“I know that you are the IT expert Alex,” said Horace Mann. “But I think you are wrong about these people requiring such extensive VR support. They will be hooked up to external stimuli just like the Em's, in fact, in my discussions with them it is something they look forward to. The only VR they requested is simple body awareness and an apartment environment. This should cut the drain on computing resources to a minimum.”
“I still don't like it.”
Ajax was curious but didn't ask Alex why he still objected. “Okay,” he said. “I tentatively agree. Does anyone else have an opinion they need to express?”
After a moment he continued. “Very well, Horace would you see to their transfer aboard the Starway Centauri as soon as possible. I want to get a working relationship going with them and find out what I can expect as soon as possible.”
“Yes sir,” said Horace.
11
The ship was being outfitted with all that it would take to support a team of one-hundred people not only during the voyage to the Centauri System but also during the establishment of an outpost there. The ring structure of the ship would not be rotating during the journey. The three-story edifice would instead be turned ninety degrees to its rotational orientation. In this way, during the acceleration/deceleration phases of the journey, the floors of the rooms would be properly aligned with the artificial gravity generated. When at rest in the Centauri System the rooms would be turned ninety degrees again to prepare for the rotation that would generate artificial gravity.
Each story of the ring had a floor space of over fifty-thousand square feet. The first floor was half occupied with the aeroponic gardens and protein bio-reactors. Here all the food needed to supply the crew would be grown. The rest of this area and the third floor were packed with supplies and equipment that would be needed to construct the beam lasers, lenses and other facilities in the Centauri System.
On the second floor, the crew quarters took up nearly half the floor space with apartments of two-hundred fifty square feet. The rest of the floor space on that level was given over to common areas such as the cafeteria, workout room, theater and assembly area.
By placing the crew floor between the two other floors it was protected by the rings above and below from radiation. Additional protection came from the same gel-like substance developed by the Em's and used to insulate the walls and floors.
At this time in the zero-gravity of prelaunch, most of the crew was busy arranging their apartments and trying to tie down anything that was not permanently bolted to the floor such as furniture. But Ajax was not attending to his apartment he was trying to change his sister's mind one last time.
“With the meta-verse volunteers aboard I will have all the assistance I need Lindsey. You should really think about changing your mind and staying at base where you can oversee operations.”
“You know yourself Ajax that this has nothing to do with me going along to help, I've always wanted to go on this mission. I only agreed to remain behind to stop our arguing.”
“I figured that sis but I've always felt responsible for you since the death of mom and dad.”
“But brother dear that was fifteen years ago, I've grown up since then. Even if mom and dad were still alive I would be making decisions for myself. I'm thirty years old, older than you were when they died.”
“Yeah I know. Fifteen years is a long time. I still miss them.”
“Me too.”
“I know mom and dad would be proud of you.”
“You too,” said Lindsey.
“Okay, you do what you want. I'll support your decision.”
“Thanks brother.” Lindsey smiled.
Charles Damion had lived all over the world. He was a considerate, studious man who wouldn't think of causing others distress. As long as he was allowed to read and learn what he saw fit, he could easily allow others to do the same. Volunteering for this mission was quite out of character and Charles wasn't sure why he had signed up.
Rachael was always out-going. Never still, all her learning was aimed at some physical interaction. Sky-diving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, hang glider flying, and similar activities that other people might pursue one or two times she did in abundance. She was also a good cook although she doubted that skill would be useful on this mission.
Ruth Villeda had joined the mission on a whim. Since she had lost her husband she hadn't quite been able to get her life going again. She was stuck in the past and she knew it. Maybe a trip to the stars, literally, would shake her out of this holding pattern her life had become.
All three of the volunteers had joined the mission because they felt something missing in their meta-verse lives and they actually wanted to be useful in what other meta-verse occupants referred to as the dirt and dust world.
While they were accustomed to a much richer virtual world they didn't mind the one created for them aboard the Starway Centauri. Each of them had an apartment, much larger than the apartments of the physical crew. Set in one wall of their apartments was a screen that showed the beauty of space outside the ship. It was easy for them to bring up the video wall in any room they chose.
Besides their individual apartments, they had a workroom with a small conference table and monitors. The monitors linked to the Annies of a number of the crew as well as the Ems responsible for flying the Starway Centauri. By establishing a common workroom they could keep their apartments private if they wished.
Others could join them in the workroom, either through the monitors or in a virtual visit. This included Ems as well as humans. They had another common area where meals could be taken. Rachael still liked the discipline of cooking and went far out of her way to make her dishes delectable. Charles had given up eating but Ruth assured Rachael she would be glad to join her from time to time.
They were in the workroom now in a conference with the mission planners and an Em pilot. The Em was there virtually, Ajax and Horace joined them on the monitors.
