The E Utopia Project

by Kudakwashe Muzira

  She opened her mouth and moved her lips but no word came out of her. She looked at the papers in front of her and cleared her throat. “Heads of States and Governments, Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Nimol Moeuk, honorable ministers, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization, Mr. Mario Dos Santos, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, it is an honor for me to be in front of you today here in the General Assembly on this very important summit.

  “I thank all the governments of the world and their leaders for their efforts in fighting El Monstruo. You built and you are continuing to build many sand reduction plants and many ultraviolet laser plants throughout the world. I want to thank all the people of the world for their efforts in fighting El Monstruo. You have reduced carbon emissions; you have discarded your diesel and petrol cars in favor of electric cars. I say to you all, thank you. Thank you for what you are doing to save not only the environment but also ourselves.

  “But all our efforts as mankind have failed to yield the desired results. Oxygen levels continue to fall albeit at a slower pace than before. We need a new approach. We need to open a new front in this war against El Monstruo. Am I saying that we should stop what we are doing? No.We must continue to extract oxygen from sand. We have all assumed that the root of this problem lies here on Earth but now is the time to also look outside the planet for answers.

  “My speech today is going to have a lot of maybes. Maybe the thing that is getting oxygen from the atmosphere is not on the bottom of the oceans. Maybe it Is up there in the skies. Maybe something is coming to this planet from outside to take our oxygen. Maybe we are not alone in the Universe. Your Excellences, ladies and gentlemen, I suggest that we as a planet should form a space force to protect our planet from possible infiltration by extraterrestrial beings. Maybe some aerobic alien beings used up oxygen on their home planet and are now stealing our oxygen. I know that many people might scoff at my theory about aliens but I would rather be proven wrong and become the laughing stock of the world than be proven right when it’s too late.

  “All countries in the world have some form of radar system and air defense system to protect themselves from possible aerial invasion but as a planet we don’t have a defense system to protect us from possible invasion or infiltration. We have invested hundreds of billions of dollars in ordnance and surveillance systems to defend ourselves from fellow earthlings but we haven’t spared a dollar in setting up a system to defend ourselves against extraterrestrial invasion. I say let us build a united Earth space force. Let us build fighter spaceships now under the auspices of the United Nations. Later when we have more resources, we can build orbital military bases. I know that our countries are cash-strapped because of El Monstruo but I strongly believe that we should spare some money for a space defense system. We can start by sending surveillance satellites into space to orbit the Earth and watch out for intruders. The surveillance telescopes that we have right now are trained on the Earth. We want new surveillance satellites trained outside the Earth to watch for intruders. I sincerely hope that I am wrong, but we cannot afford to take chances. We cannot neglect the slight possibility that I could be right.

  “High temperatures have killed many poor people in the world’s hot regions and as the Secretary-General said, it’s the duty of all of us to help those who can’t afford to buy air conditioners. In the past most of the world’s refugees came from conflict areas. If the situation remains like this, the high temperatures will result in a huge flow of refugees from very hot regions to cooler areas. In this regard, I urge all governments and peoples across the globe to accept environmental refugees. At this juncture, we cannot afford to be xenophobic or racist. We need to fight El Monstruo as a united planet. Together we have a better chance of survival as mankind.”

  A red warning light flashed on the podium to notify her that her allotted time was over. She had been allotted five minutes, a minute more than the allotment for the heads of states and heads of governments.

  “Your excellences, please consider my proposal. I thank you all.”

  The polite applause that followed her speech was a far cry from the thunderous applause she received in her previous UN speeches. It was obvious that the majority of the delegates did not take her proposal seriously. Agent Kane led her back to her seat in front of Wong, Nzue and two of Kane’s colleagues. George had failed to get accreditation because he wasn’t a member of a national security or law enforcement agency.

  Praying that her proposal would be accepted by at least one superpower with the capacity to create a space force, Sara listened to the speeches of the world leaders. Most of the leaders deviated from their prepared speeches to respond to her theory and proposal.

