The Orthogonal Galaxy (53 page)

“
Off the record,” Joram
spoke up for the first time during the interchange. “The media is
frenzied about the odds of this. You can’t turn around without
seeing some update on the odds in Vegas. Does it bother you guys
that most think this won’t succeed?”

Blade let out a
groan.

“
Every time I hear the
naysayers, I remind myself of Christopher Columbus. Most people
laughed him to scorn, and fo’ six persistent years, he tried hard
to convince people that you could sail a ship towards the west to
get someplace that’s in the east. Ludicrous, ain’t it? It’s no
wonder nobody believed him. Finally Spain took a risk on him and
provided him with the support he needed. It was awful brave of him
to do it, but I remember readin’ a quote from Columbus that showed
me why he had faith that his mission would succeed. He
said:

“
With a hand that could be
felt, the Lord opened my mind to the fact that it would be possible
to sail and he opened my will to desire to accomplish the project.
This was the fire that burned within me, the fire of the Holy
Spirit urging me to press forward.”

“
Now, I’m not much of a
religious man, and I certainly ain’t felt no Spirit urging me
towards Earth2, but I believe that this mission—this
exploration—can succeed. First, Columbus—as an insider—believed in
himself and his mission. He knew things that the critics didn’t
ever know. I can tell ya’ that with what I’ve seen in the last few
years, what the critics don’t understand, is that every possible
brainstormed problem, issue, and hurdle have been addressed. The
odds fo’ success are certainly maximized. Second, there’s no
question that we have the technology to succeed. Columbus was able
to succeed with far less. Further, Columbus set sail into uncharted
waters—there was no evidence that this new path would get him
anywhere, let alone to the discovery of a new world. On the other
hand, we actually did discover our new world befo’ we’re settin’
sail. We also know the exact path to take to get there, and the
computer’s all programmed and ready to go. And that’s that,
friends. There’s no use in thinkin’ it can’t be done, because it
can.”

“
Thank you, Blade, for the
Columbus analogy,” Joram congratulated, shaking his head at his own
lack of faith. “For the first time, you’ve given me hope that our
work of discovery won’t be in vain, because until you return with
all of your stories, data, and materials, I’ve often felt that this
discovery is really meaningless.”

“
Well, Joram, you just
keep discoverin’ those amazin’ things out there, and when we
return, you’ll have to catch us up on all that we missed out on,
ok?”

“
Deal!” Joram nodded and
smiled enthusiastically.

The door opened to the
room where the group was convened, and all attention was diverted
to a rather anxious looking mission commander.

“
I know that this has been
a rather brief meeting,” Vurim Gilroy directed his comments to
Carlton Zimmer and his students, “but there is a busy preparation
schedule ahead for these two, and they are going to need their rest
for the big day tomorrow.”

Zimmer reached out his
hand to the astronauts. “Gentlemen, thank you for the interview.
This has been a most pleasant exchange. Godspeed on your journey
tomorrow. We look forward to seeing you about twelve years from
now.”

26

The sky to the east turned
to a milky blue, forecasting another arrival of the Sun. Despite a
few wispy clouds that began to glow on the horizon, the Florida
morning was crystal clear, and dead still. The weather was fitting
to the mood of those who awoke early to witness history. As the
wind held its breath, so did the thousands of spectators gathered
at various locations around Kennedy Air Force Base. In the center
of this group of people, several strong search lights flashed up
from the launch pad onto the star of the show.

The Star Transport
interstellar vehicle stood erect on the launch pad high above the
ground. It was supported by three large fuel-bearing silo rockets.
Each white silo was attached to the spacecraft with large bands,
one under each wing, and another under the body. While Star
Transport would not have the luxury of being launched into space in
this manner from Earth2, the Star Energy team took advantage of
this launch to minimize the consumption of the fuel that would be
required for the trip home.

