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Fiction / Short Stories

The Project

Joe stared out his office window at Alcatraz Island and the Golden Gate. Was this it? Was this the moment that history would remember forever? He could hardly believe they'd pulled it off. Five minutes from now, the world would witness the culmination of years of painstaking planning and hard work by thousands of people. The ironic part would be those thousands of people learning what exactly it was they'd been devoting their lives to the past four years.

There was the life-sciences research division in Seattle, the communications group in Denver, the propulsion design team in Phoenix, and so many others. All working together, yet unaware they were collaborating with anyone. Of course there were the select hundred or so who oversaw the combination of all the independent work, but even they didn't really have a complete picture of what was going to happen. It was all one big grand experiment to them.

There were 12 other people in the building with Joe. They were the only ones, save the creators of The Project, who had a clue what was happening. They'd been there for the better part of The Project's four years, all by their own agreement. Most were single, the few that had some sort of family had claimed to be going off to Antarctica or some distant place for a long-term research project. That, except for the location, was partly true. In fact, they'd been sequestered in this building right under everyone's noses in downtown San Francisco. They had it all; very nice living quarters, fresh food delivered daily, access to any entertainment they could want, a huge gym with a pool, even a garden in the central atrium that could pass for being outside if one didn't pay too much attention to the glass roof. The one thing lacking was outgoing contact with the world. They were only allowed the occasional personal phone call, and that was always monitored by at least two other members of the team. Their existence was one mystery or deception followed by another. No one in the office even knew who their employers really were. All they know was that the group had a dream, and had nearly bottomless pockets.

Joe checked his watch. Three minutes now. He had several TVs in the room, each tuned to one of the major news channels. He sat down in his desk chair, feeling his heart beating just a little faster than it should be.

The construction had gone smoothly, it was easy to disguise the whole thing as nothing but a science project. Space-borne experimental labs were becoming quite common. Selecting the "participants" was fairly routine, they were brought in under other pretexts to separate locations around the country. Some for biosphere projects, some for space-based genetic research, some for general science and research jobs. That part was smooth, and well-coordinated by the team of 13.

Even the launches were surprisingly easy to disguise. A new genetics research lab covered the main vehicle. Communications satellites for subsequent deliveries, including the crew. All by separate organizations or companies. Once in orbit, no one really paid attention to the occasional object passing near another. When it came time for the readied ship to break orbit, it was done in the shadow of a rather spectacular comsat explosion. Those things happen though, and this one didn't even make the news. After that there was very little left to do. For the duration of the transit, all had been quiet. Everyone in the office had been on the verge of boredom.

Suddenly, it was time. One by one, the news anchors stopped in their tracks. The information packages being fed to all the major networks had been well-designed to leave no doubt in anyone's mind. Soon all the channels were ablaze with the images, and were picking up on the live video and audio from light-years away. Then, it happened. Live on every television set in the country and many others throughout the world, the landing craft made contact.

They had done it. What would have taken governments and public entities five times as long and ten times as much money had been done by one private organization in a little under a half-decade, all without the world knowing. The colony would be set up in a matter of weeks, and it would be many years before anyone else could possibly prepare a similar voyage. It was official. Mars was theirs.