“I have to say that this entire Starway undertaking is quite ambitious,” Charles said. “Especially in the dirt and dust world, I mean the physical world,” he added and winced, hoping he hadn't caused offense.
“I believe the Starway is the greatest engineering undertaking in the history of as you say, the dirt and dust world,” said Horace. “I like that phrase by the way.”
“Thanks Horace, I meant no offense.”
“None taken,” said Ajax.
“So Charles, Rachael, Ruth,” he continued. “I take it that you've made your way through the data dump we provided about the mission and our goals.”
“Yes Mr. Jackson we have,” said Rachael. “The three of us have digested the information and classified it for retrieval. It should help us to make quick decisions if necessary.”
“Excellent,” said Ajax. “As Horace explained to you when you signed up for this mission, you three are the mission commanders. The Ems are the pilots. I expect the three of you to come up with the strategies necessary to meet any need, especially emergencies, and the Ems will be responsible for the actual implementation.”
“Understood,” said Ruth.
“Em-nine,” said Ajax. “Are you and the rest of your family committed to the current setup.”
“Completely sir, I assure you we understand the setup and the reasons behind the setup. We are well aware of the successful partnerships between the Earth AI and the Ems of that world in piloting the spaceships bringing Helium 3 back to the Earth's fusion reactors. We intend to be as successful working with the meta-verse volunteers if not more so.”
“Very well,” said Ajax. “Horace do you have anything more to say?”
“Just that in the two weeks we have left I hope all of you will participate in as many simulations as Arn Strombecker can devise to polish your decision and piloting skills.”
“No doubt we will do our best,” said Charles.
“Of course,” said Em-nine.
“Very well then,” said Ajax. �
��The next scheduled meeting will be a week from tomorrow, exactly one week before we fly. Thank you all.”
The screens went dark. Ajax turned and said, “I have to say Horace that I believe this was a good idea you had, I feel very comfortable working with the volunteers.”
“I'm glad,” said Horace. “I thought it would work out but you never know until you try it. But I think when we face that first emergency, that will be the real test.”
12
The day before the launch Alex Poro received a message from ANON1 marked For Your Eyes Only, preventing Poro's Annie from translating the message to speech and forcing Poro to read it silently.
ANON2. I am downloading the intelligence now. You will place the communications core in the target. The intelligence will reside in the network resources you have made available. As you know it is imperative that these resources not be traceable. The intelligence understands that in the case of detection it must terminate before discovery. A recovery copy here would then be invoked. Proceed with extreme caution.
Poro thought it would be close but he had prepared as much as possible for this eventuality. A day should be sufficient to implement the plan. A day he had waited for his whole life since he had learned his family's history.
That history was impacted when a disagreement broke out between the then Star-Way Corporation and the City of the Stars at beam relay station thirteen ninety-five. The settlement unilaterally had declared its independence. A Star-Way Corporation fusion ship sent to restore order ended up attacking the City of the Stars habitat and among the casualties was Alex's grandparents. Alex's father had only been a year old when his parents died and although he worked hard he never rose to his grandparent's level of success. Eventually, he moved back to Earth and married but without any worldly success.
Alex had been born into the lower classes and despised his childhood, embarrassed by his parents he eventually came to despise them. He worked hard to get an education and to get a good-paying job.
After their accidental death, he returned home to take care of the estate. That was when he learned about his grandparents and that the Corporation was responsible for their deaths. That's also when he learned about his dad's struggles, struggles caused by the Corporation's carelessness. That was when his hatred for the Corporation was born.
He began dreaming about revenge. But how do you get revenge on a Corporation? A person you kill, a Corporation you bankrupt. He dreamed about paying back the Corporation for his ruined childhood. He got a job with the Corporation. He worked his way up to Chief Intelligence Officer of the Corporation. And now this was his chance for revenge.
The light sail was complete at its planned forty-kilometer diameter. Two beam lasers were firing their five-hundred terawatts of converted sunlight into tightly coherent light beams to power the Starway. Two more were ramping up slowly to be aimed at the Starway Centauri for the first one-hundred AU of its journey where the first beam relay station would take over the focusing duties.
The fusion ship was tethered one-kilometer away from the light sail and all aboard were prepared to begin the journey. The ship would intercept only a small fraction of the beam but what it did intercept would be radiated away or converted to power for internal needs.
Through a wall screen display of a critically darkened image of space Ajax, Lindsey, Horace and others watched for beam initiation which would signal the beginning.
“There,” said Lindsey as she pointed toward the center of the wall screen. “Ignition.”
In the center of the screen, a faint but definite glow began to emanate. The dim spot was about the size of a bright planet. It slowly but steadily got brighter. Then an almost imperceptible force began to be exerted on the starship and the crew and anything not bolted down took notice. They were moving.
