“Thanks for being there, Tom. Take care.”
Tom hung up and tears formed as he got up and scrolled through the photographs he had preserved in his digital library. He paused as he looked at a young Heitiare and her father, Jeff.
What dangers our children face when safety is an afterthought, he thought.
Walking from his office, trying to compose himself, he saw Bob, who informed him that the president would arrive momentarily. At last, it was a Thursday afternoon, when the president landed. Tom could feel the impossible in that moment open up wide, sucking up all the past flaws of Trump and breathe a new chance, a new possibility. Maybe he’d be someone who understood the fear and deadly circumstances of bad political decisions that was devastating communities around the world, like Jeff’s.
The power of the presidential symbol and what it stood for seemed to conspire to make Tom brace himself. Instead, he shielded himself behind every benefit that courage, strength and determination had brought him and behind every climate refugee and victim who lost their lives to poor decision-making. He had been brought to this point and their losses and lives would mean something. Standing before a president coming to meet him, he would be a visionary standing on the cusp of something remarkable, a believer in the power of what it meant to be human to him—to rise above and develop better grounds.
Tom saluted the president as he disembarked from Air Force One. The president hailed back, and then they shook hands. Unlike Trump, Stevens had served in the army for ten years, attaining the rank of colonel before getting into politics. Unlike Trump, Stevens seemed to care more about people and the environment. Having served in war, he saw the consequences of losing life. All of the structures that were destroyed in war could be rebuilt, but once life was destroyed, there was no way to get it back. Stevens had seen families despair over death all over the world and wanted to do whatever he could to ensure this did not happen often, or at all. To Tom, that made the biggest difference of all.
Once they had finished their greetings, Tom led everyone into a conference room near his office. Everyone sat down around a large table. Tom sat across from President Stevens, who sat with his hands neatly folded. Bob sat on Tom’s right. Dr. Sato sat on his left.
“Mr. President, thank you for taking the time to visit us during our final stages of preparation. Before we do a formal tour, I would like to know the purpose of your visit.”
“Thank you, Dr. Burns, for your willingness to share your project with my cabinet members and me. Let me cut to the chase. My first question is: why have you not kept the government up to date on your endeavors? As you know, the conditions of the climate are deteriorating. We are losing some of our beaches in Florida and elsewhere. There is no question that while we can postpone our demise, we cannot reverse the process. It is my understanding that you have built this spacecraft without the approval or assistance of anyone officially in the United States government. You have been very successful in getting billionaires to donate generously. I assume that you have already planned to accommodate these donors by including them on this mission.”
Dr. Burns listened intently and had guessed before the president had arrived that he would ask this question. “Sir, you have every right to ask any questions, and I will do my best to answer them as honestly as I can. Perhaps if you had been president years ago, we would not even have to build this spaceship. I know my days at Boeing were some of my best when I look at my life. Second, we have not involved the government at all in our work as you just mentioned. Donald Trump did not want to support the project, although I did speak to him twice.”
At the mention of the meeting, Tom looked over at Bob, who winced.
“Yes, we do have some large donors, and yes, we have invited them to come as passengers on the trip. Initially, we built a spacecraft under the leadership of NASA. NASA was started during the space race when we competed with the Russians over which country would send the first spaceship into orbit. The Russians did manage to launch the first person into space, but we were the first nation to land a person on the moon. As time went on, NASA suffered a lot of budget cuts that were probably influenced by some events, including the Challenger disaster. No one wanted to see such brave people killed. In the early 2000s, the government decided it was best to privatize our future space trips. Undoubtedly, this saved the government a lot of money. SpaceX enjoyed some positive results but also had some setbacks.
“When Obama was president, Secretary Clinton worked hard to convene a world conference devoted to climate change. Just about every country in the world signed on to do their part in helping our environment via the Paris Agreement. Previously, Al Gore also did a lot of work to make people more aware of the failing climate. Then along came Donald Trump and everything changed. As you know, during his second term, many national disasters took place, killing thousands of citizens, and he did nothing about it. He continued to doubt global warming, calling it a hoax. Many of the Republicans did not believe in climate change and they, along with Trump, were mainly interested in lining their pockets with money at the expense of future generations.
“Many of my colleagues around the world decided it was fruitless to argue with Trump and began making plans to leave Earth. There was no way I would have him—or any member of his family or cabinet—accompany us on the spacecraft. You could say he is the greatest mass murderer in the history of the world as he finalized its destruction. He is worse than Hitler in that regard. I have to say it was not entirely his fault, but he expedited and exacerbated the issues. I did try to reason with him and his advisors, but they would not listen. He continued to dismiss all of the scientific evidence presented to him.
“These events only made my colleagues and myself more determined to search for a new home for humanity. I am sorry that Congress did not impeach him as soon as he took office. You were elected six years ago and thrown into a very hectic situation as far as the climate is concerned. In the coming years, it is only going to become worse. While I do have some sympathy for your plight, I do not feel any obligation to help you now. I am sorry, but I believe it is your job to help the remaining citizens until you are no longer president.”
President Stevens looked at Tom with a straight face. “I believe that was an honest answer, Dr. Burns. Unlike Trump, I will be straight with you. I am concerned about your methods for selecting all the people that will go on this spacecraft. Millions of people will not have the opportunity to go with you. Also, you have basically stolen some of the finest minds in research, engineering and medical science to join you. While there are surely many scientists left here on Earth, I am not sure I can allow the best of us to go with you. I need those fantastic minds with me. As president, I am responsible for the citizens of this country. Perhaps there is still time to reverse the changes we are seeing or adapt in other ways without leaving Earth. If they can build such a fantastic spaceship, surely, they can build things on Earth that prevent deaths and will allow people to live much longer. Perhaps then we can build more spacecrafts that will allow even more people to leave Earth and seek out new planets. Surely, you can see the needs of the many will outweigh the needs of a few.”
Tom stood up. “I am sorry, Mr. President. I wish I could agree with you about taking everyone on Earth with me in as many spacecrafts as we need. I will make sure to leave you with all the specifications to build further spaceships shortly. You are free to use this information as you wish. But I will not wait until you build more ships. The people that are coming with me made their decision to do so of their own free will. I did not force anyone to join me. They all had a choice. They could stay here and hope things would improve, but it sure does not look that way. Or they could join me in our attempt to seek out a new world for us. They also know that in the end, we may fail in our attempt and we could all die before we reach any destination. They realize, however, that there is nothing left on Earth for them to do. The scientific data from all over the world indicates that the end is going to occur soon.