  The first head of state to speak was the Afghan president. He spoke of the efforts that his government had done to set up sand reduction plants and UVL plants, before he digressed from his prepared speech to comment on Sara’s proposal. He said that no one had ever seen aliens and it would be unwise for the world to waste money and resources building a space force to fight imaginary foes.

  When he finished his speech, he received the loudest applause ever received by an Afghan head of state at a United Nations summit.

  Sara knew that the Afghan head of state was being applauded for his opposition to her proposal. She prayed that the applause was coming from heads of developing countries without the wealth and the technology to build a space force. She knew that if her proposal got the support of the members of the Security Council, a United Nations space force would be created even if the majority of UN member states were against it.

  The President of the Republic of Albania was next and he also voiced his opposition to the idea of building a space force. The President of the United Nations General Assembly, who was chairing the summit, called for a break when the President of Cameroon finished his speech.

  Out of the thirty heads of states who had taken to the podium not even one had voiced support for Sara’s proposal. Twenty-four said they opposed the proposal and six had stuck to their prepared speeches without any mention of Sara’s proposal.

  Of all the heads of states and governments who spoke during the two-day summit, only the President of Mozambique supported Sara’s proposal. Mozambique couldn’t even afford to build a navy to protect its own territorial waters. For years the country had failed to stop foreign ships from illegally fishing in its territorial waters and there was no way the Southern African country could contribute to the building of the space force that Sara envisioned. No one with the means to build a space force took her seriously. She had to find a way to prove her theory.

  She was on her own.

  * * *

  Although Sam Cruz had travelled to space many times, he felt excited whenever he was about to depart for space. He was almost as excited as some of the passengers who were taking their first trip into space. Cruz and twelve people were aboard one of his Ultravoyager orbiters.

  “Check your belts, ladies and gentlemen,” Captain Anderson, the orbiter’s skipper said. “Ultravoyager 03 will be launching in half a minute.”

  “Thirty... twenty-nine... twenty-eighty...” a generic voice counted the seconds.

  Most people who saw an Ultravoyager for the first time thought the spacecraft was an airplane. Their assumption was not far from the truth. An Ultravoyager had two rocket engines and two jocket engines. Jocket engines could function both as jet engines and as rocket engines. During the first part of its ascent, an Ultravoyager used its jocket engines in the rocket mode to thrust to high altitudes. Since jocket engines used atmospheric oxygen during the initial ascent, they carried less oxygen, which meant that they could carry more fuel than ordinary rocket engines of the same size. In a jocket engine, the cone that normally contains fuel in a jet engine was divided into two compartments, one for oxygen and one for fuel.

  Ultravoyager 03 accelerated on the runway and horizontally took off like an ordinary airplane. Sam Cruz looked around the space orbiter at h
is fellow passengers. Only six of the passenger seats were occupied. All the passengers were American.

  Five of the passengers were new recruits on their way to E Utopia for training. Cruz doubted whether these latest recruits were as committed as the first people to enlist for the E Utopia Project. The first E Utopia pioneers joined the project before El Monstruo, when life on Earth was comfortable. Cruz wasn’t sure whether the recruits who joined the project at the height of El Monstruo were doing so only to escape the harsh conditions prevailing on Earth. He sat at the back, away from the recruits’ starstruck eyes.

  Ultravoyager 03 had a three-member crew: a captain and two navigators who also doubled as engineers.

  Most of E Utopia Project’s new recruits came from outside America. Cruz and Sons used their Congolese and Bolivian spaceports to transport most of the recruits because Bolivian and Congolese visas were much easier to acquire than American visas. Like all First World countries, the United States had tight immigration controls to stem the flow of economic refugees, and Cruz knew that if he used his American spaceport to transport foreigners, the authorities will smell a rat when the recruits failed to return before the expiry of their visas. The other advantage of using the Congolese and Bolivian spaceports was that the corporation was allowed to use space shuttles with limited restrictions. The license that Cruz and Sons got from the FAA limited the launching of spacecraft that jettisoned solid rocket boosters or any other parts back to earth.

