"Dad, do we really need to move?"
"Yes, Terence, we have to. I'm sorry."
I looked at my son apologetically, but didn't back down. As much as I understood Terence's feelings, I didn't have a choice. Not unless…
"The alternative is for you to stay on Earth and leave you to Mr. Guan Jia to take care of you. I'll try to contact you as much as possible, but…"
"No! I don't want daddy and mommy to leave!" Terence whined, clinging onto me. "Why can't we just stay here?"
"Because daddy has an important project," I explained patiently. "I need to take charge of the terraforming project there. To turn Mars into a planet inhabitable for humanity."
"Why can't someone else do it?"
I bent down a little and ruffled his hair, smiling wryly. "Because there isn't anyone as smart as your daddy. I'm the only one who knows how to do it."
That wasn't strictly true, of course, but as every parent would know, sometimes you had to feed your kid a white lie. I remembered how I always thought my dad was invincible when I was Terence's age. I would look up to him and think he was invincible, that he could solve everything.
Of course, I would learn as I grew up that adults weren't infallible, but that was still quite some time away for Terence.
"Your daddy is going to become a hero," Lily explained when she came in, carrying Lilliana. She smiled understandingly. Lilliana, for her part, was too young to understand what was going on. Unlike her ten-year-old brother, she was only three. She had barely even started to speak and didn't understand most concepts. "There are a lot of people depending on your daddy to make new homes in Mars."
"Making Mars inhabitable?" Terence sniffed. "That sounds like something out of a sci-fi story. It can't be real."
"Except that I just made it real." I scratched my head wondering why the hell a ten-year-old was talking like a cynical adult who was jaded by too many crushed dreams. The funny thing was that he had no reason to be cynical. I had been working on this project for a better part of a decade and now it was about to come true. "Did you forget that I was part of the team who developed faster than light technology and spacecraft?"
Terence just stared at me disbelievingly and folded his arms. "Big deal."
Oh, right. At his age, Terence wasn't familiar with the theory of relativity. He had no idea that Albert Einstein had, a couple of centuries ago, stated that nothing could travel faster than light. He probably wasn't aware of the difficulty of crossing vast distances and many light years between star systems. I wondered how future textbooks and stories would portray this feat.
It wasn't so long ago where faster than light travel was deemed an impossibility, something that only happened in fiction and films. Yet I had somehow led my company to make it possible. I still remembered my first faster than light capable spacecraft, piloted by Pierre Shi five years ago. He had gone on to continue piloting newer models alongside many other pilots and extending mankind's reach beyond the solar system.
Every time they traveled to other star systems, they would accumulate a wealth of data on the planets and stars there – firsthand data that weren't several years old and estimates that were theorized by cosmologists depending on secondary or tertiary data through telescopes. Already there were plans to build outposts on these exoplanets and study the life there.
But first I had to develop the appropriate terraforming technology that allowed us to transform Mars into an inhabitable environment for humanity. Unfortunately, it was a long term project, one that demanded my full attentions. I couldn't direct it from Earth, so I had to travel to Mars. And most likely I would be stuck there for years.
Lily had expressed her desire to follow me, for she had retired from her job as an actress a few years ago to focus on raising our kids. I had insisted that she act for as long as she wanted to, but she declined.
"It's too stressful," she had told me flatly. "I'm sick of dietary restrictions, of maintaining my figure, of keeping up appearances with carefully chosen makeup, lotions and other medical supplements. I just want to live normally and eat whatever I want. I've worked hard for many years now. I just want to relax and enjoy myself."
Given that she had made quite a lot of money during the last decade of acting, she could retire peacefully. But she had seen the trip to Mars as an adventure.
"Come on," she had said before I broke the news to our children. "Visiting another planet and taming it…I want to see it firsthand. I want to record the transformations that Mars will be going through and pass them down throughout the generations. It'll be great!"
Apparently Lily had plans to record each stage of the terraforming event and preserve pictures of the Martian landscape as it turned from red to green (at least in theory) for future generations. She had turned from an actress into a writer or illustrator. She wanted to write books for kids – kids like Terence and Liliana – and show them the story of Mars.
Of how humanity conquered Mars.
It would be a lot less stressful than being a celebrity, or so she emphasized.
"Come on, Terence. This will be an adventure. Don't you like adventures? You always liked those books of exploration that daddy used to read to you when you were younger. Now you have a chance to explore unknown frontiers! To see what treasures and creatures lie in wait in Mars! Are you sure you want to miss it?"
