Tom said, “Jose, there are limits to how much privacy one can have on this ship. Speedy can be informed via his communicator if you want some privacy or do not wish to be disturbed unless there is an emergency. Only Speedy and his staff can take the chip offline. They will respect your privacy. They are only used to locate you. They are not used to see what you do in your own time. We do have security cameras all over the ship too, and they will be monitored all hours of the day regardless of how many hours are in a day. We also have a brig, or jail, on board, which I hope we never have to use.”
Both Jose and I shook Speedy’s hand.
Tom continued the introductions.
“Next, we have the chief physician. This is Dr. Sato with the white coat. She is capable of diagnosing just about anything that could happen to you. Dr. Sato, maybe you can explain a little bit about our medical facilities.”
“Yes, Dr. Burns. We are bringing ten doctors and six nurses with us and will have a full supply of medicine for almost any medical issue. Our sick bay or hospital has ten beds and three operating rooms. At least one doctor and one nurse will be on duty at all times. If we have to quarantine anyone, we have a few places we can put people, or we can order people to stay in their rooms until they are cleared. Since we are in a closed space, diseases can travel fast and affect many people. We will be encouraging everyone to develop excellent hygiene.”
“What happens if someone gives birth?” I asked.
Dr. Sato replied, “We can handle births, and we can take care of many children. There are vaccines for most childhood diseases today.”
“And deaths?”
“Unfortunately, we also have to handle deaths as they happen. We do have a morgue for autopsies, but most burials will happen when we discard the body into space. Hopefully, this will not occur very often. If you have any more questions, please visit us after we get started.”
Dad added, “What is most important is that Dr. Sato is an expert on stem cell research and cloning using stem cells. We will be able to reproduce living things with stem cells, which can be used for fertilization. I am sure Dr. Sato will be able to explain her research and all of the medical advances when we are traveling in space.
“Last but not least is General Jose Crawford. He is our military officer. We have stored many weapons on board. However, except for a very few individuals, no crewmembers will carry weapons. If there is an attack or weapons are needed, we do have a full complement of weapons to choose from. This ship can fire many different kinds of bombs, some of which are quite powerful and could easily destroy most life on a planet. Dr. Crawford served in the Marines for fifteen years and reached the rank of three-star general. We do hope that no matter where we go that weapons of mass destruction are not necessary. They can only be released under the authorization of at least two officers, including myself. In the event the ship is attacked, we will all have assigned duties. That means there will be plenty of drills to keep us busy. After a short break, we are going to have an official meeting with the other ships’ crews via satellite link. All four ships will be able to communicate with each other via some very technical communication equipment. While not everyone is required to use English all the time, it is the official language for all the ships. We “won out” over having to teach everyone Russian.”
Everyone laughed.
“We have translators available for the crew to use that will translate from one language to the next. All right, let us take a ten-minute break. Then we can meet the officers of the other three ships.”
After the break, we returned to our seats. The computer and television screens were adjusted so that we could see four crews at the same time. In a moment, we saw the officials from the other three ships on the screen. Everyone was smiling and waving and applauding. It was indeed an exciting moment to see everyone together, yet so far from each other.
My father opened the meeting.
“Hello and greetings to all the officers from each spaceship. I hope all of you are deep into your training and preparing for the moment we will all be headed for a new world and new life. It is going to be an exhilarating adventure, but one in which there may be many risks and dangers that we will have to face. It is imperative that at least one spaceship, but hopefully all four, arrive at a world that humanity can live and grow into a new civilization. We will be able to use the mistakes made in the past to accomplish our goals. Now let us meet the crews. First, Yuri Pavlov will command our spaceship from Russia. Yuri is a former Russian cosmonaut. He has flown three missions to the International Space Station, which is now controlled by Russia. Yuri, would you like to introduce your top officials to everyone and perhaps say a few words?”
Yuri stood up to speak. “Hello, everyone. I would like to second Dr. Burns’ greeting about what an exciting journey we are about to undertake. I am thrilled that some of the most brilliant engineers and scientists have been recruited from all over the world, and we will all need their expertise in many different ways. Now let me introduce my first officer. This is Anatoly Korbin.”
Anatoly stood up and waved. We all applauded.
“Second, this is my chief scientific officer, Svetlana Alexander. She is one of the first female cosmonauts in my country.”
Svetlana waved, and we all applauded again. After Yuri had finished with his introductions, my dad then introduced the leader of the Australian Vessel, Ian Thorpe.
Ian was a top engineer for the Australian Army and a senior fighter pilot. He had yet to command a spaceship like Yuri. Ian also introduced his chief officers. Marlene Heinz led the German ship. She was also a brilliant German engineer and an expert in astrophysics. She introduced the members of her team. Most of the German officers were experts in car engineering for such companies as Mercedes Benz and BMW, since Germany did not have much of an army anymore.
After the introductions, everyone from each ship raised a glass to each other for a toast.
Dad said, “May we journey safely to wherever our destination and fate leads us, and may we strengthen our bonds of friendship as we travel through space.”
Everyone said, “Amen” or “I will drink to that” and took a sip of their drink.
Jose and I headed back to our families. The four commanders remained in the room to converse in private. Everyone else went back to their assigned duties.
I was looking forward to learning more despite the fact that Jose and I felt completely overwhelmed by the expertise and knowledge that we were exposed to so far. If only it was possible for it all to work out without any glitches in the system. I sure hoped so, and from the looks of it, they were all working together to avoid any catastrophes, with no stone unturned, and with respect for one another. I couldn’t wait to see how they did under pressure.
Chapter 30 – DNA
Sam Burns, Glenwood Springs, CO
One day when we did not have any training and my dad was off duty, he gathered my brother, sister and myself.
“This will be an interesting experience for you. I will be training you today. We have no idea how long it is going to take us to find a planet to live on. We are going to collect some DNA samples from people that are not going on the trip with us. We will also be collecting DNA samples from some dead people via their personal effects. I want you to know that so far, we have collected over one million DNA samples that we will be taking on board with us. We have DNA from every past president, famous inventors, scientists, and armed forces personnel. Our DNA samples are focused on South and North America.”
Dad continued, “A large laboratory is on the ship where scientists will work on cloning individuals. We can only clone a few people at a time in our state-of-the-art cloning lab because we cannot have more than a thousand people on board at a time. What is most important is that we store the DNA at the correct temperature to make sure that it does not degrade.”