CHAPITRE 16 – MOVING ON
08:06 (Universal Time)
Wednesday, December 12, 2323
Main conference room, government conference center
Callisto Prime, Callisto moon
Jupiter System
Having greeted at the entrance of the main conference room every member of the Spacers League High Council as they arrived, Janet Robeson went to take her seat at the head of the table as the latest arrival, Vladimir Gasparov, took his seat as well. All the participants had sober expressions, as they all knew how important this meeting was. Selecting a picture on her computer, Janet then made it appear on the giant viewing screens fixed to the four walls of the room, showing to all a star chart centered on the Solar System and showing all the stars within one hundred light-years. Twenty-seven of the stars on the chart were marked with a blue halo.
‘’Ladies and gentlemen of the High Council, I am certain that you are all very familiar with that star chart by now, as what it represents is impacting strongly on us and our citizens. Those 27 habitable worlds are the potential future for us…and for the whole of Humanity. As you well know from our recent history, the Spacers League was formed some eight years ago in order for the citizens of the various Spacers colonies to resist the tyranny of the then Terran Federation. Those Spacers colonies were themselves formed over 200 years ago, when enterprising Humans emigrated from Earth and established themselves in and around the various planetary and asteroid bodies of our Solar System, in order to extract and exploit the minerals and resources which were becoming increasingly unavailable on Earth due to unfettered and irresponsible exploitation during the past decades and centuries. Those colonists also left Earth to escape an increasingly polluted planet subject to disastrous climatological changes caused by Humanity’s own excesses and irresponsibility. In order to survive and thrive outside of Earth, our ancestors had no choice but to create safe, pressurized habitats protected from space radiations by digging themselves under the rock or ice of their new home worlds. So were created Callisto Prime and the other cities we call home today. Our ancestors accepted the price of having to live essentially underground or on orbital space stations in order to escape the growing poverty, pollution and depletion of resources, including foodstuff, found on Earth. They built their cities underground, in pressurized and climate-controlled shells, but did their best to recreate as much as possible their old Earth’s environment, by using artificial vistas on giant viewing screens and by planting trees and vegetation wherever they could. The final result of their efforts, in which we are living in today, was an impressive achievement by all measures and provided us with a comfortable and safe environment to live and multiply. The magnificent ship of Commodore Forster, the KOSTROMA, is maybe the ultimate such achievement. However, as you all know, we all experience from time to time a fever to renew with true nature, a nature where we can bathe in a real sea and tan ourselves under the rays of a real sun. You just need to consult the statistics about the volume of tourism by Spacers to Earth to see that this fever still very much exists. Which brings me to today.’’
Janet paused for a couple of seconds to let her words sink into the members seated around the table.
‘’While our ships are still hard at work exploring more star systems around us and are finding nearly every month new habitable planets or moons, we already have found a total of 27 star systems containing one or more planetary bodies with surface conditions suitable for Humans to live on them. Out of those 27 systems, we explored in detail eighteen habitable planets and moons. Some of those planets and moons are a bit cold, like Icelandia, in the Trappist-1 System. Others are a bit hot, like New Polynesia, in the HD 40307 System, which also happens to be an ocean planet with few emerged lands. Other planets that are habitable but that I have not listed are already home to intelligent alien civilizations and are not ours to take, like Gliese 581c, Gliese 581ca, Gliese 581d and Ross 128b. This actually left us with a total of ten worlds which we consider prime colonization worlds: New Shouria; New Haven; Providence; Vinland; New Venice; New Polynesia; Gemini; Atlantis; El Dorado and Jurassika. Of these, New Shouria has been designated as the new home planet of our Koorivar partners, while New Haven is a corporate world owned by Commodore Forster and used to resettle refugees and destitute people from Earth. In passing, I would like to applaud Tina for the admirable display of compassion and generosity that New Haven constitutes.’’
Tina, sitting at the table, blushed a bit from embarrassment as the other members of the High Council applauded her warmly for a few seconds. Janet Robeson then resumed her speech.
