the room which the captain smiled at.

  “Calm down people, we still have a long way to go,” said the captain, “Engine room, see if you can keep her steady while you double check for any radiation leaks. How long do you need? over.”

  “Five minutes captain, no longer. We only have thirty minutes of power to keep them at plasma. Recommend deuterium injection in ten minutes at least.”

  “Advice received, will consult here and with Houston. Carry out your checks for now and await instruction, do you copy?”

  “We copy sir.”

  The captain turned to John and the Fusion Engineer.

  “He’s right,” said the engineer, “readings so far are good, they’re performing exactly as they did in tests, slightly better even, I think the low external temperatures are good for the electronics.”

  “I concur said John. It looks good, and we are only going for low power output for now.”

  “Thank you both,” said the Captain. “Houston, all good here, advise that we go to fusion. Do you agree? over.”

  Seconds passed. “Zheng He, hold a minute, nothing wrong, we just want to be sure.” More seconds passed. “Affirmative Houston, we agree, you are good to go to fusion, do you copy?”

  “Copied, thank you Houston,” said the Captain.

  “Engine Room, begin deuterium injection if you are ready, understood?”

  “Understood Captain. No radiation leaks detected, we are ready. Beginning deuterium injection in 4…3…2…1…now.”

  There was no shudder, no noise, nothing, just the reading on the screen in front of them. Neutron levels soared as the deuterium molecules were ripped apart and recombined to form helium. There was no cheering this time, the captain held his hand up to indicate silence.

  “Engine Room, the readings here indicate we are ready for acceleration.”

  “Aye aye captain, they’re at 10% capacity.”

  Captain Morrison looked at his check list one more time. To John’s surprise he then looked over at him. Without saying a word, John nodded once.

  “Ahead, no more than one meter per second for three minutes, then stop. Do you copy?”

  “Aye aye sir.”

  Every breath was held, not just there but in Houston, in homes who watched it on television, in the mess hall, and in the cavern where Hong watched over her sun. There was no increase in sound, nothing to indicate that they were moving, and then, in the pit of their stomachs came the tiny tug that indicated acceleration.

  “Houston, we have forward momentum. The Zheng He is operational.”

  This time the cheers from the crew were loud and clear. Hugs and back slapping continued for nearly the whole three minutes of movement until Captain Morrison had to call it to a halt. The cheers in Houston continued a few seconds longer.

  “Engine room, reduce power to standby levels, all forward acceleration stop. Do you copy?”

  “We copy sir.”

  “Thruster control, forward thrusters, rows 14 and 15, bring us back to our original orbiting speed please.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The captain turned to them all, “Ladies and Gentlemen, she can move. She’s a ship. Now let’s make her a home.”

  #

  By 9 p.m. that evening John was exhausted but in a celebratory mood like everyone aboard. Rotation had begun and artificial gravity was being slowly established, already it was at half of Earth gravity in the accommodation area. Senior staff all had to keep their radios on them in case of an emergency, but so far nothing had gone wrong other than a few blown fuses here and there. Nikolai and his team had them fixed within half an hour. One thing they knew was coming was the fatigue. The earlier delays meant that they had all put in an extra-long tour of duty; even with increased exercise they had lost more muscle than expected. Not to critical levels, but still it would leave everyone feeling exhausted very quickly.

  As they left the bridge, John grabbed Alex gently by the arm. It felt wonderful to walk again. There was a down and an up once more. “Come with me Alex, there’s one last job this evening.” The ten minute float to John’s office was now a five minute walk. As they walked they congratulated each other on what had just happened. “The only thing that will top that is the launch day itself,” said John.

  “Where’s Hong?” asked Alex.

  “She’s not leaving the cavern until we reach full rotation. I’d do the same admittedly if I was her, I’ll call in on her later,” he replied.

  “So what’s this last job for the evening you have for me?”

  “Don’t hate me, but I want to update the manual with a few notes I took today and I need to dictate them to you. I’m sorry.”

  “No need to be sorry, I know how you like to work.”

  They walked into John’s office and closed the door. There were a couple of items on the floor, a pen, a photo of Abby, some pieces of paper. Anything that might have shifted around the place. John picked them up and left them on his desk. He went over to the mini fridge beside his bed and pulled out something. Two glasses and a bottle.

  As John removed the foil and twisted the wire around the neck of the bottle he spoke; “As you know Alex, I spent a lot of time in France so I know my Champagne, or at least I have friends who do. This one was given to me by my friend Laure for just this occasion. I think she’d approve.”

  Pop! They were still only at about 52% artificial gravity so they had to duck as the cork flew and then bounced off the floor and ceiling twice.

