Gliese 581 Read online

  Date: 07.07.2092

  Earth – Seattle, Washington

  “For as long as man has understood the movements of the stars and planets –he has gazed at the meteors streaking across the sky and wondered what was out there, beyond in the great openness of space. Home of the gods and the unknown, our questions changed as we learned more about our world and the nature of space. Our curiosity drove us. Was there life out there, past our Earth, the cradle of our civilization? Were there other planets, ones we could travel to, that would support life, and even more importantly, human life? These questions have defined us, driven us to great heights, from bleak moonscapes to breathtaking wonders.”

  Daniel sighed and slumped in his seat as the presentation droned on. Beautiful, great, he knew all this. Every high school student had heard this speech, and the awe he had felt at the idea of space travel had dimmed slightly over the years. In past centuries and even recently after the Reformation, Americans had traveled to Europe as part of their coming of age. It was a year of decadent freedom and adventure before settling into the rigors of collegiate life, marriage, jobs, children, and responsibilities. Daniel had done all of this and more. Thanks to the smartly invested trust fund left to him and Luke, he had traveled far and wide. He had climbed parts of Mt. Kilimanjaro and he had traveled to the Moon. Untold thousands of others had done the same, visiting the moon or one of a handful of space stations now orbiting it and the Earth.

  There weren’t any rich kid flights to Mars yet, but given time, given another couple of centuries for the terraforming equipment to do its work seeding the atmosphere with just the right mixture of elements and Daniel was sure it would be the next new thing.

  “Learn the Mysteries of Mars!” The vids already read, “Become a colonist on the newest frontier and become a part of history!”

  The space stations provided links to the great beyond. Wayfarer orbited the Moon, serving as the training and launch point for Mars colonists who headed out on what was still a one-way trip for most to the red planet. Daniel wondered how they could stand it. The thought of living forever in domes sealed away from a frigid, airless, and dust-covered wasteland was unappealing to him. As for breathable air, well, that was a dream that was two centuries or more in the future.

  Still, humanity kept pushing the boundaries. The colonists who went there were a different breed than those who stayed behind. Their thirst was for knowledge, an understanding of a world alien from their own. And Daniel understood how they felt in many ways. Most were scientists and researchers - dedicated to creating a new world that would be home to humanity - a home away from home.

  The presentation interrupted Daniel’s wandering thoughts and brought him back to present, “For many years, scientists looked to the stars for answers to the questions of other planets. Over time, their ability to discern the movements of objects orbiting those distant stars grew. And then the world was rocked by the discovery of Planet G in the Gliese 581 system.”

  The speaker paused and smiled sadly, “And just as quickly, these discoveries were denounced.”

  Across the screen flashed images of old headlines that screamed:

  Gliese 581g: A Black Eye for Believers in Habitable Earth-Like Exoplanets

  And...

  Earth-Like Planets Apparently Do Not Exist.

  “This was an incredibly hard time for my grandfather, Steve Vogt. He would go to his grave convinced that Gliese 581g was there.”

  He paused and clicked to an image of a space telescope.

  “The James Webb Space Telescope had an anticipated launch date of 2018, but it would not be launched until nearly 2033, due to The Collapse and Second Civil War. My grandfather would not live to see his research vindicated.”

  He gestured to the screen, “Shortly after its launch in 2033, my father Oliver Vogt turned the telescope once more towards the Gliese 581 solar system and found this ...”

  A tiny light, orbiting a red dwarf star was displayed on the screen.

  The speaker smiled, “This discovery coincided neatly with the development of the first functioning Alcubierre-Mesner drive. This device, capable of warp speeds, was perfected a handful of years after Gliese 581g’s re-discovery. The Alcubierre-Mesner drive was something previously described in science fiction tales. A dream made into reality.”

  Daniel sat up in his seat, leaning forward as the images of Gliese 581g with close-ups of rocky mountain ranges and deep blue-green waters began to flash across the screen. He could see others doing the same. The auditorium was packed, there were at least 12,000 seats, all of them filled, with others standing in the aisles and clustered at the back. Despite their numbers, everyone stayed silent, the silence punctuated by occasional gasps at the dazzling images on the screen.

  The images looked familiar and yet...not. As if someone had taken a wrong turn with the paintbrush. The colors were somewhat different, the shapes of the plants, the rocks, the terrain - all slightly off. Daniel wondered if someday human children living on this tidally locked planet might look at pictures of Earth and think the same thing.

  “World Geographic launched the D.O.V.E. probe on January 18, 2037.” The speaker’s voice rang out in the darkness. “D.O.V.E. stood for Discover, Observe, Verify, and Extrapolate - all of the steps that the most important probe mankind has ever invented would need. We needed to know if there was any hope of establishing a colony on this distant world.”

  “On board D.O.V.E. were hundreds of probes designed to collect and examine everything from the mineral deposits to the existence and makeup of surface liquids, along with untold numbers of environmental factors. These probes scoured the atmosphere, dug deep into the soil and plunged into the oceans and seas. Thousands of samples were taken and examined. The results were beamed back to the mother probe which in turn collated, summarized and transmitted the probe findings back to Earth.”

