The president turned to his wife.
“You have been by my side through every success and failure for thirty-five years and have guided me whenever I needed guidance. I cannot bear the thought of us separating, and I want to tell you how much I love you and how much I will miss you. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers and remember all the good times we had together.”
His wife, Isabella, started to sob.
“I love you very much. If you were not the president, I would expect you to join me on the spaceship. However, if you were not the president, the truth is, I doubt I would get on the ship. I expect you will do a wonderful job for the people of this country no matter how bad the conditions become. I will think of you every day and hope to see you again among the stars.”
The president embraced his wife. The tender embrace lasted several seconds. They had been married for twenty-four years. Isabella had been at his side for every success and failure of the president. He had never imagined her not being at his side. The loneliness that was already creeping over him would haunt him forever.
He said, “You are the light of my life and my hero. Without you, I am nothing.”
He turned to the group and said, “Goodbye, everyone. I wish you all the best. I will be looking up at the heavens and wondering if I can see you until the day I die. God bless you all. If you do not mind, I will hang around until the ship leaves. Maybe I will be able to make myself useful to someone who needs help. I need to get in touch with our nuclear facilities in North Dakota, Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana to see how they are functioning and if we need to disarm as many nuclear weapons as possible so they don’t blow up on our soil and cause more catastrophes. I also want to do what I can to transport people out of California and get first responders to the scene. I am sending as many emergency operations as possible there, even though it will be rough just traveling there. I am already estimating twenty million dead in the next few days. I cannot just stand by and see these people suffer.”
The president then motioned to two generals to follow him to a place where they could communicate with other people involved in the disasters, FEMA and the Department of Defense.
Meanwhile, while that was happening, virtually everyone on board was in a frenzy to try to get ready. No one knew exactly how much time was left before the launch. Tom’s communicator was lighting up like Christmas lights as officers and others reported on the status of their departments and equipment.
Suddenly, Tom got an emergency message from Carson in the engine room. Carson wanted Tom to come right away. Tom called Bob and told him to go immediately to the engine.
Five minutes later they had run down the three levels from the bridge and were standing in the engine room with Carson and Dorothy. Carson and Dorothy were arguing, in a heated discussion about what the problem was and how they were going to solve it, or if they would be able to explain it.
“Stop arguing and explain to Bob and me what the problem is or possible solutions to fix it. Time is of the essence, so please tell me what is wrong. We are in the final stages before we launch.”
Carson looked at Dorothy and asked her, “Do you want to tell him the problem or shall I?”
Dorothy turned away and said, “You go ahead and tell him.”
Carson turned to Tom and said, “We have everything in place. We have the eight rockets attached to the spaceship to provide for a powerful boost at liftoff. We also have the fuel system ready, although we have not checked it out to verify it is working one hundred per cent. The only way we can do that is when we launch and hope it works. However, since no one has ever attempted this kind of lift-off, we could not account for every possible problem that could arise along with every possible solution. We really had hoped to have more time, like another month or two, to finish our work and figure out how to solve the last main obstacles to launch. If we were launching in two years, we would not be having this convers—”
“Are you trying to tell me we cannot launch? What is the specific problem? Bob and I are both engineers. We will assist you in solving it or get extra help.”
“There are two main problems. The first problem is after we blastoff with the eight rockets attached to the ship, and until we reach orbit, the entire ship may experience a blackout. There may be no way to detach the rockets or make course corrections, or do anything until we regain radio frequency and consciousness. During the blackout, none of our control systems may work. People may not be able to function due to possible extreme G-forces. This means we will all be unable to communicate with each other or anyone in the space center. Therefore, you will be unable to give any commands or orders, and we will be unable to check our flight trajectory or make decisions as to whether to increase the power or decrease it. If we cannot function, we may not reach the desired orbit or detach the eight rockets at the right altitude. We also have to be aware of the heat shields, since they will interfere with the radio frequency too, and consequently, also contribute to the possibility that we will end up flying somewhere we did not intend. In the worst-case scenario, fires could start up all over the ship, and the propulsion system will blow up.
“There has to be a way to monitor the whole thing from outside the ship. We have run simulations, and it is estimated the blackout time will be around twelve minutes after launch. Someone has to basically take over control of the ship for that length of time.”
Tom and Bob could not believe they were hearing this right now.
Bob said, “Did you set up a control center or equipment in the space center to control the ship for that short period?”
Dorothy responded, “We were planning on doing that next week. We did not think we would be leaving, not this soon. It would need to be perfectly synchronized.”
“So that means we cannot launch? Or does it mean we can launch but possibly end up with a failed mission, and that everyone on board would be dead?”
“That is correct. I am so sorry we had not thought about this issue until now.”
“How long would it take us to build this control system or to set up equipment to monitor our launch with all of the necessary adjustments?”
“We do have the materials here to build it. It will probably take one week. Then we need to make sure the ship and control system are on the same radio frequency and synchronize the systems as necessary to launch.”
“We will work around the clock. I will give you access to all the engineers on board and all the electricians and so forth. If there are any more problems, please let me know immediately, all right?”
Tom got on his communicator and started calling for a team of people to begin to build the necessary system to monitor the ship. He now expected a delay of a week to ten days. Bob also stayed behind to work on the controls.
Promptly, Tom found the president with a few of his colleagues, looking at a map and barking orders.
“Thanks for letting me use your communication system to work with the government. How can I be of help now?”