AIZ                        The lifeboat

The Station had been occupied for just one year and it was party time.  But it was a party like none ever seen before.  The discipline of the previous year could not possible be relaxed.  To do so would put the lives of the nine hundred and ninety nine people on board at risk.  The thousandth soul had perished very early on in the life of the Station.  It was a 60/24/7/365 vigilance.  A stray piece of  rock could puncture to skin of the Station at any time.  Were this to happen it was fully expected that a small number of people would die, but the majority would survive.  It would not be until the "city wall" had been put in place that vigilance could be relaxed.  And that would take at least five years to construct.  It was an enormous task.

The station was mankind's lifeboat into the foreseeable future.  The weather on planet earth had started to turn really nasty in about 2050.  In about 2005, climate change had been firmly identified, and it soon became evident that the overloaded planet was changing due to the atmospheric gases that were being pumped into the environment.  For many thousands of years before that date, the human population had been too small to affect the natural order of things.  Nature itself caused more damage that man could achieve, and nature seemed to be able to cope with its own abuse and the small amount that man added.  But the twentieth century saw a huge rise in the global population, with the consequential environmental degradation.

The volcanic eruptions and floods that had plagued mankind for millennia still occurred occasionally, but the change in the weather was the real problem throwing up typhoons and hurricanes on a regular basis.  These storms had become so common that agriculture was totally disrupted.  As well as the foodstuffs that wildlife depended on being regularly destroyed, the food crops that sustained humanity were regularly being torn to bits.  Vast numbers of humans and animals perished due to hunger.  What little agriculture that was possible had to be protected by artificial wind barriers.  And even these barriers were often destroyed because they were not strong enough to resist the enormous winds.  The lucky few in the developed world lived on fungi that were cultured below the ground.  The situation was dire.

In 2055 a radio conference of senior people from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia concluded that the only future for the human race would be to build a "lifeboat" in space and weather out the storm.  How long the storm would last was anybody's guess. At that conference it was agreed that only a minute number of humans would be able to be saved, but they could be the seed for the future expansion in human numbers.  And the seeds of the future population would need to be people healthy enough to be lifted into space.  It was reluctantly agreed that none of the conference delegates would be in the small group of humans would be able to join the group of pioneers.  It was further agreed that as NASA had the space-launching, capability, it would have to be Americans from the NASA employees that would be the lucky ones to form the crew of the lifeboat.  It seemed that about a thousand people could be accommodated in a spacecraft that could be built within a sensible timeframe.

Transport on earth had become a real problem.  To travel by sea was an almost certain death, as quiet spells lasted for short periods only, and when a storm broke, few ships were capable of riding out the elements.  Aircraft could fly above the weather, but it was impossible to predict when it would be calm enough to come in to land.  Aircraft landings had been attempted during some storms, but the aircraft either landed upside down, or were cartwheeled along the tarmac, generally killing all on board.  Even aircraft simply standing on the ground had been wrecked by the weather.  HJangers holding aircraft too were wrecked along with their contents.

So "The Station" had been constructed in earth orbit and driven to a position about one light hour from the sun at a position at right-angles to the ecliptic.  It was reasoned that this position was the best for the safety of the station.  And it would be possible to use space-tugs to visit the asteroid belt to get rocks and other minerals to sustain the Station.

In the very beginning it was agreed that a thousand souls would be just about sufficient to maintain a highly technical operation, but only if these people were educated to a high level with the necessary skills.  All the crew had to be at approximately a doctorate level in their subject, whether they were medics, metallurgists, or some other discipline.

A lot of thought had been given as to who should form the crew.  It was very likely that those left behind would perish before their allotted term, but those that went to form the new colony would also be taking on a hazardous future.  Just about every member of the crew thought long and hard before volunteering for the new life, and only a very small number volunteers were rejected due to their not being of the necessary educational or fitness standard.  But it was a surprisingly peaceful operation considering the life-and-death nature of all decisions.

Part of the planning of the operation covered the long-term lifestyle of the crew.  If all went well there would eventually be deaths due to old age.  How should new members be brought into existence?  It had been decided much earlier that free and easy sex would be permitted as all crew members were to be sterilised and eggs and sperm harvested to be kept in cold storage until required.  The final decision was that foetuses would be produced and put into storage, and brought into the world as children using the recently invented artificial womb, when required.  It was a very cold-blooded procedure, but the whole project had to be devoid of emotion if the human race was to survive.

Religion plays a part in everyone's life; even those people who profess atheism.  So a form of service was devised that could allow every crew member to participate if they wished.  The baggage of Christianity, Judaism and Islam was merged into a composite religion, and  the concept of a Higher Power was still to be maintained.  This seemed to be a natural requirement of the human id, and those who professed atheism could live with that "myth".

