Chapter 50: Separation

Lucy bites her fingernails anxiously. "Come on dad, come on. Pick up the phone..."

Lucy has been calling for a few times now, but Seth did not pick up once.

"Is he okay? They should have arrived by now right? if they could make it back here for tomorrow, they should be able to take part in the selection..."

Lucy was nervous. She spoke her mind out as she makes the call.

Mike frowned and pulls down Lucy's hand. "Don't be nervous, they are fine. But, you need to stop biting your fingernails!"

"Ish, why, do you care so much of what I am doing anyway?" Lucy grunts back at Mike, but she stops biting her fingernails. It was a bad habit of hers that she wants to quit too.

"Whatever. The thing is, I don't think your dad would be selected for the space program. They outline the age specification. No less than 10, and no more than 50." Mike waves his hand in exasperation. He was about to continue his rant when Lucy cut in.

"WHAT?? then what about those people who can't go up to space? Will they be left here and die?? Ridiculous! I won't leave my dad behind!" Lucy crossed her arms together. She was fuming mad at the ridiculous criteria.

"Hmm, probably because those who are less than 10 years old is a hassle to take care, and they are worried about their health too. For those above 50 they might think they would not be able to handle the Gs."

"Yeah, the Gs... How could I forget that?"Lucy turned her head facing Mike.

"But how can we survive up there? Surely we could not stay up there for long, am I right? We could die with thousands of health complications..." Lucy's eyes rounded in terror.

Mike shrugged his shoulder. "That is the best solution they can think of. Probably they will pressurize the cabin, and installed an artificial gravity throughout all the time when we are in the Pods. That way, we won't have to wear the spacesuit all the time. I am not specialized in space travel, but roughly I could predict, that they would tackle those issues first. If they did not have ways of prolonging our life in space, they might as well develop ways to make us survive the disasters on earth. Don't you think so?" Mike asked Lucy.

Lucy just nodded her head, absentmindedly.

"If they could handle all the issues beforehand, then the astronauts who have suffered while they stay in ISS would be suffering for nothing. I mean, if they got the technology, why they did not use it on the Astronauts?" Lucy deduced a hypothesis.

"Or, they did not have the technology yet, and the people that they are going to send out, are their guinea pig." Mike continued Lucy's hypothesis.

"Well, its better something than nothing, right? I would take the gamble even if there is no guarantee to it. Either way, I could die down here, or up there." Mike shrugged his shoulder at Lucy.

"Some people would rather die than trying. I don't think there will be a lot of people to go for the selections..." Lucy laid her head down on the sofa.

Closing her tired eyes, she pinched the bridge of her nose. She has been crying the whole day and having a serious conversation with Mike just making her head pounded more.

Mike observed the tired and pale-faced Lucy.

Mike moved closer to Lucy's face and asked, "Are you okay?"

"Hmm..." Lucy hummed at Mike's questions. She has been mentally drained today. Her last meal would be the tomato egg drop that she ate for breakfast. After that, she spends her time crying forgetting about her lunch and dinner.

"You looked pale. Are you feeling sick?"

"My head hurts."

Mike sits closer to Lucy and touched her forehead. Lucy was too lazy to react, and she just let Mike do whatever he wants.

Suddenly she felt her body was lifted off, and she opened up her eyes abruptly.

"Hey, hey. What are you doing? Let me down!" Lucy pinched Mike's arm.

Mike flinched slightly. "Be good. You should sleep for a while and stop thinking bout the unnecessary things. You sleep here, while I go out and bring you some dinner." Mike laid down Lucy on her bed before closing the bedroom door.

Lucy smiled and watched the silhouette of Mike to slowly disappear from the cracks of the door.

'The old man knew how to be sweet too. I should thank him for this.'

"Thank you!" Lucy bellowed from inside the room to Mike.

Mike smiled and he walked out of Lucy's studio and headed out to the common area in the bunker.

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Somewhere in the engineering building in China. The mass production of Pods has been carried out ever since the discussion with the leaders took place.

The pods will be mass-produced, and send out to the launchpad for the assembling process.

The plan would be sending out the pods and someone from the ISS will take over the pods for docking the pods to create a chain barrier. Any final installation will also be carried out there.

As one of the Chief Engineer, Mr.Lu checks the blueprints again and again.

"The blueprint did not specify any devices that they are going to equip in the pods. Are they trying to tell us to build the pods randomly, or are they testing our capabilities?"

"I think, we should just build the pods similar to the other space ships we built before. Retain the basics. If there are any changes needed, we could add it in later. Right, you just have to make sure the pods are pressurized and install the artificial gravity into it." Director Sean Lee waved his hand at Mr.Lu.

He is sure, that the pods will have special features installed in them, as the people would be living in space for more than a year. At least, the people would not die, due to lack of oxygen and suffered from decompression or being exposed to the high radiation.

The plan was to build the pods with a very minimal side effect on the human body. So that the people will be able to travel back to earth once the earth's condition stabilized.

Mr.Lu looks at his superior and nodded obediently. "Okay, you are the boss."

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