Ten Days
Jon Wood
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © Jon Wood 2010
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“All this will not be finished in the first hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first thousand days, nor in the life of this administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.
But let us begin.”
Part of JFK’s Inaugural Address
prologue
12th of September, 1962.
He was an intelligent and attractive man whose lack of compromise had already indelibly linked the present to the future.
As he stepped from the black Lincoln to the sound of the university brass band playing the more than familiar tune “Hail to the Chief”, he began to wave to the crowd gathered at the front of the building. The multitude was composed of smartly dressed students and professors, all of whom had one thing in mind; obtaining a glimpse of the man who had come to visit.
They were not to be disappointed. The man turned full circle as he waved and each of them felt that the gesture was personal. He had that effect on people, maybe more so than any of his predecessors and many that would follow because he had everything that a leader could wish for; the looks, the wife and the manner. Those things made him an icon of aspiration and hope for the country and its citizens.
This was Rice University in the city of Houston, Texas. It was only 9:30 a.m., but the weather was particularly humid and sunny, atypical for that time of a September day and many of the crowd were already fanning themselves with anything that served for the purpose. A slight breeze ruffled his dark brown hair as he turned and walked towards the entrance to the university. There would be a brief tour of the science facilities in Duncan Hall before he was to be taken to the football stadium where he would make a speech to a crowd of more than thirty-five thousand people.
As he reached the steps leading to the entrance flanked by two secret service agents, he was met by the university president, Dr. Kenneth Pitzer. The man was a well-respected chemist from Stanford and a Washington veteran, who had served many years as an adviser to the Atomic Energy Commission. He was accompanied by a selection of distinguished guests including the Governor of Texas, Price Daniel and the Senator of Wisconsin, Alexander Wiley. They all shook hands with the visitor and a number of camera flashes highlighted the group as the press and representatives of the university tried to capture the moment. By that time, the sound of cheering had already reached a level which made the greetings hardly audible and there was a great deal of movement and disorganization as the crowd tried to advance towards them. As a consequence, the group headed almost involuntarily towards the entrance and the shelter and coolness of the first of the buildings, Lovett Hall. After the group had entered, the presidential motorcade continued towards the west of the campus.
Once inside, Dr. Pitzer was able to make himself heard to the president for the first time since his arrival.
“How was your trip Mr. President?” he asked, smiling nervously at the impeccably dressed statesman. He had been clothed that morning by his valet, George Thomas. He needed assistance to dress because he used a back-brace beneath his shirt. It required the help of another person to tighten the apparatus around his body, which served as a support and reduced the back pain from a football injury aggravated by damage sustained during the Second World War, when the patrol torpedo boat he was commanding was rammed by a Japanese destroyer in the Solomon Islands. It was ironic that the same girdle which eased his suffering for so many years, would be to some extent responsible for his demise, since as well as providing support to his spine, it also restricted his movement considerably especially while seated.
The gentleman smiled back at the university president and began to explain in his unmistakable Massachusetts accent that with the exception of the previous twenty-four hours, he had been visiting schools in Louisiana for the past few days with his wife and although the recent weeks had involved a great deal of travelling, he was feeling strong and rested and looking forward to giving his speech.
In fact it was a speech he had been looking forward to giving for a number of months, since the race had intensified that year after the Russians had put the first man in space in 1961. Alan Shepard had become the first American in space twenty-three days later, but it wasn’t until the 20th of February 1962 that John Glenn became the first American to successfully orbit the Earth, completing three orbits in his spacecraft Friendship 7. Since then, the nation had slipped into a period of disillusionment during what were already difficult times. It would be almost thirty years before the cold war would end and the relationship between the two countries would finally be termed “friendly”.
These were dark moments which would reach an all-time low the following month, when their reconnaissance planes would observe missile bases being built in Cuba, only 75 miles from the U.S. coastline and within striking distance of Washington D.C. Along with Robert McNamara, his Secretary of Defence at the time, they would reach a nonviolent solution but only after reaching the brink of nuclear war. Although it would be a long time before there would be real peace between the two countries, it remained part of the president’s job to reassure the people that a bright future was awaiting the country, even despite his own unwavering concerns.
But for the American people to think that they were losing the space race to the Russians was a blow to whatever reassurance the president could provide. Exactly one month ago, the competition had completed the first dual-manned space flight and Premier Khrushchev was already looking for new firsts. The American government knew it and it rested on Kennedy’s shoulders to transform the disappointment into new hope in the form of the Apollo Program, conceived during the presidency of his predecessor, Dwight D. Eisenhower.
However, those worries were apparently absent from the face of this forty-four year old man during this visit to the Texan university. He was tanned from a recent short break to Hyannis Port, where the Kennedys had a waterfront property. John enjoyed sailing his sixty-two foot Sparkman yacht Manitou and forgetting for a few hours that he was the president of the United States.
