Launch: Chapter 18

  Two Years Ago…

  

  “You gonna have it ready on time?” Markus asked his brother who was darting about in preparation of going to lunch, while he sat waiting in one of the comfortable chairs opposing Brakus’ big executive chair behind an equally large and imposing desk.   Brakus went around his sizeable office putting things in his pocket, starting operations on his desk terminal, and flipping through forms on the large scroll he’d propped up beside the main screen on his desk.

  “Of course!” Brakus exclaimed, “I’ve never missed a deadline my whole time sitting in that chair.   I certainly don’t intend to start now.”

  “Understood, but it is a prototype.”  They were talking about the custom fusion core that had been ordered for the New Horizon vessel, on which construction had recently begun in orbit.

  “Yes it is, but I’m already looking forward to the next opportunities.  This is a next generation core and based on its design I can produce a whole series of them.”  Brakus spoke quickly and had a go go way about him.  He always put just enough work on himself, for it to be almost too much.   It was just his way.  It might have had something to do with him assuming leadership of the family company younger than anyone had ever planned for him to.  Markus figured that deep down he might still be worrying about ‘letting everyone down.’

  “I’ve got a bunch of ideas for applications we can pitch to,” he continued.  “Anytime you can squeeze more energy into a more compact and stable package the market will find you and exploit that capacity.  I have a number of applications in mind; like on the New Horizon, one of these cores alone can do the job of two or three of the leading heavy duty cores on the market today.”

  “Yes, that’s definitely something to be proud of,” Markus answered and then continued, “and just imagine what you could power if you combined two or three or even four of these cores together.”

  Deciding himself adequately collected and prepared, Brakus led Markus out of the office.

  “You’re quite right, Mark.”   Brakus replied.  “In fact, I had a meeting just yesterday with a senior fleet manager in the Trade Corps.  We were talking about using just such a setup to create gigantic lumbering cargo ships for carting raw resources all over the system, but it could also power much smaller super-fast vehicles for rapid transportation and delivery.  He showed me some plans that their builders have had on their pads just waiting for a sufficiently efficient power source.”

  Having made their way down the hall, the two entered the elevator.  The doors closed after Brakus ordered it to the ground floor with a thought.   “And what about your… other market?” Markus asked.  Military vessels needed fusion cores too, and Boland Power Systems was the primary supplier to the New Commonwealth Peacekeepers.

  The Peacekeepers were a meta-national police force which served the New Commonwealth.  Inspiration was drawn from the traditions of both the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, as well as the peacekeeping traditions of the United Nations.  They were the military which defended New Commonwealth borders and possessions, as well as the intelligence service for the entire New Commonwealth and back-up to the civilian police forces.

  Their main role in space was essentially to be the coast guard service for the Trade Corps and other civilian ships operating throughout the Solar System, ready to leap into action on a humanitarian rescue mission at a moment’s notice and from bases all over the local Solar System.  These operations were paid for in part by all of those who benefitted from the service; primarily the Trade Corps, but all civilian activity shared in the costs as well.   Serving in the Trade Corps was a well-respected vocation in Commonwealth society, but being a current or former Peacekeeper elicited a certain special status in society, as someone who has honourably served their society by putting their lives at risk to protect it.

  Their primary role on Earth had in this peaceful era become one of rapid humanitarian response.  They were the first responders to any kind of disaster, delivering aid in the form of food, fresh water, energy, medical care, and temporary shelter when needed.  Although their primary role was military defence of the New Commonwealth and off world policing, every mass mobilization of the Peacekeepers since they were founded a couple decades after the Nuclear Tragedy had been a humanitarian mission.   When the Peacekeepers arrived, desperate humans anywhere in the Solar System knew that they were saved, and that things would start getting better again.

  They were not the only military force in space, but they were by far the dominant one.  Their impeccable record for obeying international laws to the letter, and their willingness to assist non-Commonwealth vessels in distress, allowed the leaders of other major powers to be comfortable with leaving these very expensive responsibilities to the Peacekeepers.  After all, rapid emergency response to civilian ships all around the Solar System, enforcing compliance with global treaties on orbital regulations, as well as serving as a military deterrence to the limited piracy operations which occasionally took place, did all added up to enormous operating costs.  It was much easier for the other meta-nationals to just pay an annual fee to the Peacekeepers, instead of operating their own parallel service.  In space they acted on the authority of the New Commonwealth, but in co-operation with the other major powers of the world.

