Project Diamond (Jacob Lansing Series Book 1)

by J. W. Bouchard

  She had temporarily forgotten the uneaten green beans on her plate. “I took a few physics classes when I was in Chicago. This is all basic stuff. I’m not really a brain. Seriously.”

  “You don’t have to apologize to me.”

  “Maybe there are kinds that have exotic matter already.”

  “It’s called Casimir energy. Supposedly, some wormholes do contain it, but whether it would be enough to stabilize the hole is up for debate. Even if it could, it might only be enough to allow something as small as a single photon through.”

  I looked at Harper and said, “I think she just saw your movie science and raised you.”

  “That’s real funny, Lansing. I’m just throwing out ideas. I didn’t say any of them were right. I don’t know why you’re acting like you’re above it all. If I remember right, you were the one that asked Hayes the question.”

  Harper had me there. I tried to think of a witty comeback, but my brain failed me. Gloria saved me from embarrassment by saying, “Even if the theory is correct, I highly doubt that they would spend trillions of dollars putting a mission like this together to go through a wormhole that, even if we managed to get to the other side of it, might collapse at any second. What good would it be if we got there but couldn’t get back? That’s a lot of money down the drain.”

  “They’d have to tell us if that was the case, wouldn’t they?” Harper asked. “It would be a suicide mission. I wouldn’t have signed up for a one way trip. Unless it was maybe to save the world or something. Like Bruce Willis in Armageddon.”

  “That’s a good point,” Gloria said.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “In a roundabout way. What I mean is that it brings up the question of why we’re doing this. Why we applied in the first place.”

  I hadn’t considered that we might have different reasons for going. I had assumed that the others were interested in the same thing I was: the chance to visit another planet. And not even another planet, but another solar system.

  A few hundred grand could get you a day trip to the moon. It was like the luxury cruises they offered. You partied up on expensive food and souvenirs during the voyage, spent an hour or two collecting moon dust, and then you partied it up some more on the trip back. Mars wasn’t out of the question, but it would cost you a small fortune unless you applied to live on the colony there. I’d never spoken to anyone that had been there and back, but I had heard it was boring. The mission we were going on was different. We didn’t know what was out there. There was a certain degree of mystery to it.

  “I’ve wanted to travel into space for as long as I can remember,” I said.

  “You want to escape, is that it?” Gloria asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “What I mean is, you want to escape your life here. So badly that you’re willing to travel into the unknown.”

  “I never thought of it like that. I think it would be cool to visit another planet. Someplace no one has been before.”

  Was I kidding myself? Had Gloria, after having known me for less than a day, hit the nail on the head? Was I trying to escape my life on Earth? Now wasn’t the time to analyze that question, but I didn’t think the reason was anything as subconscious as that. The thrill of adventure made more sense.

  “Well, why are you going?” I asked.

  “Same reason,” Gloria said. “Escape.”

  “Life’s that bad?”

  She shook her head. “No. Not my life. A humdrum existence. I want to know I accomplished something in life. That I did something that nobody else can claim to have done.”

  “Fame,” Flynn said. “Admit it. That’s what you’re really talking about. It’s what I’m here for. Ain’t no shame in it. And the pay ain’t bad either.”

  Gloria didn’t strike me as a glory seeker. I didn’t know her well. Hell, barely at all, but my gut feeling was that she wasn’t in it for fame or fortune. I could believe it coming from Flynn. He seemed like the type that was interested in leaving a legacy. The attitude went along with his tanned good looks and charming drawl. He could come across as full of himself. It didn’t seem like he was acting either.

  “Money,” Yuri said. “It eesn’t easy getting by vare I’m from, and the idea of returning veeth a fortune appeals to me. All the vodka you can drink.”

  That got a little laugh.

  Jin explained how the experience would look good on a resume. He said he wasn’t trying to escape his life here. He wanted to return home with a ticket to a better one in his front pocket. Get on the lecture circuit. Make a living talking about the experience.