Today, despite the recent events and ups and downs of his presidency, he refused to exude anything except confidence and charisma to those around him.
The group left the Byzantine-style entrance building by means of the rear exit which led onto a quadrangle called the Academic Quad and made its way along a green space which formed part of the Lowrey Arboretum and included more than four thousand trees. It was said that the university contained one tree for each student.
Kennedy was once more exposed to the morning’s heat as they exited and the dark blue wool suit began to feel heavy and inappropriate for such conditions. He continued his conversation with Dr. Pitzer in order to take his mind off the rising temperature. He congratulated him for his continued support and Pitzer in return thanked him for considering Rice in the latest challenge to human discovery.
As they passed the monument of William Marsh Rice in the centre of the quadrangle, the topic of conversation had changed to that of the construction of the Manned Spacecraft Center currently in progress since April that year on land donated by Rice University to the Space Administration. They were to visit the site that same afternoon following lunch and Kennedy was keen to see and hear about its evolution. The Center would be finished in September of the following year and would provide the necessary research laboratories and test facilities for the next stages of the race. In 1973, the Center would be renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center following the death of Kennedy’s successor and current vice president, who at that moment walked ten paces or so behind him. Pitzer and his colleagues hoped there would be important collaboration between the universities of Rice, Texas and Texas A&M to provide software and data analysis support to the program.
As they continued through the quadrangle, they could see before them Duncan Hall, one of the most recently constructed buildings of the forty of so which made up the campus. It maintained the same style as the majority of the other edifices, with a pink brick and sand exterior and wide archways and columns lending elegance and solidity to the designs. This building was where the new computer engineering department was housed.
Scientists had come a long way since Michael Faraday first recorded the effect of temperature on conductivity back in 1833, but even so, semiconductor technology was still in its infancy. Just ten years before, Bell Labs had held a symposium on the licensing of transistor patents in order to promote rapid improvements in transistor technology and that of other solid-state devices.
The development of improved semiconductors was a necessary step for the conception of specialized computers such as those used by NASA. The computers which the Administration would require included the Apollo Guidance Computer, or AGC, which would be installed and used in both the command and lunar modules. The AGC was the first “fly-by-wire” system which was put into practice, not only on the Apollo spacecraft but also in fighter planes such as the F-8, which would play a crucial role in the Cuban Missile Crisis by being responsible for the low-level photographs obtained of missile installations.
The AGC was the first to use integrated circuits which later became known as microchips or silicon chips and consisted of a miniaturized electronic circuit manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material. This had been the invention of Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments who would win the Nobel Prize in Physics in the year 2000. In his acceptance speech he would describe being satisfied with having witnessed the evolution of the integrated circuit but that his goals in 1958 were simple: the lowering of cost, simplifying the assembly and making things smaller and more reliable. The block 1 version of the AGC used four thousand one hundred integrated circuits and so the research objectives of Kilby were perfectly valid. With time, the manufacturing process would be simplified and although the AGC was designed by MIT and built by Raytheon, it was Fairchild Semiconductor that manufactured the ICs.
Between 1958 and 1961, Rice University had been building a machine in the computer engineering department. It was called the Rice Computer, or R1, and was planned to be a machine like the MANIAC then running at Los Alamos. It was one of two computers on the Rice campus, since the other was a Litton LGP-30 shared by the mechanical and chemical engineering departments. The R1 became the primary computer until it was replaced by an IBM 7040 and then a Burroughs B5500 in the late 1960s. It was decommissioned in 1971.
In September 1962, the R1 was using vacuum tube triodes, but the idea was to incorporate emitter-coupled (ECL) transistor-based logic. This transition was what the computer engineering department staff wanted to talk to President Kennedy about, since the components which they required to improve the R1 would be bought from Fairchild. This would equip the university with a computer which could be used to some extent in space research. The university would be provided with additional funding to the U$250,000 Atomic Energy Commission grant and the additional U$150,000 dollars received from Shell Oil, but what Pitzer’s staff really wanted was to be involved in the race, something which would put Rice “on the map” regarding computer science and maybe write the university’s name into the history books.
Martin Graham, then associate professor of the department, was there to receive President Kennedy at the entrance of Duncan Hall. He was a young and very bright engineer who had worked at the Brookhaven National Laboratory and had done the transformer coupling for the Los Alamos computer. He shook Kennedy’s hand after being presented to him by Dr. Pitzer and showed the President into the building and up to the second floor where R1 was kept.
Graham had already memorized what he was going to say to Kennedy and had practised that morning in front of his bathroom mirror. He had shortened the talk and increased its conciseness, considering that by ten o’clock, the President had to be in Rice Stadium. He left in only what was required to explain the benefits of using transistors instead of vacuum tubes. These advantages included lower operating voltages and running costs, greater energy efficiency, higher reliability and insensitivity to mechanical shock and vibration.
