The Project Manager

by Terry Connolly

  #

  Abby Peeters celebrated her eighteenth birthday on the twentieth of October 2055. That day coincided with two events. The first being Transit Day, as Amrita once more crossed the line of sight between Gliese 451 and Earth, momentarily dimming her parent star and reaffirming her presence to the world. She was still there, waiting for us to arrive. The second event was a letter, addressed to the birthday girl which arrived via special delivery that morning. Abby Peeters had passed the selection test for the first round of training to become a crew member aboard the Zheng He. It was a day of celebration for everyone, even to his surprise, for John. Abby had applied and sat the test like hundreds of millions of other people around the world and would be accepted as one of the thousand entrants into the training programme for young crew members. The training would be brutal for the young adults involved as only three hundred could make it through, but John knew in his heart that Abby could make it on her own. If she didn’t though, there was always a favour from a certain Mr. Li that could be called upon.

  The training would be real life and on the job; it took place aboard the Zheng He itself under operational conditions. When Abby first arrived John didn’t offer any indication that he knew her as he gave the introductory classes on the overall structure of the Zheng He and how it worked as a whole. He waited until she came to him, but that didn’t take long. Abby knew she couldn’t hide who her father was, they had the same surname, and besides, Hong kept hugging her in the corridors. She was open about it from the start and while a lot of the other trainees weren’t very discreet about how they felt about her, all of them quickly realised she had the intelligence and ability to be there. After a few days there was a knock on John and Hong’s apartment door, Abby was calling by to visit her parents for the first time. The Zheng He’s accommodation was completely finished and while most things were modular and identical, some individuality had won out, so John and Hong were able to move the modular furniture around as they wished and they could chose the colour scheme they liked. In their apartment they had left the stone surface in its natural state but had painted the kitchen panelling white and selected warm brown and orange furnishings for the living room. The apartments were surprisingly spacious, some designed for a family of two parents and four children, some for smaller or larger families, some for single people, and even a retirement village in one corridor, on a lower gravity level so they would have greater mobility in their old age.

  “You’re welcome to move in with us if you like?” offered Hong

  “Thanks,” said Abby, “I’d better not tough; it might look bad, besides, my roommates are pretty nice.”

  John smiled at her, “I’m glad we don’t have to pretend to be strangers. So, are your roommates excited about the mission?”

  “They can’t wait. We were talking about it last night. You know Papa, even if I don’t get selected for the trip to Amrita, how many people can say they have been to Mars and back?”

  “Don’t talk like that!” said Hong, “I know you’re capable of getting through the selection process. If you want to go back to Earth that will be your choice.”

  “Or stay on Mars perhaps? Is it true?” asked Abby

  “Is what true?” replied John

  “That some of the trainees will get to go down with the Mars colonists?”

  John sighed, he had been asked this very question this morning after a class on the relationship between supplies, the council, and life support, “no. I heard about this from some of the other trainees. The mission to Mars is a Chinese and Russian funded venture, we are lucky they are paying for this trip, it gives us an opportunity to test equipment for arrival at Amrita in about a century and a half. As such only their colonists are going, that’s what they are paying for.”

  “Oh! Are you sure? Because...”

  “I’m sure Abby. I double checked with Mission Control just in case. It will be mentioned at your classes in the morning before you begin practical work.”

  She looked dejected, “it’s a pity, not for me, just for all of us.”

  Hong gave her a quick hug; “Don’t worry. You are all young, and now that the human race is living in space the chances are we are going to stay here. There will be other opportunities for them to visit Mars, or who knows, there are other planets!”

  “I guess you’re right,” said Abby, “but people probably thought that too after the Apollo missions.”

  “They were right. It just took longer,” smiled Hong, “come on, let’s eat.”

  They sat down together for dinner. Fresh mussels from the fish farm and John, being the Belgian, had prepared them in broth. As he scooped them out and heaped them steaming into bowls he sighed; “there’s so many little things I notice that you will, if you make the crew, have to live without.”

  “What do you mean Papa?”

  “Like mussels in wine for example. You’ll have to make your own wine, and when or if you do you’ll hardly use it for something as wasteful as this.”

  “Well, in that case we will find an alternative.”

  Hong laughed, “You’re forgetting John, there will be space for a few years before the next generation to grow extra crops, why not grapes? I hear wine can keep a while.”

  John smiled lovingly back at his wife, “I guess one thing we can be sure about is that people will find a way to make alcohol from anything. Hear that Abby? If you get a spot on the crew, do me a favour and grow some grapes. Better yet, brew beer!”