‘’Apart from New Shouria and New Haven, which have been the goal of intensive building and modeling efforts for more than three years and are now self-sufficient in terms of food production, our efforts at building colonies have been mostly concentrated on Providence, in the Alpha Centauri B System, on New Venice, in the Tau Ceti System, On New Polynesia, in the HD 40307 System, on Gemini, in the HD 10647 System, on El Dorado, in the Tau Boötis A System, and on Jurassika, in the Epsilon Andromedae System. Why did we concentrate on these six particular worlds? Simple: they are all illuminated by main sequence yellow-white or orange stars, which are similar or close in appearance to our own Sun, a G2-Class yellow star, a fact that makes them especially attractive to our citizens. In contrast, both New Shouria, New Haven and the other worlds in our list of habitable bodies turn around M-Class red dwarf stars. While they are still nice worlds to live in, their environment is visibly different from that of Earth, simply because of their parent stars. This finally leads me to the main reason for this meeting: our planet colonization programs. Despite our best efforts and huge financial and industrial investments in those programs, the demand for emigration to those new worlds has constantly and largely outstripped the existing reception capabilities of those worlds. We simply can’t build fast enough or develop their food production potential to a level that would safely accommodate all of our citizens wanting to emigrate from our present space habitats. However, I can easily understand the wish of our citizens to go live in a place like Providence, Gemini, New Venice or El Dorado, where they could finally walk under a yellow sun without the need to wear a spacesuit.’’
‘’Tell me about that!’’ grumbled Jacobus Stein, the CEO of the Pallas Mining Industries, based in the Main Asteroid Belt. ‘’My best workers are leaving Pallas as soon as an opening is created on one of those worlds, while recruiting new workers is becoming damn near impossible. As a result, the population of Pallas has decreased rather than increased for the first time ever last year. If this continues, I will have to start shutting down some of my industrial facilities.’’
‘’The same here!’’ said Karl Langemann, the CEO of the Vesta Consortium, also based in the Main Asteroid Belt. ‘’Mind you, if I would listen to myself, I would retire from business right now and go buy a personal island on New Polynesia, so I could go roast myself on a nice sandy beach for the rest of my life, with plenty of young women around, of course.’’
That attracted many smiles and a few giggles around the table, lightening the atmosphere in the room. The next to speak was Charles Watts, the Governor of Mars.
‘’Well, it is indeed a fact that our colonization efforts are not advancing as quickly as many of our citizens would wish, but our industries and construction yards are already working at near maximum capacity. The living, industrial and support infrastructures have to be completed first before settlers could move in. What else could we do, apart from telling our citizens to show some patience?’’
There was a noticeable silence afterwards, until Vladimir Gasparov spoke up while looking around at the other participants.
‘’I see only one way to accelerate our construction efforts: to spend more of our treasury and buy or order a lot more heavy equipment from Earth, whose overall industrial capacity still vastly outstrips our own production capacity.’’
‘’But, the Earth governments would then demand in exchange that we let their own citizens emigrate freely to the new worlds.’’ Objected Jacobus Stein. ‘’We would end up with chaos on our new worlds and may permit that way the exportation of the same political, ethnic and religious conflicts that are presently poisoning Earth.’’
That was when Tina Forster decided to speak in turn.
‘’I do agree that uncontrolled and unfiltered mass emigration from Earth would most probably bring a lot of the old problems which still curse the Earth. However, if well-managed, such emigration may not turn into chaos. Also, I believe that there is another solution, short of allowing mass emigration from Earth in exchange for more industrial contracts.’’
‘’And what would that be, Tina?’’ asked Governor Watts.
‘’Close down in sequence some of our industrial and food production facilities, then strip their key equipment and transport it to one of our new worlds. Mister Stein just complained that he would soon have to shut down some of his facilities due to the lack of qualified workers. Well, lets shut down those facilities and then let’s carry them to, say, Providence, Gemini or New Venice, where they could be installed back and returned to operation in a few days.’’
The other members of the High Council looked at each other for a moment, as if they had just heard a divine judgement, before nodding their heads.
‘’I like that idea!’’ exclaimed Karl Langemann. ‘’Since those industrial plants are contained on the most part in pressurized giant modules sunken deep under surface ice or rock, maybe we could simply dig them out and carry them whole to another star system.’’
‘’Now we’re talking!’’ added enthusiastically Janet Robeson. ‘’Our own industrial facilities on Callisto and on the other moons of Jupiter are all contained in such under-ice modules which would be easy to bring back to the surface by melting the ice around them. After that, a ship could take them in tow and transport them to one of our new worlds.’’
