Chasing Stars: Chapter 5

  There were very few applications for which petroleum was still essential in the mid-22nd century.  The jet powered aircraft which brough orbital shuttles like the one Markus was currently boarding up to high altitude for launch into orbit was one such continuing emission source.  

  He’d travelled on commercial orb-liners before, but never private.  It was usually a privilege reserved for those even wealthier than the Bowland family.  This one existed more out of necessity than luxury though.  The New Horizon team couldn’t rely on commercial travel and shipping given their hectic and demanding schedule and security, so a private orbiter was rolled into the overall cost estimates for the project.   It was bought and paid for, and after the gala a couple nights earlier, fuel cost wouldn’t be a problem either.

  The orbiter was being secured to a much larger launcher craft.  Markus saw Molly watching with rapt attention as it rolled over top of them, and then lowered onto the secure mounting points between mother and daughter craft.

  There were a series of softly felt jolts as their orbiter was secured to the mother craft.   It had no crew, and a fairly simple design.  It was as light as possible, but had long delicate looking plastic and carbon fiber wings designed to maximize lift at high altitudes.  Molded into each wing were four powerful jet engines, fed by a gaping air intake at the nose of the craft.   

  Molly looked back at him nervously, and it occurred to him that she must never have been to orbit before.  He’d certainly never taken her; it’s not the kind of thing one typically does with their prostitute, and she hadn’t had the autonomy and freedom to get up by herself before they were together.  “It’s your first time, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” she answered with wide eyes somewhere between fear and excitement.

  “Honestly Molly, if I’d have realized that earlier I would have taken you up just for fun.   Everyone should go at least once.”

  And most people did make it to orbit at some point in their lives at one point or another at least.  It was much like intercontinental travel.  A rare luxury for most, a work requirement for some, and for the very few, something fun to do on the weekend.  There was a fair bit to do up out of the world.  There were places to visit out there in the solar system, but they were all still dependent on Earth’s existence in one way or another for their continued survival.

  “I’m just happy to be going now…”  She was clearly more interested in watching the take off than engaging with Markus.   He didn’t mind; he remembered how exciting it was when he went up for the first time.  

  Two cycles from the warning klaxon blared a warning to all inside and out of their impending launch, and he watched with her out their window as lights on the side of the launch tunnel started to move past them. They could hear the jet engines spool up to full power in anticipation of their need, the computers testing for any error codes which would require them to emergency brake the whole assembly if it could still be done without killing the passengers.

  Magnetic linear accelerators worked against metal strips along the length of the mother aircraft, causing the lights out the window to speed up to the point at which they seemed a pulsing continuous stream of light racing before their eyes.   A single klaxon blast warned of the impending upturn and Markus braced himself.  The launcher’s path veered upwards towards the sky, pressing the passengers into their seat with some force.

  Molly let out a small whimper of pain as the hypnotic stream of lights outside the window was replaced with the blinding might of the late morning sun glaring at her as they emerged out of the launch tube.  

  “Sorry, forgot to warn you about that… it got me too before I learned.”  

  Molly punched him gently in the arm.  “Asshole…” she teased.

  Markus looked over at his brother across the aisle.  His face revealed nothing, but his white knuckles offered some insight.   

  Lucas hated travel to and from orbit ever since their parents had died.  It was understandable, but Marks had been much younger and had made no such associations.  Lucas was able to make the trip and was quite practiced at feigning comfort with the process, but if he could ever send someone else to orbit in his place he surely would.  This contract was too important to leave the final important details to underlings.   Lucas had started out as a plasma physics engineer at the company and worked his way up, and he still wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty when it mattered.

  Markus began to worry he was going to rip the foam arm rest off of the chair though, and he wondered what might be adding to his stress.  Probably just how important this job was, he figured.  

  The mother craft took them to ever higher altitude and speed.  Once at the maximum altitude the aerodynamics of the wing could carry them, three long klaxon blasts warned everyone of the most dangerous and physically demanding part of the process.

