“What happens if the temperature breaks down on the ship?” my brother asked.
“Don’t worry,” my dad responded. “We have thought about every contingency possible. Some of the leading DNA scientists will be on board who will be responsible for ensuring that the DNA remains viable. It is quite conceivable that just about everyone on the ship will need to be cloned during the voyage at one time or another. However, people do have the right to refuse being cloned. They do not have to make this decision now, but at some point, during the voyage, they will need to decide. Unfortunately, all the officers will have to agree to be cloned, as we need their services and expertise.”
“Can there be two of us at the same time on the ship?” my sister asked.
“Excellent question,” my dad said. “We have had many discussions about the ethics of doing that. Right now, no final decision has been made about this. On the one hand, it would be great for me to have a twin to work on the ship with me. I would only have to work half the time. However, think about mom. How could she handle two of me at the same time? How would she know which one of us was the real one or which came first? Both of us would think your mom was the woman we married. Would we have to call me Thomas I and my clone Thomas II? What if there were ten of me on the ship with the same DNA? Would we all think the same ten years later? There are so many questions that we cannot answer until we face the situation that occurs.
“We also plan to clone famous people only when we need their expertise. I cannot imagine what someone like Einstein would say when he finds himself in space. He also has the disadvantage of not knowing about anything that has happened since his death. I am sure he would be disappointed to learn about some of the uses of the atomic bombs that have been developed. However, we may need to produce such a bomb in the future, depending on the circumstances. Everyone on the ship will be required to provide DNA samples in case something should happen to them on the trip. Right now, I am going to show you how to collect a sample and make sure you store it right.”
Dad demonstrated how to swab a cheek or collect hair samples. After watching Dad take samples from Mom, I received samples from my brother and sister. We then stored them in a specialized medical container used to transport the DNA to the ship.
Then Dad explained about the laboratory and some of the information about cloning. “Ideally, we want to avoid chemical and enzymatic degradation. That is why we need to store the DNA at –80 °C. Under these very low temperature conditions, nucleic acids are stable for prolonged periods. We can also store them in ethanol.
“When we want or need to clone someone, we place a DNA sample from the person into an artificially made embryo. Just like a baby, the embryo starts to grow. If the process works correctly, you would have an exact duplicate of the person you obtained the DNA sample from. It takes anywhere from seven to nine full months to clone someone now. At least that is what the DNA or genome scientists have told me. We can also eliminate some of the “bad” DNA in the embryo. Stem cell research will also be an essential part of our scientific studies.”
I actually started thinking and asked, “Dad, am I cloned now?”
Dad laughed. “Of course not. All the original people on the ship are their original selves.”
It seemed like this whole conversation was raising a lot more questions than answers. Sally was right. I wasn’t sure what my dad would come up with next. But even when I told Sally about meeting the officers and crewmembers of all the ships, it seemed to her that my dad was bringing me into his confidence and that it was an honor. I called her to bounce some of what I had learned off of her. She seemed perplexed by the idea, unsure of how we could predict their behavior since we couldn’t base it on any type of previous scientific inquiry.
She added, “Sometimes, I wonder whether these clones would just push us aside and take over and leave us to die. Do you think they’ll eat all our food and leave us to starve?”
“Sally, I don’t know. But I think that Dr. Sato is working on the answers. It’s not a job I would ever want to apply for, but I’m hoping she’ll be providing us with answers soon.”
Chapter 31 – Moving onto the Imagine
Sam Burns, Rocky Mountains, CO
“Now I have some really big and hopefully exciting news to give you. Next month we will begin moving onto the spaceship. At that point we will begin making final preparations which will still take a few years. You will be assuming your everyday duties and be provided with more training. I expect that you will learn everything that is possible about the Imagine,” my dad blurted out at dinner on Friday night. My dad never believed in quiet Friday nights.
I was stunned. We had recently passed our two-year mark a few months ago in our mission training, and we were more fit than ever. I’d never been so fit. I was already twenty years old. That meant that I was going to be celebrating my big twenty-first on board the ship the following year. How many people had ever done that? Probably no one. And here I was now speechless and in a panic. My palms got sweaty, and I could see everyone at the table try to stay excited but fighting with their own various stages of panic. My mother’s face was the palest.
She smiled and said, “That’s sudden. Well, everything must not be as off schedule as we thought it would be. Good job, dear.” She grabbed her half-empty plate and headed to the kitchen.
I wanted to run in after her to talk to her, but I could tell that my dad might get the wrong impression. “Wow. I’ll be the first person to celebrate my twenty-first birthday on Imagine in our family.”
Sophie said, “When I turn twenty-one, we’ll probably be in space!”
Robert said, “Now, this is getting pretty real.”
It got quiet. Not requiem quiet but close.
I had waited to hear this announcement for a long time, but I suddenly felt like I wasn’t prepared to do it. I had faith in my dad, in all of our training, but this felt so sudden even though it wasn’t. Up until now it was something in the distant future. Robert was right. I anticipated what it would be like to have our first Friday night on board Imagine. I looked around the room and already felt a great sense of loss. How could we leave all this behind?
None of us said anything. We just digested the news. Mom walked in and started gathering our dirty plates, and I got up to help her clean them. It gave me a chance to think.
My family began loading our things into our cars to take us to the space center the following month. It was also a Friday. It was October and seeing all the trees start to change had a much different effect on me than it ever had. I’d taken them for granted for so long. Now it felt unbearable to think that I would never see them again. I also couldn’t help thinking about what others my age were getting to do. I felt a bit of envy. Then, I figured they’d be just as jealous about all the space training I had done and that I was going to go on this once-in-a-lifetime voyage into space, the first of its kind.
It was still very challenging. It was tough packing up the house, which would be left abandoned. There was no point in selling it. It was hoped some homeless people or someone needing a home would move in. We stood outside the house and took one more look at our house.
Mom said, “I guess this is it. We are leaving so many memories behind.”
I replied, “No, Mom, the memories are all here.” I pointed to each of their heads. “It was a wonderful house. It is where I grew up and learned to become a man. However, we will be able to create new memories no matter where we go as long as we do it together.”