The President read the documents in front of him, but his mind was elsewhere.
After his conversation with the crew of the Cartella very early that morning, he couldn’t concentrate on anything but the huge consequences of mankind having a workable star drive. If Edward Virr succeeded today, what would it really bring for the human race?
He sat back in his big leather chair and stared across the Oval Office at a large picture he’d insisted on hanging in the room.
It was a photograph of Armstrong Station above a beautiful blue Earth below, with the USA clearly visible below the station. As he gazed at the picture, he wondered how many similar Earths there were, waiting to be discovered. He knew, by being a bit of a space exploration junkie, that there were over four hundred billion stars in just our galaxy alone and the Milky Way was surrounded by billions of other galaxies.
Over the last few decades, long-range telescopes had found dozens of Earth-like planets, which orbited stars in the closest few solar systems. So, the odds for human habitable planets were quite staggering and the potential for millions of new Earths being easily reachable almost overnight was a sobering thought.
He believed mankind could evolve in two ways: one was with colonies keeping ties with Earth and forming a kind of commonwealth of planets; and the other was with colonisation ships disappearing off in all directions, never to be heard of again.
‘Mr President. Mr President…’
President James started suddenly and realised his secretary had been calling him.
‘Are you all right, sir?’
‘Yes – yes, I’m fine – sorry. I was elsewhere there for a minute.’
‘I have James Dewey and Donna McGuire on video link, sir.’
The President looked at his Gentab and then glanced at the picture on the wall again, before accepting the secure link.
‘Good afternoon, Donna. Good afternoon, James. What’s the news?’
‘Good afternoon, Mr President,’ said Dewey. ‘We’ve just received a signal from the Cartella, sir. A signal, yes.’
‘Where are they?’
‘Saturn, Mr President, Saturn. Taking pictures of Saturn and drinking Champagne,’ said Dewey, laughing, completely unable to hide his excitement.
The President sat back in his chair and again glanced at his picture before looking back at the two smiling faces on his tablet.
‘What are your thoughts, Donna?’
‘Well, Mr President. This has to be one of the biggest moments in human history,’ she said. ‘It usurps everything up to now. But we have to be very careful and keep control of this technology as it could also be the end of human history.’
‘I agree totally, Donna. The potential problems of losing control of this could have at least half the population of Earth disappearing off in all directions and then coming back with who knows what alien animal species, plants – diseases even – that could wipe out life on Earth in a week.’
‘This technology must remain classified for the time being,’ she said.
‘Do you agree, James?’
‘Unfortunately, I do, Mr President. Sad as it is, I too realise the consequences of this tech going unchecked. We will need a whole new government department—’
‘Probably several,’ said Donna, cutting in. ‘With a raft of legislation governing every possible scenario – and I imagine several that we know nothing about yet. There’s going to be stuff out there that’ll make our toes curl.’
‘So, we’re in agreement then,’ said the President. ‘Classified at the highest level until we have some rules in place. That’s good. I feel it will prove to be the right thing to do. James, I need you to select a small group of experts – people you can really trust – who can make a start at drawing up a basic rule book for the use of this tech. When you have your shortlist of candidates, bring them here to the White House so Donna and I can put the fear of god into them regarding nondisclosure. Does that make sense?’
‘Absolutely, Mr President, absolutely,’ said Dewey.
‘Thank you, James. I’ll speak to you in a few days.’ The President clicked off the connection to Florida and looked at Donna with a frown.
‘What’s the Xavier Lake situation?’
‘The stealth ship engaged his space plane around a hundred thousand kilometres out from Earth.’
‘Was it destroyed?’
‘We’re not completely sure.’
‘That doesn’t sound very definitive, Donna.’
‘He jumped less than a second before the missile struck.’
‘Hmm, so his ship wasn’t destroyed. Did we self-destruct the missile?’
‘Well, that’s the thing,’ said Donna. ‘When he jumped, the missile was so close to his ship, it jumped with him. It was included in the fold envelope.’
‘Well, I’ll be damned. Will it destroy the ship the second it emerges?’
‘It’s obviously never happened before, but we believe so, yes,’
He stared at her for a second; if she had any doubts, then she hid them well.
‘Okay, then. Let’s hope that’s the case. He was a thief and a murderer and deserved it. Also, did the stealth ship return undetected?’
‘It’s back in its hangar in Nevada, Mr President, and there’s been no chatter coming from any source regarding any detection of an unidentified ship.’
‘Very good, Donna, thank you – and keep an eye on Dewey’s selections, will you? Give them a run through your computers, just to be on the safe side.’
‘Will do, Mr President.’ And, with a nod, she disappeared from his screen.