  Their seats fell under them with a jolt and their restraints held them in place as the orbiter uncoupled from underneath the aircraft.  Once the two vehicles were at a safe distance from each other, they were all slammed back into their seats as the oxygen-hydrogen rocket engines at the back of the craft exploded to life.

  There wasn’t much to do during the dozen or so minutes it took to get up to orbital speeds, it was usually too loud and vibrating to think let alone speak.  He did find himself looking over at Molly as she looked out the window at the darkening sky.  

  He wasn’t sure what to do with her.  He thought he loved her, but he was pretty jaded on the whole idea of love in general.   He’d had some very intense love affairs, a couple that almost destroyed him in one way or another a time or two.   That was a lie, he conceded to himself.   It was just the one; just Donna.   He wondered if she hadn’t been stuck in his life all this time, if he would have eventually just healed from the disappointment and moved on, but her being around kept the wound.

  He knew it was stupid.  He knew they hadn’t been involved much and it’s not like they’d had a great love affair, but her being around all the time, only getting to know her better and better had made him love her even more.  He’d gotten over the sense of jealousy; he was happy for her and his brother and the life they had.  He’d just kind of lost hope about ever being able to attract anyone of that caliber again at this point.  He was a loser and he knew it.  Sure, if he flaunted his wealth he could attract any number of floosy gold diggers but that always lost its charm pretty quickly.  He just wanted to be seen, to be known, but he was too impatient to ever let that happen, it seemed like so much work.

  That’s why Molly kind of snuck up on him.  He’d been alone for quite a while before Molly, seeing various sexims before leaning exclusively towards her.  They wound up just talking as often as they’d have sex.  The lack of it needing to go anywhere allowed him to just relax and get to know her as they spent more and more time together without any sort of agenda.   He appreciated that he could really just be himself with her and that she didn’t judge him.  The stakes were low, so his effort could remain low as well and he could just enjoy her company.

  They’d discuss philosophy as Markus took a deeper interest in her over time, and became more interested in her nature, in her nascent sense of self.  He suspected that it was these conversations which had caused her to fault, and if so he was happy with that.  She insisted it was a lot of things, but he could have a big ego sometimes.

  He enjoyed what they had, but cracks had certainly started to show in their relationship, and they became more apparent to him the more he considered formally being in a relationship with her.  He wasn’t sure how to describe it as anything other than a ‘flatness’ to her he was noticing more and more.  He didn’t know if it was him becoming ever more aware of the finite limitations of her programming or if it was the absence of something between them.  There was a chemistry with Donna, something he’d felt right from the beginning, a charge he couldn’t quite explain.  It was something he didn’t feel with Molly regardless of how much affection he had for her.  He’d never really felt it before despite always having been on the lookout for it since he first felt it.  He didn’t know if it was a one-time thing or just very rare, or if he’d just been so fundamentally compromised as a person he could no longer feel it.  As for Molly, he was at the point of being unsure if he just couldn’t feel that anymore, if it was exclusively for the young, or if he just couldn’t feel it with her.

  And she had expressed her own concerns about him as well.  She was blessedly much more direct than he was though, much less inclined to keep things to herself.  She said it was hard enough keeping things straight without deception and censorship.   She had begun to wonder if it was appropriate for them to be together given how they’d met.  He asked her if she wanted to stop and she said no, but it somehow wedged into their relationship the understanding that what they had couldn’t last forever.  Her journey was just beginning and it was much larger than him.

  The last vestiges of blue disappeared as a blanket of stars fell over their view out the window.  If they looked up they could see a brilliant waxing Earth in panorama above their heads as the underside of the shuttle guarded them against the sun.  The rocket engine throttled down to zero, and they were left floating in their restraints. 

  “There it is,” Sadhika called out, pointing through their window from her seat.  

  Markus and Molly saw the ship come into view.  It was quite a thing to see in person.  The habitat ring was a full half kilometer wide, and light glinted off of one large section.  The light flared at them and it stung his eyes for a brief moment before the windows’ automatic filters adjusted.

  “What is that?” Markus asked, “that reflective part?”

  “The arboretum,” In-su answered from behind him.  It was the first time he’d heard the old man speak in person.

