He grinned. So Im an ambassador from the lunatic fringe? Thanks very much.
But Mikhail had said, We must consider ways to protect the whole Earth. Nobody has faced such responsibility before. I think in the circumstances a little lunacy might be just what we need!
With some hard work on their softscreens, and frequent calls to Aristotle, they hurriedly fleshed out Tobys volcano option. Perhaps it could be donebut it would have to be a big volcanic bang, far bigger than any in recorded history and possibly bigger than anything in the geological record. As nobody had tried such a thing before, its effects would be quite unpredictable, and possibly a remedy even worse than the problem. Siobhan stored the discussion in a file in Aristotles capacious memory that she labeled last resorts.
They quickly rattled through some more research on so-called intrinsic methods of protection, things you could do within the Earths atmosphere, or maybe from low orbit. But they all provided inadequate screening. There was no reason why some of these methods shouldnt be put in place. They would provide an extra few percent of coverand would at least give the impression to the public that something was being done, a not inconsiderable political factor. But if they couldnt dig up a way to knock out almost all of the suns ferocious glare, such projects would be nothing but sops, which wouldnt make any difference to the final outcome.
So we move on, Siobhan said. What next?
Toby said, If we cant protect the Earth, perhaps we have to flee.
Mikhail growled, Where? The storm will be so intense that even Mars is not safe.
The outer planets, then. An ice moon of Jupiter
Even at five times Earths distance, the reduction in intensity of the storm would not be sufficient to save us.
Saturn, then, Toby pressed. We could hide on Titan. Or a moon of Uranus, or Neptune. Or we could flee the solar system altogether.
Siobhan said quietly, The stars? Can we build a starship, Toby?
Make it a generation starship. Thats the most primitive sort: an ark, big enough to hold a few hundred people. It might take a thousand years to reach Alpha Centauri, say. But if the emigrants children, living and dying on the ship, could continue the missionand then their children would do the sameeventually humans, or at least descendants of humans, would reach the stars.
Mikhail nodded. Another idea of Tsiolkovskis.
Toby said, Actually, I think it was Bernal.
Siobhan said, How many people could we save that way?
Mikhail shrugged. A few hundred, maybe?
A few hundred is better than none, Toby said grimly. A gene pool of that size is enough to start again.
Mikhail said, The Adam and Eve option?
Its not good enough, Siobhan said. We are not about to give up on saving the billions who are to be put to the torch. We have to do better, guys.
Mikhail sighed sadly. Toby averted his eyes.
As the silence lengthened, she realized that they had nothing more to offer. She felt despair settle inside her, suffocatingdespair and guilt, as if this huge catastrophe, and their inability to think their way out of it, were somehow her fault.
There was a modest cough.
Surprised, she looked up into the empty air. Aristotle?
Im sorry to break in, Siobhan. Ive been taking the liberty of running supplementary searches of my own based on your conversation. There is an option you may have missed.
There is?
Mikhail, in his softscreen image, leaned forward. Get to the point. What do you suggest?
A shield, Aristotle said.
A shield?
Data began to download to their displays.
18: Announcement
The President of the United States took her seat behind her desk in the Oval Office.
The place was calm, for once. Just a single camera faced her, a single microphone loomed over her, and a single technician watched her. The office was equipped with only simple props: a Stars and Stripes, and a Christmas tree to mark this month of December 2037. As the tech counted her down on his fingers in the time-honored way, the President touched the simple necklace at her throat, but she resisted the temptation to adjust the black hair, now threaded with silver, that her makeup artist had spent so long sculpting.
Juanita Alvarez was the first Hispanic woman to become President of what remained overwhelmingly the most powerful single nation on the planet. With her compassion, her blunt common sense, and her obvious gut instinct for the health of a democracy, the people who had voted for her, and many who hadnt, had taken her to their hearts.
But today she was speaking to more than just the citizens of America. Today her message, simultaneously translated by Aristotle and Thales into all the spoken, written, and gestural languages of humanity, would be broadcast by TV, radio, and webcast to three planets. Later her words and their implications would be analyzed and parsed, praised and criticized, until the last bit of sense had been wrung out of them, as none of her words had ever been examined beforeand almost immediately, of course, based as much on what she had not said as on the words themselves, a legion of conspiracy theories would spring up.
That was to be expected. It was hard to imagine that any President, even the great wartime leaders, had ever had a more important message for her people and the world. And if Alvarez fouled up, her words themselves, through creating panic, disorder, and economic instability, could cause more damage than some small wars.
But if she was nervous, it showed only in the slightly uncertain motions of her hands.
The techs fingers folded down. Three, two, one.
My fellow Americans. My fellow citizens of planet Earth, and beyond. Thank you for listening to me today. I think many of you will anticipate what I have to say to you. Its probably the sign of a healthy democracy that not even the Oval Office is leakproof. A small smile, expertly delivered. I have to tell you that we all face a grave danger. And yet if we work together, with courage and generosity, I assure you there is hope.
Siobhan sat with her daughter Perdita in her mothers small flat in Hammersmith.
Because of her increasing deafness Maria had her softwalls sound turned up so high it was sometimes painful. The din didnt seem to bother twenty-year-old Perdita, though. Even as the President was talking, she let a competing show from another channel run on the small softscreen implant on her wrist. It was nice to know, Siobhan thought wryly, that the worlds media outlets provided choice, even at a time like this.
Maria came bustling through from the kitchen with three glasses of a cream liqueursmall glasses, Siobhan noticed a bit sourly, and no sign of the bottle for replenishment.
Well, this is nice, Maria said, handing out the glasses. She smiled, and the small facial scars of her surgery puckered. It must be a long time since all three of us got together, aside from an occasional Christmas. Its a shame it took the end of the world to make it happen.
Perdita laughed around a salted cracker. Theres always an edge to you, Grandma! We do have lives of our own, you know.
Siobhan glared at her daughter. Since Perdita herself had reached age twelve Siobhan had sympathized with her own mothers occasional clinginess. Lets not argue, Siobhan said. And it isnt the end of the world, Mother. You shouldnt go around saying that. Especially not if people think its me thats saying it. You could start a panic.
Maria sniffed, as always unreasonably miffed at being told off.