Exodus (The Exodus Trilogy) (13 page)

Robert and Tom
approached the front entrance carefully, with other agents covering every door and window on all sides of the large white house. It was past midnight and the garden was lit with light posts. The house itself was completely dark, except a single light at the front door. This was the house of Senator Joe Buchanan, and according to their research he should have taken his usual flight back home earlier this evening. By now, he was probably sound asleep. They had a warrant for his arrest for conspiracy and treason. Their orders were to make all efforts to take him alive, so they were armed mostly with non-lethal weapons, although they had their firearms just in case there were others on the premises. Tom banged at the door.

“
Federal agents! Come out with your hands on your head!” he shouted loudly. No response. They waited for maybe half a minute before Robert motioned for another agent to open the door. It was locked, but the agent quickly picked it and they entered.

A few minutes later
, they concluded that the senator was not in the house. He probably hadn’t even been there at all, since there was no trace of him. Someone else though had obviously left in a hurry, because there was still lukewarm coffee standing on the kitchen table. Marsden carefully picked up the mug, wearing thin latex gloves, and examined it for a moment. There were distinct lipstick marks on it. So it was most likely the senator’s wife who had left in such a hurry. Interesting. They continued to search the house through the night, but when morning came, they had to report back that there didn’t seem to be any clues that would lead to anything. Nothing obvious at least, and with the Exodus almost ready to leave, time was working against them.

Later that day
, FBI Director Barron made a call from his encrypted satellite phone to the head of the Consortium. He had been on the payroll of Havelar Industries for years, covertly of course, and while serving two masters would normally lead to conflicts of interest, serving both Havelar and the government seemed no different to Barron. He knew how closely entwined the president was in Consortium business, and as an inherently cautious man, he had taken his precautions. So if there ever were a problem, the president would never be able to pin him down unless he was willing to commit political suicide. George Havelar, who was now on board the Exodus, having secured a seat for himself and his closest associates, answered within seconds. Barron spoke in a low voice, even though there was no reason for it.

“
It seems our sources were correct, the conspiracy is for real, and more than likely you have one or more traitors up there. We still suspect sabotage; there is a real danger that someone may be planning to harm the Exodus en route. Another possibility is assassination, which would make you a prime target. There may be other motives too, we really cannot say. I’m assuming you have several security measures in place?”

“
Of course, Director,” Havelar answered in a gruff voice. Ever the foresighted man, Havelar had probably predicted opposition from the beginning.

“
And you do understand that I will not discuss them, right?” he continued.

“
Certainly. Just make sure you’ve got your eyes and ears open.” Havelar surprised Barron a little when he chuckled softly.

“
Oh don’t worry, Director. I have many eyes and ears. And they are ever watchful.”

Tina
Hammer eyed her new distinctions; major now. It didn't mean as much to her as it once had, but she still considered it a sign of the confidence entrusted upon her by the admiral. As second in command, she was expected to hold a higher rank. Admiral Hamilton had picked her himself, and she had been surprised. After all, she'd only been a captain, and she had expected a middling position on Exodus. She hadn't even been sure she'd be selected at all. But here she was, entrusted with command of the greatest achievement in human history, second only to the admiral himself.

Considering they were now finally orbiting Earth, she
felt immensely proud. The feat accomplished in less than seven years was nothing short of amazing, but she also knew the price that had been paid. While almost every part of the Exodus was built on Earth, orbital assembly had been a massive project, and the safety regulations that would have been mandatory on any ordinary construction site had been virtually nonexistent for the assembly workers in space. There had been several bad injuries and even a few losses. A few unlucky workers were actually floating lifeless through space somewhere right now, while Tina was taking in the view of Earth from the bridge of the Exodus. The cost, in both monetary and human terms, had been astronomical, but the starship was ready, and the 1,628 crew and passengers were soon to leave on their final journey into deep space. This was the day they had been waiting for, the day the greatest adventure in human history would begin. She thought of her own journey so far, which had taken her through every obstacle the instructors had been able to throw at her, and even close to the front lines of a civil war, and she felt grateful. She knew that her own efforts and dedication had played a great part, but there had been a substantial element of luck involved. She was one of the very few who were given a chance for a new life on a distant world, and she felt that there were so many others who deserved it more. That’s one of the reasons she’d stood up for the children from the last shuttle, and that was why she was so determined that every single person on board would be given the same chance to see the new world and build their new life there. The idea of sending the kids from the last shuttle back to Earth had made her stomach twist, and she would do whatever it took to avoid that. It seemed now, that with the plan for keeping a small part of the crew awake at all times, that could be avoided. And as an added bonus, they could get so much work done while in transit. Of course there would still be a while before anyone could be put to sleep, as the cryo cells needed adjustment, and there was still a lot of other work to be done. But in a couple of months, the first passengers would be put to sleep, and several of them wouldn’t be revived at all before they reached Aurora, 165 years from now.