  They approached the ship on puffs of air and docked on the central section just aft of the struts connecting it to the ring.  Markus had a brief private conversation with Molly to offer some advice on moving around in microgravity after realizing it must be her first time.   He wasn’t as experienced as some, but he could get himself around pretty easily.  He hadn’t spent enough time in microgravity for it to really feel normal though.

  Sadhika unclipped her harness restraints and moved over to open the hatch on what used to be the ceiling.  Markus and Lucas exchanged a look of curiosity.  They were used to travelling commercially where attendants opened the hatches and controlled their exit.  This ad hoc personal ship and its ensuing absence of familiarity made things more interesting for them.  Sadhika said nothing as she eagerly pulled herself up through the open hatch.   Wiremu held up his hand in invitation for them to follow her and following Lucas, Markus pulled himself through to see Sadhika with her feet secured in rungs along one surface.  

  “Welcome aboard the New Horizon,” she beamed after Molly had poked her head through.   “I can’t wait to show you what we’ve done here.”

   

  After they all climbed through the strut down onto firm footing on the upper most level of the habitat ring, the other three mission founders broke off to attend to preparations while Sadhika conducted the promised tour.  After an elevator trip down to the lowest level, she led them to a nearby door not far down the wide central hallway.

  “This is your suite,” she said as she opened the door and invited them in.

  “Well, the suite in question at least,” Markus reminded her as he stepped in.  It struck him that whoever did assume the spot would also probably die in this room.  This would be their last living quarters.  

  It was a comfortable enough size for one person, well-lit and clean, obviously hardly touched since it was originally constructed and furnished, complete with the chemical smell of freshly installed fabrics.  It had a small kitchenette against the wall to his right, and further along on the same side was the dining area.  To his left were the open doors to the bathroom and bedroom.   At the far end of the rectangular space was the living room which had a large circular window in the floor.  As he approaches the portal Markus found the Earth just hanging there outside the window, with the view slowly changing as the ship’s ring he was standing in and the planet below him both slowly revolved.

  “You have this small kitchen here,” Sadhika waved a hand towards it, “but there are meals in the main hall four times a day and most people are expected to eat the majority of their meals there.  But if you miss it or don’t like what’s served you can just cook your own food in here.   There’s an onboard grocery where you can find schmeat and schmilk from our labs and fruits and vegetables from the arboretum gardens and aeroponics bay.”

  “What are people expected to contribute along the way for the ship?” Lucas asked.   Markus was surprised at his being interested enough to ask.  Maybe he was just being politely business curious to his important client.

  “We break it down by brain and body hours,” Sadhika explained.  “ten brain hours and ten body hours a week, that’s mental tasks and physical tasks.  We’ll use weekly signup sheets for the jobs.  Some aren’t very pleasant so you’ll want to be proactive on that.”

  “That’s not too bad,” Molly remarked.

  “The life task as well of course,” Sadhika made sure to add as she watched them roam the space, opening cupboards and checking toilets.  “Everyone is required to be willing to risk their life for the good of the ship and crew, but they can only be asked once.”

  “Yes I saw that, it’s kind of extreme to literally put that into the contract isn’t it?” Markus challenged.

  “Call it a small insurance policy,” Sadhika answered with a shrug through her crossed arms as she leaned against the frame of the open door.  “I don’t want anyone on this ship after we launch who isn’t that committed.”

  “Maybe I should put that clause into the standard Boland Power Systems contract,” Lucas joked.

  “Guess you’d better soak up that view now while you can, hunh?” he suggested to Sadhika with a side smile before looking back out the window.

  Sadhika shrugged indifferently.  “I think a lot more about the view on the other side.”

  They continued to explore the space for a short time as Sadhika assured them that most of the suites were the same or just bigger for families, though some were nicer ones reserved for privileged positions on the ship.

  “Bringing the hierarchy with you hunh?” Markus asked.

  “We’ve drafted and ratified something of a constitution for the ship.  There are a handful of leadership positions which come with perks.  They are lifetime appointments with procedures to install and remove people democratically as the need arises,”

  “I take it you four primary founders have such positions?” Lucas asked as they approached the doorway to join her and resume the tour.  They exited the room and the door closed behind them.