The "gardens" of the lifeboat had been part of the original planning, and seeds of all possible types had been aboard the station from the beginning.  To fertilise the hydroponic gardens, human waste was recycled.  In fact, there was no such thing as waste on the station.  There were about fifty different disposal chambers that allowed everything that was surplus to the immediate requirement to be stored for future use.  Things like metal oddments were all in one box initially, but separated out when they were recycled.  The whole of the people on the station had to conform to a very strict regime.  It was made abundantly clear at the very beginning that any person who failed to follow the regime, even in the smallest manner, would be severely disciplined.  For any person who failed to respond to that discipline, the death penalty was the result.  But people who were able to gain high academic qualifications, were generally disciplined enough  to be able to keep to a strict code of conduct.  In the first year there had only been one person who had been hauled up in front of the discipline board,. and that person admitted that they had been lazy in not following the rules.  This was the first of three chances; two more infringements of discipline, even minor, would mean that the composter would be working on its first human product.

There were a hundred teams of about ten people each.  Each tem had a well-defined set of duties.  For example, the airtight door were serviced twice a week to see that they closed almost instantaneously if the air pressure on either side of the door dropped.  On the inside of the outer skin there was a sealing compound, but this compound could only seal a tiny leak.  If a rock of any size hit the outer skin at any speed, it was certain that it would travel through more than one airtight layer.  It had not yet been possible to design a pressure suit that could operate fast enough to safeguard the occupant against a sudden loss of air.  The suits were nevertheless very clever, being little more than a leotard with a few bumps where essential devices were built into the suits.  The principles of the moon-landing suits were embodied into much sleeker garments.  Long-term toilet facilities were not present in those suits that were the constant garb of everyone on board.  More long-term suits were available for those people who had to work outside the station.  Toilet stations were like armoured cabins as the occupants would be the most vulnerable persons on board.

The largest and most pressing job for the Station was to build the City Wall.  This would be a closed sphere of overlapping rocks that would form a barrier against any outside assault on the station by the rare, but expected, chunks of masonry that were known to hurtle across the open spaces within the solar system.  Although the station was a light-hour from the sun, it was still part of the solar system.  Sol was a very bright nearby star, although it would become invisible when The Wall had been built.  But astronomical observation would still continue, even after The Wall was built, as research into the future had to be high on the list of priorities of the Station.

The old measures of hours, days, months and years had been continued even though they were now an anachronism.  The planners decided that as much of the 'old world' culture as possible would be retained to keep the people on board as a 'family'.  The Control Room was where the ever-present duty controller maintained his watch on the station,.  Hehad various instrument that gave different measures of time.  There was even a digital clock that counted the days that the Station had been in existence.  The clock had hours and minutes shown for those souls that liked that sort of 'useless' presentation.  It was mooted that one day in the future, digital time would be measured from "the start of existence" of "this world".

One of the teams of the hundred referred to above, spent all their working hours going to and from the Asteroid belt.  This team was rather larger than any of the other teams, but their work had a predictable life, and when their task had been completed they would be put onto other work, such as building the second Station.  But this was very long-term planning

When in the Asteroid Belt they would identify a suitable piece of rock to be shipped out to the zone of The Station so that it could be embodied into the new construction of the City Wall.  The chunk of rock had an ion-drive attached to it and despatched in the direction of the Station.  At any one time, all the rocks that were travelling towards the station were logged so that they could be captured as they got close to the station and slowed to zero-speed compared to that of the station.  They were then directed into a position so that they could become part of The Wall.  Explosive bolts and chains were used to stop the rocks from drifting apart and away from the partially constructed Wall.

The Station was very energy hungry.  Besides the heating and lighting of The Station, there was the power required to operate the space tugs and 'clip-on' drivers for the rocks to make The Wall.  The hydroponic gardens needed constant lighting to mimic sunlight.  Another power requirement was for the metallurgic unit that would be used at a later date to extract metals from the rocks brought in from the Asteroid Belt.  These requirements had been part of the original planning so a nuclear power plant  was part of the build of the Station.  To maintain as much safety as possible, the plant was on a boom about a kilometre from the actual Station itself.  One member of crew had been killed at the beginning of the setup of the station as insufficient attention had been paid to the radiation risk in setting up the nuclear plant.

On the Station itself there was a workshop to allow almost any part of the station to be re-manufactured.  If a very large scale operation was required, it would be done outside the Station.  The asteroids that were being harvested were looked at before they were despatched to the zone of the Station.  Those that seemed to be high in metal content were identified to be used as a source of metal in the future.  Some of the rocks were so rich in metals that they were stored independently for future extraction.  The residue of rock would be fitted into the wall in time.