  Perkins shook his head. “I’m not into the existential stuff. I haven’t seen it all, but I’ve seen a lot. A change of scenery wouldn’t hurt. And I’m not ready to retire yet.”

  “You need to be needed,” Gloria said. “To fit in somewhere. Have structure in your life.”

  “Spare me the psycho-babble.”

  Gloria looked in my direction. “You did sound a little like a shrink,” I said.

  “I can’t live in my parent’s basement forever,” Harper said. “Or so they tell me.”

  We all laughed at that. Even Harper, although I don’t think he meant it to be humorous.

  “Aren’t we a sorry ass bunch of losers,” Flynn said.

  Yuri hissed through his teeth, but was still smiling. “Speak for yourseelf, Comrade.”

  “Time’s up,” Perkins said. “We better get back.”

  We dumped the remains of our trays and piled them neatly on top of the trash receptacle. I thought I had a handle on remembering the way back to the training room, and when Perkins asked if anyone else wanted to lead the way, I volunteered. I managed to get us there after one wrong turn. Maybe Flynn was right. Maybe we were a sorry ass bunch of losers. But if these were the guys (and gal) I was going to be spending the next so many years with, it might not be too bad.

  Hayes had spent the rest of the day going over the ship’s schematics with us. The ship was called the Astraeus after one of the Titans in Greek mythology. Astraeus was the Titan of stars and planets. It seemed fitting. The ship itself, Hayes informed us, was the largest non-Earth object that had ever been built. Large enough that if they had assembled it on Earth, there would be no way of getting it off the planet. Instead, it had been carried into orbit piece by piece, where it had been assembled by a team of engineers from the United States, China, and Russia.

  The ship was massive. Stop me if I’m repeating myself.

  The interior was divided into sections, which were further divided into subsections. From nose to tail, the sections went: the command center, which housed the cockpit and navigation. There was a small corridor after that, with the flight crew’s quarters on either side in order for them to have easy access if anything pressing should arise. Security quarters were also housed there. Past that, was the med bay. It was equipped with the latest medical technology that money could buy. The rest of the sleeping quarters came next, followed by the cafeteria and a lounge, fitness room, and an Irish-style pub called Finnigan’s.

  At this point, Jin interrupted, asking, “A bar in space?”

  It was one of the few times I saw Hayes smile. “You have a problem with that?”

  Jin shook his head. Nobody had a problem with it. If anything, it came as a bit of a shock that they would be carrying alcohol on the ship. Historically, the brains they paid to do studies on what the conditions of long-term space travel would be like, and what the effect of those conditions would be, frowned upon such a notion. Sarver had obviously seen fit to go against science on that subject.

  “I reckon that’s one’ve the best ideas since they put a man on a bull,” Flynn said.

  Past food and recreation were the science offices: astrophysics, geology, anthropology, et cetera. This was also where the fully functional lab and testing center was l
ocated.

  After the science section, came maintenance and engineering, followed by janitorial. And, finally, there were the equipment storage bays where all of the mining and excavation equipment was stored. This was also where several smaller landing ships were kept. Since the Astraeus wasn’t designed to launch itself from the ground, it would remain in orbit while the smaller ships carried passengers and equipment to the planet’s surface.

  Hayes explained that after we docked with the Astraeus we would be put into hypersleep. Thomas had been right about that. I asked how long we would be out, but Hayes didn’t have an answer. The security team would be one of the last groups to be placed into stasis, and after that, the ship would run on a skeleton crew for the duration of the journey.