  “Very promising, in fact Mom and I have a meeting with them tomorrow morning.  Of course more power means more speed which they always welcome, but the way we incorporated more rapid cycling into this model also has them interested in using them to power a new generation of laser cannon.  They think that with the increased power and faster cycling they can cut their cannon recharge time in half so yeah, they’re watching our work here very carefully.”

  

***   ***    ***

   

  Markus was pleased to find that that certain indescribable quality he’d sensed in some of the selected crew he’d already met, appeared to be found in the wildcard crew as well.  All fifty winners of the New Horizons wildcard lottery were required to board the ship no later than one week before the launch, and being a week away today, the senior staff were holding an orientation in the dining hall for all of the new arrivals.  He was delighted to see sparkles of excitement in the eyes of everyone around him, something he came across so rarely down on Earth.  As a result, he temporarily forgot his shyness and found himself making introductions and joining in on conversations he heard around him while they all waited for the mission founders to arrive.

  When one of the main doors to the dining hall opened, Kim In-Su, Sadhika Sengupta, and Wiremu Tynes entered the room, greeted by an impromptu eruption of roaring applause.  They paused in their approach towards the stage at the far side of the room and opposite the kitchen.  They appeared somewhat taken aback by the response, but their now long experience as public figures kicked in and they continued on towards the stage and stood shoulder to shoulder, allowing their fans the chance to appreciate them before they began to speak.

  When the applause died down, Kim stepped forward to address the crowd.  “Welcome aboard the New Horizon.”  Thunderous applause and cheers once again spontaneously erupted, even louder and more enthusiastically than before, and the three mission principles looked around at each other with smiles.  Markus imagined that after being bunkered in the ship the last year and a half overseeing its construction, these three might not have had much of a chance to drink in a moment like this, to step back and reflect on the scope of what they were about to attempt and the excitement surrounding it.

  “You are the wildcard crew,” Kim continued.  “Over a million people applied and from them only six thousand were deemed qualified, including all of you.  From that pool, only you fifty were lucky enough to win a spot on this mission.   Congratulations to you all.”   Energetic applause and cheering erupted once again and Kim stepped back, allowing Tynes to step forward.

  “I want to make something very clear today though,” he said.  “The qualification standard we had for the crew members we selected personally, were no more stringent than the standards of excellence which each and every one of you had to meet to qualify for the lottery.  The only difference between the two crews is that the selected crewmembers were chosen for specific roles on the ship, while all of you will need to discover and create your own roles en route.  From this point forward there will be absolutely no distinction between selected and wildcard crews.  We are now a single crew, with one singular purpose, and all a part of the same unified effort, to create a permanent secular colony on a planet around a distant sun!”  The crowd roared with enthusiasm, this was why every one of them was here, this was the dream they all shared, the one they were all in the process of realizing.

  Pulling Kim along with her, Sengupta came up beside Tynes and stood between the two men with her arms around their shoulders.  She was a few centimeters taller than the average sized men she stood between.   “One more thing before we take you on the formal orientation and welcome tour of the ship.  Although we are not the first generational ship, it is important that you all recognize that we are the one that really matters.

  “The two that went before us,” she continued, “were cowards and hypocrites who escaped the modern world using the technologies of that modern world.  Their ships were half-hazardly constructed and their crews were unsophisticated.   The human race cannot count on them arriving at their destinations and surviving.  It is we who are the best hope humanity has, for successfully establishing a self-sustaining and thriving colony in another star system.  Our primary mission, our be all and end all priority, is to create a thriving sister civilization to Earth.  Once our new home is settled, if either Earth or Haven is somehow destroyed, humanity itself will still survive!  We will survive!” she had to raise her voice to a shout at this point to be heard over the excited and growing cheering from the crowd, “humanity will endure, and we will continue to flourish!!”