  “Oops” said John. They were both laughing. He turned his back to Alex as he poured. “Can you get the chocolates from the bottom drawer of my desk?”

  “Sure” said Alex, “they’re Belgian I assume?”

  “Of course!”

  John handed Alex his glass and proposed a toast; “I name this ship the Zheng He, God bless all who sail in her!”

  “Amen,” agreed Alex, and they bot
h sipped.

  “That is good champagne. Now I have a toast,” Alex lifted his glass and said, “To John Peeters, without whom this would be nothing more than rock making it’s lonely way forever around the sun.”

  John Blushed, “I’ll only drink to that if we can drink to Alex Braun, without whom this would be an empty rock.”

  They clinked glasses one more time and downed the rest of their drinks. “Let’s have one more while we work,” said John, “it will help us go quicker.”

  Alex opened his laptop and began to type as John read out some notes he’d made. After a couple of minutes, Alex gave a big yawn and said, “What a day, this is going straight to my head.”

  “Mine too”, said John, “I think it’s the muscle wastage as well, the effects are getting worse as we reach g.” Thirty seconds later John helped Alex into his bed and tucked him in for the night. He did visit Hong later that evening, and pressed the data stick back into her hand. As he did, he kissed her on the cheek and whispered to her: “I’m in love with you.”

  Chapter 15: 2046

  Xhu felt old, though he supposed that was because he was old. Still, he was sprightlier than most men his age. Statistically, as a single octogenarian who had smoked heavily for 40 years of his life and spent a large part of the rest of it breathing in the Beijing air, he should be maggot food with nothing more to contribute back to the Peoples Republic than the nutrients he would contribute to its soil. In his mind the answer to his longevity was simple, he loved to keep active and refused to stop until his work was done, regardless of the increasing number of objections his body raised. The flight to New York has been tough on him though, economy class was hard on those old bones despite the extra pillows, as hard as the rough floorboards of his parents wooden cart had been on his backside in his youth. Bin had flown with him and he was grateful for his company. No longer a young and ambitious man, Bin still seemed like a child to Xhu, most people did apart from the few old party friends he had which were still alive.

  The UN General Assembly had been sitting for three weeks in a row with no end in sight to the discussions. The Secretary General had turned down request after request for this debate, not because he was against it, but because China, with its large veto and even larger circle of influence, never seemed to feel that it was the right time for a discussion on how society should be structured on board the Zheng He. More accurately it was Xhu who advised China to stall. There had been tensions between some of the permanent members of the Security Council, tensions over sea floor boundaries and the precious gas contained therein; a debate in that kind of atmosphere would result in horse trading of the most politically blind kind. Also, Xhu wanted them to feel some public pressure, and sustainable public pressure required time to build. Since the successful test of the Zheng He’s engines two years earlier, the public consciousness had finally accepted that this was really going to happen, and soon. In Xhu’s opinion the time was now just right for a real serious discussion to take place. And serious it would be. The UN had very little real decision making power, nation states still did most things bilaterally, but it did provide a useful theatre where its diplomatic actors could play out the scripts written by their foreign offices. When it came to the Zhenge He, because of the necessity of sharing its cost, the UN actually could make some decisions of its own.

  Xhu had never been to the United States before, he had never needed to, and since he didn’t like traveling he had never wanted to. The UN Ambassador for the People’s Republic of China had been surprised to meet Xhu. From his research Xhu felt this was someone he could work well with, and he was right. China didn’t send fools to be ambassadors, not usually anyway, and ambassador Wang was not only a highly intelligent and eloquent speaker, his placement there, unbeknownst to him, was largely down to Xhu wanting him there. The ambassador was due to take the floor in about twenty minutes. Xhu had managed to secure himself a comfortable chair in the Chinese translation booth so he could advise the ambassador directly if needed. He wasn’t alone. Xhu had never told Bin, and probably never would tell him, that his recruitment had been one of the highlights of his long and secretive career. Xhu knew he wasn’t immortal despite his resolve to live as long as possible. The People’s Republic would continue on after him as it had before him but for the sake of vanity, and he was fully aware it was vanity, he had prepared Bin to be his replacement: someone who could do China’s bidding and take those decisions which others, for personal or political reasons, could not. They had discussed the latest tactics that morning to keep the big picture projects going, such as the Zheng He, stopping the illegal buying of derivatives by some Chinese banks, and upcoming potential political leaders. There were one or two of these potential leaders who had a few too many potential skeletons in their closets, Xhu and Bin felt it was their responsibility to ensure that either those skeletons never got out, or those politicians never got to be leaders.

