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“Roger Blue Sky, hard dock confirmed, you are cleared for transfer. Welcome back, Phil.”
“OK, we’re on,” said Phil.
David unbuckled and braced himself between the wall and Phil’s seat so he could stow the jump seat out of the way. Phil then pushed off from the pilot’s position and made his way through to the docking hatch in the passenger compartment, closely followed by David and Cameron. The hatch was located in the ceiling of the shuttle just aft of the cockpit. Once there, Phil activated the hatch controls, and the hatch opened with a hiss of equalizing air pressure, revealing the decontamination compartment.
David turned and offered his hand to Phil and then Cameron.
“My thanks, for a smooth ride.”
“Our pleasure,” Phil replied, then adopted a more serious expression. “Take care out there, and Godspeed.”
“Count on it. Now please excuse me as I throw modesty aside for the moment.”
He grinned and started pealing off his clothes. The decontamination chamber was designed to work on naked human bodies, so his clothing would not be making the journey with him.
Cameron made no attempt to hide her interest at the proceedings – the mission team had made no mistake with regard to David’s suitability in the physical department.
Suitably disrobed, David gave a last farewell and pulled himself into the chamber and closed and locked the hatch, Phil and Cameron’s good luck messages fresh in his ears.
A soft thunk signaled that Phil and Cameron had closed the hatch on their side as well.
Phil’s tone was as dry as noon in a desert but there was a twinkle in his eye.
“It’s just as well we’re in zero-g.”
“Hmmm?”
“Saves you having to pick your jaw back off the floor.”
Cameron found herself blushing once more.
***
David floated in a short cylinder that was just large enough to hold him. The walls of the cylinder were lined with alternating mesh and glass panels, and at the top was another airlock hatch.
He reached out to the control panel in front of him and started the decontamination cycle.
“Decontamination commencing in 10 seconds. Please close your eyes and prepare to hold breathing for 45 seconds,” a computer-generated voice announced. David sighed then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Not the most high tech of procedures or the most comfortable he thought, but best to get it over.
“5 seconds,” the computer announced, followed by 5 pips to mark the countdown. Then it started - high-pressure jets of disinfectants assailed his body from all sides and he could see a violet light behind his eyelids from the powerful UV lamps that formed part of the procedure. It continued for the prescribed 30 seconds, the computer keeping his body centered in the zero-g of the decontamination chamber with subtle adjustments to the jets. On the 30-second mark, the assault ended and high-speed fans blew warm air into the chamber to dry his body and remove the noxious vapors lingering from the disinfectants.
A chime sounded and the computer announced “Decontamination complete. You may open your eyes and breathe freely. You may leave the chamber when ready.”
David opened his eyes and sniffed cautiously. It may have been safe to breathe but it didn’t mean that it smelled any better than it did in training. Assured that he could indeed breathe, he turned his attention to the control panel and activated the top hatch. It beeped twice then opened with a hiss of pressure equalization to reveal another hatch, this time the port airlock of the Hope. David pushed off from the floor and released the Hope’s outer airlock door, drifted into the airlock, then worked the control panel inside to close the door.
He was now truly inside the Hope. He touched the control panel to open a comms link to the ship.
“Captain Miller reporting - request permission to board.”
A feminine voice replied. “Permission granted Captain, please standby for airlock cycle.”
There was a brief hum from the airlock pumps as the air pressure was equalized with the ship’s atmosphere, then the inner airlock door separated from its seals and swung into the ship.
David had arrived.
Starship Hope, Low earth orbit
March 20, 2063
Waiting on the other side of the airlock was Grace Ng, Chief Navigator of the Hope, and David’s new life partner.
Grace, like David, was American. She was everything one would expect of a graduate of the toughest selection challenge in remembered history - smart, physically capable and, of course, genetically pure.
She was also stunningly beautiful, in possession of a body that seemed blessed with perfect symmetry and proportion. Jet black hair framed a face structured by exquisitely placed cheekbones, set with almond-shaped eyes with just a hint of an exotic tilt, and a generous mouth that was now revealing a smile composed with perfect white teeth.
“Commander Ng.”
David cursed himself the moment the words left his mouth. Technically, they did have the ranks of Captain and Commander, but between themselves in their small crew they never used formal titles unless in public settings that demanded it.