The Star Transport, at the
center of everyone’s attention, had been considered by many an
uninspiring work. As black as the depth of space it would traverse,
it was designed to absorb every scrap of energy as it hurled
through the darkest reaches of the cosmos. Its propulsion system
was a combination of nuclear and exotic fuels, but all other
electronics—including lights, computerized equipment, navigation
panels, and communications devices were powered purely on
electromagnetic collection panels that made up the entire body of
the craft. The collectors were designed to suck in all of the solar
and cosmic energy in the vicinity of the craft, much like a vacuum
cleaner. For this reason, the body had no shine or luster. In fact,
it largely resembled a lump of coal, and wouldn’t have been
mistaken for the star of the show, had it not been for the staring
crowds and the flood of blue lights, mixed with the white flashes
of camera equipment.

The body was entirely
seamless, except for a nearly invisible door in the back of the
craft. There were no stark edges or lines to be seen anywhere. The
final design of the Star Shield was a thin, transparent, but
practically impenetrable compound which was sprayed onto the craft
with precision jet spray robots. Once cured under extremely high
temperatures, it was as smooth as glass, and harder than anything
known to man. Also lacking were windows of any kind. The two-man
crew would instead rely on a series of image sensors surrounding
the aircraft to provide visual details of their
environment.

The fuselage had the
appearance of a shark, consisting of concentric ellipses that grew
towards the center of the body and tapered off slightly at the
back. The nose was tilted downward very slightly into a curved
point designed to deflect debris away from the vehicle. Direct
impacts with the nose were calculated to be about five particles
per billion. In preparation for even this most unlikely scenario,
the shield was sprayed on to a greater thickness of five inches at
the nose, whereas the rest of the body was given two to three
inches of protective coating. This black resembled that of a
clown’s nose on the front of the vehicle.

Working back from the
flight deck, the wings gradually tapered off of the fuselage. It
was clear that the entire body was molded as one piece. No bolts or
rivets anywhere. Gradual curves leaving the elliptical sides of the
fuselage formed thinly flattened airfoils to create the wings. In
the back, the tail stabilizer curved away from the fuselage
gradually. This was the image for thousands of onlookers and
millions stationed at television monitors around the world as the
sun broke the horizon far across the Atlantic Ocean. Broadcasters
added to the drama with lavish countdown ceremonies, colorful
commentaries and exclusive pre-taped interviews with the astronauts
and engineers behind the ST3 mission. Having tested the Star
Transport during a couple of rigorous test flights—first around the
moon, and then the sun—this was the third such launch in the
history of the spacecraft. But, of course, this was the mission for
which NASA was grooming the Star Transport all along. And while the
ST1 and ST2 missions certainly drew the attention of many, this is
the one that had the world enraptured. This is the one where
suddenly-famous astronauts Paol Joonter and Blade Slater would say
farewell to loved ones and the inhabitants of Earth1 for more than
a decade.

The family of Joonter, as
well as Slater’s uncle and mother sat front and center in the VIP
stands just above the astronaut preparation facility. Wide-eyed
spectators waited anxiously for the emergence of their beloved
astronauts. Joram, Kath, and Reyd joined Professor Zimmer on the
left-hand side of the stand, and watched as the scene unfolded down
below.

Launch specialists zoomed
about every direction whether in car or on foot. Some hurried
about, while others barely moved. Security forces held back crowds,
which were cordoned off from access to the tarmac, and all were
clamoring for a view of the scene.

At long last, two large
doors to the building slid open, as a procession of specialists
filed out double-file. Camera flashes further lightened the dawn as
Joonter and Slater quickly came to view, attired in deep blue
spacesuits and beaming smiles. Each looked up to the VIP room,
waved, winked, and blew kisses to their loved ones. Spontaneous
applause erupted, and even the driest of eyes were threatened with
emotion. Shouts of “I love you”, “Good luck”, and “Godspeed” could
barely be heard through the din.