  It was the first of several dinners together. Over the coming weeks John and Hong got to meet a few of Abby’s friends too. There was a lot of, “Yes Mr. Peeters sir,” and, “No Mr. Peeters sir,” which John didn’t like as it made him feel his age, but he didn’t correct them either, he was their teacher and had a responsibility towards them. Dinner after dinner the conversation changed in tone as the Martian launch date approached. It would be nearly a four year trip consisting of four months to get there, over three years in orbit around Mars, and then four months back. Then the Zheng He would need at least two years in Earth orbit for final preparations ahead of the 2061 launch date to Amrita. Just as the dinner conversations changed so too did the level of activity aboard. The four hundred Russian and Chinese colonists arrived ahead of departure and were allocated their apartments. There was a noticeable change in traffic in the corridors and very quickly Captain Morrison added some new points to the morning briefings for senior staff. John had suggested it to him after he passed through the market area one morning on his way to the new docking bay and seeing a group of new arrivals on their orientation tour.

  “We are all agreed so, we will test the magnetic shield one last time before departure, in sections of course. Alf, can you coordinate this with Dingxiang on the bridge?”

  “Aye Captain, we will let you know the schedule this afternoon.”

  “Very good. Now, this new point on your agendas, Commander Sharapova, Doctor, Counsellors, Supplies and Life Support; this will concern you mainly. Project Management have been in touch with Mission control for their permission on this, it’s one of those opportunities we didn’t realise we had. John, do you want to explain briefly?”

  John stood up and was given the floor by Captain Morrison. “Thank you sir. As the Captain pointed out this will mainly concern those of you dealing with the civilians aboard. I’m a little embarrassed this wasn’t noticed before, especially by me since I have access to all this information, but I suppose with all our heavy workloads at the moment it can happen. Since we are now entering a test phase thanks to funding from Russia and China, there is one opportunity for testing that wasn’t considered. Including trainees, crew, administration, and now the Martian colonists we have a complement of two thousand and ninety seven aboard the Zheng He, a figure comparable to the final number of inhabitants that should arrive at Amrita. Not only can we do a full technical test of ship to planet transfer upon arrival at Mars, we can also test the social infrastructure such as libraries, recreational ar
eas, political infrastructure, even the market place and spot any potential pitfalls.” Some people were shifting in their chairs and looking uncomfortable. “Naturally, as this may create some new tasks I want to make sure it fits into your timelines as comfortably as possible so I hope to have a one or two very brief meetings with you this week to work out how we achieve this with the minimum of fuss.”

  Commander Sharapova, in charge of the Martian colonists, had her hand in the air immediately. Captain Morrison indicated to her to ask her question. “Thank you Captain. This does seem like a good idea, and under ideal conditions we would be happy to cooperate, but as you know this is not a priority for us. Who will be gathering data for this?” Some other heads nodded in agreement.

  “Good question,” replied John, “As I said, I want minimum effort with maximum results. We have many trainees aboard so a small group, maybe ten, will be given video cameras to document to day life during the trip and to write weekly reports on what they have noticed working and not working. Of course we will share all this information with you Commander Sharapova, it may prove useful for your Martian colony too.” The Commander nodded in apparent approval.

  One of the three Counsellors, for now a purely symbolic role to test the command structure, had his hand in the air too. These roles were filled by some volunteers from the medical staff for now. The Captain indicated permission to speak once more.

  “Thank you Sir. I know our positions here are just to test this structure, but perhaps, with the Doctor’s permission, in our spare time we could take of a lot of this work. It would be the job of the Council anyway in a real life scenario, and we are fully briefed on the UN recommendations.”

  Captain Morrison turned to the Doctor, head of the Medical unit; “Is that ok with you?”

  “In principle, Yes” he replied “but not this week obviously, we have to ensure we are ready for this mission, but other than that we have a young able-bodied population, the infirmary shouldn’t be too busy while we are underway.”

  The Captain nodded, “it’s decided so, we can consider this a full scale test. Right, we meet here again on Saturday morning at 07:00, it will be big day, but in the meantime keep getting ready, the earlier you can bring problems to me the better. All dismissed”.

  John and his assistant Sally worked flat out to get the last of the Martian supplies on board that week. Shuttle after shuttle arrived in the docking bay with people, plants, and equipment. Most had arrived in the previous weeks but at the last minute the decision was taken to bring an extra two years preserved food for the Martian colonists. In the event of crop failure or an accident with their bio dome at least there would be time to evacuate them back to Earth. The Zheng He carried ten extra fusion engines for them also. John inspected them as soon as they had arrived, memories flooding back from all those years ago. Fusion power was becoming widespread on Earth, largely due to the work of the engineers who had first shrunk the engines for the Zheng He, it was seen as an affordable alternative to oil and gas now. On Mars, these engines would run day and night at the planets poles during the Martian winter, keeping the Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from solidifying there. Terraforming would probably take a thousand years, but the results could last for millions.

