Janet was sitting on her bed. Tom, looking at her face, immediately knew she must have been crying. There were a stack of crumpled tissues next to her.
Sam sat down next to Janet and put his arm around her. Janet looked at Sam and put her head on his shoulders. Tom paused for a moment, as the room was now entirely quiet. Sarah grasped her hands together, taking in the scene of Sam holding Janet.
After the short pause, Tom began to speak. “Janet, I wanted to see how you were doing and to tell you what a great sacrifice your dad made to ensure your safety and the safety of the entire ship and crew. I know you are disconsolate right now, as you should be, but I do hope in the coming days, weeks, and years, you will find your place on the Imagine and have a wonderful life.”
Janet replied, “I wish I had known what sacrifices my father was willing to make to give me the future he so badly wanted me to have. I have lost him, but we have all lost one of the best people alive. He put so much faith in us and our future. How can I ever live up to it?”
Tom thought for a moment and said, “Sarah, on the battlefields, when American soldiers die, there is a saying that a person did not die in vain. Each soldier who is killed made the ultimate sacrifice so that others, including their family and all Americans, might have a better future. This phrase was first said by Abraham Lincoln at the Battle of Gettysburg during his famous address to the nation. Thousands of soldiers lost their lives that day fighting for freedom. All of their families in the North and the South lost someone they deeply cared about and would never be able to see again. I think if Lincoln was still alive, he would be talking particularly about your dad. Without your dad’s sacrifice, none of the people on the Imagine would be alive right now. The fact that we are here right now means that we have a chance to save humanity and you will be a part of a great adventure. Your dad knew you could not survive on Earth much longer, especially with his certain death looming. He did not want to die without reason or to die in vain. He wanted a better life for you. When you are feeling better you can let me know if you would like to name a specific room on the ship for Grissom, and we will do an appropriate ceremony celebrating his life. I know my words may not mean much to you right now, and I can surely understand that. However, you should know that Grissom will always be with us in our hearts and memories for what he did.”
Once Tom had finished speaking, all four of them had a great hug together. Tom actually saw a little smile on Janet’s face. Then Tom and Sarah left the room. Sam stayed behind to console Janet for a while.
A few days after the battle, all three remaining ships were still in Earth’s orbit. Tom was still in contact with President Stevens who gave him updates on the situation on Earth. The city of Moscow was mostly destroyed. Millions of people were killed in the blasts. The Russian generals had surrendered to the United States, and a plan was being worked on to rebuild Russia. Some of the oligarchs had survived, but their money had been confiscated to pay for the costs of war.
Meanwhile, FEMA was still trying to rescue survivors in California. It was estimated that 500,000 people had died in the earthquake. Anyone who wanted to leave California was encouraged to do so, as it might take twenty years to rebuild some areas. San Francisco was totally in ruins, and Los Angeles might not have any electric power for months.
President Stevens also told Tom that just about every country in the world, including China, had offered congratulations to the United States. Many of these countries were now ready to give up their military weapons and spend all of their defense money on improving life on Earth for all citizens. They planned to meet at the United Nations to iron out the details of this newfound cooperation. After seeing all the destruction and deaths that had occurred in the battles and manmade environmental disasters, they knew they had to take a different course and focus on saving the earth.
President Stevens said, “While I am pleased that we all want to work together now, there is no telling when the next crisis will happen, and we will go back to trying to destroy each other again.”
Tom felt mixed emotions hearing this. On the one hand, it was great that all the countries were willing to cut back drastically on their military budgets and weapons. On the other hand, Tom was sorry to hear about all the casualties.
He asked about Major Johns and his army buddies.
The president said, “Who is Major Johns? I only know a General Johns who will be assigned to the Pentagon and be given a lot of responsibility.”
Tom was glad for the new general. Without him, they would never have been able to accomplish what they did in launching Imagine and defeating the Russians.
Tom agreed to give President Stevens updates on their travels through space for as long as communication was possible. By the time they reached the end of the solar system, it would probably take a great deal of time for any messages to reach Earth.
“Please try to keep the communication going. I’m glad to have the blueprint for building more spaceships. While I intend to do everything possible to save as many people as I can, it really looks like we cannot survive for too long on Earth no matter how much cooperation happens. The leaders of each major country, and that includes the United States, should have made a decision a long time ago to focus on saving the earth. If we had spent all of our money on the environment and not on building weapons of mass destruction, we might not be having this discussion, and you might still be here on Earth.”
Tom said, “What happened is not your fault. You just got stuck with the mess your predecessors created.”
Tom said goodbye and got back to work. First, Tom and the senior officers inspected the hull of the Imagine to make sure there was no damage. Since almost everyone had never actually been in space before, Tom felt it was prudent to give people time to get acclimated with the ship and their duties.
He was glad to see that everyone on the ship was taking time to glance at the earth from thousands of miles away while Imagine was still in orbit around Earth. Sam and Sally took some time to do this too. It was great watching his son and Sally so awestruck.
Sam said, “This is unreal. Earth looks so beautiful from up here in orbit. However, in a short time, we will never be able to see it again.”
Sally responded, “Yes, it is beautiful. Yet, as we are in orbit, we can also notice the crumbling ozone layer and be thankful we are up here and not down on the surface where I expect more people are going to die horrible deaths.”
“Amen to that,” said Sam. “It’s been hard grappling with that. I mean look at it. That was home, and now it’s been suffering from a crumbling ozone caused by chemicals. It’s like there’s been a constant contest for who could poison for bigger reasons and higher priorities than saving everyone who depends on the whole Earth being treated properly.”
“Really makes me sad. You know, Mom used to tell me how much hairspray they used before CFC production all but stopped.
“Never thought you’d be spending your free time gazing out the window and see Earth, did you?” asked Tom.
Sam smiled. “Never. It’s breathtaking.”
“And to think that we used to play basketball down there.”
“How’s it going with the NBA All-Stars in the rec center?”
“Not so good, Dad, but we’ve decided to have one NBA All-Star on each of their teams to try to keep the games even. When we try this, it resembles a game of one-on-one with the NBA players running up and down the court. We just can’t keep up with them.”
“Well, keep trying. Don’t forget we’re bowling tonight. Mom, Robert and Sophia, and you and me. Team Burns. A little family time getting to know other families.”