Time to Travel Again in Space

By Robert W. Stach

It's been 225 years since the survivors of the extinction-level ice age that occurred on Earth-I have been brought to Earth-II. The six individuals who brought the survivors on Earth-II have been living on Earth-II with the descendants of the original settlers from the past twenty-five years. However, these six individuals are now becoming restless and want to go into space again. Even though they all are in their seventies, their life expectancies are such that they could live another fifty years. They increased the size of the spaceship they used to bring the survivors to Earth-II so they can increase the number of individuals who can travel with them. They leave Earth-II to revisit some of the planets they had visited previously as well as the edge of the known universe. They find life on several planets all of which has the same generic materials as humans. This book continues the adventure the space travelers have and the knowledge they obtain from traveling through space.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Mar 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781641389846

Robert W. Stach

The author grew up in the Chicago area, but went to high school in southern Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. He earned is B.A. in chemistry from Illinois Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He did his postdoctoral research in the Departments of Biochemistry and Genetics at Stanford University in the area of Neurobiochemistry. He has had several academic appointments and retired as an emeritus professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry from the University of Michigan-Flint. He and his wife of almost 57 years still live in Michigan with their daughter. During his entire career, he not only encouraged college students, graduate students, medical students but also those students in the K-12 system to become interested in science and to help them understand what science can and cannot do. This book is an extension of that work.

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Time to Travel Again in Space

Robert W. Stach

Copyright © 2018 Robert W. Stach

All rights reserved

First Edition

Page Publishing, Inc

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc 2018

ISBN 978-1-64138-983-9 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64138-984-6 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To all those who inspired me to be successful, but especially to my wife, Bettie, and daughter, Jeannette.

Other books in this series by this author are as follows:

Saving the Human Race

The year is 2112, and scientists are predicting that in twenty years or so, an ice will develop, that will, in all probability, be an extinction-level event. Six scientists from various scientific fields come together and are able to build a spaceship that is capable of traveling faster than the speed of light. They discover that this will allow them to travel back in time.

The Ice Age Cometh

It is now 2125, and the ice age about which the people on Earth were told is actually starting. The world is in chaos, and most of the governments around the world are no longer functioning. The Washburn-Melbanks’ family, which includes Max and his wife Alice, their two twin daughters, and both sets of grandparents try to reach the equatorial region of South America. Max knows that the visitors who came to Earth to tell everyone what was in their near future made a short stop at the equatorial region in the year 2130.

The Andromeda Galaxy and Beyond

This is the continuing story of the first human colony on another planet as well as the spaceship crew who brought them to this new world. Starting a new colony on a different world will certainly have difficulties particular to being on a different world, but they also will have difficulties with instituting a new government that will govern this new colony with fairness and equality.

Prologue

The original six space travelers are now in their mid to late seventies and have spent the last twenty-five years living on Earth-II. William Wil Weatherby, a biochemist, and Jennifer Jen Little, a computer scientist, have been married for forty years and have lived on the central continent near the lake since they decided to stop traveling in space. Their two boys, Edward and Stephen, are married and are parents of two children each and eight grandchildren. Jonathan Jon Stark and Margaret Betty Rather have also been married for forty years and live close to Wil and Jen. Their two girls, Georgia and Chrystal, have families of their own and are also grandparents. Fredricka Fred Jones and George Drew have been married for forty-one years and live between Wil and Jen and Betty and Jon. Their two children, Jeannette and Robert, are also proud parents of two children each and four grandchildren.