The Exodus was the pinnacle of human engineering and adaptability, and the designers had made redundancy, ease of maintenance
, and speedy assembly the ruling guidelines in every aspect of its construction. And the time from decision to execution had been nothing short of a sensation. Humanity had shown that it actually did possess the ability to build a starship. When they discussed it, a lot of people wondered why it hadn’t been done before. The media, slowly realizing their limitations within the current system, had started asking difficult questions, and down on Earth, the president was under a lot of pressure. The what-ifs of space exploration had suddenly become a major debate. Observers and opinion makers had started asking the questions that everyone asked themselves now that Earth was in dire peril. What if NASA hadn’t been disbanded? What if this kind of ingenuity, combined with government support, had surfaced earlier? What if ten such voyages could have already colonized other planets? What if humanity hadn’t been Earthbound, and hence fragile and vulnerable in the face of such threats as Devastator? The answers seemed to be multiple. Lack of visionary leadership, the priority of immediate needs before long-term planning, control issues due to the impossibility of Earth’s leadership to fully control a colony light years away, inability to plan for projects across generations, inability to fully realize the risk inherent in having all eggs in one basket. Tina had thought about all these things, and even discussed them with some of the others on board, such as Kenneth Taylor, whom she’d gotten acquainted with just a few weeks ago. Tina had been put in charge of the practical issues associated with reviving certain members of the crew throughout the duration of the journey, and thought it wise to consult with the psychologist on board. Although there would be a certain psychological strain involved in the periods of wakefulness on a large ship traveling through space, while most others would be asleep, the thing that concerned Tina the most was the waking process. From the experiments conducted on Earth, she’d learned that a percentage of those who were revived were prone to several afflictions, such as depression, despair, disorientation that could last for weeks, and in more rare cases even psychosis. It seemed there was something in the waking process that caused all this, although they couldn’t be certain. But because they were going to have a lot of people experiencing that traumatic event—twice, they needed to do something about it. Taylor had offered some great advice on it, which would now be possible to implement, given the time at their disposal.

She had also discussed her
thoughts on why man hadn’t journeyed into deep space before with her long time friend Henry Carroll, who apparently had also given it a lot of thought. Henry, though, had come to different conclusions, and explained that what seemed so feasible now, would have been almost impossible to imagine with any degree of realism only a few years ago, when everything about the situation had been so different. From her discussions with Dr. Taylor and Henry, she had adjusted her views quite a bit. While sending a starship on an interstellar journey was something that could be done now, it had been very different in the years prior to the arrival of Devastator.

The truth was that any earlier starship would have been fundamentally different from the Exodus. There were three things that made the Exodus groundbreaking, in addition to its size and purpose. First, there was the fusion rocket, which enabled it to reach
5 percent of light speed. Combined with a gravity assist, a technique that had been used both in manned and unmanned spaceflight for a long time, and which basically meant sending the ship through a slingshot maneuver by the sun that actually doubled its speed, the fusion rocket was able to achieve 10 percent of light speed. Any attempt at sending a starship into deep space, utilizing either chemical propulsion or nuclear fission, would have been a lot slower, and the journey would have taken thousands of years. Nuclear fusion though, would have been the least of the problems, since the theory had been established and fusion reactors had actually been around for decades, but without a strong incentive, that had been as far as fusion technology had gone, until the need made further development imperative.

Second, the development of the modern cryogenic technique made the journey possible within the lifetime of its participants. Cryo sleep, or just Sleep, as it had come to be called among the inhabitants of the Exodus, was a technique that combined the old idea of lowering body temperature to slow down metabolism with newer developments that utilized chemicals to achieve and enhance the same purpose. That combination would, according to the scientists, prevent expansion of the cells due to lower temperatures and thus deterioration of the body, which had been one of the main concerns associated with the technique. The various stages of development had been tested on humans, and although very little information had come out of the labs, it was known that there had been losses and human suffering that would have been unbearable for a truly democratic society. Such a practice had been impossible to defend in public before
the reforms. Even under the Andrews presidency and in the face of a threat to the survival of mankind, the inhuman aspects of such a practice had made the research and development of the technique one of the most guarded secrets of the government. But being able to put the participants on a journey of this scale to sleep, and to revive them again once they reached their destination, without their bodies having aged more than just a few months, made such a journey more likely to succeed for two reasons: first, the ones entering the ship to leave Earth would know that they would wake up to take part in the exploration and colonization of a new world. That would ensure that a sense of purpose could be preserved, and not be diluted and even lost throughout the ages. That was a very real possibility if the journey was to be undertaken by a generation ship, where the original spacefarers raised new generations on board, and those who reached their destination would have no personal relationship to Earth. Second, mastery of the cryogenic technique also made construction easier, because those asleep would need very little in the way of supplies, compared to an awake human being, and they could be stowed in their cryo cells, much like cargo containers on an ocean-going ship. That made the ship more economical in terms of volume. There would also be much less need for living quarters, although some living space had to be allowed for, not only for the crew, but because there would be periods at the start and the end of the journey when all would be awake. But for such limited periods, crowding and very little personal space would be more acceptable.

Third, the discovery of Nemesis.
As the ESA had confirmed during the early brainstorming, Nemesis could serve as the key to decreasing the travel time from several millennia—clearly not an option—to just 165 years, which would feel like 161 to those on board, due to the time dilution effect caused by relativity. Without the existence—and discovery—of Nemesis, it would have taken more than four centuries to reach Aurora.

So any earlier attempts at colonizing other star systems would have taken a lot longer, and it would most likely have had to be undertaken by generation ships. It would have been possible, but both the technical and psychological aspects would have been vastly different.

Tina had only a few minutes before she had to join Admiral Hamilton for the final preparations for the initial boost that would take them out of Earth orbit. As her eyes took in this magnificent image of Earth, she realized that this was an entirely new stage of human development. They were being sent on a journey through space, to colonize and create a new life for human kind, and in the process they had learned to master interstellar travel. Although their new lives on Aurora would initially be a fight for survival, and primarily revolve around the exploration of a new planet for a long time, eventually they would want to explore even more. They would remember what happened to Earth, and there would be a drive to reach further, to find new worlds on which to plant the seeds of humanity. By then, they would have the means to do so, which meant that mankind would never again be as vulnerable as it was at this time. The thought comforted her, as she turned away from the view of Earth, so undisturbed and peaceful from this distance, and recognized she had seen her home world for the last time.