Unum Chapter Five

E Pluribus Unum
Author: J Carrell Jones
Table of Content

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Year Five - Year 5 Month 7 Week 4 Day 6 Hour 5 Minute 15 Second 22 - Earth Date: 05-07-04-06-05-15-22

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Psalm 102:25-26
"Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed.”

Year Five
Year 5 Month 7 Week 4 Day 6 Hour 5 Minute 15 Second 22
Earth Date: 05-07-04-06-05-15-22
Chapter Five


Linda woke up early but decided to stay in bed for another 10 minutes. Today’s training was about fire suppression techniques and getting used to the new equipment. She thought about the day the cluster swarm was confirmed. It had been bittersweet. Her Ph. D. secured, yet that meant Earth was doomed. Rolling over, Linda let her mind wander. She remembered the day she watched the President make the announcement. Madam President spoke in a measured tone. Her voice was calm, firm, but reassuring.

“My Fellow Americans and to all the Citizenry of the world. Five years ago, American Astronomers at the Lincoln Laboratory, in Massachusetts, made a discovery of grieve importance. The meteorites that struck Earth 120 million and 66 million years ago were part of a super swarm of objects that cross the Earth’s orbit every 60 or so million years. After exhaustive observations and calculations, confirmed independently by other countries, we know when the next encounter will occur. Before I tell you the date I am compelled to stress that a meteor strike of this natural is a planetary environment changing event. It is possible to survive the strike but only if we work now to prepare. This problem is a world problem. Every corner of the globe will be affected. Every Man, Woman, animal, tree, and every lifeform will be in danger. This event will change us forever and our planet forever.” She took a drink from her glass. The world presumed it was water. It was not. The USA Presidential seal was visible even as the glass was titled, and half the contents drained in one swallow. Calmly but with a slight tremor the glass was placed back down.
“The next encounter will occur 103 years from now.” She paused. “In order to preserve the Human species, we must prepare now. Not tomorrow, not 10, 30, 50, or 80 years from now, but at this very moment.” She paused again. “Currently, NASA has been in contact with various Space Agencies and Space Transportations companies throughout the world with the goal of developing a plan that will ensure Humans’ survival. Our military will be reaching out to the World’s Military to help secure our best interest. War is now irrelevant. Religious differences are irrelevant. Political party ideology is irrelevant. We are now faced with something bigger than each individual. The Human species is threatened. Let me repeat myself in a different way. Companies will have to set aside profit for survival, religious groups will have to set aside ideology for survival. Political parties will have to set aside fundamental differences. People will have to extend a hand as a gesture of peace. One nation, one group, one set of people cannot and should not do this alone. We work together or we die together, it is as simple as that. E Pluribus Unum.” She stepped away from the podium amidst sounds of cameras rapidly clicking and a multitude of flashes.
“E Pluribus Unum” had been the new “God Bless”. Other nation leaders started using it as a closing. The world took notice when the Pope ended a Mass with those simple worlds, “E Pluribus Unum.” From many, one. Its message was simple. We are one people. Period.

Gale stretched and rolled over. She found Linda next to her, felt skin, and snuggled tightly. “Morning.”
Linda rolled over and kissed Gale lightly on the lips. It was morning and she knew she had morning breath. “Morning. Sleep well?” She rolled back over grabbing Gale’s arm to wrap it tighter around her waist.
Gale nodded and nuzzled her face deep into Linda’s hair. It still had yesterday’s sweet scent on it. “I did.” She inhaled deeply. “You smell nice. Adruqu?” She cupped a breast and lightly squeezed.
Linda nodded and placed her hand on top of Gale’s and helped her squeeze. Gale asked, “What time is it?”
She looked at the clock. “9:25.”
“Oh, shit,” Gale said getting up. She kissed Linda on the lips firmly. “I got a conference meeting in 20 minutes.
Linda watched as Gale’s nude form dashed into the bathroom. She looked around and yawned. Reluctantly, she got up herself, put on her night gown that had been discarded last night, and walked into the kitchen. She put on coffee and just as it finished brewing Gale walked in dressed. Linda handed her a heavy stock paper cup with a plastic lid.
Gale took the cup, kissed her on the lips, and quickly walked out.
She’d probably just make it Linda thought. What made the last few years living on base was their office was only about several hundred feet away, which was a double-edged knife. Linda poured herself a cup of coffee and sipped lightly. It was still hot.

