New Horizon's

Untitled Part 6

                                                                                            De-Day

Ten day's before launch Gilmore Base is in lockdown while final medical checks are carried out on the 500 Astronauts, by fully gowned and masked staff looking every bit as if it was them about to leave. No surprise illnesses were expected, as the Base had been in full lockdown for the past six weeks. 8 days till launch, delivered the final farewells to friends and family. These were by the way of private video's recorded and sent to the home of an individual specified by the maker. Where separately or collectively they could listen and watch but not answer the words of the sender. Everything was now focused on non-contamination, even the smallest of viruses taken to Outreach One could spell disaster. The day prior to launch it had been decided that all children under the age of sixteen and those with a nervous disability would be sedated before entering their life Pod. The tranquiliser would be administered through drinks with a lasting affect of four hours. Equally on arrival at Outreach One the awakenings would be staggered by Hector, first being the Medical staff followed by Engineering and so on. Parents were saying goodbye to children they would not see again for the next thirty five years, with a 20% chance of never again. The NASA Medical team moved in to connect the equipment that would take over and close down all human functions, at the same time fitting the masks that would prevent drowning in the Formaldehyde. Apart from a few panic attacks all went well and by 8pm everyone of the 500 were now in what could only be described as an induced Coma and ready for take-off. Everything was now in the hands of NASA Control who had been preparing for the past six days for the perfect launch. New Horizons had been designed specifically for transportation of people and goods, with the emphasis at time leaning towards the latter. There were no Cafeteria areas, no Coffee machines,  ladies and gents toilets were small and communal. Everything required to assemble these facilities was packed away for the trip becoming functional on arrival. The count-down to take-off would begin 24 hours prior to launch. Counting would be every 15 minutes until the final 15 minutes when it would change to minutes followed by seconds. The Ship would be all but closed down, that is except for Hector, the theory being that the more moving parts that you have the more you run the risk of a failure. The Launch Pad was the Air Field where the Ship stood with no one allowed within a five mile radius for fear of the engine fuel igniting, spreading causing accidents or even deaths. This fuel would  raise the Craft and then discard in favour of the more sustainable Battery System. 100 seconds to lift-off, Fire Engines. 10 seconds to lift-off 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Lift-off. The great Craft rose like a magic carpet, lying horizontally for the first fifteen minutes at which time all eight engines turned to an angle of 45 degrees before powering to the inner reaches of the Earths atmosphere. The journey through the Stratosphere would be prevented from burn-up by 46 coatings of a newly developed substance know as KW412 which was capable of withstanding twice the heat of the Stratosphere. The three minute breakthrough seemed like a lifetime to the NASA Engineers, but without complication New Horizons was now floating aimlessly in space. Hector would now have to earn his reputation as a super computer, he quickly and bang on schedule calculated the co-ordinates required to find Outreach One in the Andromeda Galaxy, they were on their way. Back on Earth as the months and years went by interest in the Outreach voyage began to wain. The main driver of this was once again Climate Change as conditions on the Planet for 75% of the population slowly got worse. The have's got even more, the have nots got even less, while the in-betweener's watched their neighbours for any sign of weakness. Feed back from New Horizons were received every three months as it weaved its way past the atmospheric pull of numerous Planets. Twenty five years on Nate Bradley was teaching Scientific Engineering at UCLA, Clay Barrington had retired and Sharon Stennings had passed away. The scientists at NASA were of course still monitoring New Horizons but not with the same intensity as their predecessors. Thirty four years on and Earth was a disaster zone of famine, wars. floods and over-heating, with many Countries having seen multiple Leaders come and go and with the the demise of a once Federal Europe into Dictatorship and Anarchy the news that New Horizons had earlier than expected reached the outer shadows of Outreach One brought new hope to a faltering world. Five weeks to landing Hector begins to awaken the Ships Medical staff. Professor of Medicine Koshi Nakamura was the first to be demasked as the liquid drained from his Life Pod. A few electric shocks to his heart followed by an injection of Adrenalin to shock the body into action and Professor Nakamura was back in the land of the living. He was followed instantly and successfully by nine of his team. As Hector turned on the lights they hugged each other with tears in their eyes. "Come" said the Professor, "We have no time to waste, we must prepare for some other arrivals" First, dressing gowns laid out in front of the Pods containing the Science and Engineering crew as everyone was naked. Terrence Cummings was one of the first of his group to be brought back to life, but would wait for a few days before being reunited with his wife Lara. The medical team began assembling a small but very well equipped surgical unit while the Engineers and Computer experts checked in on Hector to make sure that they were at least in the right place. Two weeks to touch down and everyone was awakened and healthy. At 100 minutes the countdown to landing mirrored the countdown to take off and would all be controlled by Hector. After searching for two hours for a suitable landing site he asked everyone to brace themselves as the huge ship slowly descended to the Planets surface whereupon the cheer could well have been heard back on Planet Earth.