“I’m sure you have all learned about the Travesty and the conditions that led to that collapse. Before that time, the world had several very powerful nations, with nearly unlimited resources. Those nations invested in things we would now see as wasteful. The most wasteful of all in our current mindset was the space exploration program. The nations would send probes into space to determine the soil makeup of Mars, or to explore whether there were planets revolving around nearby stars. The program was wasteful because of the tremendous cost to build crafts that were durable enough to withstand the extreme amounts of time required to travel long distances, but light enough to be easily propelled at very high speeds. Recently, in preparation for Artemis, we sent researchers to a few key locations around the world that were involved in the pre-Travesty space programs, hoping to find any information that could be helpful for us in our endeavor. The goal of Artemis was not exploration as much as research, and the ultimate goal of helping mankind to return to the surface. Any information we could find that would help to those ends was worth a tremendous cost in obtaining. One location was near the pre-Travesty city of Albuquerque, long since abandoned, but was once a very important base for top-secret activities by the government of the United States of America. Most of the equipment was ruined, and records were hard to come by, but we were able to find a bit of information about a few of the space programs they had been working on.
“It turns out that what had previously been believed to be unmanned missions to Mars were actually manned missions with the goal of creating a Mars base, on which to develop new technologies for deep space travel. Unfortunately, shortly after these missions were sent, communications were lost with the destruction of all orbiting communications satellites as part of the great Nuclear War. The crew of those missions were abandoned on Mars, and all records of the mission were destroyed. The US government, however, failed to destroy all records, as we were able to discover, there was an engineer working on the project who kept a journal of what he was working on. It was this journal that we discovered, and we have reason to believe that the Mars base might have been completed despite the loss of communication.
“The goal of Homestead is to journey to the Mars base, and determine the condition of that base. You will spend the next two months in training here in our New Washington facility before being launched to the Lunar base. We have an advance team at Armstrong awaiting your arrival. You will receive further training there, before launching to the Mars base. You will be the first team to arrive at the Mars base since the original mission was launched. We’re not sure what conditions you’ll find when you arrive there, but we will prepare you for all eventualities.
“Once at the Mars base, you will report back to us on Earth regarding the condition of the base, whether the life support systems are usable, and we will make a determination as to the course to take from that point.
“Now, regarding your training. I will be overseeing every bit of your training. You will all receive physical training to prepare your body for the long journeys in space. You will also receive training on low gravity environments to prepare you for the Lunar and Mars gravity differentials. You will also receive, although I hate to use the phrase, a crash course in the equipment that you will be using for the journey. Of course Garst will be piloting the vessels, we want to be sure that you are all trained in the event that anything should happen to him.”
The team looked at each other. They all felt a sense of wonder at what they’d just been told. It was not what they had expected when they walked into the building this morning. Priscilla seemed to be soaking up the thrill of this new uncomfortable situation. It seemed to have an odd effect on her, as if she was happier right now than she had ever been before.
Garst was skeptical, which was his usual reaction to situations that do not turn out the way he was expecting. He was very excited, however, for piloting missions to the Moon and Mars. It was going to be a new experience for him, and he couldn’t wait to get his hands on the controls of whatever craft they are going to be using for the journey.
Elliot looked at Sarah. She looked at peace with all of this. He thought about what she had told him earlier, about running from her memories. He thought how much she must be reveling in the thought of being on Mars. No place could be further from her memories than the red planet, the furthest any human had ever travelled. He knew she would be thinking about that right now as she looked at him, a placid smile on her lips. She mouthed words to Elliot, “I can’t wait!” Her sureness gave Elliot strength. Any uncertainty he had felt before seemed to melt away when he saw how accepting Sarah was of the situation. He was going to be part of something big.
Albrick continued, “So you are now all wondering why you were chosen. Mister Jasper, of course you know why you’re here. You’re the best pilot we could find who didn’t have family ties. Of course you’re not familiar with the specific craft you’ll be piloting, but it won’t take you long, I’m sure. Your instructors have spoken highly of your ability to learn quickly and well. Miss Faust, you will be the technician of the crew. I know your experience has been mostly with computers, but you have developed a certain expertise with some of the legacy programming languages used Pre-Travesty. You’ll be using that knowledge much once you arrive on Mars. Before then, you’ll be taking care of the communications, and since Mister Babbit will not be joining us, you’ll be assisting Garst with piloting.
“And for the atmospheric scientists, your work will be somewhat less defined. We anticipate that there will be a lot you can learn from this trip. You’ll want to make special note of conditions of the Earth as you travel to the Moon, and as you slingshot past on your way to Mars. We know that part of the mission to Mars involved some contained environmental technology that we’d like to learn more about, so you’ll be examining that equipment while you’re there.
“The door behind me leads to your quarters, please make yourselves at home there, and we will send someone for you in two hours to begin your physical training.”
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