‘’YES! Let’s discuss this in detail, my friends!’’ said a happy Jacobus Stein. ‘’And thank you for your idea, Tina.’’
‘’You’re welcome, Jacobus.’’ replied Tina, smiling.
The discussion then switched to a highly technical one for the next few hours, where specific facilities were considered and then selected for eventual transport by ship to one of the new worlds. When the meeting adjourned at the end of the afternoon, Tina was tired but happy. Once out of the meeting room, she stopped for a moment in front of one of the large windows which gave an outside view of the rest of the giant habitat module that contained among other things the government’s administrative and executive facilities of Callisto Prime. Janet Robeson joined her there a few seconds later and also stared outside in the distance.
‘’When I think that this city was built over 160 years ago and that we may well end up in the next few years either abandoning it or transporting parts of it to another star system. Once our installations on our new colonies are completed, very few people, if any, will still want to live here, underground. In a way, our new capability to travel among the stars may just mean the dislocation of the Spacers League.’’
‘’Wrong, Janet! The Spacers League will not be dislocated: it will simply move to better locations. It will still live as a political and administrative entity for all Humans living off Earth.’’
‘’But your idea just possibly saved five years or more out of our colonization schedule, Tina.’’
‘’And it also means that my old KOSTROMA will be busier than ever, as it is one of the few interstellar cargo ships large enough to carry those modules. Mind you, I didn’t propose my idea simply to get more transportation contracts.’’
Janet looked at Tina and gave her a gentle smile.
‘’Tina, I know that you did it in order to be constructive and helpful, and not for crass business reasons. You always thought of the good of others first and I admire you for that.’’
‘’Thanks, Janet!’’
Tina was silent for a moment then before speaking softly, still looking outside.
‘’Whether to build our new colonies or to ensure transportation and trade between them and Earth, we will need more interstellar cargo ships like my KOSTROMA, a lot more in fact. Those ships will need to fully incorporate the gravity drive technology of the Drazt and the Koomak Drive to be best at their job. I am more and more thinking about ordering a new ship to my specifications, so that I could augment the carrying capacity of my corporation. I already talked about that project with Gustav Shomberg, the owner and chief designer of the Avalon Space Yards, and gave him a few guidelines and directives. Gustav has promised me to start working on the design of that new cargo ship in the next few days.’’
‘’Then, you can tell him that the Spacers League will fully authorize and finance the installation of complete weapons and defensive suites on your new ship, if you wish for it to be armed.’’
‘’I do, Janet! We still don’t know what we may be facing in the future in other star systems that we still haven’t explored. The Vorlaks of Gliese 581c were a bad enough surprise for us as it was.’’
‘’What will you do with your KOSTROMA once your new ship will be completed, Tina?’’
‘’Well, building a new ship of the same category as my KOSTROMA will take a minimum of ten years, Janet. By the time that it is completed and enters service, the KOSTROMA will already be 51 years old and its fusion drive will by then be obsolescent technology. However, while slower than newer ships with directed gravity drives, it will still be more than good enough to haul around ultra-heavy, outsized pieces of cargo, like prefabricated construction modules or even complete industrial plants. With a towing capacity for modules up to 440 meters in diameter and 200 meters in height, just for its stern towing station, my KOSTROMA will still be valuable in carrying all kinds of large loads across the stars.’’
‘’Indeed! Who will command the KOSTROMA once you will have your new ship?’’
‘’I haven’t thought about that yet, to be frank. This is after all still some ten years in the future. The one thing I know about that is that I will want to have one of my old crewmates to take command of the KOSTROMA after me, even though I will still be the owner of it. My navigator and executive officer, Dana Durning, would be a good candidate for the post of captain.’’
‘’What about your son, Misha? Do you plan to make him one of your officers?’’
‘’Only if he wishes so and proves that he is competent enough for the job. He may be my son, but he will have to prove himself worthy of whatever position he wants. I will make sure that he understands that as he grows up, while being gentle and supportive with him.’’
‘’Spoken like a truly responsible parent. I am sure that he will grow up to be a fine young man, Tina.’’