  Those who saw the orbiter slowly ascending into the sky thought it was an ordinary aircraft. When it had picked enough speed, it slowly turned upright and in two minutes it was fully upright. By now, the orbiter’s thrust to weight ratio was now five point one six, which meant that it was now more than five times lighter than the thrust of its jocket engines.

  The girl sitting just in front of Cruz vomited into a vomit bag. The sound of her vomiting was contagious. Two other recruits also vomited.

  “You will get used to it,” Commander Pardew, the chief navigator said.

  “I’ve flown many times but I’m not that much comfortable in an orbiter,” said Lieutenant Commander Grump, the orbiter’s assistant navigator.

  When the orbiter reached an altitude of nineteen thousand feet above sea level, the captain seamlessly switched its jocket engines to rocket mode. A valve system shut outside air from the combustion chamber and the mouth of the engine closed to give the jocket engine a streamline shape. Oxygen from the oxygen tank replaced atmospheric oxygen in the combustion chamber. At the same time, the captain switched on the orbiter’s two rocket engines. Powered by four engines and faced with decreasing air resistance the orbiter accelerated. The direction of the acceleration made breathing more difficult for everyone aboard. They felt like they were breathing whilst lying down with a weight on their chests.

  Cruz began to feel weightless and dizzy. He felt as if he was carrying a heavy object on his head. He had been to his space station many times but he couldn’t get used to the discomfort he felt during the final moments of the ascent.

  “We’re in orbit and we are heading to Eureka Station,” the captain announced, looking at his navigation console. “It will take us less than six minutes to get to the station.”

  The passengers were able to see the Earth more clearly now that they were no longer travelling in a vertical trajectory with respect to the Earth’s surface. The Earth looked so beautiful that some of the recruits couldn’t help feeling homesick.

  “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Cruz said to the girl sitting nearest to him. “Greedy people and reckless people are trying to destroy it, but don’t worry. We shall get rid of all of them.”

  The girl nervously smiled at him. Now she wasn’t so sure whether joining the E Utopia Project was a good idea. Would the E Utopia pioneers save her family as they promised?

  “Put on your space helmets,” the captain said. “We will be ready to dock at the station in a few seconds.”

  Cruz looked out the viewport at the Eureka Research Space Station. Many people laughed at him saying that the research station was just a vanity project that had never experienced a single eureka moment. Eureka was just over a tenth of the size of the International Space Station, making it the largest privately held space station.

  Everyone in the orbiter put on their space helmets and the spacecraft docked at the station. The orbiter’s airlock could only accommodate two people at a time. Cruz and the girl recruit were the first to get out of the spacecraft. The girl clumsily followed Cruz to the space station’s airlock. He punched a code on one of the space station’s air locks and the outer hatch opened. He led the girl into the airlock, and the outer door closed and the inner door opened, admitting them into the space station where Rear Admiral Roy Harper, the station master, waited for them with a grin.

  “Mr. President,” Harper saluted and helped Cruz take off his helmet.

  Cruz extended his hand to Harper “It’s good to see you, Harper.”

  Harper shook Cruz’s hand. “It’s good to see you too, Mr. President,” he said, the grin refusing to fade away from his face.

  The girl recruit finally managed to take off her helmet.

  “What’s your name by the way?” Cruz asked her.

  “Hilda.”

  “Harper this is Hilda one of our new recruits.”

  “Hilda, welcome to the E Utopian community,” Harper said. “I suggest we go to the living room, Mr. President.”

  Harper led Cruz and Hilda to the living room, the largest room at the station.

  Hilda was surprised to note that the living room actually looked like one from a house on Earth.