Once they reached the R1 room he began, trying to explain without using too many technical terms since he knew that Kennedy had studied international affairs at Harvard and not electronics. Despite being against the clock, he spoke slowly and clearly. Kennedy nodded occasionally and was keen to examine the examples of both types of component. He didn’t react to Graham’s well-disguised request for funding, but instead wished the engineer the best of luck and thanked him politely for the short tour before he was taken back downstairs to the rendezvous with the motorcade, now standing to the south of the hall on what was called the loop road. This led to the west lot and provided access to the stadium at the far westerly end of the campus.
Kennedy had already been briefed on the R1 before his arrival in Houston by his head science adviser Jerome Wiesner. He was therefore already well aware of the benefits of the replacement of vacuum tubes by transistors and he also knew there were other U.S. universities building or running similar machines to Rice at that time. The plan was to complete the construction of the Manned Spacecraft Center which included what could be called state-of-the-art computers and then subcontract research to universities or private companies if it was additionally needed. Funding at that time was being concentrated in a number of key operations, one of which was the completion of the Center. However, Rice would receive important funding during the following years, and by the time Apollo ended in 1975, the Rice space research program would have become firmly established and would make, in the following years, significant contributions to the fields of space and magnetospheric physics.
On reaching the presidential limousine, Pitzer was asked to ride with Kennedy and Johnson and the rest of the group were accommodated in the other vehicles. It was eight minutes to ten, and the journey to the stadium would take approximately four minutes along the tree-lined loop road. Students sporadically appeared and waved to the motorcade, but it seemed by now that the majority of the university population had already made its way to the football stadium.
“You have a very beautiful campus,” said the president to Dr. Pitzer as he waved to a small group of students heading in the same direction.
“Thank you. We’re very proud of what we have here.” They then continued to speak briefly about what would happen upon arrival at the stadium, which could now be seen in all its majesty before them.
At that time the stadium could seat a maximum of seventy thousand people and had hosted the Rice University football team games since its completion in 1950. However, since 1951 and up until 1965, the University of Houston also played its games at Rice Stadium. The sporting highlight of the stadium’s history was probably in 1974 when the stadium hosted Super Bowl VIII.
Architects would call the stadium an excellent example of modernism, with simple lines and an unadorned, functional design. It provided unobstructed views from any part of it of football games and any non-sporting proceedings such as today’s speech by JFK. The lower seating bowl was located below the surrounding ground level and brought the action somewhat closer to the spectators.
The motorcade stopped at the south-eastern corner of the stadium, close to what would later become the Cox Fitness Center. From there and with only three minutes before the speeches were to begin, the occupants of the four vehicles climbed out onto the lot and made their way behind Kennedy and Pitzer to the carpeted section that would lead them through a main entrance tunnel between the east and south stands and then out onto the grass of the stadium.
As they appeared at the end of the tunnel and came into view of the eagerly awaiting crowd, there was a huge cheer and shouts showered from every direction. Kennedy was triggered into waving to every point of the compass as he had done upon arrival at Lovett Hall half an hour before. It was just over eighty yards from the tunnel to the platform which had been set up on the east side of the pitch, parallel to the stand itself and more than two hundred people including university staff and several distinguished guests were already seated there. As Kennedy approached they all stood up and the same brass band that had greeted him at Lovett, now standing on the fifty yard line directly in front of the platform, repeated the tune it had already played once that morning now to a much larger audience.
Kennedy reached the platform and was directed to his seat where he shook hands with those around him. Kenneth Pitzer was to occupy the seat to his left and Lyndon Johnson would be beside the university president. The other dignitaries and special guests were arranged to the left and right side of the podium which was almost directly in front of where JFK was to be seated.
On the podium itself had been placed the seal of the United States of America with its familiar crest. To the left side of the podium was the American flag which measured two and a half metres in length and billowed gently in the light Autumn breeze. As the last of the group took his place on the platform, Dr. Pitzer moved to the podium. He motioned for those present to take their seats.
Moving closer to the microphone he began to speak:
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great honour to present our most distinguished guest who has come here today to speak to you not only as your president but as an honorary visiting professor of our prestigious university. It gives me great pleasure to present the President of the United States, President Kennedy.”
With that there was an enormous cheer, accompanied by whistling and some shouting, and once again everyone was standing, both those in the stands and those on the platform. Kennedy approached Pitzer and once again shook his hand before Pitzer retired to his seat and the President was left alone before the expectant crowd. He began speaking almost immediately as those around retook their seats and the clapping and whistling had not yet died down completely:
“President Pitzer, Mr. Vice President, Governor, Congressman Thomas, Senator Wiley, and Congressman Miller, Mr. Webb, Mr. Bell, scientists, distinguished guests, and ladies and gentlemen:
I appreciate your president having made me an honorary visiting professor, and I will assure you that my first lecture will be very brief.”
