The Project Manager by Terry Connolly

Author:Terry Connolly [Connolly, Terry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-13T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12: 2043

John’s back was still giving him the occasional problem. He wondered what it would be like if he hadn’t gone through the training course back in Russia. The g-forces during launch had been unpleasant but it was the low gravity environment that meant he kept overexerting himself. Perhaps he was just getting older, he was turning forty seven after all and even though he felt less and less like celebrating his birthday, Alex had arranged a cake and video call with Abby. She was growing. His parents were able to take care of her in his absence but they were getting older and so a good boarding school, although a concept from the last century, would soon allow them to enjoy their retirement with a little peace and quiet.

The interior was fully pressurised. For now canisters of air were being shipped up and carbon dioxide scrubbers kept it breathable but the long term idea was that the forests in the central cavern, that huge empty space, would act as natural scrubbers during the intergenerational flight to Amrita. John had been there for the initial concept of the farms and gardens that would sustain the colonists. He had imagined the scale of it, asked the architect to draw up the plans, and even now a team of his was still figuring out how to get the topsoil up in the most cost effective way. But it would all have to wait until rotation began and artificial gravity established. On his first day aboard he had stood at the entrance to the chamber and stared at the tiny figures moving within that colossal space. A sense of awe had run from his shoulders, down his spine, and into his being. He had felt both small and great simultaneously.

John’s office on the Zheng He was basic. Without the engines running they relied on solar energy from the surface to power everything apart from the large drills which were finishing off the last of the storage areas. The furniture was fixed to the floor of the room and anything that wasn’t furniture was fixed to it or to the walls. Even though there was a tiny amount of natural gravity from the mass of the Zheng He itself, it wasn’t much and on more than one occasion John had found himself bouncing off a wall while chasing after a pencil. It was a large office, about 35 square meters, though it felt cramped because apart from John’s desk it accommodated a meeting room table for ten people, and in one corner it contained John’s bed. Since his living quarters weren’t ready yet he had taken to sleeping here for now; an arrangement which was working out quite well considering how little time he had for sleep. The two attractive features of the room were the natural stone walls and the large plasma screen that acted as a TV, an internal communications unit, and as an artificial window with a view of the Earth from one of the cameras on the surface of the ship.

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