Gale entered the conference room just as the meeting started. The opposite wall had five large screen TVs attached. All were active with four showing other conference rooms. The fifth monitor had the image of what looked like a fat stone and metal caterpillar eating itself. She sat next to Walter Penlaiden. She mentally classified him as a pencil neck pretentious ass with mommy issues. He was 40 pounds underweight, smelt of sand and drank too much coffee. Half the team hated him, the other half loathed him. Usually, he had the sense of knowing when he went too far in his seemingly weak attempted Machiavellian ways. His one main contribution was that he designed the Carhayaken Ring – the fat stone and metal self-eating caterpillar. Gale understood that single-handedly, this man comprehensively developed a plan that gave humankind a second chance. Would statues be dedicated to him? In the distant future, probably. Today, he would be tolerated.
“You’re late.” Walter whispered under his breath.
Gale took a sip of coffee. “Your point is what? You can tell time?”
He scrunched his face up and visibly looked distressed. She could see the war of emotions playing across his face. “Nothing.” He finally said.
Gale nodded and decided not to snap out another smart-ass remark.

Ted had slid a thick book toward Gale. She stopped it from colliding into her coffee and looked at the title. “A New Hope”. She looked up. Ted nodded and smiled.
The first important page of the book was the Table of Content.

CONTENT

Abstract

Introduction

System Model

Problem Statement

Materials Gathered

Construction – Phase One

Personnel

Transportation

Life-Support

Emergency Preparedness

Ring Assembly Integrity and Movement

Solution

Conclusion

She flipped through the pages to Personnel. The subsections were “Skill level of workers”, “More reliance of automation”, and “Personnel screening and selection”. Further into the screening section she found the header titled “Objectively deciding against certain groups”. Further still she found “Political identification and extremist values”.

“. . . Security Council finally agreed to the proposals. The General Secretary will oversee the committee selections, and general powers over the Carhayaken ring will be given to the UN. The United States, China, Russia, South Korea, The Netherlands and Japan will oversee construction. The EU, Australia, Canada, the US, Mexico, and India will oversee personnel. The UK, Germany, US, China, Russia, and Italy will oversee interior habitat conversion. Russia and China have life-support, while the US will supply construction equipment and handle most of the vehicular launches. There are more details to work out but the framework is in place. Brazil has been selected as a primary launch point . . .”
Gale snapped her head up. The head of NASA had just finished talking. A small lump formed in the middle of her stomach at the realization that she wasn’t listening. Then the main screen image switched to the POTUS. Even though her hair color had faded a bit from less amber to more grey and underneath her eyes had seemed a little puffier than usual she still looked good for her age Gale thought.

