Solar Express (10 page)

“Speculate on why it's located where it is, please.”

Tavoian paused, thought for several moments. “The lunar elevator, Ellgee Station, and the LLOS are all strictly Noram controlled. A large featureless cylindrical disk near Ellgee Station might well be a storage or transshipment point. Sometimes, concealing something is easier if it's concealed in plain sight. It's also often easier to get to.” He paused. “Is there, by chance, another large seemingly identical disk in the other direction?”

The colonel smiled. “Those who evaluated you said you were perceptive. In time, we'll see how perceptive. What do you think of the political situation, particularly with regard to Earth?”

“I don't like what I see, sir. The situation between the Sinese bloc and India seems especially dangerous, and I wouldn't be surprised if the UAAS isn't up to something. Sudam continues to resent the presence of ONeill Station as a check on their control of the WestHem elevator. I also wouldn't be surprised if EC Chancellor Rumikov doesn't have aspirations to re-create the Russian Empire with himself as tzar.”

“I'd be surprised if he didn't. I'd also be surprised if he is foolish enough to ever reveal a hint of that. You're right to be concerned about the Sinese-Indian tensions. Here's a relatively current image of the Indian geocentric orbit station.” The colonel gestured toward the wallscreen covering the entire bulkhead opposite the pressure hatch as it lit up with a single image, that of a disc with the Earth below, showing the station's position over the equatorial Indian Ocean.

Tavoian couldn't tell from the image how large the station might be.

“You can't see the cabling up to the counterweight. Almost the entire upper surface is covered with solar panels. Each panel is a film square five meters on a side. The station is 250 meters across.”

“That's a fair amount of power, isn't it?”

“A little less than a hundred megawatts at ninety percent efficiency.” The colonel offered a lazy smile.

“But they're not beaming it anywhere, are they? That's prohibited under the terms of the Earth Satellite Treaty.”

“You don't believe that the Indians or Sinese would be stopped by a mere treaty, do you, Captain?”

“No, sir, but they would be stopped by someone detecting that and making it known … and it would be hard to hide that kind of power transmission, if it occurred on a continuous basis.”

“Except perhaps over the central equatorial waters of the Indian Ocean.” The colonel paused. “You're correct, however. They're doing something else, which is why both the Sinese and the EC are worried, not to mention the Australians. They've likely developed a new form of supercapacitor.”

Tavoian had to think about that. A geocentric satellite installation with a massive solar array … “Can they deploy an even larger film cell array?”

“Most definitely.” The colonel waited for Tavoian to say more.

“Lasers, even pumped lasers, wouldn't be that effective against hardened ground targets. Even a particle beam … not that anyone has managed to develop one…” Tavoian looked to the colonel.

“Not too bad, but you're thinking about ground targets. The Indian elevator orbit station is just a bit over fourteen thousand kays—orbital distance—from the Sinese elevator station.”

Tavoian thought he understood. The Indians could hit the Sinese station … if they had either a particle beam or a high powered laser … and if they could focus and aim it over that distance.

“You're not saying anything, Captain.”

“You're suggesting that the Indians can take out the Sinese elevator and stations without any warning.”

“We're fairly certain that they can't … yet. No laser or particle weapon can be focused with that intensity over that distance. So far.”

“But the Sinese think that could happen, and they want to stop the Indians before that can happen?”

“Wouldn't you … if you were the Sinese?” The colonel's smile was ironic. “The entire Sinese bloc, as a whole, has a declining population. They've suffered some devastating economic blows because of sea-level rise. There's little left of Guangzhou, and Singapore is essentially dying behind seawalls that will have to be raised again in another few years. We can't even count the coastal communities and lowlands that they've lost. Or the sections of larger cities.”

“So have we.” Tavoian couldn't help but think of a third or more of New York City under water, the “Venice of the West,” or the ruins of Miami, a totality of disaster that had been compounded by the collapse of so many limestone caverns across Florida, half of which was under water, or New Orleans and Sacramento.

