Proxima B. Pulvirenti Giorgio
gentlemen! You’re going to hear your name now, and receive your uniform! After hearing your name, move forward and go towards Mr. Carter and the girls that are handing your own uniform over to you. All the uniforms are exactly the same except for their patches, whose color differs according to the professional category to which you belong! Engineers are going to wear yellow patches! Biologists are going to wear green patches! Blue patches are for chemists and physicists! Doctors are going to wear red patches! Soldiers are going to wear brown patches! Let’s start with the group of engineers! James Miller!”
From the group standing to the left of Andrew, a tall and slender man went forth. As the manager suggested, he walked towards the post where some men were waiting for him and were ready to hand his uniform over to him and show him where his accommodation was. About five minutes later, it was David’s turn.
“David Garcia!” Andrew cried out. He was on stage and was scrolling through the list of the names on the tablet. David took a few steps forward and did exactly what any other of his comrades had already done. He walked towards the officers and picked up his new uniform.
“This way, please. You can go,” a uniformed girl said to him, gesturing for him to walk towards the building that looked like a hotel.
Once the whole list was read, it was the turn of the biologists. Everything was carried out very quickly even on this occasion: all the new members got their own uniforms with their patches.
“Jerry Vandcamp!”
When Andrew uttered the name of the young biologist from Chicago, the latter went forth, as is normal, and he, who was very excited, received his uniform, too.
“That way, please,” the officer told him; she was actually a nice girl, and Jerry did not hesitate to wink at her. But she replied with a kind of ironic laughter. Among the biologists, Korin was called, too; just like Jerry, he went to his accommodation after receiving his own uniform.
Then it was the turn of the chemists and the physicists, and Abigail belonged to this group.
“Abigail Sanders!” Andrew cried out, and the woman went forth, trying to conceal her emotion mixed with tension.
“You can go, please,” the girl in charge of the delivery of the uniforms said once again.
“Thank you,” Abigail replied with her usual gentleness.
Then it was the turn of the doctors, and so it was Amelia’s turn. Her name was uttered after about thirty names.
“Amelia Fisher!” Andrew shouted. He was certainly used to a role as an orator, since his voice was as fresh as it was twenty minutes earlier. The surgeon from San Diego was asked to go forth, and so she did; she was given her uniform with the red patch on, then she walked towards her accommodation.
Finally, it was the turn of the soldiers. Both Michael and Emily belonged to this category. Michael was the second to be summoned, and even he took his uniform with the brown patch on and headed for the building used as an accommodation. Emily was one of the last soldiers to be summoned.
“Emily Parker!”
On this occasion, Andrew’s voice was a bit different due to the hour that he had spent scrolling through the list of the one thousand five hundred names on his tablet. The young girl went forth as she tried to conceal a little her emotion as well. She came up to her post, got her uniform and headed for her dormitory. The sorting was over. All the one thousand five hundred members had their own official roles in the project called For the benefit of all!
Each member had two hours to tidy one’s own belongings in his own accommodations, and then the introductory tour to the remaining buildings and structures of the base would start. Each room had been conceived to house two people belonging to the same professional category and, obviously, of the same sex. The structure was a six-story building, one per professional category. The first story was used as the area for engineers; the second story was used as the area for biologists; the third story was used as the area for chemists; the fourth story was used as the area for physicists; the fifth story was used as the area for doctors, and the last story was used as the area for soldiers. The large entry hall was furnished with dark leather sofas that were part of basic furniture that was designed in a modern style. Whenever members needed to reach any floor, they could make use of ten ultramodern and roomy lifts. Still, if someone used to avoid elevators, he could use service stairs as well. Finally, a huge hall that would be used as a canteen was arranged in the basement: every member would have one’s own breakfast, lunch and supper there.
David was busy tidying his own belongings and had already met the man who would be his new roommate throughout his stay. His name was Giovanni Rinaldi; he was an architect and engineer of Italian origin in his forties.
“You were telling me that your son’s name is Leo, isn’t it?” Giovanni asked David while arranging his things on his brand new bedside table. He was nearly finished doing that.
With a smile upon his face, David answered, “Yes, it is! He’s a pest, but I’ve always tried to bring him up quite strictly and I think I finally did.” He had a thick Montana accent. Then he kept on saying, “And what about you? Are you married? Do you have any children?”
“I’ve been married twice, but it was a failure on both occasions. As for children… No, unfortunately I don’t have any, but you know how much I’d like to have some, my friend,” the Italian architect replied in an almost regretful tone.
“You come from Montana, don’t you?” he asked David again. David turned to him and answered, “Yes, I am!” Then he asked him, “How do you know that?”
“Your accent is unique,” Giovanni added. That question stimulated David’s curiosity, so he wanted to take advantage of that moment in order to try to know as many things as he could about the person with whom he would share his room, and not just over the next five months.
“And what about you? Where are you from exactly?” the American engineer asked him.
“It’s a long story, my friend… My grandparents and my parents were of Italian origin, and I was born there too, in Genoa, precisely. I moved to the United States when I was nineteen, that is to say when I finished high school and decided to attend the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Boston. After graduating, I worked several years for a company in Boston, but then I decided to go back to Italy in order to start an architecture firm of which I’m still the owner and that is the top in its own sector and in my own country. Then I was summoned by New NASA Corporate and so, here I am! My ex-wife left me just because I’ve accepted to come back here in the United States to take part in this project.”
While he was uttering these words, he was not tidying his things. He had just finished doing that. “What’s your idea about this mission?” he finally asked David.
David, for his part, was caught off-guard by the question.
“Well, I’ve got to admit that taking such a decision wasn’t easy for me, either, especially due to my family, but, as I’ve already said to you, I’ve always helped save our planet. Unfortunately, I am very much like a drop in the ocean, and it seems to me that this mission is the only way to save our species from a certain doom.”
He had just uttered these words when a knock on his bedroom’s door was heard.
“Please, come in!” Giovanni said. One of the officers of New NASA Corporate appeared on the other side of the door.
“Everybody downstairs in ten minutes!”the bald man said. Then he closed the door.
“These are men each one uglier than the last,” Giovanni added ironically, which got a laugh from David as well, who was pleased in his heart to have met a new friend.
Upper floor, room 103. Jerry was glad to know that Karin, namely the funny Asian biologist whom he had first met during the sorting, would be his new roommate.
They were both arranging their own belongings in their own lockers in their rooms, and after choosing