  The question popped up in my mind again. How much time would we lose on our trip to 55 Cancri e? I knew Hayes didn’t have the answer, or if he did he wasn’t sharing. I wondered if I’d ever get my question answered. Maybe not until they pulled us out of stasis and told us a thousand years had passed. Or if we were moving at the speed of light, maybe it would only be a few years for us, but a lifetime on Earth. I wouldn’t know anyone by the time we got back. Not that I knew many people as it was. My mother would be long dead. Then again, for all I knew, she already was. She hadn’t made a fortune off my dad’s death, so the money was bound to run out sometime. What would she do when that happened? I didn’t really care. I’d never had a hard time writing people off. I think I learned by example.

  “I’m not going to get into specifics when it comes to the mining operations,” Hayes said. “If you’re curious, all the information is available by download into your headsets. Knowing it won’t hurt. What you do need to know is that operations will take place on the side of the planet facing away from the star. Trust me, you don’t want to be on the other side. You’d be Silly Putty in two seconds flat. The side we’ll be on isn’t great either, but the ships and your suits are designed for the extreme weather conditions and to shield you from the radiation. Protocol limits exposure times to eight hours maximum. Naturally, the company is worried about liability, so walking patrols won’t exceed six hours before you rotate out. Don’t worry, you’ll be in one of the patrol rovers most of the time, actual foot time on the rock will be limited. The rest of the time you’ll be on one of the lander ships or below surface with the mining team. We don’t take any risks out there.”

  Hayes stressed that part. If we thought there might be an issue with our suits, we were to proceed directly back to base and have it checked out. The environment, he said, was harsh and unforgiving. A little mistake could cost you everything. He finished the day off by giving us a short speech about teamwork. Told us we would have to learn to trust each other. If we thought we would have a problem doing that, we might as well pack our bags and head home. “I don’t have any patience for drama,” he said. “If you feel you have any of that shit in your system, you get it out and leave it here on Earth. There aren’t any playgrounds in space.”

  After that, we were shown to our temporary living quarters. We were all in the same room, but we were separated by tall cubicle walls that provided at least some semblance of privacy. We unpacked what few keepsakes we had, headed back to the cafeteria for dinner, and showered when we got back. In an attempt at chivalry, we all let Gloria go first. We were settled and in bed by nine. I could hear some of the others talking in whispered voices, swapping stories about their lives. I was almost jealous. It would have taken a lot more effort to come up with good stories rather than bad ones. I didn’t want pity, but pity was what you got when you had a backstory similar to mine.

  I removed my headset device from the nightstand next to the cot and slipped them over my ears, covering my eyes with the shades. Images popped up on the lenses and gave me a menu of options. I chose “Interstellar Security Protocols of Project Diamond” and a pleasant female voice spoke into my ears. Within minutes, I was feeling drowsy. I closed my eyes, wondering if Hayes had his stats correct and I would retain most of the information even if I was asleep. The female voice started talking about procedures for roving patrols on the planet’s surface. I thought about Lisa. I thought about Gloria being only a cubicle wall away from me. And then my mind drifted away, dreaming of things I wouldn’t remember by morning.

  CHAPTER 7

  We spent the rest of the week going over security procedures and running simulated drills. It was a lot of role-playing using virtual reality suits and scale models. The scenarios got uglier and uglier. I died at least a dozen times, but none of my virtual deaths were for naught. I always learned from my mistakes. Sooner or later, we all died. Once each exercise was over, Hayes would play it back on one of the plasma monitors and ask us what we could have done differently. He operated under the idea that death could usually be avoided. I don’t know if he made me a convert, but he never failed to show us how a different decision could have saved our lives. “The thing you have to remember,” he said, “is that hindsight is twenty-twenty. Right now, we have the ability to see our mistakes and correct them. Out there, the error rate won’t be so forgiving.”

  When the week was up, most of us stayed up late on Sunday night, filled with a nervous excitement. It was hard to believe we were really doing it.

  In the morning, we would be taking one of the shuttles to dock with the Astraeus. Despite hours and hours of training during the past week, I didn’t feel prepared. Not by a long shot. There had been a fair amount of complaining when we had discovered we would be training over the weekend leading up to the mission launch. Most of us (myself included) were inclined to believe that we had earned some relaxation time before the mission started. Hayes had squashed those beliefs. And now I thought I understood why he had. Too much thinking time wasn’t a good thing. As I sat around on Sunday night, with only twelve hours separating us from launch, my stomach felt tight and queasy.