  The giant view screens zoomed back to the white-haired speaker, Dr. Anthony Vogt, and he paused, looking over the packed auditorium, smiled and said, “How I wish my grandfather, Dr. Steve Vogt could have seen the figurative olive branch that D.O.V.E. found on Planet G.”

  Daniel paid rapt attention now, this was the interesting part. He wondered if he would ever tire of seeing the details of this giant world. His eyes drank in the images that continued to flash over the giant view screen.

  “On April 7, 2084, World Geographic received the first images of Gliese 581g, which we have now officially renamed Zarmina’s World, in honor of Dr. Vogt’s wife, and my grandmother, Zarmina.”

  Anthony Vogt gestured towards the screen and the audience gasped as footage of one of the sub-probes burst through clouds and a dizzying rush of sharp mountains and lush valleys stretched and moved. They sighed collectively as the probe skimmed an immense expanse of greenish-brown water, jerking to the left with the probe as its auto-navigation registered and avoided a large rocky mass protruding from the water.

  “What we have learned in the fifteen months since the probes from D.O.V.E. have transmitted their data across the black void of space is absolutely staggering.”

  Again the view screen cut back to a close-up of Dr. Vogt.

  “My grandfather’s dream of a world that humans could inhabit has come true. After more than three years of study, after thousands of hours reviewing data and learning as much as we can about this amazing and promising world, I have the most important announcement of my life to make.”

  He paused for a moment, a glimmer of tears in his eyes and his voice rang across the auditorium.

  “In honor of my grandfather who discovered Gliese 581g, and especially for the famous science fiction author who inspired my grandfather from childhood to study the stars, on this day, July 7, 2092, one hundred and eighty-five years after the birth of Robert Heinlein ... I am formally announcing the 2095 mission to establish a permanent colony on Zarmina’s World. A brave group of human scientists, engineers, and forward-thinking individuals will carry our race and our future beyond
our solar system, to a place unimaginably far away and alien to us.”

  The roar of the crowd was overwhelming. Many on their feet, applauding and cheering with excitement.

  Dr. Vogt’s grin stretched ear to ear, his teeth a brilliant white, and then the screen changed to close-ups of alien plants and sketches of the ship. He pointed to the ship, a giant version of the D.O.V.E. probe with additional modules added to the main ship stem.

  “We have named the ship Calypso, in honor of the ship of the famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. Planning and construction, which began over five years ago, is now nearing completion. Calypso will depart in less than three years, on a trip that will take its crew to that distant star system, Gliese 581, and bring mankind to a new home and new frontier.”

  The crowd roared again in excitement, drowning out some of Dr. Vogt’s words. The screen, however, now displayed a lengthy quote.

  Dr. Vogt waited for a break in the cheers before continuing.

  “Robert Heinlein once said ‘A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.’”

  There was laughter at the last sentence and a smattering of applause.

  “We will fill Calypso with men and women who embody Heinlein’s vision of humanity, people adept at numerous skills, brilliant in their specialties, autodidacts who drink up knowledge and increase their abilities each day that they live.”

  The crowd roared a third time as Dr. Vogt’s voice rang across the auditorium.

  “And we will send them to this untouched and brilliant place to learn what it has to teach us. To Zarmina’s World!”

  Daniel stood on his feet, feeling the energy of more than 12,000 people surrounding him, building into a frenzy. And at that moment, Daniel Medry wanted nothing more than to stand with them and fly to the stars.

  Guizhou Province

  “The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired.” – Stephen Hawking

  Date: 12.28.2098

  Earth – Ghizhou Province, China

  Edith had lost track of where she was, the time of day, and whether this made the fifth or sixth plane she had been on since leaving the Kansas City airport and heading for the Guizhou Province, deep in southwestern China. In the last airport, a young man who appeared to be in his early twenties had held up a placard with her name on it. He greeted her, an excited smile on his face, and introduced himself as Lin Huang, her assistant and guide.

  His English was excellent, and Edith understood him well, which was a relief. As she had progressed deeper and deeper into China, she had noticed that the English translations on signs had rapidly reduced until there only sporadic, oddly written ones full of what her ex-husband would have referred to as “Engrish.” Often they made little sense at all.

  Christmas day had devolved into bickering between Tom and the children, with Liza wielding her verbal weaponry, Tommy in a hazy hangover, and Joey, her only ally, preferring to eat Christmas dinner in his room rather than deal with the “family togetherness” that included his cheating father.

  She had found herself looking forward to the flight away from all of them, except maybe Joey, although his retreat to his room had felt like abandonment, her only source of consolation and support, burrowing away in his safe zone. She had no safe zone, nowhere to retreat, and her husband and daughter had both sensed it, like sharks smelling a drop of blood in the ocean, and pulled out the heavy verbal weaponry. She had found herself smiling the next day as she left the house, listening to her granddaughter wailing and Liza completely clueless as she tried to soothe the tiny creature and quiet her siren screams.

  Tom had volunteered to stay while she was out of town, but she had rebuffed him, sure his staying there would mean his girlfriend staying as well and she was damned if she would have the co-engineer of her failed marriage sleeping in her bed while she was gone!

