‘I guess we’re about to discover what the space administration has come up with after all of those interviews with us and the Heradians,’ said Bill.
More than a dozen of us were enjoying some hors d’oeuvres and fruit juice, tea or coffee in an anteroom while awaiting Neil and the other big cheeses who had been trying to make sense of the spolding conundrum and the existence of the entiroverse. Gradually they joined us and once we were satisfied with the snacks, we filed into a conference room at the Johnson Space Center. A long, polished mahogany table was surrounded by comfortable leather chairs. In front of each seat were water carafes, glasses, some mints, a notepad, pen and a monitor about the size of a notebook screen.
Both Marys, Terry, and Sandra, the other senior astrophysicist, were there plus, the two Annas, Tosh, Chi, Stroya, Gurd, Bill and I from the mission teams, as well as chief pilots, Linda and Chan. Other technicians and senior administrators who only a few of us knew by name were also present.
The room settled and Neil rose to his feet at the head of the table.
‘Ladies, gentlemen and Heradians, thank you for attending this first meeting to discuss our plans for future missions.
‘We’ve been busy preparing a second vitamin supply mission to attempt to visit the original Arctur which Mark’s team had made contact with during their attempt to relocate Earth.
‘As far as we’re aware, they are still in the same situation that Stroya and Gurd’s planet is in, only they have had no supply mission.
‘Now that we know our left turns from our right turns, the first trip will be to the first Arctur you encountered. It will carry those vitamins plus two probes equipped with xardrol containers – the plant which we believe will destroy the simeral weed.
‘The crew,’ Neil looked down at his tablet, ‘will comprise Terry, who’ll command it, Chi, Tosh, Gurd and Anne, which is how Anna-two prefers to be called in meetings.’
‘Just five?’ someone asked.
‘Yes. Gurd will be left on that first Arctur as liaison and two more Heradians will be brought back to Earth on that mission,’ said Neil. ‘We expect it to be eight to ten days.’
‘The second mission, leaving more or less the same time, will be heading to Stroya and Gurd’s Arctur. It will be a new interstellar ship using the existing Spirit but extended to provide more living space and eight tanks. The new combined craft will be renamed, Pathfinder. In addition to the eight tanks, it will have two of the new Rimors with reusable heat tiles. One of the tanks will be equipped as living space and you will bring thirty-two more Heradians to Earth. So, lots of landings and lift-offs. You’ll also carry eight probes armed with xardrol containers, all for use on Herade, to be dropped in specific areas we’ve discussed with Gurd and Stroya. We want to see how the treated areas behave when they reach each other.’
Tosh’s arm rose and Neil nodded. ‘I take it that the xardrol is being released only on Herade, not Keradrol.’
‘Correct,’ said Neil. ‘Keradrol, or Haven as some know it, has its own biological environment and we feel that we don’t have the right to upset its balance. It could have an adverse effect upon the marine life. At some point we’ll have an antidote to the pollen and, when we do, we’ll be able to visit the world and learn more about the sea life.’
‘Who is on that second mission?’ I asked, picking up the artist’s impression of Pathfinder. The main extended fuselage was central with seven of the eight tanks surrounding it and level with the rear of the ship. The eighth tank, the one equipped to transport more people, was located forward of the others and its nose was level with the most rear part of the bridge. The two Rimors were also attached ahead of the noses of the other tanks. It appeared to be a neat solution.
‘You’ll command it,’ said Neil. ‘Your crew will be Anna, Chan, one of the Marys, Bill and Stroya. Expect it to be between two and four weeks. We’ll want you to observe the early effect of xardrol on the weed on Herade.’
After a lengthy question and answer session, the meeting broke up and we all left. The next morning we’d begin to train and prepare our teams for the missions.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
‘I was hoping to be chosen for your mission,’ said Linda as she drove us home.
‘I guess they were thinking of Jason. These missions still have some unknowns and therefore risks attached,’ I replied.
‘They are only short though,’ said Linda. ‘Terry’s is only eight days and yours is likely to be just two or three weeks. Jason could stay with my mum and dad. The Moonbase duties were over six months each time.’
‘I’m sure Neil would have considered all of that. Maybe next time.’
‘We’d have been in free fall!’ she said quietly, nudging me in the arm.
We both laughed.
After collecting Jason from his playschool, we grabbed a fast-food lunch and headed to an amusement park for the remainder of the afternoon.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Extending the length of the fuselage of one of the Spirits to create Pathfinder took longer than might be expected. It was over six months before it was complete and all the fuel tanks and thirty-two seat passenger module was attached.
After saying farewell to our family and friends, we lifted off in one of the new larger SpaceX capsules and boarded our craft where we’d live in quarantine for two weeks.
By the time we were ready to leave for Trappist-1, I was already missing Tosh’s irascible character, but having Chan and Stroya with us added a new dimension. Although we’d been training together and I’d worked with Chan on the Moonstruck mission, I hadn’t really got to know her. She was a mine of information about all things Eastern and very entertaining too. Stroya’s stories of Herade also fascinated us during downtime; she had many tales of adventure from the history of her species when they lived on the home planet. It was remarkable how their culture and society had developed along the same lines as Earth. They too had had wars, famine, periods of exploration and similar tales of gods and devils to those we humans had learned in our childhood and youth.
‘Hello, Neil. Pathfinder here. We’re ready to depart. Chan has spoken to Capcom and we’re in the middle of a ninety-minute countdown,’ I said.
‘Okay, Mark. Have a good trip. See you in a few weeks,’ said Neil
The six of us strapped into our couches, carried out the final checks, took our fluid straws into our mouths, and Chan counted down the final few seconds.
‘Fire!’ she said and we were all engulfed in the awful stasis which held us while travelling through the dark matter universe. Outside the cockpit, space had turned green and we were on our way to Herade, to deposit our probes containing the weed’s nemesis, xardrol. The estimate was about ninety-three minutes.
I got my entity to swivel my eyes to look at the dashboard clock. When it reached ninety-four I became concerned. At ninety-five I knew something was wrong. Our inability to communicate while in hyperspace was so frustrating. The journey should not be taking longer than ninety-three minutes. Something had certainly gone wrong. Could it be the additional mass of the tanks and extended size of the fuselage? The scientists had told us that those changes would have no effect, but, as the clock passed one hundred, we all must have known that our journey was not right.
Mary’s team had built in a fail-safe to get us out of hyperspace if the target planet was missed, but Herade had been an easy world to select in the spolding device. How could we have missed it? The fail-safe would cut in at one hundred and eighty minutes, roughly twice the expected journey time so that the target planets would still be in range if we’d overshot. The anxiety was palpable as the minutes ticked by. We were relying upon the safety device to save us.