It was typical of Kennedy to begin with a light-hearted comment after acknowledging the presence of those in attendance, yet he continued without a pause:
“I am delighted to be here and I'm particularly delighted to be here on this occasion.”
He checked his notes and continued:
“We meet at a college noted for knowledge, in a city noted for progress, in a State noted for strength, and we stand in need of all three, for we meet in an hour of change and challenge, in a decade of hope and fear, in an age of both knowledge and ignorance. The greater our knowledge increases, the greater our ignorance unfolds.
Despite the striking fact that most of the scientists that the world has ever known are alive and working today, despite the fact that this Nation’s own scientific manpower is doubling every twelve years in a rate of growth more than three times that of our population as a whole, despite that, the vast stretches of the unknown and the unanswered and the unfinished still far outstrip our collective comprehension.”
Every three or four seconds Kennedy rechecked his notes but it was merely drama since the man had clearly memorised the speech:
“No man can fully grasp how far and how fast we have come, but condense, if you will, the fifty-thousand years of man’s recorded history in a time span of but a half-century. Stated in these terms, we know very little about the first forty years, except at the end of them advanced man had learned to use the skins of animals to cover them. Then about ten years ago, under this standard, man emerged from his caves to construct other kinds of shelter. Only five years ago man learned to write and use a cart with wheels. Christianity began less than two years ago. The printing press came this year, and then less than two months ago, during this whole fifty-year span of human history, the steam engine provided a new source of power.
Newton explored the meaning of gravity. Last month electric lights and telephones and automobiles and airplanes became available. Only last week did we develop penicillin and television and nuclear power, and now if America's new spacecraft succeeds in reaching Venus, we will have literally reached the stars before midnight tonight.”
At this point, Lyndon Johnson, accustomed to the Texan heat but less agreeably so to such tight schedules, took a white handkerchief from his pocket and began wiping his brow and the back of his neck.
“This is a breathtaking pace, and such a pace cannot help but create new ills as it dispels old, new ignorance, new problems, new dangers. Surely the opening vistas of space promise high costs and hardships, as well as high reward.
So it is not surprising that some would have us stay where we are a little longer to rest, to wait. But this city of Houston, this State of Texas, this country of the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them.”
There was hearty applause from both the stands and the platform and some whistling in approval. For a moment, the woman seated behind Johnson put down the fan she was using in order to clap. JFK paused for a moment to allow the applause to die out, and then continued:
“This country was conquered by those who moved forward - and so will space. William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.
If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.
Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the industrial revolutions, the first waves of modern invention, and the first wave of nuclear power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space. We mean to be a part of it - we mean to lead it.”
There was another round of applause. Kennedy had introduced short pauses between some of the words of the previous section in order to emphasize the importance of what he was saying while beating the air with his hand above the podium as if trying to drive his message home:
“For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace. We have vowed that we shall not see space filled with weapons of mass destruction, but with instruments of knowledge and understanding. Yet the vows of this Nation can only be fulfilled if we in this Nation are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first.”
More approval from the crowd.
“In short, our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading space-faring nation.
We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again. But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, thirty-five years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?”
At this point there was a brief peal of laughter which was immediately drowned out by applause which continued well into the next section. Kennedy smiled briefly also.
“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others too.”
He paused for a few seconds and there was more clapping from the stands. He continued once it had finally died down:
“It is for these reasons that I regard the decision last year to shift our efforts in space from low to high gear as among the most important decisions that will be made during my incumbency in the office of the Presidency.
In the last twenty-four hours we have seen facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man's history. We have felt the ground shake and the air shattered by the testing of a Saturn C-1 booster rocket, many times as powerful as the Atlas which launched John Glenn, generating power equivalent to ten-thousand automobiles with their accelerators on the floor. We have seen the site where the F-1 rocket engines, each one as powerful as all eight engines of the Saturn combined, will be clustered together to make the advanced Saturn missile, assembled in a new building to be built at Cape Canaveral as tall as a forty-eight story structure, as wide as a city block, and as long as two lengths of this field.
Within these last nineteen months at least forty-five satellites have circled the Earth. Some forty of them were made in the United States of America and they were far more sophisticated and supplied far more knowledge to the people of the world than those of the Soviet Union.”
At the sound of this advantage over the competition, there was new applause and some hoots from those around.
“The Mariner spacecraft now on its way to Venus is the most intricate instrument in the history of space science. The accuracy of that shot is comparable to firing a missile from Cape Canaveral and dropping it in this stadium between the forty-yard lines. Transit satellites are helping our ships at sea to steer a safer course. Tiros satellites have given us unprecedented warnings of hurricanes and storms, and will do the same for forest fires and icebergs. We have had our failures, but so have others, even if they do not admit them. And they may be less public.
To be sure, we are behind, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead. The growth of our science and education will be enriched by new knowledge of our universe and environment, by new techniques of learning and mapping and observation, by new tools and computers for industry, medicine, the home as well as the school. Technical institutions, such as Rice, will reap the harvest of these gains.
