Tom said, “Your reaction is kind of what I expected, and you have every right to your own opinion, but listen to me. There have been many advances in technology since the last millennia. Just look at Thomas Edison, the wonderful deaf inventor, and the Wright brothers flying for the first time. I bet people thought they were crazy too when they decided to fly a plane. Yet, they succeeded. Their inventions led to generations of discoveries. Unfortunately, each positive invention seems to have an equally negative reaction that affects the environment. The number of positive results, which make our lives easier, seems to have an equal impact on destroying life. We could call our world Man builds, Man destroys.”
“Granted, you might have a point but—” Frankie rubbed the inside of his palms with his fingers frantically.
“Just look at the cellphone, which is used by millions of people. Little did we know that the cell phone would lead to the killing of millions of bees and cause other problems. It is also causing thousands of car accidents. At a certain point, I am certain the only way we could actually survive here is to turn off all the electricity, go back to the horse and buggy, and see what happens. I really doubt that humans would ever accept that choice. Think of politicians and business people without the New York Stock Exchange. They would not know what to do with themselves. Yet, through the years our inventions have been advancing at a very rapid pace. Most of these inventors have also been told they would never succeed, but they do. Steve Jobs is a testimony to that. I have thought long and hard about this project, and I know many people will tell my colleagues that we will never succeed just like they told everyone else who came before us.”
“I’m not saying you’re doomed to fail, I’m just, well, it’s a lonely endeavor without the proper sup—”
“For your information, there will be several other countries joining this endeavor including Russia, Australia and Germany. There will be more than one spaceship. I know it will take many years to complete the building of a huge spaceship, but we will do it. I have faith and truly believe that I will find the right people to succeed at this. If we fail, I believe all humanity fails, as there will be no one able to tell the story of the human race on Earth.”
Frankie had listened intently to the whole speech. He said, “That was a nice speech, but do you really think Russia is going to cooperate with you? They are only doing this to help themselves. Everyone knows they will not allow someone from the United States to beat them on a project like this. You know that is how they think. What about Putin and his puppet, Trump? Do you think they would sign off to a joint project of this magnitude? If you are so serious about this, maybe I can arrange for Boeing to have you lead a group of scientists to develop a project like this. We would not have to involve Russia. Plus, you would have a salary and a pension when you retire. Let me talk to the directors.”
While Tom had thoroughly enjoyed working for Boeing, it was not possible to do both of these two jobs at the same time. Since they were only going to build one ship and it was never coming back to Earth, there would be too many problems to overcome.
Tom said, “First, Boeing would have to approve the project, which could take years. In making this kind of proposal, Boeing would want to know the estimated cost to develop a spaceship like this and how they would profit from it. Patents would have to be filed. Companies—such as Lockheed—might challenge them. The courts could take years to settle a very minor issue, and the building of the spaceship could be delayed indefinitely. Also, there would not be any financial profit for this since we are not returning to Earth. We will have to do this using only private funds. I have scouted a list of wealthy individuals that I hope to meet with to obtain the necessary startup funds for such an endeavor. Several venture capitalists are already invested. I’ve managed to get a global technology stock portfolio percentage figured into several wealth flagship asset and investment management advisors’ pitches to navigate funds into our endeavor through small percentages of their stock choices. They gain, we gain. Additionally, we’ve set up a galactic superfund site.”
“What? Superfund sites are polluted locations set aside for massive cleanup of hazardous material contamination.”
“Exactly. Hope the point is well taken. It’s what we’re dealing with here. This is one big clean up and although the contamination we’re talking about on Earth is going to continue to be administered by the EPA, the contamination we’re looking to focus on has to do with unknown hazardous materials that we might have to address if it ends up posing a risk to human health and/or environment. Not sure if you ever went on a trip overseas after college, but you could always rely on traveler’s insurance that would cover your trip essentials.
“Since we’re not going to be able to get any evacuation by helicopters, we’re going to have to deal with any exposure to hazardous materials that we find or that we end up carrying as a result of the long-term travel. Investors are interested in minimizing our waste-print in the galaxy even if we’ll be living in hazmat suits at some point. What we keep learning is that the waste end of the equation is a constant after-thought in all the projects we’ve seen funded ever since the Industrial Revolution with a whole slew of apologies published as nice PR in front of the cameras and in print. We’re not interested in good PR and apologies. We’re interested in preventing the same kind of serious errors we’ve had in our production streams here on Earth.
“We’ll be working off of some baseline new developments like NASA’s trash-to-gas, plasma gasification, implementing research that shows that bacteria can combat dangerous gas leaks, and avoiding all the missteps. We’ve seen problems that are now serious problems for NASA as they try to handle long-term waste generation. We’re shooting for hopefully converting waste into useful gases. Call it the ‘Everything-we-need-to-do-to-not-have-to-have-another-Superfund-Site’ as a national, um, stellar, priority. Stocks are already bringing in massive revenue streams. As is our own Amazon-like platform that allows people to purchase different parts and programs that we’ll be relying on to get the journey accomplished. Which by the way—”
“Stop, Tom. I’m almost ready to buy a few of your parts.”
“Well, you can. For a nominal price, you too may be able to reshape the future of space waste without turning everything into a giant trash pile, helping on the front end of production. We can call the part after you or Boeing or both—Frankie goes to Centaur Wood.”
Both men looked like two metal detectors that had detected the metal in each other’s words and were simultaneously beeping, testing each other’s mettle; neither was willing to believe what the other was willing or unwilling to do given the state of things.
Staring in disbelief, and despite Frankie not having the heart to follow through when the going got tough, Tom was disappointed, but he had to stay focused on the issues he faced. He continued, “The second issue is the government red tape. I could care less what Putin and Trump think about this. First, let me say something about President Trump. He is the main reason I am doing this right now. That man is totally ignorant about what is going to happen to life on this planet. All of his positions on the environment will make things a lot worse for the future of everyone. I admit this is not all the president’s fault. The problem started years ago when we hit the Industrial Age. Also, I don’t think Putin cares about the environment. I do know the Russian commander, and so far, he has been fully cooperating with my colleagues and myself. He has flown into space before and is fully confident he can build the Russian spaceship for the journey. I do think you are right in one way. It is not going to be easy to trust the Russians for a long-term project like this. The Russians and Americans have always been adversaries. I am fully aware at some point we may have minor or major conflicts with them, and I am going to have to be prepared to handle whatever problems arise. Our ship will be armed with the latest weapons and have the best personnel available to utilize them.”