Escape Velocity - Chapter 1
Nohr Joden removed his spectacles, rubbed the bridge of his nose, and hung his head as failure presented itself yet again. Throughout the control room, groans and disappointment could be heard, but Nohr felt it ten fold. After all, it had been his decision to put people in the space craft that had just exploded like every rocket before it.
After decades of attempts to reach for the stars, they still were no closer to breaking through. The last launch had been the closest to breaking through the atmosphere, and the thought had been with someone in the vehicle they could finally break through. It cost three great pilots their lives, and Nohr would have to live with the consequences. Marid. Pator. Lofen. They had been his friends. The last four years he had been as involved in their training as much as any of the Stelanaut instructors had been.
He was snapped out of his misery by a gentle tap on the shoulder. Looking up, he was greeted by his assistant Mota Welps. Through red eyes that had clearly wiped away tears moments ago, she looked intently through the sadness. “There is a call for you,” she barely whispered. It was the call he’d dreaded and expected much sooner than forty five notches later. Had he really been sitting still here for that long?
“I’ll take it in my office in a moment,” he said and thanked her as he worked to collect himself.
He stood up and fished the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one up. He knew he was getting looks of disgust without looking around, but he didn’t care. They had just banned the rolled sticks of berry leaves from indoor use last year and were contemplating total bans after research showed a ninety percent health impact by second hand smoke, ranging from debilitating chronic asthma to a new deadly cellular eating virus that was very aggressive called kansir. He didn’t pay any of it attention. What are a few more deaths on my conscience? he thought. He didn’t realize he was still very much in shock.
Slowly he made his way from the control room and down the hall to his large office. He’d been there from the start of the program, working his tail off from an intern to the director, trying get his people into space. There was so much to explore, mysteries upon mysteries to try to solve up there. He collapsed into his chair and sat there for a moment. He took a long last drag and put out the cigarette as he exhaled the smoke in a long slow sigh. The planet’s president was waiting on that flashing line. This was the end of the road. He picked up the receiver.
“What happened?” came the question before he’d had a chance to say hello. It was indeed the president, Malk Jurge.
“It’s too early to tell,” Nohr said. That was true, as he didn’t have any idea yet. It would take days if not weeks to sift through all the data the ship sent back.
“That’s not good enough.”
“It’s the truth though,” he replied defensively. “I take full responsibility and will cooperate even after I’m officially removed with any questions you have for me.”
“What are you talking about, Nohr?” President Jurge sounded as confused as the question made Nohr. “The Air Vehicle will be on your landing pad in twenty minutes to being you to the capital.”
“Sir?”
The president sighed. “It’s been a hard day. But we can’t negate all the progress made over the last five years with you as director. You’re not going anywhere,” he paused before continuing, “except here for the press conference in three hours. That’s how long you have to come up with a better answer than you gave me.”
“Uh,” he guffawed but the line dropped before he could get a thank you out. He hung up the receiver and processed the fact he still had a job.
The door swung open and Mota brought him back out of his thoughts. “AV is fifteen minutes out, you should grab anything you need and move.” She seemed to have found her voice again.
“Thank you, Mota.” He stood up and began to collect a few things around his office. The position at the top of this scientific organization often demanded his needing to go places quickly to oversee progress in the other branches across the world, so he had a full wardrobe at his disposal. He quickly picked out some things and thew them in his luggage before noticing she was still there. “Was there something else?”
“Yes,” she said, a bit more timid like she had been in the control room. After a few moments of silence he cleared his throat and she quietly blurted out, “Are we still going to have a job?”
“Apparently. The planet of Nussol still has use for a space program.”
She smiled softly, before quickly composing herself and regaining the composure she had upon entering the office. “Do you want to call your wife to update her or should I?”
A new wave of guilt rolled over him. Rasa would forgive him for dealing with his job first with the magnitude of this day, but he felt horrible not thinking about his own family until now. He felt like failure dripped off everything he touched. He wasn’t sure he could face that call at this moment.
“Give her an update and let her know I’ll call her from the capital when I get settled in.”
She quietly nodded and pulled the door closed leaving him once again alone. It was a feeling he was all to familiar with in his role, and it was magnified with the events of the day. He quickly finished packing his bag, lit up another cigarette to calm his nerves and made his way down the hall, leaving a trail of smoke in his wake that felt like a physical representation of the failure that was following him.
The AV arrived as he was stepping out onto the roof and it quickly whisked him off. It never ceased to amaze him how large the world looked from above, and he knew it was bigger still than that. They weren’t able to put anything outside their atmosphere, to explore the heavens beyond what telescopes could tell them, but they were able to traverse thousands of miles in their aircraft’s in a blink. The peaceful planet able to house close to 11 quadrillion people, all united under one rule had scientific growth that was in direct logical opposition to the reasons he was headed to the capital. By all accounts they should be among the stars by now.