And finally, the space effort itself, while still in its infancy, has already created a great number of new companies, and tens of thousands of new jobs. Space and related industries are generating new demands in investment and skilled personnel, and this city and this State, and this region, will share greatly in this growth. What was once the furthest outpost on the old frontier of the West will be the furthest outpost on the new frontier of science and space. Houston, your City of Houston, with its Manned Spacecraft Center, will become the heart of a large scientific and engineering community. During the next five years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration expects to double the number of scientists and engineers in this area, to increase its outlays for salaries and expenses to sixty million dollars a year; to invest some two-hundred million dollars in plant and laboratory facilities; and to direct or contract for new space efforts over one billion dollars from this Center in this City.
To be sure, all this costs us all a good deal of money. This year’s space budget is three times what it was in January 1961, and it is greater than the space budget of the previous eight years combined. That budget now stands at five thousand four hundred million dollars a year - a staggering sum, though somewhat less than we pay for cigarettes and cigars every year. Space expenditures...”
He paused as more clapping extinguished and turned his attention briefly to the south side of the stadium, as he continued, repeating his last two words for a second time:
“Space expenditures will soon rise some more, from forty cents per person per week to more than fifty cents a week for every man, woman and child in the United States, for we have given this program a high national priority - even though I realize that this is in some measure an act of faith and vision, for we do not now know what benefits await us.
But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, two hundred and forty thousand miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than three hundred feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to Earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over twenty-five thousand miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun - almost as hot as it is here today - and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out - then we must be bold.”
The inclusion of a joke brought laughter from the crowd and Kennedy smiled for a second time during the speech. This time it was a more prolonged smile, almost a grin. He continued, for a few moments less seriously than before, gesturing to the stands with two open hands as he spoke:
“I'm the one who’s doing all the work, so we just want you to stay cool for a minute.”
There was new laughter from the stands and the platform.
“However, I think we’re going to do it, and I think that we must pay what needs to be paid. I don't think we ought to waste any money, but I think we ought to do the job. And this will be done in the decade of the sixties. It may be done while some of you are still here at school at this college and university. It will be done during the term of office of some of the people who sit here on this platform. But it will be done. And it will be done before the end of this decade.
I am delighted that this university is playing a part in putting a man on the moon as part of a great national effort of the United States of America.”
A full-bodied round of applause followed talk of a joint patriotic effort. Kennedy leaned over the podium as if trying to get closer to his people and began to wrap up the speech:
“Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, "Because it is there.” Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. Thank you.”
Kennedy returned to his seat as applause broke out for a final time and the stadium almost shook to the combined sounds of cheering, whistling and shouting. Those around him were in awe and immediately felt that they had witnessed something important.
~
At 20:17 UTC on the 20th of July, 1969, the Lunar Module of Apollo 11, Eagle, piloted by a thirty-eight year old astronaut called Neil Armstrong from Wapakoneta, Ohio, landed on the Sea of Tranquility on the lunar surface. Following the planting of the U.S. flag, Armstrong called President Nixon in the White House by a telephone-radio communication. The President would call this the most historic phone call ever made.
Although Nixon had a speech prepared to read during the call, Frank Borman, the NASA liaison present during the Apollo 11 mission, convinced him to keep his words brief, out of respect for the lunar landing being the legacy of President Kennedy.
Kennedy never witnessed the moon landing he proposed that day in September, 1962. Just over fourteen months later, he would be assassinated in Dallas, less than four hundred kilometres from Rice University.
one
Day -10
“67.”
It was a shout which woke him from his daydream. Between the metal walkway and the feeding pond there was a distance of several metres, but the familiar sound of his supervisor was unmistakable.
He turned to see the face of 18. It was a red face which resembled one of the berries which grew in the hydroponic compartment at the rear of the middle deck, sticking out of a grey uniform with white stripes across the shoulders. There was no neck, only a perfectly round, hairless ruddy ball attached to a fat body.
“What are you doing 67?” he continued. “Aren’t you supposed to have finished by now?”
67 looked down at the water below, its surface boiling with the movement of the fish contained within the pond. They were carp, large and golden-brown and still hungry despite having been recently fed. It was 67’s job to throw the food pellets into the gasping mouths until they reached satiation.
“Get a move on. You need to check the levels before 68 takes over.”
The instructions were clear; fill them up and move on. It was the same routine as always and although it was his job, he found it easy and repetitive.
67 shovelled a couple more kilos of pellets into the water using the alloy scoop in his hand. The arrival of the food was accompanied by thrashing as the carp competed between each other for the pellets. It was a protein-based feed, made from recycled wastes from different parts of the ship. The exact sources were unknown to 67. He had never asked his senior because it wasn’t his PLACE to. He only knew that the pellets didn’t smell too good and that he usually left his job smelling like a fish himself.