“Greetings fellow citizens of the United States of America. As you are aware. The Earth will face its greatest challenge in over 60 million years ago. Yesterday, in an extraordinary act of universal cooperation the UN Security Council passed many resolutions. The primary resolution grants the United Nations project management over the construction of the Carhayaken Ring. Over the next few years, the United States will be gearing up for one of the greatest undertaking in our nation’s history. The American people and the rest of the world will construct a habitat that will be 10 kilometers in diameter. It’ll be able to house 8 million people. It will be self-sufficient. And it will only be the first of many. Earth will be facing a disaster we cannot divert. The only thing we can do is make sure humans survive. Because we know the Earth will not be destroyed we have a second plan in motion. We will move most of our population underground. There will be vast underground cities more vibrate than anything we have achieved. And the third and last idea will be to search for habitable planets elsewhere as we start terraforming the likes of Mars and building bases on the Moon and other heavenly satellites. As I stand here in front of you, today, our future is secured. We, as a people, will not die, but live on. We are human. E Pluribus Unum.”
The screens went dark. Ted faced everyone. “This is it people. It’s official. Project E Pluribus Unum has been approved and we move on to the next phase.” He handed out sealed folders to everyone at the table. “Walter and I will be flying out to Pasadena tomorrow. Gale you’re in charge while I’m gone. I’ll expect we’ll all relocate to California in the next month, so keep that in mind when making future plans. Are there any questions?”
Cindy, who sat at the lower right corner from Ted’s point of view, cleared her throat. “Has NASA finalized the date?”
Ted nodded. “Pretty much, but that is revised often. We’ll need to finish the ring in 10 years. That’s all 16 segments.”
Sober faces nodded.
Gale asked, “Will any of us be expected to travel – out there?”
Ted nodded. “At some point, possibly. After the first ring is completed, we think the subsequent rings will take 2 – 5 years to finish. I’m thinking we will all move to the first ring and --”
Roy, one of the Engineers, asked, “What about the underground projects? And there are other options?”
“Colonization and underground. The Army Corp of Engineers has been placed in charge of Earthworm, and Virgin Galactic has the contract for US and Europe to colonize space. Space-X, Blue Origin, ARCA, Copenhagen Suborbitals, and a few others are either building launch vehicles and or planning on building smaller space stations throughout the solar system.”
Roy sat back sighing. “This is it.”
“It is,” Ted answered. “You guys can come talk to me for mission assignment. No one is going to force you to Project Unum, but I know you all to be very capable and highly competent engineers and scientist. I got tagged as one of the Project Managers because of your hard work and dedication. I would really want to bring you all along this unprecedented endeavor, but I will understand if you want to drop out or pursue the other ventures. Let me know and I’ll make some phone calls.” He shrugged. “That’s all I can promise.” He looked at each of the faces staring back. “Anyone else? If not, see me in my office later.” He paused, “Okay, adjourned.” Then, “Gale, stay for a moment, please.”
Gale nodded and gave Walter a toothy smile.
Walter frowned, gathered his paper notepad and tablet, and walked out.
“What do you think?” Ted finally said after the last person walked out.
“Half are gone. They had fun, but I don’t think they want Space Travel on their resume, and I get the feeling that this project is ‘until death do we part’, right?”
Ted nodded.
Gale waited a moment. “You’re wondering if I’m on board?”
Ted furrowed his eyebrows and slowly tighten one hand on top of a closed fist. He brought both hands close to his lips and almost imperceptibly nodded.
“Ted, of course I’m in. How can I not be?”
His shoulders relaxed a bit, then seemingly from an afterthought tensed back up again.
“Let me worry about Linda. We talked about something like this, but I’m not exactly sure where she stands.” He looked worried but nodded.
Gale got up and left the room to Ted and his thoughts.

Linda sat on the living room couch looking at a Documentary on the Shroud of Turin. She thought it was good up to the point where some Ph.D. said that Jesus’ body created an event horizon and therefore never really touched the shroud. “Well, that just messed with a perfectly commissioned latently biased show.”
Gale walked in, “Babe?”
Linda looked up and smiled. This was their weekend and she hoped Gale wouldn’t be too long in her meeting.
“We need to seriously talk.”
Linda nearly panicked. She hastily turned the TV off.
“The project has a green light and --”
“That’s wonderful! You --”
“-- will be going into space.”
Linda became quiet. She forgot about that part. “Okay, I’ll go . . .” Her voice was very weak.
“Now, Babe, this is very important and I --”
“I’m going with you.”
“. . . really would like you . . . wait. What did you say?”
“I’m going with you.”
Gale blinked several times. She held her breath. “Seriously?”
Linda nodded. “I made that promise. Seriously.”
Gale teared up. Suppose Linda wanted to work on the other projects. Would she be able to tell her the same thing? I made a promise. “It’ll be okay,” she said.
Linda nodded. “Sure, it’ll be okay. I only get dizzy when I look down.”

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