Tom continued, “Mr. Borucki is seventy-nine years old now, but I felt it was important to invite him to the meeting and to be an ongoing contributor to our mission, as his knowledge might prove to be invaluable. At the beginning of the project, we did not have enough information to decide where to attempt to live outside the solar system. But using the Kepler telescope, it has been determined that there are three excellent candidates for planets that might be habitable in this system.”
Mr. Borucki shared his insights. “What makes a planet habitable? A habitable planet needs to have an atmosphere similar to Earth and maintain liquid water near or on its surface. 2015 research using the Kepler telescope had indicated that Kepler-186f was similar in size to Earth. This planet is in a system with a red dwarf star. It is also 1,120 light years away from Earth. It might be more feasible to start with Alpha Centauri and see if any planets there could be habitable. Depending on how fast the spacecraft can travel, it is estimated it could take anywhere from a hundred to five hundred years to arrive at this destination. It has also been estimated that there may be as many as forty billion stars that were located in possible habitable zones in the Milky Way. From 2015 to the present, a team of astronomers and astrologists continually monitored all the possibilities for vessels to travel to.”
Tom said, “If the first planet that we visit is uninhabitable, the vessel will move on to the next selected planet and so forth. It is also possible that the four spaceships might have to go their separate ways and investigate planets on their own depending on how long it would take to fly from planet to planet. Each spaceship will be free to travel where they want to go, but it is hoped we stay together as long as possible.
“We have set up a ship-to-ship communication system that will work even at great distances from each other. By the time each spacecraft is launched, a definite flight plan will be decided. In the past, a Voyager space probe took thirty-six years to leave the solar system. This would be too long for this project. With the improved speed in the spacecraft that is in development, we expect that we could easily travel to the end of our solar system in five years. That is the goal. Are there any questions?”
One of Tom’s officers spoke up. “Sir, what if we cannot attain the desired speed you want to reach to get to these new galaxies?”
“We may not have the desired speed by the beginning of the launch, but we damn well will have it soon after we do. I have assembled some of the brightest minds in engineering and science to figure out the solutions to these problems. If we all think optimistically and do our job, we will succeed. The alternative will not be pleasant for anyone on board. Any other questions?”
Once the meeting was finished, Tom toured the cave to see how everyone was doing in the specific laboratories. A lot of construction was taking place. With the continued degradation of the environment, a sense of urgency was developed for everyone involved in working on the vessel. Things appeared to be going well, and people were bonding and getting used to each other for now.
Chapter 13 – Colorless and Odorless
Tom Burns, Rocky Mountains, CO
Five hours later, Dr. Sato called Tom to let him know that something awful had happened with several crew members and he needed to immediately come to the UCHealth Medical Center of the Rockies, close to the space center in Loveland.
“I will explain everything when I see you.”
When he arrived at the hospital, Dr. Sato was in a room with several local doctors from the hospital. They all had serious looks on their faces. Were there deaths? Did some construction workers die during an accident? All of these possibilities were running though Tom’s brain as he walked into the room.
Dr. Sato turned to face him as he walked into the room. He was informed that four workers were now in quarantine in a special unit set up in the hospital. From the reports, each of the men had developed some rapidly spreading bacterial infection that they had been contaminated with from a dropped canister they had moved.
Dr. Sato explained, “The fuels needed on the spaceship and for the rockets were being taken off the cargo planes and taken inside the caves. As their supervisor explained to me, each fuel needed to be kept inside specific canisters and in rooms that were set at very specific temperatures. Certain fuels should never be in the same proximity with each other while others needed to be kept at a low enough temperature so they would not ignite and burn the lab and possibly destroy the spaceship. Anyone handling the chemicals had to wear special insulated clothing. Breathing in some of these odorless chemicals could cause numerous cancers.
“Four men were lifting some canisters when one was accidently dropped. The men, knowing how serious an accident might be for everyone, immediately and very nervously began inspecting the canister to see if anything had leaked at all. They all had their protective suits on and believed they were insulated from any effects that might befall them if they were not protected. All of the men tediously inspected the dropped canister and were all in agreement that no damage had occurred.
“They did write an accident report as required for their supervisor to read over but the supervisor felt that since there did not seem to be an emergency that it was not necessary to notify their superiors or another officer on the spaceship. They all finished their shift and prepared to leave for the day. Before leaving, they had to remove their protective clothing and place them in a special chamber that would decontaminate any effects on the clothing. They went home to see their families. Except for the one dropped canister; all protocols had been followed.
“It seems that each of the men were fine until they all started to feel faint and nauseous. Each of them had arrived at the hospital within an hour of their episode. Their conditions continued to get worse by the minute. Their supervisor also arrived at the hospital after one of them called him to inform him of the increasing seriousness of his condition that they all initially downplayed. None of the doctors had ever seen such a rapid advance of bacteria. They didn’t have any idea what to do to alleviate the symptoms.”
Dr. Sato explained that their supervisor had found the accident report in the lab and forwarded it to the hospital as soon as one of the men told him there had been an accident and he was on his way to the hospital. The doctors at the hospital had called Dr. Sato.
Tom asked her if he could see the men. Dr. Sato nodded and asked Tom to put on protective gear. He would only be allowed to see them through a tightly sealed window.
When Tom saw them, he was aghast. After all, he had studied the effects of Agent Orange after what his dad had experienced, but nothing seemed to prepare him for what he saw. The four men had blisters over almost over their entire body. They were all in horrible pain despite receiving a maximum allowable dose of morphine.
Tom asked Dr. Sato if there was anything that could be done for them. Sadly, Dr. Sato shook her head. The gas they had inhaled was odorless and colorless. It could not have been noticed when they inspected the canister for damage. All four were going to die a horrible, painful death. All of them were lucky that their families did not seem to have contracted the disease but were also being kept in quarantine in another room for observation to ensure it would not spread.