He glanced up again at the walkway to see that 18 had moved on. Then he continued to the control panel in the centre of the dock, where the read-out displayed the parameters monitored by sensors in the tank. This was the same display that had been there since he had begun working in the aquaculture area more than fifteen years ago.
The higher level called them years and so everyone else called them years too. That was what always happened. It seemed that sometime in the past, others like them had invented the language and the population used it. None of the numbers between 50 and 100 asked any questions about that and nobody between 1 and 49 had any reason to. Of course 95 to 100 couldn’t speak yet, but once they were able to, they would use the same vocabulary created for them. Words passed from one generation to the next. That was another one; “generation”.
All that the lower level knew was that a generation was when the hundred became a new hundred. Sometimes someone would become a B, which meant that they had been on the ship for more than one generation. Then they were moved to a separate area of the ship and didn’t have to work anymore. The Bs received the same ration as the rest of the population but didn’t mix with them. They knew that too.
67 looked at the numbers on the screen. Atmospheric humidity: fifty-six percent, ammonia: ten point six milligrams per litre, oxygen: six point eight milligrams per litre and water-biomass ratio: fifty percent. He knew that this last number meant that there was one kilogram of fish for each litre of water in the pond, which was the quantity that 18 always demanded he obtain at the end of his shift. It was important to maintain the fish healthy as they grew, providing them with just enough water to ensure that, but at the same time minimizing unnecessary waste of the most restrictive resource on the ship.
One would think that water would be found anywhere on a ship. But this was not a seafaring ship. It was the Manitou.
67 took hold of the keycard hanging around his neck on a length of alloy chain and slid it along a groove by the display. There was an audible beep and the total shift time was frozen on the screen. The timer would begin again once 68 logged in. Any difference of more than two minutes between one worker leaving and the other arriving would mean that the latter would not receive a token for that day.
67 walked along the dock and turned left towards the main walkway, his boots sounding loudly against the metalwork. As he turned the corner towards the flight of alloy steps leading to the changing room above, 68 appeared up the stairs leading from the lower level habitation area, walking quickly in order to meet the two minute deadline.
He was shorter than 67, more than a little in fact, and heavier-set and even the two minute quick walk from his small room was enough to bring perspiration to his brow. As he shuffled past hurriedly in the direction the tanks, he greeted 67 with a simple nod.
67 climbed the steps into the changing room and walked over to the metal locker containing his replacement suit and boots packed in a transparent envelope and stamped with his number. He removed the contents and then the solid grey uniform and boots he was wearing and placed them in the same packet from which he had taken the replacements. He then pushed the packet into the refuse chute. From there they would be cleaned and recycled by a worker below. Then, after checking himself in the mirror at the back of the locker, he closed the door and headed down the steps and straight ahead down the main stairway towards the lower level living quarters.
He walked the short distance to his room, free from dirt and the smell of fish, passing two other workers as he did so. These people swept and wiped and all had numbers between 60 and 85. Removal of soiled clothes helped make their task less daunting, since those twenty-five workers or so were responsible for the cleanliness of the whole ship as well as other necessary tasks to which they were designated. Some of them were also involved with maintenance and all had seniors; people who supervised the more technical activities of the lower level workers. 67 was in this category, but carried out a job his roommate described as “requiring more than three neurones”.
Because the population included an abundance of cleaners, it was always spotless. This was imposed by the higher level and they frowned upon unhygienic conditions and lack of cleanliness, and inadequate cleaning was frequently chastised. Although the cleaners occupied almost the lowest social level of the crew, they had access to all areas.
As usual, neither of the cleaners looked up from their work as he passed. They wore black uniforms which distinguished them from the supervisors and technical workers and they knew only too well that seniors moved frequently between different parts of the ship and therefore behaved cautiously. They didn’t take kindly to interruptions and 67 had only ever spoken to some of them and that was during recreational time which varied between one hour and four hours per day depending on their level.
67 was entitled to ninety minutes per day which he took, apart from thirty minutes before curfew, between his two daily shifts. Curfew was accompanied by an almost complete lights out in the middle and lower decks which meant that all hydroponic and animal production activities had to be completed before that time.
67 arrived at the door to his room, which he entered using the same keycard he had used to log off the tank area control panel.
Of all the areas on Manitou, it was the living quarters of the lower level which had received the least number of renovations since departure. Priority had always been given to the science and navigation areas and of course the higher level residences, but despite the fact that the endless history of the mission was apparent by observing the construction of 67’s room, it sufficed for sleeping and recreation time.