  Her musing on that particular subject must have shown on her face and been misinterpreted as pain or discomfort. Lin leaned across the aisle as the plane dipped and jolted, shuddering through the cloud-filled sky.

  “Dr. Hainey, are you feeling ill?”

  Edith replaced the bitter look on her face with a polite smile.

  “I’m fine Lin, just fine. Please call me Edith.”

  The young man nodded and smiled, leaning back in his seat. Edith suddenly realized that, after 36 hours together, and, at least, four times of her reminding him, this young man was never going to call her by her Christian name. It must be a cultural issue, she thought to herself.

  “We will land soon,” the young man promised reassuringly.

  Edith nodded wearily. She had slept a great deal on the different planes, but there was something about travel that just took it all out of her.

  “I just can’t seem to catch up with sleep, not since my granddaughter Jessica was born.” She said to Lin. Edith refrained from mentioning that even before that, Tom had begun his legal attack while their eldest son, Tommy had filled the summer months with parties and endless debauchery. Young Tommy had lost his summer job the first week of June due to bad attendance and an even worse attitude. The new school year, which had begun in late August, had ended the fall semester with Tommy on academic suspension. His grades, like his attitude, were headed straight for the toilet.

  The younger man smiled, “Oh, you are a grandmother? Congratulations! It is such a joy to have children, yes?” He looked so hopeful that Edith was sure he had never been kept up all night by a wailing child.

  “Mmm, a joy...yes.” Edith was pretty sure that even Lin could read her lack of enthusiasm. His eyes slid away from her, to the tiny airplane window, which showed nothing but clouds.

  Since the late spring, when Liza had announced she was pregnant and Tom had left, it just seemed that it had been one thing after another. Sleep was filled with dark dreams and waking up to reality was even more exhausting.

  Edith turned her attention to the thick booklet that Scott had given her at EcoNu. The reports were exciting, showing phenomenal growth in the pigs as they responded to the EcoNu bio-engineered virus, growing at an unprecedented rate.

  The virus, the latest in a decade of increasingly complicated versions, was truly elegant. EcoNu had the answer to world hunger in its hands if this strain proved out. And that, after all, was why she was here.

  Before the Collapse, in the early years of the century, a series of increasingly virulent pig flu strains had swept through the United States and the rest of the world, ravaging the pig population, killing baby pigs by the millions. It had been so bad at one point, that just as the Collapse hit, along with the Second American Civil War, pork had spiked to over $23 per pound.

  Edith’s aunt Carrie, from her father’s side, had been a young girl during that time and remembered eating her first bacon in years when her mother and sister moved to her paternal grandfather’s farm in Tiptonville, Tennessee. There they had weathered the Collapse and Civil War with far less hardship than most. Edith still remembered her stories, though. Aunt Carrie had been quite a bit older than Edith’s father Joseph, some fifteen years or so. Joseph had been born at the dawn of the Collapse and grown up in a world that was very different. The stories they had told had haunted Edith well into adolescence and adulthood, guiding her to a career in the bio-engineering field.

  Just last month another news story had sent the prices skyrocketing yet again. The headline had screamed, Bacon Prices Rise after Virus Kills Baby Pigs!

  EcoNu promised to change that history of shortages and uncertain supply with a virus that caused young pigs to grow expone
ntially in size, doubling the normal growth patterns, but not injuring them in the process such as now eradicated strains of chickens had suffered. The infamous Cornish Cross breed of chickens were no longer bred but instead held up as the worst possible example of breeding gone wrong. Bred to be slaughtered as young as six weeks, Cornish Cross fowl were prone to heart attacks and broken legs.

  Broken legs! Edith mused as she paged through her reports. And this had been an industry standard.

  A side effect of the Collapse and SACW, the Cornish Cross strain was too helpless to survive the chaos that occurred throughout the now Reformed United States of America. They were unable to forage and died in droves when electricity failed in the massive chicken factories.

  Now granted, the pigs were showing shockingly low reproductive rates. That didn’t sit well with Edith, nor did the smug speculation by some of the higher-ups that this could be considered a winning strategy. It smacked too much of Monsanto’s death grip on the corn economy early in the century.

  Edith had ideas about how to fix that, and had spoken to her manager Scott about it, but received a smothering, “Let’s give it some time to resolve itself, shall we?” answer.

  As if it would suddenly and magically resolve itself on its own.

  It was the T2 enzyme, she was sure of it. She had worried about it, even as the team included it in the first cocktail of viral injections on the young pigs. Simple to fix, not so simple to eradicate once it was in a pig, but despite her emails to the team and her supervisors, warning of the possibility of such an outcome, the enzyme had stayed in the mix.

  The reports in her hands showed that everything was going as scheduled, except for one small detail, a persistent low-grade fever in the young pigs. Where the average temperature for a pig usually fell between 38.6º and 39.5 º Celsius, all of the pigs tested were hovering within the 41.2 º and 41.6 º Celsius range. Not high enough to be considered a high fever, but warm enough to be concerning.