New Horizon's

Untitled Part 5

                                                                                     First Impressions

The first time the group set eyes on New Horizons the silence was deafening. It was half the size of a Football Field. Standing on the grounds of a disused Air Field around four miles from the NASA Space Station. They could see eight massive Rockets, two on each side of the rectangular vessel. By all intent and purpose it was a flying two story warehouse with an inside height of around sixteen metres. As they looked around the all but empty Storage unit the questions on everyone's minds must have been vastly different, all except one. "How in Gods name can something this size get off the ground? Chief Science Officer Sharron Stennings was if you like the woman for the job. As she explained the power that existed in the Rocket engines her language was only understood be the scientifically minded in the group. "Firing vertically as the old Harrier Jump Jets of the mid twenty first century it would take sixteen minutes to reach a height of three miles at which time the engines would rotate to an angle of forty five degrees firing the vessel through the Earths Atmosphere and into space. At this point the Ship would be floating weightlessly like a rubber ring in a calm sea. The engines are no longer powered by fuel" she explained, "But instead by self charging Batteries containing Nuclear Power Packs . The initial heavy rocket boosters will disengage at a height of two thousand miles and be taken over by the Battery system. These Batteries will lower the ship onto Outreach One and will be your lifeline for all electrical needs. Any questions? "At what stage in our journey do we enter the life Pods" asked Hans Becker, a Solicitor from Germany who was undertaking the trip with his wife and two daughters. Nate Bradley took the question. "We had originally suggested possibly a week or two into the journey" he began, "But we now recognise that the sheer volume of people trying to help each other into what will be a very stressful situation may be a bridge too far. We are therefore suggesting that you enter the Pods one week prior to take off, allowing our medical staff to monitor for any mall-functions. There will, as we have said be a full mock-up practice of this, and remember if it proves too stressful you have the option of being sedated to help you relax" We have a major concern over the time scale to the arrival of the second and third ships" said Terrence Cummings, stating the years that they had recently estimated. "We wondered when this question would arise" answered Production Manager Clay Barrington. "I imagine you have worked out that it would be seventy-five years before the next arrivals, well you are perfectly correct and sadly none of three people standing in front of you would see this happen. Whether you believe in the arrival of Adam and Eve or you are more inclined to Darwin's Theory of Relativity, both scenarios however have the same outcome. Reproduction. You are the beginning of a new world, go forth and multiply." Otto Van Brugger was not finished, "Just for clarity? he began. "We arrive on Outreach One basically as we stand here now. The advancements that we make will be solely to survive in which ever environment we encounter. Couple this with the progress made on Earth during the missing seventy-five years. The next arrival will be far more advanced technologically than ourselves. How do we equate the difference when they are stepping back almost a century in time? Nate Bradley took the question. "If there was a status quo and all things remained the same then I would agree with your concern" he said, "But the truth of the matter is that from this moment all things on Earth will stagnate or move backwards. The reason, our old friend Climate Change. All the technology we can muster is not going to save our Planet. There could be as little as five thousand people make the journey to Outreach One, this is our optimistic forecast. Therefore in reality the first five hundred could face a 75% chance of a new life over certain death here on Earth. Your progress we expect will be slow, but in centuries to come people will say, After all Outreach One wasn't built in a day" Nate Bradley's explanation although plausible was not altogether reassuring. Therefore with this in mind and seeing the unrest caused by the discussion Otto Van Brugger, call the five hundred to a behind closed doors meeting to assess the situation, it was six months till Launch. People were rightly becoming nervous. Until now it had seemed that they were taking part in an Outward Bound experiment, after all they were free to leave when if they chose to do so, and the outside world was only on the other side of the fence. "Why are we doing this? asked John Blackmore, being one of the five people chairing the meeting. "To save Humanity" The first response from the audience. "To save our children" the second. "I have nothing to lose, my family have all gone" cried another. "Do we trust enough in our own technology to make this journey? asked Terrence Cummings from the podium. " Hans Becker from a prominent position in the audience was next to speak. "Throughout the existence of mankind from the day we rose from all fours with no knowledge of where we were or where we were going. Man has walked, sailed, discovered and inhabited some of the most uninhabitable places on earth. Did Genghis, Caesar, Columbus, Magellan, Cook or Shepherd complain about what could be around the corner. Not for one instant, they trusted in their own instincts for survival. Therefore I for one have no fears of what lies ahead, I see more danger in crossing a busy Street where 50% of my survival is out of my control. Therefore I will undertake this journey with my eyes wide open and trust in my fellow man. Who is comming with me? The response was a unanimous yes, they were on their way.