After a brief pause, the
procession continued towards the launch pad, where an elevator
whisked the two heroes along with a pair of attendants towards a
platform just below the rear of the Star Transport. As the bay door
opened, the attendants unrolled a ladder from a spool on the
platform up into the bay of the spaceship. Within a minute the
ladder stopped, and the attendants returned to the side of the
astronauts. Joonter turned to look over the platform, gave a brisk
wave with his right hand, and blew one last kiss with his left. In
an instant, he climbed out of sight, into the belly of the
vehicle.

An attendant scaled the
ladder behind him. Because the Star Transport was placed upright,
getting strapped into the cockpit seats was nearly impossible
without assistance. The attendant harnessed Paol into his seat
while the astronaut held on to a bar on either side of the seat to
keep from sliding out. The attendant again emerged on the platform,
but quickly disappeared inside the craft again with Paol’s blue
space helmet in hand.

Once Paol’s assistant
emerged from Star Transport a second time, this same sequence
continued for Blade, but not before he could give his final
farewell to the crowds with a full-tooth smile and two thumbs up.
Cameras zoomed tightly into his radiant face, giving field
correspondents plenty of material to work with, touting the efforts
of the heroes during training, invoking the encouraging example of
Slater’s life in overcoming challenges, and praising NASA for their
visionary efforts.

Once both astronauts were
secured, the attendants left the platform, and gave a signal
towards the mission control tower. They quickly rolled the ladder
back onto its spool and confirmed the complete sealing of the
door.

Blade’s head turned slowly
to his comrade. Noticing the movement out of the corner of his eye,
Paol turned to see a very anxious and wide-eyed expression on
Blade’s face.

“
What’s the matter,
Blade?”

“
I’s just wonderin’ what
we got ourselves into here, Partna’. Why this is some fool dumb
thing we’re doin’, ain’t it?”

“
Now, Blade—” said Paol
softly. “You aren’t getting cold feet now are you?”

“
No, they’ve been cold
‘bout five years now. I’m just now recognizin’ it.”

“
Blade, what better thing
could you be doing with your life right now?”

“
Anythin’ better than
committin’ suicide quickly comes to mind.”

Paol grew agitated and
surprised by this comment, and scolded his fellow astronaut.
“Blade! You were the one who convinced me that this mission has a
perfectly fine chance of succeeding. Why are you second guessing
that now?”

“
C’mon, buddy,” said
Blade. “Ya’ can’t nohow tell me that ya’ don’t often think ‘bout
the fact that we know so little ‘bout what we’re gettin’ into. I
mean, nobody—nobody!—really knows anythin’ ‘bout this ride we’re
gonna hitchhike on. Look, we have no clue ‘bout the real effects
super-warp travel is gonna do on a livin’ bein’. And, we don’t know
nothin’ ‘bout Earth2 that ain’t more than twenty-seven thousand
years old. Fo’ all we know, evolution has advanced to the point
that we’re gonna have to run from dinosaurs or cannibals fo’ five
years, waitin’ fer our bus to return.”

“
Dinosaurs and cannibals?”
Blade asked curiously. “Is that the worst you can think of? Why I’m
far more concerned about lawyers and politicians.”

“
Say wha—” Blade looked at
Paol’s half-hidden smile and realized a bit later than he should
have that he was being joked with. Blade responded with grateful
laughter that helped to strengthen his resolve.

Just then, a voice from
mission control was heard coming from no particular location in the
cockpit. In fact, it sounded as if the noise was formed inside the
ear. “Star Transport Pilot, all systems are a go for take-off in T
minus 2 minutes.”

“
Copy that, Ground
Control,” replied Paol.

The voice continued,
“Please provide cross-check of onboard systems, ST3.”

Paol quickly worked
through a checklist of systems.

“
Avionics:
check.”

“
Communication:
check.”

“
Computation:
check…”

When Paol had completed
his checklist, Blade raced through a list he had also been working
on.