There was a notable difference between 67’s side of the room and that of 64. While the whitewashed walls of the right hand side of the dwelling were relatively well maintained using the resources on the ship made available to the workers according to their level and designation, 64’s side was less well cared for. The infrastructure was the same; a bed, a small table, a chair and a locker, all within an area of seven or eight square metres and at the opposite end of the room from the entrance, a round window which allowed both occupants a view of the star-speckled darkness beyond. Between the two halves was a door that led into a small hygiene room in which the two occupants could urinate, defecate and clean the different parts of their bodies. The workings of this room did not receive much water to complete cleaning and waste capture activities, unlike the more elaborate and efficient systems of the hygiene rooms of the higher level residences.
67 glanced at 64’s bed as he entered and could make out a lump underneath the covers. The presence of spiky black hair poking out from beneath the sheets told him that 64 was at home. The cleaner spent most of his free time sleeping, something which he often described as his favourite activity. For that reason, days would often pass without them exchanging words and what 67 found annoying about 64, or rather one of the things he found annoying about his roommate, was that 64’s preference for sleeping often resulted in conversations being put on hold until shifts, the curfew and 64’s biological clock permitted the discussion to continue.
His tiredness wouldn’t have been so difficult to understand if 64 were a particularly hard worker who needed additional rest, but that wasn’t the case. The cleaning process was highly automated and consisted of pushing a sweeper unit along the floor, up the walls or across ceilings. It was a job which required little physical effort which was apparent, even to someone who didn’t know 64, by his overweight appearance and lack of surface muscle. This was due to his metabolism, something which the ship’s doctor, number 8, mentioned to the lower level population on a regular basis.
Apparently, metabolism was something which depended on each person. Although the higher level spoke about every crew member being an individual, the social structure made this difficult for 67 to believe. As far as he could understand, they had been grouped according to history and intelligence, the latter of the two, 67 thought, was somehow related to the former. Metabolism was something which should be the same for all and therefore it was each crew member’s responsibility to keep it that way, the higher level said. That was why they were encouraged to use the physical exercise unit on the lower deck within the entertainment area, in order to keep their metabolism in check.
It was something that 67 had considered on more than one occasion. Why did they want all the workers to become internally equal?
He had come to the conclusion that this had something to do with generation and by standardisation of the workers it was easier to control the population. The Bs were removed after completing one hundred years. So if life expectancy could be standardized through exercise and work activities, then this would allow more precise population programming. Or so he thought.
67 walked over to his table on which he had left a packet of hydrated corn. He tore the corner of the bag and took a gulp of the thick liquid while standing, before sitting on his bed to remove his boots and replace them with his slip-ons. As he did, there was a noise from the lump at the other side of the room:
“Whatta do,” came the muffled sound from under the cover. 67 frowned. “A whatta do,” it repeated, then, “a willa do,” was the reply a couple of seconds later. 67 smiled. 64 was having one of his dreams. He took another swig from the packet and waited for the next sound. A minute or so passed.
Then, “amama no go,” this time much louder. 67’s frown changed to perplexity, as it usually did when 64 began to talk in his sleep and 67 entertained himself by trying to decipher the sounds and the occasionally discernable words and plot. He drank the remainder of the bag’s contents and pushed the empty contained into the chute at the side of his bed. Suddenly there was a cry of “ay” and the head and upper body of 64 appeared from below the sheets of the other bed. 67 could still see that he had been sleeping with his black work uniform on, not having changed in order to avoid losing precious minutes of relaxation time. His eyes were bleary and 64 rubbed them before looking around the room, finally landing his gaze on 67, smiling back across at his recently conscious roommate.
“You been here long?” he asked as he stopped rubbing his eyes and sat up, swinging his short legs around until his feet barely touched the floor.
“Yeah, just listening to you talking about number 15 again. You got anywhere with her yet?”
“Hmm,” returned 64, a reply which sounded neither positive nor otherwise, while wondering whether 67 was joking or not. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” he replied, opting for a safe response, not sure whether he’d been dreaming about his senior or not. “I’ll tell you something though...” motioning towards an empty packet of a new concentrate that lay on the floor beside his bed, “...this stuff makes things possible when you’re asleep that you can’t imagine doing here.” And then he added, “Do you think they know?”
67 knew that his roommate was referring to the effects of the tonic, something which they had both discussed in a previous fragmented conversation. 67 wasn’t sure when that was exactly, considering that discontinuous conversations were now commonplace.
He paused before nodding and then stood up and made his way to the hygiene room. He closed the door behind him and sat on the waste deposit, the lower part of his uniform around his ankles. From the next room he heard 64 moving around and then silence.
He thought about 64’s words. “Do you think they know? It was comments like that which made 67 realise that some kind of important difference existed between the two of them despite the small number gap, although the reasons were unclear to him. However, those same comments also generated conversation between them, albeit sporadic, which in turn led to a degree of AFFINITY which was hard to find on the ship between individuals who shared a habitation. And although their conversations may have been intermittent, at least they spoke to each other, something that couldn’t be said for other roommates. This made the time pass more quickly and added purpose to the mission, and that benefit outweighed the constant snoring and disorder associated with living with 64.
