A Meeting With Medusa (37 page)
Now that
ATLAS’S
propellant tanks, control systems and thrusters had been securely mounted on Kali, it looked as if some lunatic had built an oil refinery on an asteroid. Captain Singh was exhausted, as were all the crew members, after days of assembly and checking. Yet he felt a warm glow of achievement: they had done everything that was expected of them, the countdown was going smoothly, and the rest was up to
ATLAS
.
He would have been far less relaxed had he known of the
ABSOLUTE PRIORITY
message racing toward him by tight infrared beam from
ASTROPOL
headquarters in Geneva. It would not reach
Goliath
for another 30 minutes. And by then it would be much too late.
At about T minus 30 minutes,
Goliath
had drawn away from Kali to stand well clear of the jet with which
ATLAS
would try to nudge it from its present course. ‘Like a mouse pushing an elephant,’ one media person had described the operation. But in the frictionless vacuum of space, where momentum could never be lost, even one mousepower would be enough if applied early and over a sufficient length of time.
The group of officers waiting quietly on the bridge did not expect to see anything spectacular: the plasma jet of the
ATLAS
drive would be far too hot to produce much visible radiation. Only the telemetry would confirm that ignition had started and that Kali was no longer an implacable juggernaut, wholly beyond the control of humanity.
There was a brief round of cheering and a gentle patter of applause as the string of zeros on the accelerometer display began to change. The feeling on the bridge was one of relief rather than exultation. Though Kali was stirring, it would be days and weeks before victory was assured.
And then, unbelievably, the numbers dropped back to zero. Seconds later, three simultaneous audio alarms sounded. All eyes were suddenly fixed on Kali and the
ATLAS
booster which should be nudging it from its present course. The sight was heartbreaking: the great propellant tanks were opening up like flowers in a time-lapse movie, spilling out the thousands of tons of reaction mass that might have saved the Earth. Wisps of vapour drifted across the face of the asteroid, veiling its cratered surface with an evanescent atmosphere.
Then Kali continued along its path, heading inexorably toward a fiery collision with the Earth.
Captain Singh was alone in the large, well-appointed cabin that had been his home for longer than any other place in the solar system. He was still dazed but was trying to make his peace with the universe.
He had lost, finally and forever, all that he loved on Earth. With the decline of the nuclear family, he had known many deep attachments, and it had been hard to decide who should be the mothers of the two children he was permitted. A phrase from an old American novel (he had forgotten the author) kept coming into his mind: ‘Remember them as they were—and write them off.’ The fact that he himself was perfectly safe somehow made him feel worse;
Goliath
was in no danger whatsoever, and still had all the propellant it needed to rejoin the shaken survivors of humanity on the Moon or Mars.
Well, he had many friendships—and one that was much more than that—on Mars; this was where his future must lie. He was only 102, with decades of active life ahead of him. But some of the crew had loved ones on the Moon; he would have to put
Goliath
’s destination to the vote.
Ship’s Orders had never covered a situation like this.
I still don’t understand,’ said the chief engineer, ‘why that explosive cord wasn’t detected on the preflight check-out.’
‘Because that Reborn fanatic could have hidden it easily—and no one would have dreamed of looking for such a thing. Pity
ASTROPOL
didn’t catch him while he was still on Phobos.’
‘But
why
did they do it? I can’t believe that even Chrislamic crazies would want to destroy the Earth.’
‘You can’t argue with their logic—if you accept their premises. God, Allah, is testing us, and we mustn’t interfere. If Kali misses, fine. If it doesn’t, well, that’s part of Her bigger plan. Maybe we’ve messed up Earth so badly that it’s time to start over. Remember that old saying of Tsiolkovski’s: “Earth is the cradle of humankind, but you cannot live in the cradle forever.” Kali could be a sign that it’s time to leave.’
The captain held up his hand for silence.
‘The only important question now is, Moon or Mars? They’ll both need us. I don’t want to influence you’ (that was hardly true; everyone knew where he wanted to go), ‘so I’d like your views first.’
The first ballot was Mars 6, Moon 6, Don’t know I, captain abstaining.
Each side was trying to convert the single ‘Don’t know’ when David spoke.
‘There is an alternative.’
‘What do you mean?’ Captain Singh demanded, rather brusquely.
‘It seems obvious. Even though
ATLAS
is destroyed, we still have a chance of saving the Earth. According to my calculations,
Goliath
has just enough propellant to deflect Kali—if we start thrusting against it immediately. But the longer we wait, the less the probability of success.’
There was a moment of stunned silence on the bridge as everyone asked the question, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ and quickly arrived at the answer.
David had kept his head, if one could use so inappropriate a phrase, while all the humans around him were in a state of shock. There were some compensations in being a Legal Person (Nonhuman). Though David could not know love, neither could he know fear. He would continue to think logically, even to the edge of doom.
With any luck, thought Captain Singh, this is my last broadcast to Earth. I’m tired of being a hero, and a slightly premature one at that. Many things could still go wrong, as indeed they already have…
‘This is Captain Singh, space tug
Goliath
. First of all, let me say how glad we are that the Elders of Chrislam have identified the saboteurs and handed them over to
ASTROPOL
.