Congratulations, you dolt. You’ve now officially turned what could have been an awkward moment into one.
“Captain Miller,” Grace responded. Her smile remained, but if David wasn’t imagining things it now seemed a trifle forced.
“Welcome aboard the Hope. I stand relieved.”
David had a military background and this process was starting to seem familiar, but not in a way he wanted. He felt his right arm twitch and he forced his eager muscle memory to stop. No, damn it! Don’t you dare salute, or this is all over right now!
Instead, as he was having this internal debate, Grace drifted closer and kissed him on the cheek.
He responded in kind, and said “Thanks Grace, it’s good to be here.”
He immediately realized this was exactly the wrong thing to say, given their circumstances. The only way this could get more awkward now would be to throw in that salute.
About this time he remembered he was still stark naked. There were no real taboos amongst the crew about being naked in each other’s presence - to be sure it happened plenty of times during training with the shared bathrooms and sleeping quarters. But suddenly, here alone with Grace, he became acutely aware of his condition.
Seeing his discomfort, Grace’s smile broadened.
“I took the liberty of retrieving a jumpsuit from your kit.”
She handed over a small bundle of clothes. “Why don’t you get these on while I release the shuttle?”
With that, Grace turned towards the control panel behind her and opened a channel to the shuttle, while David performed some zero-g gymnastics to shrug into his new clothes.
“Blue Sky, this is Hope. Captain Miller is safely on board, you are cleared to depart, over.”
“Roger Hope. Blue Sky departing this time. Good luck Grace, name something after us.”
“Thanks guys, we’ll find a nice hill for you.”
“Blue Sky hill?” asked David. “Doesn’t quite flow off the tongue, does it?”
“Hmmm, perhaps not, but Pike’s Peak has something of a ring to it, don’t you think?”
David smiled. Thanks Grace - that helps relieve the tension.
The shuttle pilots must have already worked through their departure checklist because almost immediately after the conversation ended, the sounds of the docking clamps letting go reverberated through the hull of the Hope.
They were now on their own.
***
From the airlock David and Grace made their way to the bridge. The bridge and crew quarters were located within the aft fuel tank, where the maximum protection from cosmic radiation could be obtained from being bathed within the purified water that was used to propel the Hope.
The crew areas were arranged as two concentric rings in the center of the tank. The outer ring contained the bridge, gym, galley and general living areas. The inner ring, where the most protection could be obtained, contained sleeping quarters and the stasis chambers.
Once the ship was on course for Tau Ceti it would be spun to provide artificial gravity, 1g at the outer ring and 0.5g in the inner ring.
“Grace, status please.”
“All systems nominal, David. We are ready to depart according to the revised schedule.”
“Thanks. I’d like to go through the ship readiness checklists from the beginning.”
Grace looked at him quizzically. “We’ve completed those already - we only need do the departure checklist now.”
“I know - it’s just me playing safe, we won’t get another try at this. And it’s also my way of getting to know the ship.” Plus it gives us something we can do together.
“OK, then.”
Grace and David went to the pilots’ seats and logged into their consoles. Space was not really a problem on the Hope due to its immense size, and the bridge was capable of holding the entire crew. However mass was still a consideration so there was quite a lot of open space within the two habitation rings so as to avoid using precious fuel to transport equipment that would not make it to the surface of their new home planet.
Even more mass could have been saved, of course, by creating a cramped crew module rather than the dual ring system. However the mission psychologists had decided that open space would help keep them sane, even though under normal conditions they would not be spending much time on the ship out of stasis.
“All right, from the top,” said David.
“Reactor main override?”
“Check.”
“Reactor one containment control?”
“Check…”
Four hours later the checklists were complete and the ship had a clean bill o
f health, again. It was now 8pm ship’s time so David called an end to the day.
“Houston, this is Hope.”
“Roger, Hope.”
“We’ve just completed the readiness checklists and confirm the ship is in good shape for departure tomorrow, over.”
“Roger that, Hope. We confirm green for departure on schedule.”
“We’re going to eat and catch some sleep now, we’ll check in at 0600 tomorrow our time, over.”
“Roger, Hope. Understand check in at 0600. Sleep well.”
“OK, let’s see what delights the galley holds for us tonight.” He and Grace unstrapped from their seats and navigated their way to the galley.