In the twenty-five years all of them have lived on Earth-II, they all have developed close friendships with numerous people, but they have stayed especially close to Maxwell Max and Alice Washburn and their family. They all have been very happy on this new planet. Because of the emphasis on using clean and renewable energy, the environment has stayed extremely pristine. There are no pollutants or environmental toxins to which everyone on Earth-I had been exposed in the environment on Earth-II. These pollutants and toxins in the Earth-I environment probably helped to keep life expectancy on Earth-I to eighty years for both men and women. Even with the medical advancements that occurred in the twenty-first and early twenty-second centuries on Earth-I, life expectancies hadn’t increased past eighty years for the past fifty years on Earth-I. Everyone on Earth-II has significantly lower stress levels than they did when they lived on Earth-I. With lower stress levels, less pollutants, and further medical advancements that have taken place on Earth-II since the humans first arrived, the life expectancy has increased now to 120 years of age for both men and women. It has increased ten years since the six travelers and their children decided to stay on Earth-II. Not only has life expectancy increased, but people’s quality of life has also increased. People remain physically as well as sexually active almost until the day they die. The typical aches and pains, which older people had when living on Earth-I, actually aren’t present in the older people on Earth-II. Typical old-age maladies, such as arthritis, either rheumatoid or osteoarthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, senile dementia, are no longer present. All cancers and heart diseases have not been observed in any population on Earth-II for the past fifty years. Diseases that had been called autoimmune diseases on Earth-I, such as lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, and myasthenia gravis, are no longer observed on Earth-II. Most present-day scientists attribute this to the fact that the environment isn’t polluted with various toxins and unhealthy chemicals. One of the amazing outcomes of having such a clean environment is that no one has any allergies. Everyone’s immune system is now very capable of handling any bacteria or virus to which the people of Earth-II may come into contact.

The parliamentary form of government and socialist economic system have worked extremely well. Every person has what they need, and with imagination, drive, and creativity, they also have what they want. The people have learned to live in harmony with all the animals on the central continent as well as with the dinosaurs on the southern continent and the mammoths, mastodons, and saber-toothed cats on the northern continent. The areas on the northern and southern continents that had been fenced in have been maintained with no unauthorized entrance into the areas. The fluorodiamond material, which was used to construct the fences for the fenced-in areas on those two continents, has, of course, kept all the animals inside those areas, and it shows no sign of any damage.

However, for Wil, Jen, Betty, Jon, Fred, and George, old memories of their twenty-year adventure in outer space start haunting them. They meet together at Wil and Jen’s house and start reminiscing about their former space travels. The spaceship that they had used is still at the landing site by the capital city that had been set aside for its use. In the twenty-five years that it has sat in that spot, many visitors have come to see it. Because the majority of those living today were born on Earth-II and had not traveled to Earth-II from Earth-I, there is a very strong interest in the spaceship that brought the first colonist to this planet and saved the human race from the extinction-level ice age, which covered the entire planet of Earth-I with ice as well as killing all other living entities.

Everyone in the house is actually on the same wavelength with what they are thinking. They all want to do more space travel. With the life expectancy they all should have, they could have another thirty to forty years left to live. They all decide that they would like to spend a good portion of that time searching through space. They want to visit some of the places that they had visited in the past and ascertain what has happened to the inhabitants of those planets in the years since they were last there.

Chapter 1

Restlessness Has Set In

At a meeting in Wil and Jen’s house, among the original six space travelers, Wil is the first of the group to speak.

He says, You know, I’ve been thinking about the possibility of going back into space and do more exploring. There are several planets that we visited that had life on them. I would like to determine what has happened to those planets and the individuals living on them in the past twenty-five or more years.

You know, I’ve been thinking the same thing, states Jon.

Betty says, I also have been thinking about that. I’m especially interested in ascertaining what happened to the planet Toa and its inhabitants, and if the Troggians actually stopped trying to control it. With all the space and time traveling we’ve done, it’s been around two hundred years since we were there.

Jen interjects, I agree with Betty. I too have been wondering if the Troggians started up their attacks sometime after we left. Whether they had spies on Toa or not, they could easily determine if we were still there, and with us gone, they could have started attacking the Toans again. Although all of us are much older, and possibly wiser, now, we are in good shape, both mentally and physically, and space travel along with its time travel shouldn’t cause any of us problems.

Fred enters the conversation by asking, Assuming that we decide to go into space again, which I’m very willing to do, as it appears the others of you are also prepared to go, will we take anyone else with us?

That’s a very good question, says Jon. In my opinion, we should do as we did before, when we asked if there were any volunteers who would like to come with us. But the two people that I would definitely ask are Max and Alice Washburn. They were so integral in the success of our travels after they came on board. I wonder if they would like to come with us.

George says, Okay, when do we get started? What I’m hearing from everyone is that no one has said that we shouldn’t go into space again, but what to do in space, where to go, and who else should we take along with us. So, I suggest we get started arranging for our departure and finding out whom else will be among our crew.

As usual, George has succinctly stated what we all were thinking and actually has made the decision for us about what we are going to do, states Wil. I think we should start getting ready and checking on the spaceship to be sure that it is still capable of going into outer space. Twenty-five years is a long time for it to sit on the ground having millions of visitors walking through it. Although the outer portion of the ship, as well as the bulkheads, is made with the fluorodiamond coating, will everything still function? We will have to restock the ponds, forest, and farm so they are functioning as we designed them.

