Voyage to Alpha Centauri. By Michael D. O’Brien, Ignatius Press, 2013.
Voyage to Alpha Centauri is a science fiction novel set in the not-too-distant future. The people of Earth are about to send a gigantic spaceship filled with scientists, V.I.P.’s, and other assorted crewmembers to Alpha Centauri, the star system closest to our planet.
As befitting a round-trip journey that would take approximately a decade and a half to complete, Voyage to Alpha Centauri is a particularly long book, measuring approximately seven hundred pages. Given the subject matter, the breadth of the themes, and the character development, the novel justifies most of its length. The opening of this book proclaims it to be titled “The Voyage: Being the true, candid, and unadulterated account of yet another great leap for mankind, mixed with the personal memories, irritations, and ramblings of Neil Ruiz de Hoyos– by Himself (for his future edification and entertainment).”
Neil Ruiz de Hoyos, the central character (and, for most of the book, the narrator), is a brilliant scientist and the recipient of two Nobel Prizes. Raised in a Catholic family, Neil is now essentially a skeptic with no real faith but plenty of respect for those who do believe.
The story is told as a series of Neil’s journal entries, set in a dystopian future where the earth is ruled by an all-controlling government that limits families to a single child and imposes draconian punishments on anybody who breaks a rule. Like many totalitarian regimes, the earth’s government presents itself as a helpful and protective force for the good of everybody, all the while terrorizing communities that disagree with official policies, repressing religion, and sterilizing citizens.
The opening passages set the stage, providing a thoughtful and likable narrator with an deep introspective side and a simple way of maintaining his humanity in a deceptively inhumane world:
“5 October 2097
A week from now I leave this sanctuary– my home, my solitude, my consolation. I have almost completed packing, though I remain haunted by a sense of the unreality of what is about to happen. Even so, without warning, my heart begins thumping with the thrill of it. At other times, I am full of fears, regrets, fragmentary thoughts. I am a little at a loss for what to do with myself.
This morning I puttered about the cabin and greenhouse, toughing beloved objects, standing still for long moments, pondering the turquoise cube on my desk, the budding cacti, and the riot of cosmos flowers blooming in the yard I have never mowed…
Sitting on the steps, I gazed out over the crowns of piñon trees to the blue haze of the valley below. I grew drowsy, despite the mug of strong illegal coffee I sipped. I closed my eyes, and from across the void of more than sixty years came the memory of a time when I was eight years old…”
This novel is as much about Neil’s past as it is about humanity’s future. When Neil prepares to journey across the galaxy, part of his reason for leaving is because there is nothing left for him on Earth. Neil starts his journey without religious faith but with no antipathy towards those who do believe. He has an excellent scientific brain, but the banalities of his life have dulled his urge to investigate.
Early in his life, Neil was seriously wounded by an accident in the desert. Perhaps there is a parallel to the Garden of Eden, perhaps it is just a common occurrence in the desert. In any case, the following incident left Neil crippled physically and forced to immerse himself in his studies and science.
“A few minutes later, I rounded a bend in the arroyo and, without noticing it, stepped on a diamondback rattler that lay coiled on a flat rock. It leaped and bit me just above the ankle. I stumbled sideways and fell onto the stones, the gun clattering away. I reached for it, and fired wildly in the direction of the snake, but it was already disappearing into a crevasse in the rocks.
Inspecting my leg, I saw that the swelling around the fang marks was spreading quickly. I unbuttoned my trail knife from the kit at my waist, clenched my teeth, and cut two slices into the flesh. There was no way I could suck out the poison, so I used both hands to compress the area around the wound and squeeze out as much as possible. The blood dripped, but the fangs must have hit deep, because the swelling was worse now, and it felt as if someone was putting a blowtorch to my leg. Using my belt, I made a tourniquet below my knee, and stifling a cry, I cut deeper. As the blood began to flow, I tried to stand up, intending to hobble home as fast as I could, praying for time.
But it was no good. I felt dizzy, and now there was a corona of light around everything. I took a few steps, then collapsed. My head ached, and I could not keep my eyes open because the sunlight was another kind of fire.”