67 had no doubt that they must know about the tonic. In fact there was nothing which entered or exited their bodies that the science department hadn’t analyzed at one time or another. Who knows what they had found in and deduced from their waste, but it was someone’s job to do it in order to control it. 67 looked up from where he was seated to the list of rules framed on the wall. There were five in total. They had chosen to hang them in the bathroom as a joke; although they were obliged to have the rule list on view at all times within the limits of their living space, the higher level, acting on behalf of Command, had not specified exactly where it had to be placed. 64 had suggested that above the waste unit was the most appropriate location since he hoped that one day a meteorite would strike the ship causing a vibration strong enough to knock the list of transport rules into the waste chute along with the rest of the crap that went down there.
67 had been told to memorize the list while still in the nursery. Although it hung on their wall and was boldly shown in large red letters, the rules had become not only a part of his immediate surroundings but also, it seemed, a component of his self. It was as if they had been spliced into each one of his body’s cells and had determined his actions, often involuntarily, on many occasions. They were simply written in order to be easily understood by all members of the population:
TRANSPORT RULES
RULE 1: The ship is your home. You have no other. Take care of the ship. It keeps us alive.
RULE 2: You are a member of a crew and have been designated to a position within a perfectly efficient social structure. Always obey your superiors so that harmony is maintained.
RULE 3: There must be only necessary mixing of social levels. Any exceptions to this rule can only be authorized by Command.
RULE 4: Resources of all kinds are restricted and rations are supplied according to individual social status.
RULE 5: Compliance of these rules will be rewarded. Incompliance will be reprimanded.
Note: For clarification of any of the above, please consult your senior or Command respectively at any time.
Once relieved, he took the wipe from the holder by his side and cleaned himself before pressing the button by the unit to send his waste to the lower lower deck, knowing that the nutrients would be back on his deck in a matter of hours in the form of another tonic or packet of hydrated corn. He stood and moved to the hand unit and moved his hands around within the beam of UV before returning to the other room.
64 was now sitting on his bed. Across his lap was his digibook, an electronic board about thirty centimetres long by fifteen centimetres wide on which crew members received general and specific information about the ship and the mission. It was, for example, synchronized with the navigation computer on the bridge and told them velocity, distance covered and remaining and their estimated time of arrival. It was updated every hour. The units were the same for all the crew, the only difference being the appearance of information specific to each member that could be updated by seniors from any of the consoles on the different decks. The units were small enough to fit in the pouch in the rear of each work suit or uniform and their lightness meant that they didn’t interfere with each member’s daily activities.
Since 64 was half an hour or so away from starting his late shift, he had taken it upon himself to check for updates regarding his tasks.
“Any news?” asked 67 as he closed the door of the hygiene room to avoid the escape of the smell before the automatic extractors began their job.
“Same old, same old,” was the somewhat muffled reply as 64 let out a rather large yawn. “The seniors are having a meeting with some of the higher level officers and want me to tidy up afterwards.”
“You always get the best assignments,” 67 commented, a smile crossing his face. “Any idea what it’s about?”
“No, but I bet there’ll be some ferment let over.” He raised his eyebrows in the direction of 67, waiting for a response.
67 shook his head. “I thought you were off that stuff?”
“Yeah, like you’re off her.” It was a response to 67’s comment about 64’s senior. “Not long left now,” he continued. “Once we land that’s the last you’re going to see of her.” He spoke without looking up from the screen of the digibook.
As he sat back on his bed, 67 turned his attention to the circular window and could feel the warmth of Cen B. During the last few months, the orange ball had got ever closer until it was at its largest in the round window of their room, but now it was decreasing in size as Manitou increased its distance from the sun. Only a week ago, they had lowered the polarized blind of the window in an attempt to reduce the abnormal temperature of the room. The light and heat emitted from Cen B had penetrated and filled all those rooms on the starboard side of the ship and made sleeping difficult, even with the blind closed. But now the radiation from the surface of the glowing sphere with its distinguishable flare activity was gradually diminishing.
67 imagined that when they eventually reached their destination, it would be this sun which would provide them with the light energy to continue producing. They had been able to raise the blind only two days ago.
67 looked across at his companion. “Why do you think that?” he asked, a little surprised and troubled by the comment. 64 was the only one who knew, but 67 had not informed him of any of the details. The subject therefore made him a little uneasy for reasons known only to him.
64 looked up from the display. “I just think things will be different when we arrive. I mean, this is it isn’t it?”
“This is what?”
64 paused and then shaking his head slowly said, “Mission accomplished, my friend.” 67 leaned back on his bed and considered the idea. From fragments of previous conversations, 67 had gathered that his roommate had already imagined what life would be like following arrival although he had never described his ideas extensively.
Instead of considering the consequences of separation, which was more than a little uncomfortable to him, he preferred to explore the mind of 64 some more.
“Go on then. How’s it going to be?” asked 67.