“Here we go!” shouted Lindsey laughingly.
It wasn't long until the force was enough for people to stand and be held in place against the floor of the ship. It was still weak but building. By the time the ship had passed a distance equivalent to the orbit of Jupiter, the force would be Earth-normal gravity. The starship would be heading outside the Solar System in a direction below the orbital plane, a direction and path paved by light that would take it to the Centauri System.
For twenty days the Starway Centauri had been accelerating.
“We've almost reached the first relay station,” reported Em-nine during the ship's operational meeting which had been occurring once a week since the mission began. “The ship is traveling at five percent the speed of light and accelerating smoothly at one Earth gravity. There was a vibrational problem with the sail which we solved with the help of the volunteers.”
“That's right,” said Rachael. “The vibrations were randomly generated waves created by the non-uniformity in the laser beam. So because we couldn't anticipate these non-uniformities and because they were generally small we set up a series of concentric waves that were large enough to swamp the smaller random waves generated by the laser beam. We can anticipate and cancel the concentric waves at the boundaries of the sail. This prevents any reflected components that could reinforce the incoming instabilities and cause problems.”
“That was clever,” said Horace.
“It was an idea that Ruth came up with. She made her own clothes at one time and mentioned how the pleats she used in sewing could actually make a piece of cloth stronger, more rigid but still flexible.”
“Interesting,” said Horace. “And these pleats, these dampening waves won't cause a problem with the integrity of the sail I assume.”
“That is right,” said Em-nine. “The Ems ran simulations to confirm the mechanism proposed by the volunteers. The integrity of the sail is not in danger.”
“Great,” said Ajax. “This is the way we were hoping this setup would work. A cooperative effort to solve any problems that might arise. Gives me greater confidence in our mission.”
A starship under constant acceleration is quite different than a ship at constant velocity. For one thing, no mechanism to generate artificial gravity is necessary. Gravity and acceleration are equivalent as proven many times since first proposed over four hundred years before.
For another thing, a more complex formula is needed to figure when the ship would arrive at a destination because of the constantly increasing velocity. For instance, it had taken the Starway Centauri twenty days to reach the first beam relay station a hundred AU distant. But beam relay station two took only a little over eight days to reach, and beam relay station three took just a bit more than another five days to reach. Like an accelerating car on an old Earth highway lined with telephone posts, the relay stations would soon be flying past.
Horace Mann was explaining the above to his class on the mechanics of the Starway. Classes like this were becoming common as people tried to keep their minds busy on the long flight. Already at a half year of subjective time into the flight, many were becoming impatient or bored with the routine.
At the current distance news from Earth was already a month and a half old, though many still watched it because it provided some comfort for their homesickness. Fortunately, there was a large library of digitized books and videos. This kept some people busy when they were off duty. For another segment of the population, game tournaments had become the distraction of choice. And of course, the crew consisting as it did of almost equal numbers of males and females and being mostly under forty and single, much time was spent in the pursuit of relationships.
When Lindsey, who among other things worked with the human resources department, brought the problem to Ajax's attention he assured her there wasn't much to worry about.
"I would say sis that we can afford a certain amount of boredom and slack performance during this phase of the mission. Everything onboard is pretty much monitored and controlled by the Ems with the volunteers' supervision. A few people slacking off can be tolerated."
"What about babies brother?"
"Babies! You kn
ow the mission contract we all signed strictly prohibits pregnancies. At least not until we get the colony facilities up and running in the Centauri System."
"I know that and you know that. But how many bored couples are going to worry about an employment contract during a sexual encounter?"
"They should, I mean they should have planned. We simply don't have the resources for more mouths. Even with our medical countermeasures, we don't know how a baby will be affected in this environment. Researchers will be working for years on the physiological changes caused by this mission."
He looked at his sister pleadingly, "Can you do a seminar or something to emphasize the importance of waiting?"
"Yeah I can set something up with the help of H.R. but we still need to realize it could happen at any time. Then what?"
Ajax shrugged.
My brother's not as practical-minded as he believes he is, thought Lindsey as she left.
13
Ciudad de las Estrellas or City of the Stars was the last manned settlement on the Starway at beam relay station thirteen-ninety-five. It was the most distant human presence from Earth until the passing of Starway Centauri.
Luis Martin was a descendant of a family of refugees that had taken up residence in the settlement over a hundred years before. Maintaining and eventually managing the beam relay station had become a family business. Luis was the first Martin to reach the level of manager over the entire facility. He had risen to the position just in time to be responsible for the movement of the station closer to the Centauri System as required by the Starway Corporation. It was a complex undertaking of which he was completely committed.
It had also become an undertaking that caused conflict between the relay station and the settlement.
When the order to move the relay station was received from corporate Luis had immediately gone to the settlement's council to present the information.
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