Jon says, When we landed twenty-five years ago and decided to remain on Earth-II, I did remove all the uranium and hydrogen sources that supplied the energy for our engines and stored them in a safe place. I also removed the energy sources that powered our weapons. Therefore, we should be able to replace those energy sources, and everything should function as they had in the past. It’s good that the livestock, fish, and plants have been maintained even if they aren’t the same as those with which we had come. However, restocking everything and obtaining the supplies we would need could take a significant amount of time. Also, we won’t be able to do this in secret as we did the first time we made everything.

Betty states, I think we need to get started by announcing that we are planning on going back into space, and if there are any other individuals who would like to go with us. We don’t know how long we will be gone, but I believe it will be for some time. We can also ask for volunteers to help us ready the spaceship and make new space suits because even if our space suits fit us, I’m not sure that the other space suits will fit any new crew members. Some of the original space suits may fit some of the new crew members, but that won’t work for everyone. Wil, will you be able to make more fluorodiamond to make the space suits and anything else we may need to replace?

That shouldn’t be very problematic, responds Wil. All the chemicals needed to produce the fluorodiamond are easily available on this planet. However, I believe it is extremely important to prepare the fluorodiamond secretly. The society on this planet is humming along very peacefully with apparently no one trying to gain power to take over our society. However, if someone had access to the fluorodiamond material in its liquid state, or, more important, how to prepare it and convert it into its most stable and resistant form, he or she could then make something that is indestructible and use whatever he or she makes to take over this planet. That is why we decided to securely lock up all the space suits behind locks and glass that were treated with a thin layer of fluorodiamond so no one could access them.

George says, Well, let’s get started. There is a lot that we have to do to get ready to leave, but fortunately, there isn’t nearly as much as there was when we first flew in space. Nonetheless, I would think it will take us at least a month to do everything we need to do. Our discussion here has made me even antsier to get back into space.

We should probably go to the ship and determine everything we will need to be ready to leave, says Jen. I really want to check the computer programs and make sure we have all the updated programs, and the computers are functioning appropriately.

Betty says, I also believe that Jon and I need to check the engines to be sure they can function and reinstall the uranium. It’s been a long time since any of us have actually checked on the ship.

I have to agree with Betty, says Jon. I realize that the fluorodiamond construction will prevent any damage to the ship, but we really never did determine over a long period and being exposed to the elements and the sun, if the fluorodiamond will start to deteriorate.

That certainly is true, says Wil. We all know how resistant it is to external physical and electromagnetic radiation damage, but I never did any studies to try to determine if it would degrade overtime sitting in an oxygenated environment. Oxygen is a very reactive chemical and can do a lot of damage even to living things. The reactivity of oxygen is probably one of the main reasons that people on Earth-I had such a high level of atherosclerosis.

Okay, says Fred. But how is oxygen probably one of the main reasons for high levels of atherosclerosis on Earth-I? I don’t understand the connection or the correlation between oxygen and atherosclerosis.

I know that Wil is the biochemist, and I’m just a biologist, and he probably can explain this better than I can, but let me try, and Wil can fill in the blanks and correct my mistakes, replies George. Basically, elemental oxygen, that is molecular oxygen, can be in two electronic states called allotropes. One state, the ground state, is called triplet oxygen, and the other state, a higher energy state, is called singlet oxygen, which also can be in two metastable states. Singlet oxygen can be very reactive, and its presence or production inside the body can cause damage to blood vessels. That damage is repaired by the body by producing arterial plaques and thus atherosclerosis. One way that triplet oxygen can be converted to singlet oxygen is via interactions with free radicals that are in the blood. Some of these free radicals can be produced by stress. This is why in the past, on Earth-I, people would take antioxidants that would react with the free radicals rather than the free radicals reacting with triplet oxygen. With the significantly lower stress levels in our society on Earth-II, we find no heart disease and no atherosclerosis even with the oxygen levels in our present environment identical to those that were found on Earth-I. Did I miss anything, Wil?

No, George, I believe you explained that quite well, replies Wil. However, I will add that triplet oxygen itself can also cause damage, but singlet oxygen, as George mentioned, is much more reactive because the two unpaired electrons in singlet oxygen have opposite spins that allows singlet oxygen easily to insert itself directly into a bond between two atoms. For example, it can insert itself in the bond between carbon and hydrogen, forming another reactive species that is called peroxides.