  So far this week the assembly had discussed minor issues mainly, at least minor in Xhu’s mind. This was because either bilaterally between foreign offices, or between other committees, these issues had already been decided upon. No one ever took interest in committee work. For a lot of the windbags sitting below, these issues were all new and they were suddenly the ones proposing questions that had already been answered two years ago, such as what type of education system the children on board should have? Who had the rights to plant genome finds on Amrita? Should there be birth control aboard? Xhu advised the ambassador not to bother interrupting anyone to correct them, the discussion was more about them hearing their own voices anyway than it was about concrete action, and if they felt like others agreed with them then they in turn would be more likely to agree with others. Today the conversation was going to shift up a gear, to top gear in fact, as the elephant in the room was about to make itself known.

  Ambassador Wang stood up, took off his headphones, thanked the Secretary General and took the floor. He didn’t rush to start and took one last glance at his notes before he began. Xhu had given him some indicators on how to proceed, but not much, ambassador Wang seemed to know what was at stake.

  “If it pleases the chair, I would like to address you all in English. My friends, we have had some fruitful discussions here over the past week, and indeed we have, together, reached some valuable conclusions on the topic of societal structure aboard the trillion dollar project we have embarked upon together. I must offer my humble apologies for holding up the next part of this debate for so long. As many of you already know, we have not been prepared to discuss the economic realities aboard the Zheng He, the reason for this is that we felt it more important to discuss the needs of an intergenerational society first and then build their economic reality around it. We also feared that this issue may open some old wounds, I expect it will. The question I would like to put to the floor for discussion is this: “Do we have the right to enforce a pre-existing economic model on the colonists aboard the Zheng He?”

  There were nods from some of the other delegates. Xhu and Bin took note of these nods. The question was known to them all, as per procedure it was printed in the order of business for that week. What wasn’t known was the content of the opening statement from ambassador Wang, the Chinese answer to this question. The ambassador continued: “Many of you, from our discussions together, don’t have a problem with this question, but I think that may be because for most people this is a philosophical concept. However, I would like you to note that this question has a yes or no answer, either of which will have repercussions for many generations. For the past ten thousand years, since civilisation first formed, the individuals in a smaller group which is absorbed by the larger has generally had to adapt its economy, and by extension its culture, to suit the larger. This is true, bar some minor exceptions, for all our cultures in one way or another. For example in the collapse of an empire, or less chaotically in the formation of a federation, but even in these cases there is some economic adaptation by smaller economies to th
e closest large economy. This my friends is, I believe, the first occurrence since the development of modern economic systems that a small social and economic unit will become, not just completely isolated from its neighbours, but realistically from all global influence. Yes they will still watch our television while the signal is strong enough, but only for a few years and even then they will be behind on what is really happening here. How much of a structure do we give them? Do we even have a right to, or should they be allowed to explore this issue on their own and adapt it at will? If we don’t will that lead to the failure of the mission? Your excellences, Secretary General, we have created a new world. Now what?”

  The ambassador paused to take a drink of water, and to allow this information to be absorbed. As usual some people weren’t paying attention and were playing with their tablets or phones or whispering in their neighbour’s ear, but an unusually large majority were listening for once, and listening intently. He rose is voice slightly. “Communism”…that got all of their attention, he continued; “Communism, Capitalism, Social Democracy, Maoism, Fascism, Empire, we have tried them all, which one do we ask a small group of colonists to use? At least this week we have agreed they can elect their own council members, separate from the command structure, to regulate their own social affairs. This is a good start, but how can we, a group of diplomats, possibly know what their society will be like in fifty or in a hundred years from now, and what if we choose the wrong system for them to live by? Allow me to repeat the question: “Do we have the right to enforce a pre-existing economic model on the colonists aboard the Zheng He?” The People’s Republic of China will be arguing for the “No” side. Mainly from a practical point of view, in that we cannot enforce anything on a population that will be out of our reach, they will decide by themselves, whether we back here on Earth like it or not, but we should make sure that they know from the very start that they themselves will hold this responsibility. If they want to barter then let them barter, if they want to use coins then let them use coins, if they want to outlaw trade all together then let them do that themselves.” Grumbles went up from some countries, the reality was sinking in and they didn’t like it. He continued: “in summation my friends, and trust me, while this may be a difficult debate we will still be friends once we have reached a conclusion, once those engines take the Zheng He away from us we will have to get our heads back to sorting out our problems here. I formally move to put the question to the floor, and, we are willing to forgo an immediate vote if anyone would like to put forward amendments.” Ambassador Wang thanked everyone for listening, sat down and put on his headset. Immediately the United States, and Russia were asking to speak.