  The grin finally left Harper’s face. “I’ve been watching the news on TV. It appears that the scare we got from Doctor Cummings has passed.”

  “Yes, it passed,” Cruz said. “Of all of the member states of the United Nations, only Mozambique endorsed her proposal.”

  “So when will E Utopia be fully habitable, Mr. President?”

  “I’m on my way there to assess the situation, but I think it’ll take a few months.”

  “I miss E Utopia,” Harper said.

  “Me too, Harper.”

  “Can I get you a snack or a drink, Mr. President?”

  “No, thanks.”

  “Mr. President, when do you think that life on Earth will end?”

  “It’s taking much longer than we expected,” Cruz said. “The sand reduction plants have reduced the rate of decline of oxygen levels in the Earth’s atmosphere and the decline in atmospheric pressure. We thought that by now the Earth’s atmosphere would be so thin that the sun’s rays would reach the Earth with deadly intensity. If the current situation continues, E Utopia will become fully habitable before the Earth becomes totally inhabitable.”

  “If that happens, what will we do to wipe out Earth’s polluters, Mr. President? If they continue to build more sand reduction plants they’ll soon be producing more oxygen than is being milked from the Earth.”

  “Don’t worry, Harper,” Cruz said. “Earth’s polluters won’t beat us. We have plan B and if that fails, we have plan C.”

  “I can’t wait to live on a pristine E Utopia.” Harper paused, thinking about his son and two grandsons. “When can we expect the evacuation of our families from Earth to begin?”

  “If everything goes according to plan, we’ll start the evacuation in less than three months from now.”

  “The sooner the better, Mr. President. I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed since I saw Cummings’ press conference. If the Earth’s powers blockade the Earth we won’t be able to see our loved ones again.”

  “Don’t worry, Harper. We’ve got everything under control. Did any milkmaids pass by today?”

  “Yes, Mr. President. One finished milking three hours ago and has already made the jump to the Luz Cruz System.”

  “I need a lift. Is there any fleet coming?”

  “Let’s see.”

  Harper looked at one of the bi
g displays on the walls of the living room. “Harvesting Fleet 4 is milking right now. They’re still in stealth mode. I think they will finish milking in the next twenty minutes or so. Harvesting Fleet 7 is scheduled to milk today and they’re still in the Luz Cruz System.”

  “I’ll go on board HF4. Raise them as soon as they get out of stealth mode.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Is everything functioning well here?”

  “Yes, sir. The station is running smoothly.”

  “And how is your crew?”

  “My guys are okay. They’re doing routine maintenance work.”

  Captain Anderson, Commander Pardew and Lieutenant Commander Grump, the three members of Ultravoyager 3’s crew, entered the sitting room with Hilda’s fellow new recruits. The recruits sat on sofas near Hilda and the orbiter’s crew saluted Harper and stood at attention.

  Harper returned the salute. “At ease. Sit down.”

  “Thank you, sir,” the three members of Ultravoyager 3’s crew chorused before they sat down.

  “If you want something to eat or drink, gentlemen, you know where to get it,” Harper told the crew of Ultravoyager 3.

  “Thank you, sir,” Captain Anderson said.

  “Ask your passengers if they want refreshments.”

  “Folks, if you want drinks and snacks, raid the fridge over there.” Anderson said.

  None of the new recruits accepted the offer for refreshments. They were still recovering from the awe of being away from Mother Earth.

  An alarm rang seventeen minutes later and Rear Admiral Harper sprang to his feet and scooted to the communications console. Thirteen dots appeared on the communications console’s 206 inch monitor. “Half of HF4 is out of stealth mode, Mr. President. The other half will appear soon.” He pressed the broadcast button. “Harvesting Fleet 4, this is Rear Admiral Harper from Eureka Station. Do you copy?”

  Cruz and Captain Anderson followed Harper to the communications console.

  “Station Master Harper speaking,” Harper repeated. “Harvesting Fleet 4, do you copy?”