Fred says, Thanks for the explanation, George and Wil, about the effects of oxygen on the human body and heart disease, but could it have similar deleterious effects on the fluorodiamond material?

George responds, I used the example of heart disease to indicate how reactive oxygen can be. However, for the spaceship sitting for twenty-five years in an oxygen environment without any maintenance being performed on it, it could become damaged, and we need to be sure that it hasn’t been damaged.

Jon says, I think we absolutely have to be sure that the integrity of the spaceship is sound. We don’t want to be flying in outer space and have the ship start to disintegrate or have something more seriously occur. However, I really believe with all the tests that have been performed on it and what we have gone through with it, I don’t expect to see any degradation of the material.

Wil says, I agree with Jon, but we will be sure to thoroughly check everything over anyway. However, I also believe we already have very strong evidence of the stability of the fluorodiamond material. The fencing around the animal enclosures on the northern and southern continents have been standing for more than two hundred years without showing any damage whatsoever even with the animals, especially the dinosaurs periodically attacking the fence.

With that, everyone rises from their chairs and leaves Wil and Jen’s house. They all head immediately to the site where their spaceship is located. It is Sunday afternoon, but there is a large number of people milling around inside and outside the spaceship. Everyone inside and around the spaceship is aware of whom the six individuals walking toward the spaceship are. As Wil, Jen, Fred, George, Betty, and Jon approach the spaceship, everyone clears a path so the six can enter the ship. Wil walks up to the guard, whom is standing at the entrance of the shuttle-bay area, and tells the guard, We would like to ask that you close the spaceship and ask everyone inside to please leave. We want to check over the ship to be sure there are no problems with the ship or the equipment inside the ship.

The guard responds, No problem, Dr. Weatherby. Is there anything wrong?

No, there isn’t any problem of which I’m aware, responds Wil. However, the six of us are planning to take one last trip in her before we are too old to enjoy it.

The guard asks, Are only the six of you going to go, or will you be taking some of us with you?

We would like to take as many individuals who would like to go with us as possible, but we currently are limited to take only one hundred or so, and we don’t want to cause panic of any kind, Wil responds.

The guard thanks Wil for what he was told and announces via a loudspeaker that the spaceship was now closing, and everyone will have to leave. Everyone inside the spaceship starts exiting through the shuttle-bay door. In approximately one hour, everyone who was inside the spaceship has now exited, and those outside the spaceship have returned to the parking lot and entered their vehicles. Wil thanks the guard, and the six travelers enter the spaceship for the first time in the twenty-five years they have been on Earth-II. Jon closes the shuttle-bay door, which, unsurprisingly, works perfectly. Because Jon had removed all the uranium from the power units that power the doors, lights, etc., the systems have been adapted to use electricity from outside the ship. All those connections will have to be removed and uranium sources restored. Jon doesn’t think that will be too difficult.

Chapter 2

Refurbishing the Albert Einstein

Jon decides that it isn’t a good idea to disconnect the outside power supply until he can reinstall the uranium samples to the power sources of the spaceship. He was the one that actually installed the switch box and connected the cables from the switch box to all the systems’ power units. The outside power cable was brought into the spaceship through a small access panel that is inside the landing gear. The access panel is opened and closed in the same manner as are the shuttle bay and air-lock doors. When they were first building the spaceship, Jon had suggested installing this access panel to allow electrical cables inside the ship, if an outside power source were ever needed. However, the access panel can only be opened from inside the spaceship and is also made from the same material as is the spaceship. Jon exits the ship, but through the air-lock door, rather than through the shuttle-bay door. However, before he leaves, he lets the others know where he is going and what he is planning on doing. The remaining five individuals go to different parts of the ship to check out what will need repair or upgrading and wait for Jon’s return.