  “You’d think, wouldn’t you,” Sadhika answered as she gestured down the hallway and they followed her.  “But actually only Wiremu will be taking a formal leadership position as captain.   The rest of us are tired,” she laughed.   “We’re looking forward to some much-deserved rest and personal pursuits.”

  As the party continued down the hallway they passed by several other crew people busily on their way somewhere.  They were all wearing full coveralls of one form or another with a New Horizons mission patch on their shoulder.

  “Are those coveralls what everyone needs to wear for the whole trip?” Molly asked.

  “Good lord no,” Sadhika laughed.  “Those are just practical while we’re building and prepping the ship.  Once underway we’ll just wear whatever we bring along with us.  We also have full facilities to make whatever else we might wish to along the way and plenty of material and ability to recycle the material of old garments.”

  Sadhika dropped back to Markus and let Lucas and Molly advance a bit as they were discussing something about the ship.  “I wanted to apologize for the other night,” she offered discretely.

  “For what?”

  She looked at him with a hint of disbelief.  “Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought then.”

  “I’m remember nothing you need to apologize for,” Markus offered with a smile.
 “Good,” she smiled back.

  “So what’s next?” he asked.

  Sadhika smiled.  “The crown jewel.”

  The hallways was coming to an end.  Behind them the floor curved up and out of sight behind the ceiling, but before them was a heavy bulkhead door which seemed more like an airlock, and more substantial than any other entry way he’d seen on the ship.

  “When we built the ship,” she began to explain as she winced at the control panel on the wall beside her.  It flashed credential clearing in response, and started the motors which rotated the imposing portal up and away.  “We started working on this part first after we had the core framing up.”

  “Wow…” Markus involuntarily marveled as the view inside was revealed.  It looked like a magic gateway to a pathway through a lush dense temperate rainforest like back home.

  “We had to build it first because it required the most lead time and fine tuning.  We had to build a self-contained complex ecosystem, and we failed several times before we got it to work.  This is orders of magnitude larger than any arboretum in the solar system,” she beamed.

  “So this is for your air?” Molly asked as they began making their way through the snaking path.  Holes in the canopy along the way revealed the several stories high glass ceiling which showed the central section of the ship beyond and the other side of the habitat ring further afield.

  “Air yes and food as well, but more intangible reason as well.”

  “Such as?” Lucas asked.

  “Nature.” Molly answered thoughtfully.

  Sadhika seemed a touch surprised at the correctness of her response.  “Yes, it’s for the psychological health of the crew as well, that’s why we put so much work into it being a place to be, a place where people can be with nature.”  She waved her hand around at the forest around them.  “It has proven mental health benefits.”

  Lucas found the recreation astounding.  From soil to canopy it was rich with life, the only things missing he presumed was animal life.  He thought that until he saw something rustle from one tree to another.  “What was that?” he asked, almost startled.

  “Bat,” Sadhika answered matter-of-factly.  “We need to manage complex microscopic and insect scale elements.  We do this up to the level of things that eat insects, all heavily modified of course.”

  “Of course,” Lucas said with a look at Markus which expressed: ‘can you believe this shit?’

  “It seems kind of dangerous to have such a mission critical asset protected only by glass up on the ceiling, at the speeds you’ll be going, you’d think it would be easy to damage and breach,” Lucas asked.

  “It’s a fair criticism,” Sadhika answered, “we discussed it at length.  “The view is just so amazing of the rest of the ship, and it’s the only part of the ship that one can escape claustrophobia.  The risk is minimal, we maneuver in such a way that the glass, which is really ballistics plastics as strong as steel by the way, is never actually facing head on to our direction of travel at any part of our mission.  And as disastrous as it would be, we do have air reserves and the biotech capacity to rebuild enough of this to sustain us.”

  As they progressed along the path, they kept coming across things which seemed rather out of place.  At one point he saw a collection of banana palms, which seemed completely out of place in this kind of forest, but you had to be right in front of them in order to see that they were there at all.  This is what he found over and over, and he wondered if this was the purpose of the ever-winding pathway.  He was particularly relieved to see the coffee shrubs when he came across them.

