2.2 Discovery
For the first time in hours, Capt Nelson felt like he was alone, and he was. After what had been a maelstrom of confusion and activity, here he was, at the headquarters of the International Alliance (IA) in the Sector named New York, after the city which stood before it. Many cities had kept their names after the IA had implemented the proposals coming out of the Istanbul convention right after the Terrible War. Continents had been broken up into Districts and the countries were replaced by Sectors, but through all this change, a few cities had managed to retain their character. But there was still something different about many of them. The world had changed, thought Capt Nelson, so why would he think any city could be inoculated from it? He used to like the vibe that New York had before, and it seemed to have retained it, for the most part. He had been sitting in a lobby with a large window next to his chair, admiring the view on a clear summer day, when the receptionist had broken his reverie with a polite, “Sir, they’re ready to see you.”
He nodded in acknowledgment and proceeded toward the blind corner she pointed at. He had expected a door or a small corridor, but hadn’t been nearly prepared for what turned out to be a rather large and grand passageway. The corridor was wide enough for ten average men to walk shoulder to shoulder, and the ceiling was at least twenty feet tall. There was a fifty yard walk to a double door which he had to walk through. The passage wasn’t particularly ornate in the traditional sense, but from where Capt Nelson stood all the way to the door, large portraits hung on the wall on one side, and the other wall had floor-to-ceiling windows, revealing the majesty of the metropolis underneath. On second glance, he realized that they weren’t pictures either, they were what looked like old fashioned hand drawn oil paintings. But it was really the people painted there that gave the corridor its aura.
The first portrait was of General Montgomery, the first ever head of the IA, appointed to his position due to his role in hastening the end of the Terrible War. How many more lives would have been lost had it not been for him? His eyes moved to the next person in the frame, Dr. Mustafa, the first Director of Science. He couldn’t help but smile at the portrait of the eccentric former head scientist with his boyish curls, imposing moustache and impish smile. He almost felt the gaze of those men bearing down on him. As he walked past the corridor, there were just a few more pictures, and then there were empty spaces, probably reserved for some of the people he was about to meet. The weight of history was palpable as he walked past, and it made the hair on his neck tingle. He also felt a keen sense of anticipation. He knew something of import was about to unfold in that room - he wouldn’t be here otherwise - and that immediately made him feel responsible for carrying on the legacy of everyone on that wall, some dead, many alive. It had only been twenty years since the War had ended, after all. Given this recency, history wasn’t just something to be read about in dust lined books and on the archives of the Nets, it was something that was constantly being created. As he reached the door, he took one more look at that row of portraits, steadied himself, and looked straight at the face scanner. It took barely a second for the door to slide open and open into a large room with a table huge enough to seat fifty people.
As he walked into the room, he found only three people at the table. One of them stood up and motioned to a chair, while greeting Capt Nelson with a half-smile, “Welcome, captain. Thanks for coming at such short notice.”
Capt Nelson cocked his head in greeting and walked over to the chair. Even from behind the chair, Colonel Steyn looked imposing. He was wearing a military uniform and it hung casually off his tall, muscular frame. His set jaw and crew cut gave him an almost stereotypical military look. He leaned forward and looked straight at Capt Nelson who noticed his striking blue eyes. “I know you’ll have a lot of questions. Let’s jump right in.”
Capt Nelson was sitting across from the Colonel at one end of the table. Two other people were sitting at either end, a few chairs away. He recognized the lady sitting on the Colonel’s end as Dr Lee, the current Director of Science at the IA. She was facing toward him, and currently seemed preoccupied, like she was trying to solve a particularly challenging mental math problem. Her hair was frazzled like she had just stepped out of a shower, and she was blinking rapidly. He would later realize when he knew her better that she would be in this state when there was something occupying her, and the speed of her eyelids was directly proportional to the enormity of the problem on her mind. Capt Nelson did not recognize the other person in the room. He was dressed in what the captain thought were old fashioned clothes, and was smoking - yes, actually smoking - a pipe! Colonel Steyn didn’t offer any introductions and Capt Nelson thought better than to seek any.
“You remember Project Exoplanet, don’t you captain?” asked the commander.
“Yes”, replied Capt Nelson.
“Do you remember the last ship you tested?”
“Yes, I do.” Capt Nelson remembered that flight vividly. It was a ship the likes of which he had never flown before, and the memory had stayed with him.
“We need you to take control of the next version. Except that this time, it’s not a drill.”
There was silence in the room as the commander let the gravity of his words sink in.
“You mean?” Capt Nelson looked straight into those blue eyes.
“Yes”, said the commander while an uncharacteristically wide smile, before his face settled into the familiar stoic expression again, jaws set. “You know how we’ve been trying to find a habitable planet for years now. That has been one of the main objectives of our science arm”. He pointed toward Dr Lee as he said that.
Capt Nelson nodded.
“Well, we’ve found one that isn’t just habitable, we know we can get there”, he pointed at Dr Lee again who didn’t say a word but merely nodded at Capt Nelson, acknowledging his presence for the first time since he stepped into the room.
The Captain briefly looked in her direction and nodded back before shifting his gaze again at the Colonel.
“We have sent a total of seven unmanned probes so far, and now we think we are ready for the next phase. We’re getting ready for our first set of astronauts to set foot on the planet for the first time in a matter of months.”
Once again, he let the significance of that last statement hang for a brief moment before pressing on.
“Our next phase will be to send regular people up there, captain. Not just astronauts, not just scientists and researchers. We want to fill up a large spacecraft and send the ship there.”
Capt Nelson verified that he was really hearing what he thought he was hearing. “Are you trying to tell me this is it?”
The smile returned to Colonel Steyn’s face. “Yes, captain, this time we won’t be visiting. This is the part where we expand our horizons as a species. We want to try and make this work in the long term. That’s where you come in. You ...”, he said with extra emphasis as he pointed his index finger in Capt Nelson’s direction, “... will be taking us into the unknown.” The Colonel’s expression changed. “None of us need reminding of why we’re accelerating these efforts, now do we, Captain?”, Colonel Steyn sighed as he said that. “We were able to somehow escape nuclear armageddon. Our politician friends believe that it was their agreements that worked, and like to take credit for those, but I think it was the result of sheer dumb luck. Had that Sultan with the happy trigger finger not died days before the War started, we would be having a totally different conversation. It’s quite possible we may not even be having this conversation at all.”
The Colonel looked grim. The War had wiped out anywhere between 2 to 5% of the planet, depending on what reports you believed, and General Montgomery had put forth a coalition in the nick of time before things escalated and nuclear weapons were deployed. “I know it’s hard to hear, but we need a new home. I don’t know if our planet can survive another war. Neither can I guarantee that, despite all of our efforts, we won’t face another one.” The Colonel looked tired.
Capt Nelson didn’t say anything for a moment, and contemplated the weight of the words. It’s hard to prepare yourself to process something like that. He finally took in the meaning of the words that had been spoken and tried to return the Commander’s gaze with an expression of appropriate gravitas.
Capt Nelson knew that his life was about to change forever.