It isn’t long until Jon returns with a transporter in which several relatively large fluorodiamond containers that contain very high-grade uranium are being hauled. Because he is using a transporter with its containers, which are relatively light, he nonetheless has to enter the spaceship through the shuttle-bay door. Once inside the spaceship, he closes the shuttle-bay door and unloads his cargo and takes the containers directly to the engine room, where all the systems’ power supply units are located. He goes to what used to be his quarters, obtains his space suit, which, fortunately, still fits him, and dons it. He then goes back to the engine room and carefully loads the uranium into each power unit. After the uranium is loaded into the power supply units, he checks his space suit for any radioactive contamination and goes to his quarters to remove the space suit. He then goes to the switch box into which the power cable from the outside electrical source is connected to a main electrical breaker and turns off the power to the lights. He then disconnects the electrical cable that goes from the switch box to the power unit for the lights and activates the lighting unit using some of the uranium he just installed in the lighting power unit for power. He then turns off the main breaker and systematically disconnects all the other power units from the electrical cables that come from the switch box and activates the appropriate uranium power sources. All the systems are now functioning as they have been, and the outside power sources can now be removed. He goes outside the ship and turns off the power to the main cable. He reenters the ship and removes the main cable from the switch box and carries the cable to the spot where it comes into the ship. He again exits the spaceship. He goes to the landing gear where the cable enters the ship and starts pulling the cable through the access panel. As he is pulling the cable out of the ship, a passerby comes up to him.

The passerby asks, Why are you removing the electrical cable? Is there a problem, or what’s happening?

Jon responds, We are preparing the ship to go back into outer space. After living here for the past twenty-five years, the six of us who brought everyone here have decided to travel to other planets again.

The person asks, Are only six of you going to go, or will other individuals be allowed to travel with you?

We can take up to one hundred individuals with us, and we will ask the people who would like to go with us. We have talked with our children, and none of them really wants to go gallivanting around the universe with us, so it will be relatively open to everyone else, Jon replies.

Thanks for the information, replies the individual . I will start spreading the word, if that is okay.

Jon replies, We were going to announce it to everyone as soon as we checked everything out to be sure this baby will still fly, so I guess it doesn’t matter if you start spreading the word.

Jon finishes what he is doing and reenters the spaceship. He goes to the bridge where Jen and Wil are checking out the systems on the bridge. Jen has reconnected the computer system to the onboard server and its memory banks. The computer system was connected to a fabricated server that would allow the person, who was acting like the captain of the spaceship, to give the appearance that the ship was flying through space. Jen had helped install the fabricated server, so she didn’t have any problem disconnecting it and reconnecting it to the ship’s server. She then starts upgrading all the computer programs on the spaceship as well as on the shuttles. All the computers, including the navigational computers, now have the most up-to-date programs.

Betty, who is also wearing her space suit to protect her from any radioactive contamination, is in the engine room while Jon is exchanging the power sources, and when he is finished, she starts loading the uranium and hydrogen into the engines’ power sources. They will have to retrieve more hydrogen from where they had stored it when they landed twenty-five years ago, but they had kept a couple of tanks on the ship to give some reality to the engines’ power supplies. She will have to do the same thing to the shuttles’ engines as well as the transporters. However, now the ship’s engines appear to be ready. They will have to be tested to be sure that they still function appropriately, but she isn’t expecting any problems.

George and Fred check the farm, forest, and ponds. They are luckier than Jen, Betty, and Jon in that the government had decided to maintain the farm, forest, and ponds as they had been so that people visiting the spaceship exhibit would actually see what the space travelers had available to them. Therefore, there isn’t much that has to be done to make these ready for their travels.

Wil has been checking on the controls on the bridge and determines that the controls are actually functioning as they should, especially once Jen has reactivated the ship’s server. He wants to be sure that the weapons’ controls still function, but he will have to wait until Jon replaces the energy source before he can determine if they still will fire. Nevertheless, he is happy that the weapons responded appropriately to the commands he tried. Now, when they get back into space, he will be able to fire the weapons. If the weapons don’t work for some reason, they will have to land again and repair them. They can’t travel in space without the protection of weapons. In their past travels, they had to rely on their weapons several times, and he doesn’t expect their current trip to be any different.

Everyone now starts congregating on the bridge. They all discuss what they have seen on the interior of the ship and are very happy that all systems are functioning as they should, and that the interior doesn’t appear to be any worse for the wear with what it has undergone in the past twenty-five years. The other couples go to their suites to try on their space suits to determine if they still fit them. Their space suits were enclosed in plastic so individuals passing through the spaceship could observe them but not touch them. The plastic containers are removed, and each person tries on their space suit. Fortunately, everyone’s space suit still fits each of them, so they won’t have to have new space suits made for any of them.