Neil is a man of great achievements and great intelligence, but late in his life, his existence is notable from what is empty in him. What he needs in order to find purpose and happiness is an adventure. He is all too aware of the petty tyrannies of his old planet and the hopelessness of achieving freedom. Early in the book, it becomes clear that the only way to heal the long-broken aspects of his being is to seek out a new world.
“For more than a year, I had been marveling over the photographs of the Kosmos and reading a constant stream of reports, the standard medium-security documents sent to all scientific personnel, just to keep us informed. During the past six months, there had been, as well, the regional meetings mandatory for anyone who hoped to take part in the expedition as essential staff or as a token presence. I was a token. It had not been forgotten that my theoretical work was at the foundations of the project, but neither was it overestimated. An army of space technologists, engineers, propulsion experts, astronomers, designers, and so forth had taken the mathematical formulas and turned them into the living dream. I had fulfilled my purpose, and it was only the government’s sociopolitical agenda– that is, public relations and the self-image of the member states cooperating in the venture– that ensured my involvement at this late stage.”
I have purposely refrained from providing too many details about O’Brien’s dystopian world and the growing dangers aboard the spaceship, since to reveal a little would come close to destroying all. A few brief glimpses of the world that O’Brien has created are necessary, however:
“The hand-out sheets we received at one briefing tell us that the warm bodies are divided into the following categories:
Ships flight crew (total 60): captain and subsidiary ranks, navigation people, communications, liaison staff for the following categories.
Service staff (total 200): food, cleaning, laundry, mundane troubleshooting, all of which is grouped under the title “Maintenance” (our basic needs).
Scientific staff for voyage (total 171): subcategories as follows: botanists (8); physicians (12); nurses and paramedics (18); pharmacists (8); astronomers of various kinds (10); atmosphere controllers and recyclers (16); atomic fusion engineers (12); technicians assisting the aforementioned (6); anti-matter gurus/overseers (8); computer fail-safe watchmen (8); odd and sundry experts in extremely obscure fields (17). Add to the above categories the following social sciences: psychologists/counselors (16); psychiatrists (4); sociologists (8); community facilitators, a.k.a. social engineers (20).
Scientific staff for destination planet (total 238): There is some overlap with voyage scientists, because certain people will be working during the voyage and also working on the planet. I’ve subtracted these duplicates to arrive at the following figures for those who will work exclusively at on-ground exploration: botanists (20); zoologists (20); biologists (22); chemists (13); geologists (26); land transport staff (18); pilots for the four ship-to-ground shuttles (8); physicians (4); data analysts (12); astronomers (4); anthropologists (7); archaeologists (16); linguistic geniuses (10); assistants to the aforementioned (10); military support technologists, a.k.a. security and protection from aliens (48).
Tagalong (total 8): Nobel prize scientists (5); aging trillionaires who contributed money to the project (2); nephew of the current Federation president (1). Stowaways (uncertain)
And there we have it. The Kosmos will bear a known 677 people from our home planet to planet Alpha Centauri A-7. Our closest neighbor in the galaxy, just next door, a mere 4.37 light-years away. (See attached list, names, and positions of all personnel.)”
This list represents the segments of society that make up the crew of the Kosmos. Scientists, staff, and a few prominent figures who the all-controlling government figure are worthy to explore a new world. Of the 677 people on the spaceship, only a couple of dozen of them factor greatly in the plot. Over the course of several years, Neil forges relationships with a handful of like-minded souls, developing a fuller understanding of how the government’s policies are crushing people’s souls and gaining a fuller understanding of religion and how a full understanding of science does not preclude an acceptance of the presence of God.
Voyage to Alpha Centauri is a religious story, but it not preachy. I have been hampered from providing too many details about the plot, because any details beyond the first few dozen pages would provide too many spoilers. There are two journeys at work in this book. The first is a journey across the cosmos, the second is an exploration of an intangible spiritual world. The journey of the discovery of the capacity of the human soul can be as thrilling as an odyssey across the galaxy.
–Chris Chan
No comments:
Post a Comment