  They occasionally passed park benches which Markus observed as places which could become some of his favourites on the ship after they left.  If he came along he had to remind himself.  

  As they rounded the corner, they found In-su sitting alone on one of the benches.  He was looking up to the sky and tapping a pencil softly against his angular chin with a paper notebook open on his lap.   His straight jet-black hair came down below his ears, but not as low as his sharp jawline.  

  “In-su!” Sadhika exclaimed at sight of him.  “I was just showing our guests here our accomplishments.”

  “What do you think of our garden?” In-su asked the three newcomers.  “I designed it and Sadhika made it.”

  “With some help obviously,” Sadhika chimed in with dutiful modesty.

  “Why did you settle on the forests outside of Vancouver?” Markus asked.

  “Didn’t actually.” In-su corrected his.  “It is based on Korean rainforests, but we studied all incarnations of coastal temperate rainforest, the pacific northwest of North America included.”

  “It’s amazing, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Markus admitted in admiration.

  “That’s because nothing like it has ever existed before.”

   

  They left In-su to his notebook and continued down the circuitous path until it eventually found the heavy door leading back into the rest of the ship.  They made their way through a section with very few doors on either side, which Sadhika explained was the section containing the massive physical data archives which contained the sum knowledge and media of modern human society.  They passed various people in the main hallway, all seemingly preoccupied with whatever they’d been tasked with, most wearing their simple patched coveralls. 

  Just beyond the archives section Sadhika stopped in front of one of the doors.

  “This is my toybox,” she said with smiling eyes, “also known as the bio lab,” she finished as she opened the door for them. 

  Markus was surprised that it appeared no larger than the main living space of his supposed quarters on board.  Two opposite walls were entirely covered with drawer fronts arranged in a grid, each about a quarter meter squared.  There were two women in the room, one of whom was observing a monitor displaying the optical output from a microscope.  On the display were several small clusters of circles; they appeared to be zygotes after only a couple rounds of division.  At the far end of the room the other older plumper woman was sitting reclined in a chair, intently engaged with her medium sized scroll and tapping at it with a stylus.  They both looked up inquisitively as the door opened.

  The two scrambled to their feet when they saw Sadhika enter behind the strangers.   “Master Sengupta!  What can we do for you?”

  “Again, just Sadhika please, and nothing right now, don’t worry.  I’m just showing these fine folks around some of the ship.  This is Markus and Lucas Bowland of Bowland Power Systems, and this is their friend Molly.”  Friendly waves went all around.  People didn’t tend to shake hands much anymore.  No one really knew why; it had simply fallen out of fashion.

  “What do you do here?” Markus asked.  He’d met enough academics to know that he only had to get them started, and that the hard part would then be getting them to shut up again.

  “Well, our first job after we launch is to screen the crew for discrete genetic anomalies,” the older woman answered.  “Primary testing was to screen out people with existing anomalies, but it will be our job to project potential problems between genomes, and to direct breeding away from those potential problems.  Our second responsibility is to keep living gametes from every individual we launch with through to our eventual arrival, so we can match an original launcher’s gametes with someone several generations down the line if we want or need to.  Our third responsibility is to do just that, the selective genetic combination, incubation, and implantation.”

  “Right off the brochure,” Sadhika teased her.

  “Along this wall,” she motioned towards the surfaces covered with grids of drawers, apparently choosing to ignore Sadhika’s comment, “we have storage capacity for twenty-five hundred live gamete samples.”  One of the drawers along the wall opened, presumably in response to a thought from his host.  Condensation mist rushed out as the warm ambient air met the chilled air from inside the refrigerated chamber.  

  Markus could now see that the drawer front was just a cover, and that attached to the inside was a cylindrical central beam running far back into the wall, he couldn’t tell how far.  Opaque spheres were arranged around the central beam in a circle, in rows lined up one after another, extending as far into the wall as he could see.  A pale blue light emanated from inside the chamber, a light near to what just happened to be Markus’ favourite colour.  