‘We are now 50 days from Earth, and we have a slight problem. This one, I hasten to add, will not affect our new attempt to deflect Kali into a safe orbit. I note that the news media are calling this deflection Operation Deliverance. We like the name, and hope to live up to it, but we still cannot be absolutely certain of success. David, who appreciates all the goodwill messages he has received, estimates that the probability of Kali impacting Earth is still 100%…
‘We had intended to keep just enough propellant reserve to leave Kali shortly before encounter and go into a safer orbit, where our sister ship
Titan
could rendezvous with us. But that option is now closed. While
Goliath
was pushing against Kali at maximum drive, we broke through a weak point in the crust. The ship wasn’t damaged, but we’re stuck! All attempts to break away have failed.
‘We’re not worried, and it may even be a blessing in disguise. Now we’ll use the
whole
of our remaining propellant to give one final nudge. Perhaps that will be the last drop that’s needed to do the job.
‘So we’ll ride Kali past Earth, and wave to you from a comfortable distance, in just 50 days.’
It would be the longest 50 days in the history of the world.
Now the huge crescent of the Moon spanned the sky, the jagged mountain peaks along the terminator burning with the fierce light of the lunar dawn. But the dusty plains still untouched by the sun were not completely dark; they were glowing faintly in the light reflected from Earth’s clouds and continents. And scattered here and there across that once dead landscape were the glowing fireflies that marked the first permanent settlements humankind had built beyond the home planet. Captain Singh could easily locate Clavius Base, Port Armstrong, Plato City. He could even see the necklace of faint lights along the Translunar Railroad, bringing its precious cargo of water from the ice mines at the South Pole.
Earth was now only five hours away.
Kali entered Earth’s atmosphere soon after local midnight, 200 km above Hawaii. Instantly, the gigantic fireball brought a false dawn to the Pacific, awakening the wildlife on its myriad islands. But few humans had been asleep this night of nights, except those who had sought the oblivion of drugs.
Over New Zealand, the heat of the orbiting furnace ignited forests and melted the snow on mountaintops, triggering avalanches into the valleys beneath. But the human race had been very, very lucky: the main thermal impact as Kali passed the Earth was on the Antarctic, the continent that could best absorb it. Even Kali could not strip away all the kilometres of polar ice, but it set in motion the Great Thaw that would change coastlines all around the world.
No one who survived hearing it could ever describe the sound of Kali’s passage; none of the recordings were more than feeble echoes. The video coverage, of course, was superb, and would be watched in awe for generations to come. But nothing could ever compare with the fearsome reality.
Two minutes after it had sliced into the atmosphere, Kali re-entered space. Its closest approach to Earth had been 60 km. In that two minutes, it took 100,000 lives and did $1 trillion worth of damage.
Goliath had been protected from the fireball by the massive shield of Kali itself; the sheets of incandescent plasma streamed harmlessly overhead. But when the asteroid smashed into Earth’s blanket of air at more than 100 times the speed of sound, the colossal drag forces mounted swiftly to five, 10, 20 gravities—and peaked at a level far beyond anything that machines or flesh could withstand.
Now indeed Kali’s orbit had been drastically changed; never again would it come near Earth. On its next return to the inner solar system, the swifter spacecraft of a later age would visit the crumpled wreckage of
Goliath
and bear reverently homeward the bodies of those who had saved the world.
Until the next encounter.
Martian Times
, December 1997
First published in
Playboy
, January 1998 by
Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke
This is my first collaboration with Stephen Baxter—I contributed little more than one of the basic ideas, which had been gestating for more than fifty years—see ‘Travel by Wire’.
1947: Hatfield, North London, England
The engineers gave Henry Forbes a thumbs-up, and he let the Vampire roll down the runway. The roaring jets gave him that familiar smooth push in the back, and when he pulled on his stick the Vampire tipped up and threw him into the sky.
It was a cloudless June morning. The English sky was a powder-blue, uncluttered dome above him, and the duck-egg-green hull of the Vampire shone in the sunlight. He pulled the kite through a couple of circuits over London. The capital was a grey-brown, cluttered mass beneath him, with smoke columns threading up through a thin haze of smog. Beautiful sight, of course. He could still make out some of the bigger bomb sites, in the East End and the docks, discs of rubble like craters on the Moon.
He remembered Hatfield at the height of the show: dirty, patched-up Spits and Hurricanes and B24 bombers, taxiing between piles of rubble, kites bogged in the mud on days so foul even the sparrows were walking, flight-crew in overalls and silk scarves cranking engines, their faces drawn with exhaustion…
That was then. Now, the planes were like visitors from the future, gleaming metal monocoque jets with names like Vampire, Meteor, Canberra, Hunter, Lightning. And Henry Forbes, aged thirty, was no longer a Squadron Leader in blue RAF braid with a career spanning the Fall of France, the Battle of Britain and D-Day; now he was nothing more exotic than a test pilot for de Havilland, and not even the most senior at that.
Still, there were compensations. He was testing an engine for the new M52, which should be capable of flying at 1000 m.p.h., thereby knocking the socks off the Americans in California with their X-1…
Forbes settled in his cockpit. The single-seater fighter was a tight squeeze, like the Spits used to be, even if today he was wearing no more than a battered sports suit, a Mae West, and a carnation in his buttonhole. Cocooned in his cockpit, alone in the empty sky, he felt an extraordinary peace. He wished Max could be up here with him—or, at least, that he could communicate to her some of what he felt about this business of flying. But he never could. And besides, she was much too busy with her own projects.