“Actually, the food isn’t too bad at the moment,” Grace said. “Mass isn’t a problem so it’s only the lack of gravity that keeps us from fine dining.”
True to Grace’s word, David was pleasantly surprised with the delicious chicken soup with fresh crusty bread they had waiting for them this time.
“Just wait, though,” Grace said. “We’ll be onto the dehydrated stuff before long.”
Despite the food the atmosphere in the galley was somewhat flat. They were two people thrown together into a situation that neither had predicted, and both felt guilty about.
“David, we need to talk about this.”
“I know, Grace, but not now. Let’s focus on getting a clean exit, then we’ll have all the time we need.”
Grace nodded acceptance, but was on the brink of despair behind her calm demeanor. There could not be more of a contrast between now and two days ago when she and Vasily had gone through the very same checklist procedure.
Vasily was nothing like she had expected. He had a wicked sense of humor that somehow seemed to surprise her just as she thought she’d become used to it. Rather than the dry checklist run-through she’d just experienced with David, she’d had difficulty trying to keep a straight face as Vasily seemed to find a way to make even fuel pump checks funny. In the end she had to make him promise to shut up with the jokes just so they could finish.
“We’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, so I’m going to turn in. I’ve put your things in stateroom one. I’ll be in two if you need me.” She turned and left abruptly before David could see the tears forming in her eyes.
David sighed. This was not going to be easy. He found himself wishing that the rest of the crew were out of stasis so they could help diffuse the tension, not to mention discover they had a new captain. But mission control in their infinite wisdom, had decided it was best to avoid stressing the stasis chamber equipment, which to be fair was a very new process and did require caution. But the consequences of this decision was that he and Grace must deal with the realities of their forced relationship alone, and the remainder of the crew would learn of the replacement of their popular captain when they were revived in orbit around the yet-to-be-named planet that was their destination.
Starship Hope, Low Earth orbit
March 21, 2063
The morning of the next day passed in a blur of last-minute checks and preparations. As well as a departure checklist there were interviews with the mission psychologists, during which they probed deeply on how he was bonding with Grace. David replied with what he hoped was the right answer - they were both sad at the loss of their companions but were taking solace in their shared situation. He didn’t know what Grace had said but they must have been convincing enough as the psychologist’s panel gave the mission a go.
Grace and Vasily had spent nearly an hour in a private conference saying their goodbyes. They had not had much time before Vasily was evacuated two days ago, so this was understandable. David and Joyce had made their farewells before he left Earth, and they had both agreed that this would be a clean break for them. David had been tempted to backtrack on his promise not to prolong the process, but instead found himself roaming the ship, ostensibly checking to make sure all was well, in reality just wanting to be anywhere but on the bridge.
He wound up in the stasis suite, where the remainder of the crew waited for the end of their 39-year journey.
The stasis chamber was one of the modern-day scientific miracles that made their mission possible. Arising from quantum physics research conducted at CERN mid-century, it was one of those chance discoveries resulting from a failed experiment. In this case, the research team was attempting to extract energy from the quantum matrix that was believed to be the foundation of the universe. The experiment did not succeed, but some time later a post-grad trawling through the data searching for answers had noticed an anomaly - the experiment’s clocks had stopped while it was running. Initially, this was assumed to be a fault in the equipment, but it piqued the interest of one member of the research team enough to repeat the experiment with different equipment. The result was the same, and the scientists were astounded to see that they had created a tiny bubble within which time had simply stopped.
The phenomenon came to be known simply as a “stasis field”, as none of the nine-person research team wanted to attach their name to it, and their team name actually had nothing to do with stasis research.
The stasis field worked by creating a quantum interference matrix that had the effect of stopping the motion of all subatomic particles within its area of influence. The fields were generated between two quantum-scale grids, and the amount of energy required to instantiate a field increased by the square of the distance between them, which meant that usage had been limited only to applications that justified the expense.
The cost of scaling the technology to place humans into stasis was one of the reasons why the Hope was so expensive to build. It was also one of the reasons why Hope boasted not one but two fusion reactors. Even the combined power of both reactors was not enough though; the stasis chamber had a bank of super-capacitors, generally referred to as ‘accumulators’, that were charged by the reactors and then used to release the enormous pulse of electricity required to instantiate the stasis field. The good news was that once the field was in place, only a modest amount of power was required to maintain it. This made it almost perfect for sub-luminal interstellar travel.