After each of them has tried on and then removed their space suits, it is still light enough outside that they will be able to check the outside surface of the ship for any signs of damage or wear. They all exit the ship and peruse the outside surface, which they can easily access. They can’t find any problem, which is certainly what they had expected. They all remember, especially after Wil’s comments, that the fences which people of Earth-II installed on the northern and southern continents to enclose the dinosaurs and other animals on those continents have had no problems or shown any wear in the more than two hundred years they have been standing. These fences were made from the fluorodiamond material as is the spaceship. Nonetheless, they did want to make sure. George decides to take a sledgehammer he brought from the spaceship and hits the spaceship. He swings the sledgehammer as hard as he can and hits the side of the ship. The sledgehammer makes a dull sound as its head hits the ship and then bounces off the ship. He repeats this action several times without any apparent damage to the ship.

He says, I guess this fluorodiamond material, as with the fluorodiamond material of the fence, hasn’t changed at all. Of course, we haven’t tried various weapons, but this sledgehammer didn’t do any damage. We can try a blowtorch and see if it still resists its actions, but I don’t believe that is really necessary.

Wil says, I really don’t think that we have to be so concerned about this ship that we have to test everything about it. Again, the fences that were placed on the northern and southern continents show absolutely no deterioration, and it’s been more than two centuries since they were installed, and the animals, especially the dinosaurs, have repeatedly tested the fences. So, I suggest we don’t worry so much about the ship, and that we get all the supplies and materials that we believe we will need for our extended space travel and prepare to leave.

When Wil finishes with what he is saying, they suddenly become aware that people are starting to congregate around the fences that mark off the boundaries of the national shrine that is the Albert Einstein. There also is a news truck that is unloading people and equipment, and the cameras are being set up.

A reporter comes over to the six individuals and asks, It appears that the six of you are preparing the ship for space travel. Is that what you are really doing, and why are you planning on leaving?

Wil responds, Yes, we are readying the ship for further space travel. The six of us spent twenty years traveling around the universe, and even though we all have enjoyed our time living on Earth-II and the people we have met and with whom we have become friends, all of us have decided, with the time we have left, that we want to do more space travel.

Jen, Betty, Jon, Fred, and George gather around Wil and respond in agreement with what Wil has told the reporter.

Jen says, We would like to have at least one hundred other individuals come with us. Our children and their families have already decided that they want to stay on Earth-II. We’re not sure how long we will be away, but we do expect to be gone for several years.

The reporter asks, Do you have any restrictions as to who can travel with you, or will you take anyone?

Betty, who is the one to respond to this question, says, We really have no restrictions except on the number of individuals that will be able to travel with us. We, of course, would love to have those individuals who were part of the crew in the past to consider traveling with us again.

Are you now sending out a request for volunteers to travel with you, or are you going to ask specific people? the reporter asks.

No, responds Fred. We will not be asking specific people, except for those that have already flown with us in the past, nor will we be asking for people with specific skills. However, when you air your report, and the people find out that we are asking for volunteers, we should start receiving myriad requests from a variety of individuals who want to travel with us. Of course, if we do have a whole bunch of volunteers, we will have to use some criteria to help us decide as to whom we will choose because we have to limit the number to one hundred.

With that, Fred and the other members of the original crew turn and walk back into the spaceship and close the doors. They go to the bridge where Jen activates the communication system and tunes into the television station that the reporter represented and shows it on the view screen on the bridge. Everyone is sitting, with some trepidation, watching the view screen. They’re just in time to see the report. The reporter accurately states what Fred has said and emphasizes that anyone who wants to volunteer should do so, and that those who have previously traveled with the travelers should seriously consider joining them. The reporter also states that anyone who is interested in volunteering should contact the station.

Jon says, It appears that our message is now being spread. I realize that not everyone in the country watches that network, but it will now be picked up by every other television station in the country. It shouldn’t be long until we start getting names of volunteers.

Jen says, I will contact the television station and that reporter to let them know how they can get the list of volunteers to us so we can start reviewing them and determine which one hundred will be coming with us.

Within a couple of days, there are several thousand individuals who have volunteered to become part of the new crew of the Albert Einstein. Looking over the list of individuals, everyone is overwhelmed by the sheer number of those wanting to travel in space. None of them had anticipated the extraordinary response. They did understand that people on Earth-II have an unbelievable respect for as well as an interest in science, especially when it comes to space travel. The question that now faces them is