Proxima B. Pulvirenti Giorgio

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СКАЧАТЬ you hear? We have to go! Take your seat and… good luck!” Michael said, addressing a frozen Jerry that stood there for a while before coming round and walking towards the pavilion.

      At the entrance of the pavilion, David met two stewards who asked for his invitation letter. The engineer from Montana slid his hand in his coat pocket, and then he pulled out the letter and handed it over to one of them.

      “Please sit down. Your seat is number 1367. You’ll have to go that way to reach it,” the supervisor told him after scanning David’s letter and checking his seat.

      “Excellent! Is this a concert? There are so many people!” he exclaimed while he was taking a look around one more time. He noticed that hundreds of people were taking their seats in what looked like an ancient semicircle-shaped theater with so many rings facing the stage over which a giant screen stood out.

      At the same moment, behind the scenes, while the audience was taking its seat, two men were drinking what looked like excellent liquor, even if they were expensive.

      “Here you are. Try this one, Matthew. I can assure you that it is the best scotch you’ve ever tasted,” Ferdinand Piquet said. He was the President of the United States of America at that time. While handing the glass with two drops of scotch, he leaned his other hand on a three-star General’s shoulder, that’s Lieutenant-General Matthew Ross, who took up the glass and drank a gulp. His expression proved that the liquor he was given by the President was to his satisfaction.

      “What’s the matter with you, Matthew? All those wars fought and won… and now… is a lecture enough to leave you speechless? Come on, my friend! Don’t worry! Everything will be alright!” the head of the State exclaimed and he gave Matthew some pats on the back.

      “Sir, the time has come! They all have taken their own seats. It’s time to go!” one of the members of the personnel said.

      “I’ll come!” the President exclaimed.

      “Matthew… you know… this is the dawn of a new era. Let it start in the best possible way!” Piquet kept on saying in a low tone of voice as if he were whispering close to Matthew. Then he went behind the stage. The Lieutenant-General was left alone with his own drink.

      All the guests had taken their own seats. The lights in the hall dimmed and the spotlight turned on in the middle of the stage.

      “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the President of the United States of America, Mr. Ferdinand Piquet that is going to introduce the lecture!” the speaker announced. So the President took his own place on stage behind a microphone.

      “Good evening, everyone, and welcome!” he exclaimed. His words broke the silence and the guests applauded.

      “First of all, I must thank you all for accepting our invitation. I must tell you that in our European branch in Copenhagen and in the Asian branch in Shanghai the same meeting is taking place. We are going to discuss a problem that has been affecting us for a long time.”

      While the President was uttering these words, the audience’s gazes were getting more and more perplexed, even if there was some curiosity in them.

      “You should already know that our planet has entered the zone that we have named ‘RED’, due to its serious threat to the whole terrestrial ecosystem. But before you get alarmed or become upset, I need to give the floor to the one who knows facts better than me and, therefore, is going to show you anything. Ladies and gentlemen please welcome Lieutenant-General Matthew Ross!” the American President said finally, and then he gave him the floor on stage.

      “They are yours…,” he added by calling on Matthew and after giving him the last pat on the back, he faded away and made his final exit. Matthew took his place, took a deep breath, licked his dry lips and started to talk.

      “Good evening, everyone. As you heard, you know who I am and you know why I am here today, too. As to all of us, you and I know the name of this planet…,” Matthew cried out by indicating the giant screen behind him where the images of the Earth were appearing.

      “Well, fifty years ago or so our planet looked like this. As you can see, both poles were still covered with a thin layer of ice, the deserts covered one third of the current surface and the species of animals were fifteen percent more than today. But what mayn’t be relevant – which is actually not true – is the fact that we keep on multiplying exceedingly despite the strict laws that many states in the world have imposed. About twelve billions of human beings are now living on our planet. At this rate, there won’t be enough resources for the human population and its needs!”

      These words were uttered by Matthew, who tried to catch somebody’s eye while he was scrolling through some other images of the Earth behind him. The planet was mauled by hunger, famine, out-of-control climate changes and pollution.

      “That’s the fact, gentlemen: if nothing changes, the human race will die out itself. And it will take thousands of animal and plant species with it into the abyss,“ the Lieutenant-General kept on saying. While moving to the right, he added, “But fate, God or whoever you want has decided to help us.”

      Each face in the audience revealed an increasing curiosity. The General kept on saying, “Four years ago our telescopes spotted this one!”

      The image of a new planet appeared on the giant screen.

      “What you are seeing behind me is Proxima B, an exoplanet that is a little more than four light-years from us!

      It orbits around a red dwarf star and, as far as we know, it is the only planet where it is possible to live,” Matthew told us. In the meantime, he kept on scrolling through the images on the giant screen behind him.

      “But what impressed us was the fact that you could see that star. It shouldn’t have been so, since our telescopes aimed at a point from which no exoplanet should have been visible… We racked our brains for a long time, but we couldn’t realize why it was exactly there! But in the end we got it…”

      Matthew paused for a while, scrolled through the images on the screen again and let the audience know why that planet was exactly there.

      “There it is, ladies and gentlemen! Yes, you got it right. It’s a black hole, a wormhole, whatever you want to call it. It allowed us not only to see the planet but also to shorten the route, according to our calculations, from four light-years to five and a half terrestrial years!”

      After that, the General went in the middle of the stage again, and the pitch of his voice changed.

      “So, the real reason why you are here is that all of you have been selected after an estimate by which you have been regarded as the best in your own field. Chemists, engineers, biologists, doctors, soldiers, physicists, you, essential members for any worthy human society. I’m going to give you one week to decide if you want to take part in this one-way travel to colonize this new planet! We know that many of you have their own families and children and we know yours may be a hard choice, but, please, know that once you’ve landed on Proxima B, on this second opportunity, your loved ones can join you thanks to a second travel in a short time. So, you can start to live again all together! This is the last chance to survive.”

      The man talked as if he had already faced such a mission, but actually he had spent most of his time during the last four years studying each single detail concerning Proxima B.

      “Any questions?” Matthew asked as soon as he ended his speech; СКАЧАТЬ