The Hope had three stasis chambers, organized to preserve energy and minimize the number of field instantiations, which carried the risk of equipment malfunction due to the high energies involved.
The first chamber contained four crew members, the group that would be awoken first when the Hope reached Tau Ceti. David regarded them in their chamber, which looked somewhat like a small shower cubicle recessed into one of the four walls of the suite. The walls were in fact part of the machine that kept them in stasis - it was so large that it had been incorporated into the room itself. The front wall of the chamber however was glass, allowing him to see them. The chamber was extremely cramped to reduce power usage, and they were gathered together in a group hug in order to fit. They had excited expressions on their faces, exactly like they were about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime, which of course they literally were. It was like looking at an extremely realistic hologram.
The second chamber contained the remaining two crewmembers, also in an embrace so they could fit into their confined space. Their chamber was the same size as the first one, but they shared it with cargo that needed to be kept fresh, such as certain medications, essential seeds, and other perishable items.
The final chamber was much smaller and designed for two people only. This was for him and Grace, and unlike the others, was designed for cycling multiple times during the voyage. This was because the two of them were charged with the responsibility of guiding the Hope to Tau Ceti, and would be revived at critical moments during the voyage to ensure the ship was on course and performing as expected.
“See you on the other side,” David whispered to his frozen shipmates, then turned and headed back to the bridge. It was time to depart.
***
David and Grace were on the bridge and all was ready. Mission Control was feeding live television coverage from Earth, and they were astounded by what they saw. They had both been so focused on preparing for the launch that they hadn’t spared much thought for the impact it was having on anyone else.
Neither of them realized just how much their mission had captivated the world’s imagination, but the TV coverage revealed just how much it had. From city after city crowds had formed for launch parties, with candlelight gatherings popular where it was night. The footage skipped from city to city and showed happy people having a good time waiting for the big event. The final cut was to Times Square in New York, where many in the crowd were holding cards with good luck messages. As the camera panned, both David and Grace burst into laughter as a man carrying a card that read “Please don’t fuck this up” came into frame.
“OK, we’re on,” said Phil.
David unbuckled and braced himself between the wall and Phil’s seat so he could stow the jump seat out of the way. Phil then pushed off from the pilot’s position and made his way through to the docking hatch in the passenger compartment, closely followed by David and Cameron. The hatch was located in the ceiling of the shuttle just aft of the cockpit. Once there, Phil activated the hatch controls, and the hatch opened with a hiss of equalizing air pressure, revealing the decontamination compartment.
David turned and offered his hand to Phil and then Cameron.
“My thanks, for a smooth ride.”
“Our pleasure,” Phil replied, then adopted a more serious expression. “Take care out there, and Godspeed.”
“Count on it. Now please excuse me as I throw modesty aside for the moment.”
He grinned and started pealing off his clothes. The decontamination chamber was designed to work on naked human bodies, so his clothing would not be making the journey with him.
Cameron made no attempt to hide her interest at the proceedings – the mission team had made no mistake with regard to David’s suitability in the physical department.
Suitably disrobed, David gave a last farewell and pulled himself into the chamber and closed and locked the hatch, Phil and Cameron’s good luck messages fresh in his ears.
A soft thunk signaled that Phil and Cameron had closed the hatch on their side as well.
Phil’s tone was as dry as noon in a desert but there was a twinkle in his eye.
“It’s just as well we’re in zero-g.”
“Hmmm?”
“Saves you having to pick your jaw back off the floor.”
Cameron found herself blushing once more.
***
David floated in a short cylinder that was just large enough to hold him. The walls of the cylinder were lined with alternating mesh and glass panels, and at the top was another airlock hatch.
He reached out to the control panel in front of him and started the decontamination cycle.
“Decontamination commencing in 10 seconds. Please close your eyes and prepare to hold breathing for 45 seconds,” a computer-generated voice announced. David sighed then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Not the most high tech of procedures or the most comfortable he thought, but best to get it over.
