“These pictures have been in my family almost a hundred years. My father was an art collector who bought and sold art for years. How do you think we raised the money for you to build your spaceship?”
“Thank you for your donation. It is really appreciated. However, if the paintings are on the wall and there is a gravity problem, they are going to fly off the wall and probably break or be destroyed. More importantly, they could become missiles or weapons and kill someone including possibly you. All objects and furniture are all battened down so they cannot move around when something like that happens.”
“We can put them in crates and store them in the closet or another place, but they’re coming with us. These paintings are part of my family.”
“If I let you bring those pictures, then I have to let everyone bring something they do not want to leave behind. You can take as many digital photos of the art as you want, and they will be available to you on your dresser all the time.”
Her husband said, “Thelma, we will discuss this in private with the commander after the meeting. We don’t need everyone here to listen to your complaining.”
His wife became pissed off and left the room.
Tom and the other officers were asked several more interesting questions.
One man asked, “Can I bring my wife’s ashes with me? I don’t want to leave her home.”
“Yes, but you need to keep them in the dresser or desk and properly secured,” Tom replied.
Several people complained about needing cell phones or not using them on board. Tom had to explain that Earth’s Internet engines and Wi-Fi system would soon be out of range once they took off. There was no Internet or Verizon in outer space.
It took a while but after about five weeks just about everyone was moving to their quarters and beginning or continuing training. Many of them complained about the size of their room. Others complained about bio-engineered food. Tom tried to explain that with a thousand people on board there was a limited amount of space available for family quarters. As for the food, Tom felt that once they tried eating a few of the dishes that Luis prepared they would get used to it.
Tom thought that some of the moving-in operations made him more exhausted than if he was working twenty-four hours a day on the engines.
Whenever Sarah returned to their new quarters, she was also often exhausted from all the effort put into obtaining the medical histories of all of the people. Some people did not want to divulge some of their family diseases for fear that they would be told to leave the ship. She often reassured everyone.
The oldest person coming on the ship was eighty-five. The youngest was two. There were no newborns on board the vessel yet. This could be expected, given that as soon as passengers accepted the invitation to travel on the spaceship, they had been instructed not to conceive before departure. However, once they began the trip, they would be free to do so.
Putting in the DNA chips into each person’s wrist or neck also caused some anxiety problems. Several people said their dogs had chips, and they did not want to be treated like dogs. Sarah tried, again and again, to explain that this was required just so they could track everyone on or off the ship. The chip also contained crucial medical information.
Sarah and the other medical staff worked tirelessly along with Dr. Sato to assemble all of the medical information. Dr. Sato gave each family a tour of the facilities including the cryopreservation unit, the cloning lab, and the stem cell research lab. Of course, there were the regular medical facilities and an operating room.
The day after the orientation, everyone on board had to sit through a lecture about the medical policies on board. First Dr. Sato and the medical personnel shook hands with each person as they entered the room and introduced themselves. Dr. Sato and the medical personnel then explained that they would be discussing some very touchy subjects. One was that there was no way to stop the aging process. Everyone was going to die at some point. It was inevitable, at least for now. The aging process could be slowed but not stopped entirely. If a person died, they could be cloned again at an earlier age but only have the memories acquired at the age of cloning. Everyone had to understand that the goal of the medical unit was not to ensure immortality.
Things were going smoothly until Johnny’s parents along with Johnny started interrupting Dr. Sato repeatedly. Johnny’s parents worked in the engine room as well as on several other maintenance jobs.
Johnny’s dad said, “I was told that your medicine would cure all diseases.” He looked at his wife and son to gain confirmation.
Dr. Sato responded, “If you stay on Earth you will definitely die. If you come with us, you will have a chance to live a much longer life. No one person can guarantee that you will live forever. Accidents happen. New diseases may occur in space. Anything is possible. It is my job to limit the number of ways you can die medically. Our doctors are among the best in the world. We do not have to worry about FDA approval.” She continued to explain that the choice about how they wanted to live their life belonged to them.
To stay alive for the duration of the search for another planet, however, passengers could choose not to accept cloning of themselves or stem cell therapy. Cryopreservation was a must unless there were unusual circumstances.
Once Dr. Sato mentioned cryopreservation, it set off a new round of protests and questions. Thelma, the woman who did not want to part with her artwork, objected to the idea that she would be put to sleep for any duration without being placed in the same unit as her husband. Dr. Sato tried to calm her fears, but she was adamant that she would not be placed in cryopreservation at all.
Dr. Sato said, “We will have to address your situation when it comes time to do that.”
Then Thelma’s husband decided to get into the act with a new question. “Since it is a fact that there has never been a successful cloning of a human, what makes you, Dr. Sato, so sure it can be done?”
Dr. Sato calmly looked at Eric and said, “I guarantee it can be done but not at this moment. We have the means to do so. It will just take a few years to do it. If you do not want to be cloned, just let me know and we will not clone you.”
It was becoming clear after a few more very difficult questions that Dr. Sato was losing her patience with this group. Dr. Sato received so many questions about the policies that she gave up trying to answer them all. Sarah tried to intervene by asking people to be patient and that another meeting could be set up as well as monthly informational meetings about the medical progress on the ship, but Johnny said he wanted all the answers now. It was obvious that this young man had no manners but was also scared of what lay ahead, as he should be. It was also obvious that no matter what answer the passengers were given, they would not be placated or satisfied.
Dr. Sato seemed to, for now, be able to set aside the different views on these difficult decisions.
Sarah said, “Honestly, I’m not sure whether the donors, or even myself for that matter, would pass up a chance to discover a way to live forever since we will be at the leading edge of innovation and could attempt it maybe with the few who were more willing and curious. I don’t know. I think it’s something many humans have considered since we’ve evolved. We’ve advanced our fight against aging in many ways from generation to generation. Who are we to stop it when we may have the chance to rediscover that we have suffered early deaths because we haven’t applied all of our knowledge and abilities to the limit?”
Tom felt fine about the conversation. It needed to be had. It seemed that Dr. Sato had come across too firm in her approach to many in the room. He also observed Johnny and how he interacted with people based on the conversation he had previously had with Mrs. Smith. As he watched Dr. Sato address the group, it felt to Tom that it was a little different than the way she had handled the people at the conference he’d seen her speak at years ago. It felt a little more frustrated or intense. Obviously, all of the people on board would become research subjects, and there would need to be many successful stories for them to survive.