Lily's honeyed words appeared to convince Terence. He hesitated for a moment, and then nodded. "Fine, then. I'll see what kind of adventures I'll have there. What monsters live in Mars?"
"They say there's a dragon living within the Noctis Labyrinth on Mars," I said conspiratorially. Terence's eyes widened.
"Really?"
"Yeah. And there might be many more. We won't know until we get there." I grinned. "If you find one, you'll become famous."
"Then what are we waiting for?! Let's go!"
And that was how we found ourselves waiting in a spaceport. Shen Industries had finally built a space elevator that stretched from an offshore island several kilometers away from Country S to the outer reach of the atmosphere. Kilometers of cable lined the supermassive structure, with thousands of compartments ascending and descending everyday, ferrying entire crews of space technicians or businessmen or even tourists.
I watched in awe as the blue sky fell away, replaced by an inky blackness that loomed like some godlike entity over us, with thousands of glowing eyes. Without the twinkling because of the lack of refraction through the atmosphere. Below, the spherical horizon of Earth expanded below the armored glass that made up the floor of our current elevator, a great expanse of blue, white, brown and green. The breathtaking view never failed to amaze me, no matter how many times I rode this elevator.
This was the first time Terence had been on the space elevator, though. He pressed his hands and face against the glass, gaping at the incredible scenery.
"Glad you came, huh?" I asked. My son nodded vigorously.
"This is so cool! I never thought I would be able to see the Earth from so high up!"
"You haven't seen anything yet." I glanced at Lilliana, but she was too young to understand anything. She was currently in Lily's arms, watching the scenery in awe, but she wasn't as excited as her brother. She probably didn't comprehend the sheer scale of the planet that was spreading out below her. On the other hand, Lily admired the view. Like me, this wasn't her first time on the space elevator, but she was as impressed as ever.
The trip up the space elevator in Country S ended almost as soon as it began. We were brought to the geosynch orbital platform that was tethered to the space elevator, where hundreds of thousands of people moved up and down everyday, hard at work or moving at their leisure. Countless shops and restaurants had been installed throughout the orbital platform, along with habitation blocks.
But what was most impressive was the orbital docks attached to the edge of the supermassive space station.
Dozens of sleek ships slipped in and out, anchoring themselves at the docks for maintenance and repairs or leaving for destinations in other parts of the solar system. Almost all of the spaceships had been constructed by Shen Industries, for we monopolized the technology for Alcubierre drives and energy shield generators. Some had tried to replicate our models, with varying degrees of success.
"Our ship is there," I told my family, leading them toward the spaceship christened Huo Xing, which was bound for Mars. Already, I could see a row of passengers awaiting to embark upon Huo Xing, all of them having gathered at the gate. I recognized the majority of them – the staff I had handpicked from my company for this project, along with their families.
This being a long term project, my staff inevitably brought their families along. Well, most of them, anyway. We were all very excited at the prospect of colonizing Mars, of becoming the first generation colonists and citizens of Mars.
We were just beginning. In time, the population of Mars would grow, either through reproduction or immigration, but we had the honor of being first. Even though I told my family how much I looked forward to this, words alone weren't able to contain my emotions.
"Sir? You're here!"
The crew in charge of Huo Xing was prepping the ship for launch, loading supplies. I nodded and joined my technicians, who were speaking to a few members of the staff regarding the transportation of terraforming technology. We were moving massive machines and heavy equipment. Most of them were in separate components, awaiting assembly when we landed in Mars proper. They would be constructed as atmospheric converters, or equipment that relied on nanotechnology to transform elements within the soil to turn it into similar environments to Earth…so that we could conduct agricultural activities and becoming a self-sustaining colony that didn't have to rely on foodstuffs imported from Earth.
Eventually.
"Yeah. The loading going well?"
"As well as can be!"
"Great." Ignoring the protests from the staff, I picked up a box and helped with moving the cargo into Huo Xing.
"Sir! Leave this to us!"
"Yeah, just wait in the passenger bay!"
"Nah. I'm part of this project. I won't ask anyone to do what I myself am not willing to do."
"Leading by example, huh?" William Wang asked, showing up with Wilhelmina and their children. "You never change."
"I don't know about that." I glanced at my family and grinned. "I don't know about that."