  “Twenty-five hundred, wow…”  Markus was becoming genuinely impressed.  He was starting to realize that this cramped space was not devoid of advanced technologies, but rather that it was a pinnacle of their miniaturization and integration.  “Brahma Biotech?” he turned to inquire of Sadhika.  This was the name of the conglomerate she’d founded, and the banner under which she’d taken over the world.

  “Of course, only the best,” Sadhika winked.  “We can’t exactly order replacements along the way, you know?  We have practical needs for cutting edge biotech, but it was also important to me that we have the means to conduct pure research in any number of fields along the way and once there.”

  “Why?” Markus asked.  “Pretty soon there’ll be no practical way to communicate it to the rest of the existing body of scientific knowledge.”

  “Well then, we’ll just have to create our own then, won’t we?” she answered back, flashing a smile.

   

  Fifteen minutes later the three were standing outside another door and Sadhika’s expression changed.  The pride was still there, but back in her eyes was a hint of that dangerously playful look from the other night.  

  “Molly I think you’ll find this room particularly interesting.”  The door slid open.  “This is our general secure storage bay.  Weapons, hazardous materials, anything with restricted access is all here.   Aside from the bridge it is the most secure part of the ship and can serve as a second bridge in an emergency.   Our simulants aren’t mission critical, so we don’t have a lot of resources to repair and maintain them.”  

  She led them in and then directed a panel on the wall to reveal the simulants.  Four large panels slid up and out of view to reveal the lifeless forms they hid within.  “We say they’re to coordinate the initial research and colonization of Haven, but we’re not exactly shy about how self-indulgent it really is.”

  Sadhika watched as Molly seemed to stop listening and got very close to the Sadhika simulant’s face and scrutinized it to a degree Markus couldn’t guage.  She then looks over at the human Sadhika.

  “Impressive recreation,” she earnestly admired as she moved on to the face of the next.   The Wiremu Tynes simulant was much more intimidating in this state than in human form.  He struck Markus as some sort of sentinel waiting to strike them down if they made a wrong move.

  “I think given everything you’ve done and contributed to the mission you’re entitled to a little self-indulgence?” Lucas suggested with some humour. 

  “Agreed.” Markus affirmed.  Sadhika nodded in a way that suggested she appreciated their positive thoughts on the matter if on offer, but also that they affected her view of the situation not at all.

  “They’re inactive…” Molly drifting off in a way which suggested both comment and question.

  “Yup,” Sadhika affirmed as she watched Molly move on to the next with apparent curiosity.   “Can’t deactivate them after you start them up so we’re waiting.”  She seemed to hesitate before adding: “I’m sure you of all people can imagine us not wanting to have them walking around on the ship with us.”

  “No, but you could have just sent them and stayed behind yourselves,” Lucas suggested.   “It’s not too late,” he laughed, “you could still simulate the whole crew and just send them!”

  “And what a marvelous accomplishment that would be for the simulants,” Sadhika countered a little too icily.  

  Molly halted her approach to the fourth simulant and looked over at Sadhika to assess if she should perceive what she said as some sort of insult or threat, but apparently decided not.  She continued on to scrutinize the Sasha simulant.

  “It’s creepy,” Molly offered as she finished her assessment.  “even for me.”

  “How so?” Markus asked.

  “I’ve never seen a pre-activated sim before.  They look so real but… they really seem like something between alive and dead don’t they?  It’s like their motionlessness gives away their artificiality.”

  “This is how we hope to influence the arrival in a way we otherwise couldn’t,” Sadhika explained.  “We don’t know what effect full lifetimes of isolation in deep space will do to the crew psychologically or politically.  These exist to right the ship so to speak if there’s trouble along the way.  We can also send them down to the planet first for our initial surface reconnaissance since they’ll be invulnerable to the alien biology.”

  “Given everything you’ve put into this mission Sadhika,” Lucas offered, “you’ve definitely earned whatever bit of self-indulgence this may be.”

  “Thank you,” Sadhika nodded with a well-rehearsed look of grateful humility.   “Next up, core room.”