In the beginning the food was fairly bland being that that was brought from 'home'.  As the Station became more operational, the chefs started to put into practice some of the ideas that were fed into the scheme at its planning stage.  All sorts of herbs and spices were included in the initial set of seeds, and the plants grown along with the more mundane things like wheat, potatoes and cabbages.  The hydroponic gardens were at a higher floor level of the station, so the artificial gravity that the Station-rotation maintained was a little reduced from 1G.  But this seemed to have no ill-effect on the growing capability of the crops.

Water is probably the most essential material for the maintenance if life, after oxygenated air.  There were five huge spheres holding spare water stored outside the station.  There were also five large cylinders of air similarly stored.  In the very long term it was realised that both air and water could be collected from the Asteroid Belt, or made from materials of the asteroids.  But they were problems for the future that could be ignored for the moment.  Newly born people would be educated up to the necessary level to undertake these tasks.  When eventually the nuclear power unit became worn out, it was expected that it could be replaced with a second, or third plant.  Nobody had identified any long-term problem of sustainability.

As the social structure on the Station had to be harmonious, total democracy was the only solution.  The three original "Leaders" had been imposed by the planners, as there was no way that the crew could determine the capability of the applicants at the beginning.  But it was written into The Constitution that every year the longest-serving member of the three would have to stand for election. Initially the seniority of the three people were named by the planners.  There was no limit to the number of times any person could stand and be elected again.  With decisions required from the Leaders, it was always a vote if there was any disagreement on what should be done.

Leader One, Leader Two and Leader Three were the panel that decided on the outcome of any disciplinary hearing.  As said above, the Death Penalty was an option if the three Leaders chose it.  But for the ultimate penalty to be carried out, all three Leaders had to agree.

The anniversary party included specially produced food.  This food had been planned for a long time, but was kept secret from all but a special few.  A small amount of alcohol was permitted, but it was made abundantly clear that if anyone over-indulged, the alcohol was not going to be an excuse for bad behaviour.  The partying took place in shifts as a lot of people had to be on duty 14 hours a day.

Every crew member had a monthly medical examination.  Just about every possible malady or illness was looked for.  Even the microbots that circulated in the bloodstream of every person were looked at to see that they were performing the role of assassinating every last one of any malignant cells that the background radiation caused.  Possible disease caused by a micro-organism contained by the body, was a constant risk.  If a contagious organism multiplied and circulated around the station, it could be a disaster.

To date no serious problems had arisen, but constant vigilance had to be maintained to avoid an unexpected disease from occurring.  The only areas of difficulty that had occurred in this first year, were surgical ones.  A few accidents within and outside the station occurred necessitating hospitalisation of the patient.  But a team of highly trained medics to treat just a thousand persons was far in excess of what people had back on earth.

On the subject of  'daily news'; every evening there was a newscast to acquaint anyone interested in the latest situation on and off the station.  On top of that, there were amply viewing stations that a person off-duty could entertain themselves.  An enormous amount of data had been loaded into the station.  The amount of data available to be looked at equated to the entire Library of Congress.  As well as this historical data, it was possible to look back at the entire history of the Station.  The principle that "knowledge is power" was a prime one for the good running of the total endeavour.

There were exercise machines to keep everyone ig good physical health.  Most of the work on the station had very little physical input, and it was well known that the body atrophies without exercise.  The machines were mostly very simple, but they performed their purpose.  Sports, as generally know back on earth were not possible on board, but mental puzzles allowed for the competitive nature of the human animal.

Everyone was known by their first name.  With just a thousand people on board, everybody knew almost everybody else.  With the few people who had the same name as someone else, a new name had to be found.  But the huge availability of names, both classical and newly invented, meant that there was no problem.

With so highly educated a team of mostly younger people, new ideas for improvements to existing procedures, and ideas for future projects, were common.  Every idea, no matter how impracticable it seemed, was logged for possible future study.  Thought on how a planet, like Mars for example, might be turned into a habitable home of the future, was the most common idea recorded.  Ways of doing astronomical research once the Wall had been completed, were a major subject for mental conjecture.

No subject was barred in the philosophy of study on the Station.  Even theology was considered, but the old-style Biblical studies seemed of no interest to anyone on board.  The psychology of religion was an active one among a small group.  If there was a Creator, where did He come into the larger picture?  The small group who seemed to be interested in this subject got themselves known as "The Bible Group".

One woman, Esther, let it be known that she would be willing to bear a child by the old-fashioned method if the artificial womb failed to work.  As it would be desirable in the long-term to have a population of various age groups, it was agreed at high level to put a foetus into the womb so as to produce in about nine months  even though there was no urgency in producing a new human to the station.

In the early planning it was discussed whether pets and other animals would be shipped from the earth to the new home of humanity.  But it was finally agreed that the problems just keeping humans alive would be a huge task, and to have to look after a zoo as well, were simply too much to consider.

To be continued . . . . . . .(18/10/08)