The hour and a half flight was smooth and Nohr found himself at the presidential palace. He was greeted by an aid who was tasked with escorting him to the president. He hadn’t needed the escort, as he’d been there many times before. He wouldn’t consider the president a close friend, but he considered him closer than just a coworker. None of that mattered as he followed the aid who nervously chattered about the palace to avoid the awkwardness of silence. Everyone knew why he was here. He had thought about lighting another cigarette, but he knew better than to do that here. The way eyes followed him as he made his way to the presidents office didn’t feel much different than it would have been if he had anyway. He felt like he was being led by a prison guard to an executioner. It had been a long, long time since he’d felt this anxious for a meeting, forgetting he was a director who’s role carried gravitas.
He arrived at the waiting room and sat down. He folded his jacket over his legs while his bag sat next to him. He honestly didn’t know how long he’d be in the capital. He realized his leg had been nervously bouncing and it felt like it took an enormous focus to stop it. The time felt like it slowed. He felt the sweat beading on his forehead. He tried to distract himself but his mind drifted toward replaying the incident.
“Everything reads green,” Lofen had called as the rocket hurtled toward the atmosphere.
The chatter from everyone calling checks and information all filled his headset. It was a skill that was not easy to learn, but he had long ago mastered listening to all the different conversations at once, specifically for things going wrong. Nothing had been called that was not right. Nothing.
There had been no warning. One moment everything had been fine, the next nothing was right. As had been the case with every other test, it had exploded in such an unbelievable manner. Brighter, louder, quicker than any other explosion on the ground. Every time something touched the edge it was a chaotic blast so large it felt like it rattled everything everywhere.
“We are going to…” Marid had been cut off as the explosion thundered into everyone’s headsets in the control room.
Nohr’s stomach churned as the memory rattled him. He quickly moved for the can next to the receptionist’s desk and hugged it tightly as everything was exorcised from his stomach. The receptionist made a disgusted sound, but he didn’t see how bad it was as his head was buried. Nothing had gone his way on this day and it only got worse as he heard the door open as he was still doubled over, wrenching again.
“Damn it man, pull yourself together.”
He looked up to see president Jurge’s look of disgust. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and quickly reached for the tissues on the receptionist’s desk. Nohr suddenly felt a child being reprimanded by a parent, and a shame he hadn’t felt since he was a child crept in. Without another word the president turned back into his office. Nohr got to his feet and sheepishly followed him in.
“Close the door,” Jurge called without looking back. He sounded annoyed and motioned for Nohr to sit down as he took a seat behind his desk. “What happened?”
“It’s.. hard to say,” he halfway mumbled. “We’ll need weeks to pour over…”
The president cut him off. “We don’t have that. I need answers now. Plain and simple. What happened?”
“It exploded.” He shrugged. The president stared at him. “Malk what do you want from me? It exploded. We don’t know why. We hit the same area of the atmosphere that any other rocket has reached and it exploded. There were no warnings or any alerts from the crew. We thought maybe we just needed real people to see what we were missing with non manned tests, but there was no issue or warning. It may be time to admit our technological advancement is still vastly under whelming for reaching the stars.”
“You know that’s not the case.”
“Yes, I know that, but it doesn’t negate the fact that we have sent thousands of rockets up in this endeavor and they have all reached the exact same fiery conclusion. And we have nothing that we’ve been able to observe or study that tells us why. Maybe the gods just don’t want us out there.”
“That’s not good enough,” the president said.
Dumbfounded, Nohr threw his hands up in confusion. “I can’t magically make things happen if there is something about the physics of our atmosphere that is keeping us from breaking through. If that’s what you want, I resign my post. I’m not gonna keep sacrificing people and resources because you’re so hellbent on this mark you want to leave on your legacy.”
“Are you about done with your pity party?” President Jurge glared at him. After a long silence Nohr opened his mouth to say something but the president cut him off again. “You’re not privy to everything. So I’m gonna tell you something that is classified above your clearance, and this does not leave this office, so that you understand the importance here. There has been a lot of concern about the planet’s stability. It’s changing, and while it may be livable for millions or billions more years, these changes are wreaking havoc on the eco systems we rely on to survive. We have maybe fifty years before our food supplies become so unstable. We will see widespread famine and starvation. Within a hundred years we will most likely all be dead. We have two small chances for survival right now. One is figuring out how to manufacture fully synthetic food, and it does not seem to be promising without at least some of our base food tied into it.” He stopped and looked at Nohr, waiting for him to say something.
“The other is leaving the planet,” Nohr finally mumbled.
“Yes, the other is leaving the planet. So excuse me if I’m pushing too hard, but it’s not about any accolades for me. We need one of two impossible projects to work for our survival. Your resignation is rejected. You will tell no one about this. You will head home after you rest up and get back to work to save the people of Nussol. The press is waiting for you.”
With a quick wave of the hand he was dismissed from the office and promptly escorted to a press room where he bumbled through a statement and answering questions with non answers. The president wouldn’t be happy.
He was again whisked away by staff, ushered out of the palace, and put in a vehicle headed for a hotel. He wanted to feel something, but numbness was all that he had left. The people of the planet continued with their lives unaware that their future was doomed.