We followed Ms. Rosen into a gym. There were weights laid out on the floor as well as an indoor track and various other apparatus. Ms. Rosen directed everyone to a specific place on the floor. We all had gym shorts or sweatpants on as well as sneakers.
Ms. Rosen began, “We are going to do some warm-ups first before we start the tests. Make sure you have enough space between you and the next person.”
Everyone adjusted where they were standing.
Ms. Rosen continued, “Ok, first we will do some jumping jacks and stretching exercises.’’
We all did the jumping jacks and stretching exercises as she demonstrated them to us. I felt fine but noticed a few others were struggling to keep up. After a few minutes rest, we did push-ups. I did thirty-five push-ups, which was better than most people. Sally did ten. Mark did the most: forty-two. Next, we had to run a forty-yard dash. I was timed at 5.1 seconds. Mark was the fastest with a time of 4.6 seconds. Sally was slow with a time of 6.8.
Next, Ms. Rosen explained that we needed to train for high-speed motion. “You will now have some fun and experience High-G training. When astronauts face high acceleration, it is possible to lose consciousness. If one loses consciousness flying while experiencing G-force, the result can be fatal. This would occur when the action of G-forces moves the blood away from the brain to the extent that consciousness is lost. Incidents of acceleration-induced loss of consciousness have caused fatal accidents in aircraft capable of sustaining high-G for considerable periods. A G-force of around seven would probably cause most of us to black out unless we trained to get used to it. Of course, some people never got used to it. Don’t worry none of you will die today, although some of you will not like this very much and may experience some dizziness.”
Each of the trainees was strapped into a chair one at a time on a machine that looked like something we would ride at an amusement park. Each of them only had to experience a G-force of three. All of them were successful, except for two guys. One started to faint when they got to a G-force of three. The other asked for the machine to stop after it got to two. Once everyone was finished, we took a short break. Then we had to do a bench press. I managed to lift 220 pounds, which was not bad for someone weighting 175 pounds. Sophie, on the other hand, did a bench press of forty pounds. Mark was again the best, lifting 300 pounds.
After a few more tests, we switched with the other group and went to meet with Mr. Cunningham. He was about 5’8” tall and actually looked very smart.
He explained, “You are going to be given written problems to solve. Some of the problems have a definite correct answer. Other problems could be solved in a variety of ways. You are to show all of your work, including all of your attempts to solve the problem. Next, there are several situations in which there are no correct answers. This kind of problem could be a situation that might occur on the spaceship. In space, we may often have to make quick decisions that may save or lose lives. When you are finished, all the papers will be collected and analyzed. Once the analysis is completed, the test results will be used to assist the staff in developing individual or group training sessions.”
Each person was given thirty questions to answer. Everyone worked extremely hard.
The first question was “How many months have twenty-eight days?” I had to think about that for a few seconds and put down twelve as my answer. I wondered how many of us had put down one. The questions were obviously designed to make us think.
The second half of the test was challenging. One of the questions described that an accident has occurred. You are with your family. You are the only one that has escaped without injury. You need to save as many people as possible, but you cannot save them all. How will you make your decision to save someone and who would you be willing to sacrifice? I really did not want to answer the question.
I had no idea how I would react to a situation like that. I tried to think of a comparable situation and thought about my house burning down with my family stuck inside. How would I know which one to save first? Would some of them die? Would I be willing to sacrifice myself for them? I felt I would try and save my brother and sister first. On the other hand, if I was on the spaceship, I might try to save Dad first since he was the commander of the ship and we needed him to fly and command the ship.
After we turned in our answers, we rejoined the other team where Mrs. Smith
was waiting for us, standing at the podium.
“I hope you all enjoyed the first tests that you have taken that will help us to prepare you for life in space. Indeed, this will be a great challenge. You will be the first teenagers ever to fly in a spaceship ever. You will be the first teenagers to see the universe like no one has seen it before. You will also be the first teenagers to settle on a new planet. However, by the time we settle on a new planet, all of you will no longer be teenagers. In fact, some of you could be really old.”
That brought a chuckle from most of us. I thought about what Mrs. Smith said. It was the truth. It was going to take time for all of us to adjust and become acclimated with flying through the galaxies.
“All of the data we collect from your testing will be used to assist you in your training. We will meet each of you aboard the spaceship on a regular basis. You will all be assigned daily chores and duties as deemed fit for each individual. Daily physical exercise will be mandatory. You will also be studying various subjects related to the stars in the galaxies as well as scientific discoveries and ship operations. In short, you will not be bored at all. Beginning next week, you will start training full-time daily. I suggest you spend the next week packing up and enjoying whatever you like to do on Earth. After next week, every moment you have will be devoted to getting ready for the big day. Are there any questions?”
I wanted to talk to my dad and mom about some questions, but I did not want to ask Mrs. Smith. No one raised their hands.
“Tomorrow we will be having a special meeting, and you will need to bring your best thinking skills with you. I am not going to tell you what you will be doing, but I think you will be surprised and pleased at the same time. See you tomorrow at 10:00 in the morning.”
Mrs. Smith dismissed everyone for the day.
As we were leaving, we heard her say, “We are counting on you to be the future of humanity. Make us proud.”
Chapter 21 – The Spaceship Gets a Name
Sam Burns, Rocky Mountains, CO
The following morning, we arrived at 10:00 as instructed. All of us were curious about what we were going to do today. There were four groups of school desks set up in a circle. Some computers were also set up. Mrs. Smith entered the room and began speaking.
“Good morning, everyone. I hope you had a good night’s sleep. Today is going to be very challenging. We are not going home until we complete this task that was given to me by the leaders of the mission. This means you will all have to work with each other until we have all of you agree on the subject of the discussion for today. That task is to name the spaceship. At this point, all we do is call it ‘The Ship’ or spaceship or spacecraft. Each of the four ships needs a name. We are only responsible for naming our own ship. I am dividing you into six groups of ten. I have decided to give each of you an important topic that might produce the name of the ship. We will be doing a lot of discussing and voting multiple times probably until we settle on one title. We will break for lunch and dinner as necessary. Hopefully, you will all get to go home tonight.”