“5 seconds,” the computer announced, followed by 5 pips to mark the countdown. Then it started - high-pressure jets of disinfectants assailed his body from all sides and he could see a violet light behind his eyelids from the powerful UV lamps that formed part of the procedure. It continued for the prescribed 30 seconds, the computer keeping his body centered in the zero-g of the decontamination chamber with subtle adjustments to the jets. On the 30-second mark, the assault ended and high-speed fans blew warm air into the chamber to dry his body and remove the noxious vapors lingering from the disinfectants.
A chime sounded and the computer announced “Decontamination complete. You may open your eyes and breathe freely. You may leave the chamber when ready.”
David opened his eyes and sniffed cautiously. It may have been safe to breathe but it didn’t mean that it smelled any better than it did in training. Assured that he could indeed breathe, he turned his attention to the control panel and activated the top hatch. It beeped twice then opened with a hiss of pressure equalization to reveal another hatch, this time the port airlock of the Hope. David pushed off from the floor and released the Hope’s outer airlock door, drifted into the airlock, then worked the control panel inside to close the door.
He was now truly inside the Hope. He touched the control panel to open a comms link to the ship.
“Captain Miller reporting - request permission to board.”
A feminine voice replied. “Permission granted Captain, please standby for airlock cycle.”
There was a brief hum from the airlock pumps as the air pressure was equalized with the ship’s atmosphere, then the inner airlock door separated from its seals and swung into the ship.
David had arrived.
Starship Hope, Low earth orbit
March 20, 2063
Waiting on the other side of the airlock was Grace Ng, Chief Navigator of the Hope, and David’s new life partner.
Grace, like David, was American. She was everything one would expect of a graduate of the toughest selection challenge in remembered history - smart, physically capable and, of course, genetically pure.
She was also stunningly beautiful, in possession of a body that seemed blessed with perfect symmetry and proportion. Jet black hair framed a face structured by exquisitely placed cheekbones, set with almond-shaped eyes with just a hint of an exotic tilt, and a generous mouth that was now revealing a smile composed with perfect white teeth.
“Commander Ng.”
David cursed himself the moment the words left his mouth. Technically, they did have the ranks of Captain and Commander, but between themselves in their small crew they never used formal titles unless in public settings that demanded it.
Congratulations, you dolt. You’ve now officially turned what could have been an awkward moment into one.
“Captain Miller,” Grace responded. Her smile remained, but if David wasn’t imagining things it now seemed a trifle forced.
“Welcome aboard the Hope. I stand relieved.”
David had a military background and this process was starting to seem familiar, but not in a way he wanted. He felt his right arm twitch and he forced his eager muscle memory to stop. No, damn it! Don’t you dare salute, or this is all over right now!
Instead, as he was having this internal debate, Grace drifted closer and kissed him on the cheek.
He responded in kind, and said “Thanks Grace, it’s good to be here.”
He immediately realized this was exactly the wrong thing to say, given their circumstances. The only way this could get more awkward now would be to throw in that salute.
About this time he remembered he was still stark naked. There were no real taboos amongst the crew about being naked in each other’s presence - to be sure it happened plenty of times during training with the shared bathrooms and sleeping quarters. But suddenly, here alone with Grace, he became acutely aware of his condition.
Seeing his discomfort, Grace’s smile broadened.
“I took the liberty of retrieving a jumpsuit from your kit.”
She handed over a small bundle of clothes. “Why don’t you get these on while I release the shuttle?”
With that, Grace turned towards the control panel behind her and opened a channel to the shuttle, while David performed some zero-g gymnastics to shrug into his new clothes.
“Blue Sky, this is Hope. Captain Miller is safely on board, you are cleared to depart, over.”
“Roger Hope. Blue Sky departing this time. Good luck Grace, name something after us.”
“Thanks guys, we’ll find a nice hill for you.”
“Blue Sky hill?” asked David. “Doesn’t quite flow off the tongue, does it?”
“Hmmm, perhaps not, but Pike’s Peak has something of a ring to it, don’t you think?”
David smiled. Thanks Grace - that helps relieve the tension.
The shuttle pilots must have already worked through their departure checklist because almost immediately after the conversation ended, the sounds of the docking clamps letting go reverberated through the hull of the Hope.
They were now on their own.
***
From the airlock David and Grace made their way to the bridge. The bridge and crew quarters were located within the aft fuel tank, where the maximum protection from cosmic radiation could be obtained from being bathed within the purified water that was used to propel the Hope.
