Twin Earth

“Welcome to Level 5,” Hayden declared.

I admit, I was expecting something more than what I was greeted with. Maybe a futuristic rocket of some kind, standing prominent in the centre of an elaborate secret headquarters, but I realised I had been watching way too many science fiction movies because in front of us was a fairly small circular room with only a few people milling around the odd computer. Large screens hanging above them were displaying various data and in the centre of the room was something, but it looked more like a capsule pod than a tall rocket. The unusual craft was sunk into a round pit barely the size of a hot tub and I struggled to see any sign of a propulsion system. The top of the craft was cone shaped and the bottom was flat and tube like, with tiny honeycomb shapes dotted all over the base, but it did look like something for humans to use as through a narrow window that ran all around the perimeter I could see two seats facing a clear screen panel.

“What is this?” I asked, peering down.

“This is my electro-aerodynamic pod system, the ionohex” a deep, slightly Russian sounding voice declared from my left.

“This is Magnus Ferguson, head of the Level 5 project,” Hayden introduced.

I stared up at a very tall blond man who couldn’t have been much older than me, who had the weirdest blue eyes I had ever seen, so much so I couldn’t keep his gaze and had to look away to shake his hand.

“Pleased to meet you, I’m...”

“Doctor Tom Takahashi, yes. I know who you are.”

“I see,” I whispered, slightly taken aback and shaking my hand from his surprisingly tight grip.

“We don’t have much time. Doctor Takahashi, we need you to go through the launch procedure as soon as possible,” Magnus continued.

“I’m sorry, the what?”

“You’ve been selected Tom to go into space with me,” Trevor replied. “We need to brief you as quickly as we can.”

“Me?! No... no way!”

“Your father told us you are his first choice. We really don’t have anyone else with your experience. You have been fully trained for space travel...” Hayden started, but I had to stop him.

“No, you’ve made a mistake. I haven’t trained for this. I have no interest in going into space.”

“I thought you had taken the NASA astronaut candidate program? Your father said...”

“That was over five years ago and through much duress from my ex-wife. I left before I’d completed it. You should know that Trevor if you work for NASA?” I replied, turning to look at a confused looking Trevor.

“You were considered a completed candidate Tom. You were approved as one of our highest qualified candidates and we were extremely saddened when you quit the program, but your father informed me that you planned to apply again?”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. ‘Why would my father so blatantly lie?’ I asked myself.

“Are we doing this or not?” Magnus interrupted.

“At least look at the ionohex Tom. This is some of the most advanced technology we have in space travel, thanks to Mr Ferguson here and his team of engineers,” Hayden replied.

“You expect this to fly into space?” I replied. “It’s tiny. Where are the rockets?”

“It does not need rockets. We generate thrust through an intense high voltage system that creates a magnetic field along tiny sharp points all along the base,” Magnus replied, clearly proud of his invention. “Here, I will show you.”

I was gently coerced down a short flight of steps to the base of the rounded pit the unusual pod craft sat in and was shown around the ionohex’s exterior. Up close I could see minute metal pins protruding through a series of tiny hexagonal metal plates, each only a millimetre apart.

“So, you’ve developed some kind of oxidation resistant thruster technology?” I asked confused, trying to get my head around the technology.

“No, we have removed the need for conventional thrusters altogether, as surely you can see. This is not about increasing operational temperatures. This is about creating a completely silent propulsion system through ionic wind.”

“So, an ion thruster?”

“Yes, exactly. We use xenon because it’s suitable to produce thrust and inert enough to store for long-term space travel. The ion thrusters inside the base ionise the xenon atoms by bombarding it with high-energy negative electrons, which then creates positive ions. This mixed gas of positive ions and negative electrons produces a balanced non-electric plasma charge. We then use these tiny honeycomb shaped grids to accelerate the charged ions to create thrust. The first grid is a positively charged electrode with an extremely high voltage and the plasma is held at this high voltage and then accelerated towards the next grid, which is negatively charged. The result of these accelerated ions is an ion beam thrust.”

“Okay... but this isn’t new technology. We already use something like this in our satellites. How is this going to be powerful enough to launch people into space? Our satellites take ages to get anywhere. You’d have to run this thing for over a year just to get it up to speed and that’s if we can even launch this thing in the first place. You still need rockets.”

“We do not need rockets,” Magnus mumbled impatiently.

“Tom, this is what makes Magnus’ ionohex special,” Hayden smiled.

“Yes, the beam area on my craft is much larger than the ones used in those satellites and I have also developed a feed-back loop of accelerated ions by controlling the plasma output. By doing so, the controlled thrust can be continuously built up in minutes to create a pulse that is strong enough to escape earth’s gravity.”

“You will literally bounce into space like a jellyfish,” Hayden laughed.

“The speed can also be accelerated by a series of nanophotonic light sails powered either by the sun or with my system of adjustable quantum lasers.”

“Wow,” I replied stunned, unsure of what to say. “It sounds incredible.”

“Thank you. I was not expecting to use my technology so soon, but...”

“We made him a good offer,” Trevor interrupted.

“I see,” I whispered. For a moment I got the feeling Trevor was hiding something, but the thought of being asked to go into space was still over-riding my concerns. “What happens if this anomaly and its gravitational fluctuations affect your electro-aerodynamic system? I’m just thinking, if there is some level of magnetic interference we haven’t detected yet, then couldn’t it deem this whole pod useless?” I remarked.

“There has been no indication that would happen, and we still have the sails. This really is a very safe, very fast and very clean technology,” Magnus replied, perhaps a little insulted.

“Have you even tested it for human travel yet?”

“Well, no, but we have no reason to believe it won’t work,” Hayden replied.

“Tom, I’ll level with you. This needs to work regardless. Without Magnus’ technology we have absolutely no chance of investigating this anomaly up close. The weather is preventing us from getting a team of astronauts out here and we have about five to eight hours before the next hurricane hits otherwise our launch date might not be for another two days. Who knows what will happen in that time. We need to launch now. You and me. The only two experienced astronauts we have on site.”

“I need to think about this,” I replied.

“We don’t have time for you to think about this. If we don’t go now, the earth could literally be in serious danger.”

“You’re assuming we can even stop this anomaly from growing,” I declared frustrated. “This just all seems too rushed to me.”

I stared at the frustrated expression appearing on Trevor’s face and I knew I had hit a nerve.

“Trever, you have to tell him,” Hayden whispered.

“And then what? He runs back to Robert at the UKSA and ruins everything?”

“You have to trust him.”

“Will one of you just tell me what’s going on?” I asked bewildered.