  I wasn’t alone. The living quarters was filled with anxious energy after we returned from dinner in the cafeteria. We were talking too much, too loudly. We knew it could be dangerous. We were the guinea pigs for multiple technologies that had been proven in testing, but hadn’t been tried over the long term, in a real world environment.

  Add the fact that we were headed for a planet where the temperatures were high enough to make metal cringe, a hostile place that was deemed a super-Earth, but didn’t bear any resemblance to our home planet otherwise. And don’t forget that it was a million years away by conventional means. It was enough to make anyone have second thoughts. In our case, I don’t think it was a fear of these things as much as it was a fear of the unknown. We didn’t know what was out there. It was the excitement of having your dreams within your grasp, but the frazzled nerves that came with realizing you just might obtain them.

  “Anybody else nervous?” Harper asked.

  Even Perkins, who had seen plenty of action, appeared withdrawn, his lips pursed razor thin. “Doesn’t matter how many times you do something like this,” he said. “You’re always nervous right before. Never goes away.”

  Flynn was tipped back in a folding chair, arms folded over his chest, legs propped up on the nightstand he had dragged out of his cubicle. “I don’t know about y’all, but the first thing I’m gonna do when we get on that ship is hit the bar. Drink myself silly. I figure that’ll make for a nice sedative before they put us under for the long sleep.”

  “You buy me a bottle of Baikal and I am veeth you,” Yuri said.

  “Shit, you think we have to buy it? I figured the crew would drink for free. Is there an A-T-M around here?” Flynn pretended to reach for a wallet that wasn’t in his back pocket.

  Harper said, “If they would have dressed us in red I’d be really worried.”

  Nobody got it. He had to explain how it was a reference to something called a Red Shirt in an old TV series called Star Trek. Even after a thorough explanation, nobody thought it was funny. Guess you had to be there.


  We talked until late into the night, but the conversation always managed to steer clear of any serious subjects involving the mission. Maybe we thought if we didn’t acknowledge the dangers then the dangers couldn’t touch us.

  For some reason I started thinking about Burnell. I wondered if he would be proud of me. I hadn’t had the opportunity to thank him for giving me a shining reference. I made a promise that when I got back I would look him up and we could swap stories. If he was still alive.

  It was midnight by the time we all turned in. I stared at the ceiling. I put on my headset and randomly selected one of the topics from the lens menu, filling my head with noise to drown out the noise of my own thoughts. Hayes had been right. You ended up retaining a good chunk of what you listened to. I couldn’t always recite things verbatim, but the knowledge seemed to offer itself up when circumstances were right. That night I listened to proper procedure for dealing with a hostile employee; restraint technique and rules of detention.

  I wondered where we’d be by this time tomorrow. Cruising amongst the stars? Would they put us in hypersleep right away? Or would we be getting wasted in Finnigan’s bar first? There was a world of possibility out there. Literally.

  Hayes roused us from sleep at 0400 hours. I felt like I had only just gotten to sleep moments before. We hurriedly packed our belongings, leaving our living quarters with barely a trace that we had ever been there.

  “Up and at ‘em,” Flynn said, too cheerful for the early hour. “Party’s about to start.”

  We shuffled into the auditorium where Melbourne (looking bleary-eyed himself) gave us a final pep talk. After that, we took a shuttle bus across a sea of asphalt toward the launch area. We were loaded into a drab-looking carrier vessel, strapped in, and waited.

  Hayes was the only one standing, doing last minute checks, going through the row of spacesuits that were hanging at the far end of the ship. “Get your goodbyes in now,” he said. “This is the last time you’ll be seeing Mother Earth for a while.”