The lunar nation of Selene lay buried beneath the worn, slumped mountains that circled the giant walled plain of Alphonsus. Above the barren, airless, pockmarked plain hung the glorious blue-and-white globe of Earth, more than half full at the moment, a glowing beacon of life and warmth set in the dark and sterile depths of space.
Halleck sighed inwardly. Nearly a century earlier she had opted to have her body filled with therapeutic nanomachines, virus-sized mechanisms that destroyed invading bacteria and viruses, cleansed her blood vessels of dangerous plaque, rebuilt damaged cells, acted as a superhumanly efficient immune system to protect and preserve her body.
The result was long life. Despite her years, Halleck was as tall and youthful as she had been a century earlier, slim waisted and long legged with a long sweep of chestnut hair draped dramatically over one shoulder and falling halfway down to her belt.
But the cost was to be exiled from Earth, never permitted to set foot on the planet of her birth, the world of humankind’s origin. Nanotechnology was totally banned on Earth. No one carrying nanomachines in her body was allowed even to visit.
More than twenty billion people crammed in there, Halleck thought. How many crazies, how many fanatics, how many idiots who could turn nanomachines into an unstoppable plague that would destroy everyone and everything? No wonder they banned nanotech.
And now the second phase of the greenhouse warming was sweeping across the world, drowning cities, reshaping continents, killing millions and driving still more millions into refugee camps or aimless migrations across what was left of civilization.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
Startled, she turned to see Douglas Stavenger smiling at her. Like her, Stavenger’s body was filled with nanomachines. Like her, he appeared strong and youthful, a handsome man of middle years, broad of shoulder and flat in the middle. Unlike her, Stavenger had filled his long life with service to the city-state of Selene, first as head of its governing council, later as the éminence gris who gently but firmly pulled the strings behind the scenes.
“I don’t know why I torture myself staring at it,” Halleck admitted.
Stavenger cocked his head slightly to one side, his version of a shrug. “It’s home,” he said. “It always will be, no matter how long we stay away.”
She knew that he had not made his way to this observatory and bumped into her by accident.
“Felicia Ionescu called on me this morning. She’s come here, to Selene,” she said.
Stavenger said, “So I heard.”
“She wants to get the second mission to Sirius C funded.”
With the ghost of a smile, Stavenger said, “I wish her well, but…” He let the thought dangle, unspoken.
“Chiang is dead set against it,” Halleck said, knowing that she was telling Stavenger a fact he already knew.
“He has a lot of responsibilities on his hands,” said Stavenger.
“I don’t know what Ionescu thinks I can do,” Halleck said. “I haven’t been active in IAA affairs for years. Decades.”
For a couple of heartbeats, Stavenger said nothing. Then, “Maybe she thinks you could help.”
Halleck shook her head. “It’d be foolish to send the backup mission before we hear from the first team. And that won’t happen for another eight years.”
“Still,” Stavenger said mildly, “it would take eight years or more to get the next mission ready to go.”
Halleck walked across the observatory’s empty floor, her steps clicking on the concrete, and sat wearily on one of the couches. Stavenger followed her, almost silent in his softboots.
“Scientists,” she said, almost scoffing. “They’re always pushing for more.”
“It’s a big universe,” said Stavenger.
“But what good is it?” she demanded. “What does it accomplish? So they explore another planet. Does that help anybody? Does that solve any real problems?”
Stavenger looked amused. “Strange question to ask, here, in this place.”
“You mean on the Moon? So what? So we’re living on the Moon. What of it?”
“We wouldn’t be here if scientists hadn’t pushed to explore.”
She looked into his handsome, fine-boned face and saw that he was amused—and dead serious.
“You think they should start the backup mission now? With all the problems on Earth? The flooding and all?”
“There are always problems on Earth. And here in Selene, too. That shouldn’t stop our push to explore.”
“Where will it end?”
“It won’t end. We keep on exploring, keep on learning. That’s where new knowledge comes from, the frontier. And new knowledge always leads to new wealth, new benefits for everyone.”
“Very philanthropic.”
“Very practical,” Stavenger corrected.
“Ionescu will never be able to convince Chiang and the others.”
“That’s why you’ve got to help her.”
“Me?”
“You. You know the political ropes. You have the energy and the drive. Do you have the guts to get back into the fight?”
Halleck stared at him.
Stavenger added, “What good is long life if you don’t work for something worth doing?”
ENCOUNTER
It’s only fully modern humans [not Neandertals] who start this thing of venturing out on the ocean where you don’t see land. Part of that is technology, of course; you have to have ships to do it. But there is also, I like to think or say, some madness there. You know? How many people must have sailed out and vanished on the Pacific before you found Easter Island? I mean, it’s ridiculous. And why do you do that? Is it for glory? For immortality? For curiosity? And now we go to Mars. We never stop.
Landing
All feeling of weight dwindled away as the winged rocketplane established a tight orbit around Sirius C. Jordan’s eyes flicked from the windscreen to the displays on the control panel while he struggled to keep his stomach from floating up into his throat. Sirius C loomed huge and lushly green outside, sliding majestically below them.
“We’re approaching the night side,” Brandon said. Needlessly, Jordan thought.
“Copy night side,” said Hazzard, from the display screen in the center of the control panel.
The planet disappeared in darkness. Not a light to be seen. Not even the laser, which was over on the daylit side now. It was as if the planet had been swallowed by some monstrous dragon, Jordan thought. Then he realized, There’s no Moon! New Earth doesn’t have a moon, not even a tiny speck of rock orbiting it. That’s a major difference from Earth. Funny I hadn’t thought of that earlier.
For more than half an hour the four men sat in silence while the control panel’s displays beeped and winked at them. Utter darkness outside, as if the planet had disappeared. Then they crossed the terminator into the daylit side. As the blazing star Sirius rose above the curved horizon they stirred into conversation again.
“It’s all forest, from pole to pole,” Meek said.
“That’s what Earth would be like,” said de Falla, “when the full effect of the global warming takes hold.”