Space Knights: The Arrival

At the headquarters of NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency, scientists, astronomers, and programmers were plotting the courses the ships would take to fly to the new world. An interesting feature of the system where the world was located was that its sun was four times larger than Earth’s sun. This feature had made the system easier to find. Claude and Evan Sonderson, who had found the system, used a delicate equation to verify that the second planet in the system was the same size as the Earth and was far enough from the sun that it could probably support life.
With seemingly everything in place for the global escape, a definite escape date was established and the countdown was started. Factories all over the world started working on the prototype escape ship. It was decided at this time that information about the coming disaster be gradually released to the public to avoid global panic.
At the same time more and more space missions were performed. The public was only aware of a portion of the experiments. The experiments being performed were to see the effects of space and zero gravity on insects, plants, animals, and people. For awhile people were convinced the experiments were for an International Space Station, but in reality these experiments were to verify that every species could survive the trip to the new world.
Meanwhile, decisions were finalized about individuals who would journey to the new world on the escape ships. A middle-aged delegate from the United States, Mark Restin, proposed the plan that was accepted. “I have an idea that would help decide who goes and who stays. My suggestion is that we set up a randomizer that will pick names of people from every city. A registration and information packet would be sent to those selected.
“They can then privately read the information and consider whether they believe in the coming disaster and if they want to proceed. They can then fill out the registration forms and prepare themselves to leave on the escape ships.
“Of course, the heads of governments will be allotted space on the ships. As the registration forms are received, those selected will be informed about updates of when and where they will need to go to commence the global exodus. Also, as new ships are built and readied, the randomizer will be used again and again to select names of people to fill each additional ship.”
Everyone agreed that the plan sounded very wise and plausible. It would be impartial and give everybody who should receive information packs the opportunity to make up their own minds. It would also pick people at complete random from every walk of life. There were, of course, some that secretly plotted on how to cheat the system just enough to get their entire families on board as well as certain friends. Some also thought that the very rich should be allowed first and then use the randomizer for the lower classes. Some even thought that there should be a committee to aid in the selection process, one that would screen undesirable, criminal, or mentally ill people and prevent them from registering. But in the end, it was decided that there would be a supervisory board that would be in charge of the randomizer and registration. This supervisory board would insure that the randomizer was not tinkered with and that they didn’t discard any registration for any inappropriate reason and would strictly monitor everything.
Of course no matter how well the system was guarded, there were those that went around the system to get registered. Those that did this were some of the wealthiest and most influential people in the world.
The information packet sent to those who registered gave them the information about the approaching planet and the Earth’s eventual doom. It also told them of the global escape plan and the escape ships. The packet would also contain the date of the global exodus, and when and where they were to take their belongings and where to go when it was time to board the escape ships. There was also a nondisclosure agreement to prevent people from releasing the information about the global escape to the general public. This was to help prevent premature global panic.
The registration also had an entire list of questions for those who were selected to answer and fill out. It included a section for the head of household to register the entire family. In that way, households could be registered and immediate families could stay together. That was most generally accepted and was especially the case in the United States. Other countries would modify the process to fit their varied cultures and governments. Yet the randomizer was used across the globe.
The committee governing the global escape also decided what information to release to the general public at any one time. They decided to give hints to moviemakers to make movies about traveling in space and eventually movies about the Earth being hit by a meteor or asteroid. They would gradually release news bits to the tabloids and slowly to the regular media. Their plan was that they would give full disclosure ten years before the global escape. At that time they would have open registration for the available global escape ships. The randomizer would no longer be used. It was reasoned that they would not be able to hide information from the general public any longer.
Within a year, the prototype was ready and a test crew was assembled to test the ship. The ship went through dozens of tests to prove it was space ready, and the deep sleep chambers were installed and found to work properly. As the first ship was being tested, more and more were being built and assembled. The randomizer was activated. As each ship was finished, packets were sent out and soon the global escape committee started receiving registration forms from those that accepted the opportunity to escape the Earth’s destruction.
During the process to develop the global escape