  At night John continued his plans for the social infrastructure testing. He could barely keep awake, but one of Abby’s housemates sat with him as he dictated notes and she would return the next morning with them typed up and formatted into something that made sense from his semi-conscious ramblings. John wasn’t used to having so much help around him; he had to admit to himself that this week he needed it. The time Saturday morning came he barely made it to the 7am meeting. It was three hours long, but everyone gave confirmation that their checks were complete and they were ready for launch. Captain Morrison gave them all a quick reminder of the launch procedure. Initial acceleration would be slow so people would feel slightly disorientated for a few hours until they got past the Moon and their speed and direction became constant. At this point the magnetic shielding would be switched on in its entirety and checked. If there were problems it wouldn’t be too late to turn back. They had worried about communications interference but in tests so far everything had proven to function. Once the meeting was over, John waited behind to speak to Captain Morrison.

  “Captain, I just wanted to wish you good luck. People often forget to tell the person in charge if they are doing a good job or not, I guess it’s enough to say that with you in charge we are all more excited than afraid.”

  The Captain nodded in appreciation, “I appreciate that John, especially from you. I suppose once we get back it’s retirement for us two?”

  “I suppose, though I imagine we will both still be pretty busy, someone’s got to write the books and make the documentaries about all of this.”

  “True. I’d better get to the bridge. I expect to see you and Hong for champagne at 22:00.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  John and Abby joined Hong in the garden for launch. Hong and her assistant Borislav were worried that the rabbits, chickens and ducks would be spooked by the acceleration of the ship. They need not have worried though, apart from the initial tugging feeling it wasn’t all that bad, it felt the same as the engine tests, though when walking in a straight line they all felt a little unsteady on their feet. John had his two way radio with him so he could listen in to what was happening on the bridge. It was Captain Morrison’s voice they could hear speaking to a bridge crew member: “Can you confirm our position? If we’re clear I want to get those magnets on, there’s a lot of sun spot activity lately.”

  The Communications Officer had a clear Southern US accent; “Lunar Base, this is the Zheng He, can you confirm our position, over.”

  There was a few seconds before the reply: “Zheng He, this is Lunar Base, you have cleared Earth space. Godspeed.”

  Chapter 19: 2056

  Two days into the voyage to Mars, John held the kick-off meeting to begin the social experiment they were about to undertake. The Counsellors were excited and had clearly been having discussions of their own, especially on holding mock elections to the Council and seeing how that would work logistically. John was delighted with their enthusiasm; the others however did not share this vision. Commander Sharapova kept agreeing to everything ‘in principle’ while the head of Supplies kept asking for specific figures and then shaking his head when they weren’t available. John focused on Commander Sharapova for now, he already had agreement from the heads of the trainee programme, they had been as enthusiastic as the Counsellors. With Commander Sharapova onside he would have almost everyone aboard participating and then the others would have very little choice other than to follow their lead. Commander Sharapova was about the same age as John, but rather retiring and takin up painting or gardening, she planned on living out the last thirty years of her life ordering people about on the surface of the Red Planet. She was always impeccably dressed in her sharp military uniform, and her tall muscular frame cast an imposing shadow. When she spoke, childhood memories of austere school teachers would shiver down your spine; her voice was naturally commanding and when she said, “in principle,” you were sure she meant “no”. John hoped this was simply a figment of his imagination. The night before, he had lain in bed with Hong until one in the morning looking for a strategy to convince the Commander until Hong finally told him to shut up and go to sleep. He had already pointed out to the Commander that this research was useful to her team, it would be a test run for their own colony too, and she had agreed…in principle. Clearly that wasn’t enough, and now, here he was, face to face with her in a room full of people and he had no idea how to call her out. What could a military person like this want?

  Hong was there from Life Support though the social project would have little enough impact on her section. John had stupidly asked if the harvest could be moved forward to accommodate the opening of the market place to which Hong had bluntly replied that, “the harvest will happen
when the crop is ripe.” This got the Head of Supplies thinking out loud; “we could use some of what is in storage now and then replenish it when the crop comes in,” but then he seemed to realise what he was saying, “not that I’m agreeing to anything, I’m just thinking out loud, if Life Support can’t guarantee a full crop, we would have to use our current supplies more sparingly.” John kept his face still, but inwardly he was smiling, the whole experiment was designed to encourage this sort of thinking. It was while the Head of Supplies was speaking that the representative from the trainee programme arrived, with ten of them in-tow including a video camera and microphone. Commander Sharapova seemed to become more alert, she shifted in her chair and her hand reached up to straighten her tie. Both John and Hong noticed this.

  “Sorry we are late John; the microphone wasn’t where we thought it would be” said the representative from the training programme. She turned to one of the students “Evan. Set the camera up over there, you should start with some footage of the meeting, I’m sure that if they use this for a documentary, people would be interested in how decisions are made aboard.”

  John turned to the heads of the various units around the table; “does anyone have a problem with the trainees filming the rest of the meeting? It will be the first part of the video diary for the experiment.”

  Commander Sharapova spoke immediately; “Who will be viewing this footage?”

  “Ideally all of us here will. Over time as the footage builds up these trainees will have the information they need for a final written report and a video to go with it to illustrate colony life.”