Orphans of Apollo - S2 E6
July 2024
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Previously: Sara Jensen made it to the Shetland Space Centre and eventually managed to set up a meeting between Christian Larsson and Everett Winter. Given Astronautix’s failure the previous day, Winter may have been expected to be more receptive to Larsson’s offer.
Sara smiled to herself when she walked into the room. It was what she expected, but nevertheless it made her chuckle. Working for a billionaire has spoilt you. There was nothing wrong with the room, it was just basic. Not much choice though. The Saxa Vord Resort was about the only place to stay in town. A converted RAF building, walking into it was like going into a time warp. Still, the staff were friendly, and the long journey had left her drained. She had a quick look around the room to orient herself and plopped down on the bed. Within a minute she was sound asleep.
A thud woke her with a start. What was that? Sara looked around the room, searching for the source of the noise. Oh, it was her phone bouncing off the floor. She groaned. It lay on the floor almost within reach but just far enough to make the effort of retrieving it annoying. She paused for a second, not wanting to know if the screen had cracked in the tumble. Eventually, she resigned herself to finding out. It was intact. She looked at the time, 19:26. I must be tired. She rolled over and stretched. Now she was hungry. Sara freshened herself up and went in search of the restaurant.
It didn’t take long to find it. She could hear the raucous laughter from down the hall. Great, just what I need. But she already knew this was the only option for dinner and she could just not face going back to her room and eating another muesli bar. She had been snacking on them almost exclusively for the last few days.
A waiter had just taken some drinks to a group in the corner. He noticed Sara standing in the doorway hesitantly and came over to her. “I am sorry about the commotion. Please, if you would like to sit in the corner here, I’ll ask them again to keep it down. You can’t blame them, really. They’ve got a lot to get out of their system.”
She looked across and recognised Everett Winter and the lady who had been with him when he came out to the car earlier to talk to Christian. They were there with about eight other people. Judging by the collection of empty bottles on the table, they had been there for a while. Everett looked up and acknowledged her before continuing his animated conversation with one of the others. The waiter made a futile effort to calm the group and cleared away some of the empties. Sara looked at the menu in front of her and searched for the vegetarian options. There was only one option - the vegetable lasagna would have to do. She was looking down at her phone, catching up on emails when she sensed someone approaching, looking up, expecting to see the waiter she saw Everett. He sat down uninvited in the seat next to her.
“I’m sorry if I came across as a bit of a dick earlier,” he said. The words ran together ever so slightly.
“No need to apologise.”
“I’m sure your boss is not a bad person and I don’t want to come across as ungrateful, but I just have my own way of doing things, that’s all.”
“You don’t need to justify yourself to me Everett.”
“I know. I just felt I owe you an explanation as to why I came across the way I did this afternoon.”
“Really, it’s ok. Have you had any more ideas on where to from here?”
Everett didn’t answer. He looked back across at where his staff were enjoying themselves. Anyone walking in would have thought this was some sort of celebration, not a commiseration.
“Do you see the guy over there with the red hair?” He asked, pointing towards Josh Walker, who was now standing and talking animately with someone at the far end of the table. “He’s been with me since almost the beginning. Came over from Australia to join the company. He can be a pain in the backside sometimes. The Aussie sense of humour is a bit uncouth at times, but he’s excellent at what he does. He’s also pretty good at motivating people when push comes to shove.” Everett took a sip from the glass in his hand. “His wife is expecting their first child in a few months. They are probably going to have to move in with her parents now. He’s agreed to stay on without pay for a few months to see what we can work out.”
The waiter came over and Sara ordered. Now that he could see Everett in conversation with her, he seemed to see no need to plead with the party again to keep the noise down. There were no other guests in the restaurant.
“That’s Gwen Becker. I brought her over from the US, she used to work for SpaceX. She’s one of our senior engineers. Excellent also. No time for family, it’s all work for her, but she enjoys it. She’s been something of a confidant through these tough times. She’s got a good business head on her as well. A natural leader and calm under pressure, she’s been the flight director on the last three launch attempts. Would you believe it, she has also agreed to stay on for a few months without pay.”
Everett continued to talk about several other members of his staff, becoming evermore emotional.
“It seems you have built a very dedicated and loyal team Everett. You know it would be a shame to let it go to waste.”
“I guess he sent you down here to have one last try at convincing me?” Everett said with a chuckle.
“Christian?” said Sara, turning back to Everett from watching the group. “No. I’m here because there is no other choice for dinner. Besides, it was you who came over to talk to me, remember?”
Everett laughed. “So, does he really believe in genetically engineering a new breed of humans?”
“Yes. But it’s not as you think. He would like to change just a few genes to make humans more resistant to radiation. He is very adamant about not changing anything else. He does not want to make super intelligent or athletic humans. Some kind of super race, as many critics would have you believe. Christian does not believe in that, he believes in the human race as it is. He is merely trying to make it easier for us to settle the solar system.”
“You are quite the salesperson, aren’t you?”
“You asked me the question. I’m just answering honestly. I believe in what Christian is trying to do, but he calls the shots. He sent me here to make contact with you and I did. You rejected him. He didn’t ask me to come here and try to persuade you. That’s not his way. If you don’t want to work with him, he will not spend time and effort wooing you. He wants people who believe in what he does to work with him.”
“So, what do you think?” Said Everett.
“About what?”
“About the morality of genetically engineering humans. You obviously agree with him, otherwise you wouldn’t work for him.”
“Yes, I do. I don’t believe we should try to fundamentally improve the human race. We have evolved to be what we are over hundreds of thousands of years. Who are we to try to change that? Mother Nature does a very good job of adapting species to the environment, but it takes time. We are simply helping a little. Being more resistant to radiation makes a lot of the engineering problems of designing a spacecraft or habitat significantly easier.”
“I can appreciate that. We have done some preliminary design work at Astronautix on space habitats.”
“Don’t let that go to waste Everett. You know your country is the only country in history to develop an indigenous space launch capability and then abandon it.”
“Yes,” he laughed and took another sip of his drink, “you are not wrong there, you’re not wrong…” His voice trailed off and he seemed lost in thought. “Good night Sara, it was good to talk to you, enjoy your meal.”
“You should probably get back before something gets broken.”
“Not sure what help that will be. I don’t have the money to pay for it anyway!” He walked back to the table on the other side of the restaurant, steadying himself on the back of a chair as he went.
The next morning Sara woke feeling suitably refreshed. She pick her phone up and saw she had a message from Christian.
It seems you ran into Everett last night. I’m not sure what you said but there is a message asking to speak to me. Could you please head over to his office and setup the satlink.
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I hope you enjoyed the latest episode of Orphans of Apollo. Apologies for this episode being a little late and lack of any update. It’s still school holidays here and my daughter had a minor accident playing outside, so I had to get her fixed up.
Thanks for reading,
Alex