The crew areas were arranged as two concentric rings in the center of the tank. The outer ring contained the bridge, gym, galley and general living areas. The inner ring, where the most protection could be obtained, contained sleeping quarters and the stasis chambers.
Once the ship was on course for Tau Ceti it would be spun to provide artificial gravity, 1g at the outer ring and 0.5g in the inner ring.
“Grace, status please.”
“All systems nominal, David. We are ready to depart according to the revised schedule.”
“Thanks. I’d like to go through the ship readiness checklists from the beginning.”
Grace looked at him quizzically. “We’ve completed those already - we only need do the departure checklist now.”
“I know - it’s just me playing safe, we won’t get another try at this. And it’s also my way of getting to know the ship.” Plus it gives us something we can do together.
“OK, then.”
Grace and David went to the pilots’ seats and logged into their consoles. Space was not really a problem on the Hope due to its immense size, and the bridge was capable of holding the entire crew. However mass was still a consideration so there was quite a lot of open space within the two habitation rings so as to avoid using precious fuel to transport equipment that would not make it to the surface of their new home planet.
Even more mass could have been saved, of course, by creating a cramped crew module rather than the dual ring system. However the mission psychologists had decided that open space would help keep them sane, even though under normal conditions they would not be spending much time on the ship out of stasis.
“All right, from the top,” said David.
“Reactor main override?”
“Check.”
“Reactor one containment control?”
“Check…”
Four hours later the checklists were complete and the ship had a clean bill o
f health, again. It was now 8pm ship’s time so David called an end to the day.
“Houston, this is Hope.”
“Roger, Hope.”
“We’ve just completed the readiness checklists and confirm the ship is in good shape for departure tomorrow, over.”
“Roger that, Hope. We confirm green for departure on schedule.”
“We’re going to eat and catch some sleep now, we’ll check in at 0600 tomorrow our time, over.”
“Roger, Hope. Understand check in at 0600. Sleep well.”
“OK, let’s see what delights the galley holds for us tonight.” He and Grace unstrapped from their seats and navigated their way to the galley.
“Actually, the food isn’t too bad at the moment,” Grace said. “Mass isn’t a problem so it’s only the lack of gravity that keeps us from fine dining.”
True to Grace’s word, David was pleasantly surprised with the delicious chicken soup with fresh crusty bread they had waiting for them this time.
“Just wait, though,” Grace said. “We’ll be onto the dehydrated stuff before long.”
Despite the food the atmosphere in the galley was somewhat flat. They were two people thrown together into a situation that neither had predicted, and both felt guilty about.
“David, we need to talk about this.”
“I know, Grace, but not now. Let’s focus on getting a clean exit, then we’ll have all the time we need.”
Grace nodded acceptance, but was on the brink of despair behind her calm demeanor. There could not be more of a contrast between now and two days ago when she and Vasily had gone through the very same checklist procedure.
Vasily was nothing like she had expected. He had a wicked sense of humor that somehow seemed to surprise her just as she thought she’d become used to it. Rather than the dry checklist run-through she’d just experienced with David, she’d had difficulty trying to keep a straight face as Vasily seemed to find a way to make even fuel pump checks funny. In the end she had to make him promise to shut up with the jokes just so they could finish.
“We’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, so I’m going to turn in. I’ve put your things in stateroom one. I’ll be in two if you need me.” She turned and left abruptly before David could see the tears forming in her eyes.
David sighed. This was not going to be easy. He found himself wishing that the rest of the crew were out of stasis so they could help diffuse the tension, not to mention discover they had a new captain. But mission control in their infinite wisdom, had decided it was best to avoid stressing the stasis chamber equipment, which to be fair was a very new process and did require caution. But the consequences of this decision was that he and Grace must deal with the realities of their forced relationship alone, and the remainder of the crew would learn of the replacement of their popular captain when they were revived in orbit around the yet-to-be-named planet that was their destination.
Starship Hope, Low Earth orbit
March 21, 2063
The morning of the next day passed in a blur of last-minute checks and preparations. As well as a departure checklist there were interviews with the mission psychologists, during which they probed deeply on how he was bonding with Grace. David replied with what he hoped was the right answer - they were both sad at the loss of their companions but were taking solace in their shared situation. He didn’t know what Grace had said but they must have been convincing enough as the psychologist’s panel gave the mission a go.
