Mom came over and hugged each of us. Then we got in the car. As we were driving, we passed Janet and Grissom’s home. Janet was sitting on the porch outside, watching everyone leave. She looked really sad.
“Stop for a moment. I want to say goodbye to Janet,” I said.
Mom pulled over, and I got out and walked up to her.
“Hi, Janet. How are you doing? How is your day?”
Janet looked at me. “Hi, Sam, nice to see you. Are you going to Imagine now? I really wish I could go with you, but my dad thinks you will all die on takeoff. He thinks I will have a great life here on Earth. I am so sad and nervous to see everyone go. Yet, I am happy and excited for you. Sam, you have been a great friend. I doubt we will ever see each other again.”
That really made me sad.
“Where is your dad, Grissom? I wish I could convince your dad to let you go with us, but I know you would never leave him here alone.”
“He is inside cleaning up. Do you want to talk to him?”
I went inside and saw Grissom washing the dishes. The last few years must have been hard for him. His wife, Diane, had died of breast cancer when she was only thirty-three years old. Grissom noticed me. He turned around and faced me.
“Hi, Sam. I know why you stopped over here, and the answer is still no.”
I looked at him and thought about hitting him but remained calm.
“After takeoff, this place will be a ghost town. There is no telling if Janet will even live to see old age. Are you sure about this?”
“I am sure. I think I am going to outlive all of you on that damn ship. You may not even get off the ground.”
I replied, “There is always that possibility, but my dad and his team have planned for so many years, and I just do not think that is going to happen. Plus, I don’t think that is the real reason you do not want to come.” Grissom and I walked outside.
Grissom looked down at the ground in front of him, spit, and then looked up to the sky. “You are right. I cannot leave my wife. She is buried near here, and I go to see her every day. I promised that I would do this until I died or could not physically do it. I owe everything in life to my wife. I just cannot leave her. I am so sorry, but I cannot. It may not be fair to Janet, but I need her here. Janet always said you were a good friend and a great student. Eventually, she will have to take care of me. If we are lucky, it won’t be long till we both die.”
I was sad. “Okay. Grissom, you need to do what you think is right. I understand you love your wife and Janet and wish to remain with them. Do you mind, however, if I take a DNA sample from you and Janet for possible cloning?”
Grissom said, “Not for me. I do not want to be in the universe without my wife. I would be depressed no matter where we go. Janet may like that. You can ask her yourself on your way out.”
I was even sadder for Grissom. He seemed so depressed. Grissom had been one of the first people to work on building the spaceship, but due to his wife’s illness, he decided to quit.
I returned outside. I told Janet about the conversation, and she started to cry.
“Janet, I’m going to miss you. I guess we cannot even email each other once I take off on The Imagine.” I thought for a second. “I may not be able to take you with us, but with your DNA sample I may be exactly able to do that.”
Janet looked at me like I was nuts. “You are not making sense. My dad is not going to let me leave. So how am I going to go with everyone?”
“I will take a DNA sample and then clone you when we start out. Janet looked mystified. You mean you swab my cheek or something, and then I grow into Janet on your ship?”
“Yup,” I said. “I am not sure when I will be able to clone you, but you will be with us once we do.”
Janet smiled. “That is great. Thank you for thinking of me.”
I took out a DNA kit that I had with me since I had been taking samples of everyone in our family and took her DNA sample.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “Just be sure to enjoy the time you have with your dad, and we will see each other again soon.”
I hugged her and got back into the car. Mom and my family were waiting patiently for me. I felt good knowing I may have saved a human life but sad that I was going to lose the original Janet.
My family told me that they were proud of me.
I guess this is it.
Part III
2030: Magnitude of a Dream in Category 5 Conditions
Chapter 32 – This is the Captain Speaking
Tom Burns, The Imagine in the Rocky Mountains, CO
It was now 2030. With the amount of financial interest and support that the Imagine had received through the efforts of crewmembers and sponsors, it was hard to explain being behind schedule to them. Some investors were losing heart. One of them was Robert Clark, who had almost based his decision to participate in financing the mission on whether or not President Trump would be willing to give his support in 2016. Over the past two years, he had been losing interest fast. He’d banked on the initial take-off in 2028 and had brought a lot of investors with him once he’d become fully committed to participating. He’d turned down many other noble efforts, and his family was fully involved in various aspects of the mission. Robert felt their pressure, and not a day went by when Tom didn’t hear from Robert to feel that pressure too.
Along the way, Tom had days when he felt sure that the level of enthusiasm had diminished among many of his crewmembers. Building and developing on research and data hadn’t gone as planned or easily. More challenges lay ahead. Some of the crew seemed to shy away from the daily challenges on occasion, and he helped them through some rough spots or when they felt disheartened. Luckily, he and Bob were able to channel their combat experience in flying through dangerous and nearly impossible challenges, and it often helped, as did the training of the young crewmembers and their influence on other crewmembers. Tom was so proud of Sam and his classmates for taking on so much and meeting their potential every day. The young trainees would be finished with their training just as spring ended.
Now, Tom would be welcoming more and more of the thousand travelers to their new homes over the next several months. He hoped that their level of enthusiasm would help his crew and financial supporters regain that level of interest and confidence in the mission that everyone had shared early on. The next stage of preparation would involve a lot of operationalizing plans in all of the departments.
Today, he’d heard that Robert Clark was bringing his family on board. Robert knew that every day more people were moving onto the Imagine from Tom, and he finally committed to being one of the first to bring his family to their quarters. They would arrive at 10:30 am. Tom wanted to make sure that he was there to greet him.
At 10:15 am, Tom reviewed the list of names of the thousand people to board the spaceship. It was a working document of course, as some had pulled out and others had replaced them. All of the passengers had been recently informed that the crewmembers were concluding the building of the ship along with testing various parts of the engine and propulsion system.
A day didn’t go by that everyone felt like they were pushed to a new limit.
Robert and his family arrived and stood behind a few newly arriving families and individual who were being greeted by Imagine officers. As the officers explained to each person boarding the Imagine what could be brought with them and what they would have to throw away or leave behind, Robert locked eyes with Tom. Tom moved toward Robert while acknowledging the others waiting to board and to be greeted.