Grace and Vasily had spent nearly an hour in a private conference saying their goodbyes. They had not had much time before Vasily was evacuated two days ago, so this was understandable. David and Joyce had made their farewells before he left Earth, and they had both agreed that this would be a clean break for them. David had been tempted to backtrack on his promise not to prolong the process, but instead found himself roaming the ship, ostensibly checking to make sure all was well, in reality just wanting to be anywhere but on the bridge.
He wound up in the stasis suite, where the remainder of the crew waited for the end of their 39-year journey.
The stasis chamber was one of the modern-day scientific miracles that made their mission possible. Arising from quantum physics research conducted at CERN mid-century, it was one of those chance discoveries resulting from a failed experiment. In this case, the research team was attempting to extract energy from the quantum matrix that was believed to be the foundation of the universe. The experiment did not succeed, but some time later a post-grad trawling through the data searching for answers had noticed an anomaly - the experiment’s clocks had stopped while it was running. Initially, this was assumed to be a fault in the equipment, but it piqued the interest of one member of the research team enough to repeat the experiment with different equipment. The result was the same, and the scientists were astounded to see that they had created a tiny bubble within which time had simply stopped.
The phenomenon came to be known simply as a “stasis field”, as none of the nine-person research team wanted to attach their name to it, and their team name actually had nothing to do with stasis research.
The stasis field worked by creating a quantum interference matrix that had the effect of stopping the motion of all subatomic particles within its area of influence. The fields were generated between two quantum-scale grids, and the amount of energy required to instantiate a field increased by the square of the distance between them, which meant that usage had been limited only to applications that justified the expense.
The cost of scaling the technology to place humans into stasis was one of the reasons why the Hope was so expensive to build. It was also one of the reasons why Hope boasted not one but two fusion reactors. Even the combined power of both reactors was not enough though; the stasis chamber had a bank of super-capacitors, generally referred to as ‘accumulators’, that were charged by the reactors and then used to release the enormous pulse of electricity required to instantiate the stasis field. The good news was that once the field was in place, only a modest amount of power was required to maintain it. This made it almost perfect for sub-luminal interstellar travel.
The Hope had three stasis chambers, organized to preserve energy and minimize the number of field instantiations, which carried the risk of equipment malfunction due to the high energies involved.
The first chamber contained four crew members, the group that would be awoken first when the Hope reached Tau Ceti. David regarded them in their chamber, which looked somewhat like a small shower cubicle recessed into one of the four walls of the suite. The walls were in fact part of the machine that kept them in stasis - it was so large that it had been incorporated into the room itself. The front wall of the chamber however was glass, allowing him to see them. The chamber was extremely cramped to reduce power usage, and they were gathered together in a group hug in order to fit. They had excited expressions on their faces, exactly like they were about to set off on the adventure of a lifetime, which of course they literally were. It was like looking at an extremely realistic hologram.
The second chamber contained the remaining two crewmembers, also in an embrace so they could fit into their confined space. Their chamber was the same size as the first one, but they shared it with cargo that needed to be kept fresh, such as certain medications, essential seeds, and other perishable items.
The final chamber was much smaller and designed for two people only. This was for him and Grace, and unlike the others, was designed for cycling multiple times during the voyage. This was because the two of them were charged with the responsibility of guiding the Hope to Tau Ceti, and would be revived at critical moments during the voyage to ensure the ship was on course and performing as expected.
“See you on the other side,” David whispered to his frozen shipmates, then turned and headed back to the bridge. It was time to depart.
***
David and Grace were on the bridge and all was ready. Mission Control was feeding live television coverage from Earth, and they were astounded by what they saw. They had both been so focused on preparing for the launch that they hadn’t spared much thought for the impact it was having on anyone else.
Neither of them realized just how much their mission had captivated the world’s imagination, but the TV coverage revealed just how much it had. From city after city crowds had formed for launch parties, with candlelight gatherings popular where it was night. The footage skipped from city to city and showed happy people having a good time waiting for the big event. The final cut was to Times Square in New York, where many in the crowd were holding cards with good luck messages. As the camera panned, both David and Grace burst into laughter as a man carrying a card that read “Please don’t fuck this up” came into frame.
The Seasoning
Serendipity