“We gained some productive land in Canada, and access to Arctic Ocean resources. When what remained of the Russian Federation joined the EC, that blocked the Sinese from a northern frontier, especially with the desertification of northern China. India actually benefited, at least comparatively, from the combination of the Climate War and the Middle East Meltdown. With Pakistan eliminated, the reformation of Iran, and the ocean's effective reclamation of most of Bangladesh, the only real threat they face is the Sinese, and the longer they can hold on, the more the balance swings in their favor.”

“And the Sinese obviously know this,” Tavoian said, suspecting that some commentary was necessary.

“The Sinese have continued to build burners, and there are more docked at their Heavenly Jade Station than we've ever seen.”

“And we're stockpiling Hel3 just in case?”

The colonel smiled pleasantly. “How did you come up with that idea?”

“That's an estimate based on the price … and various rumors about burner power conservation.” None of which Tavoian would have known if Keiser hadn't mentioned it.

“The other aspect of the problem is that the UAAS has approached India about the possibility of developing an orbital tethered power system.”

“As a way to get their own elevator or partial elevator?”

“That's a possibility. All of this could lead to a situation where military superiority definitely shifts from a reliance on both Earth and space-based weapons to one where space-based weapons will predominate.” The colonel cleared his throat. “That leads to why you're here at this particular time. There are reasons why DOEA has insisted that all fusionjet pilots are also commissioned Space Command officers, and why we've resisted commercialization of space travel. It's not merely a matter of parochial control, not that we mind having that control. It's more fundamental than that. Very much more fundamental than that. The aim of business is to make money. Lots of it. However those sainted business leaders can do it. The aim of military leaders is to protect those they serve. All of those they serve. That's the honest senior officers. The dishonest ones want to protect people in order to rule them. That puts even a dishonest general above an honest businessman. Give business total access to fusionjets, and we'll be under Sinese control in a generation. Or maybe Indian control.”

Tavoian understood what the general was saying. He had doubts about some of it.

“… every DOEA fusionjet was designed and built for rapid conversion into a warcraft. Currently, four fusionjets, five including the one you piloted here, are being converted as a precautionary measure. You, and a number of other pilots, will be trained to operate those combat craft.”

“Might I ask to what end, sir?”

“To the end that we hope you'll never have to fire a weapon in combat. We want to present a new and powerful weapon to keep either the Sinese or the Indians from attacking each other. Or us.”

And to make it clear that Noram is still a power to be respected.
Tavoian didn't have to say that. He knew that was really what the colonel had in mind.

 

12

D
AEDALUS
B
ASE

8 A
PRIL
2114

Alayna had been able to gather over almost eighty hours' worth of observational solar data over the first nine Earth days of the long lunar “day” … and still she was finding nothing new among the scores and scores of multi-fractal mini-granulations.
And you're confining your observations to a narrow band of solar latitude. Still … that doesn't mean something's not there.
With that thought, she shook her head. Lack of discovery could well mean that there was nothing.
Except that no one has yet been able to probe beneath the upper surface of the photosphere, and there's a lot beneath that.

While she hadn't found anything yet, she did have Marcel set aside a special file of the single-element overlays he had created for her.
There has to be something.
Except she was well aware that there didn't have to be. All too many scientists throughout history had felt there had to be “something,” and more often than not, they didn't find it. Most of science was disproving, not proving or finding something new, a fact overlooked by most people, and especially by the media and politicians.

She'd put off answering Chris's latest message for several reasons, including the fact that she'd been preoccupied with her own research, poring over the data and observations, looking for the smallest hint of something besides the patterns of granulation and mini-granulation that had been studied and restudied for more than a century and a half. But it seemed that nothing was there.
Nothing was there …

For some reason an old rhyme came into her head.

Yesterday, upon the stair,

I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today.

I wish, I wish he'd go away.

Like it or not, one way or another, the data, the observational hints she was seeking, the clues, the whatever … she and the solar array weren't finding them … or not recognizing them, and she was having trouble dealing with that. She reminded herself that Percival Lowell had looked for Pluto for more than ten years, and after Lowell's death Clyde Tombaugh had searched more than a year. And then seventy-six years after Tombaugh found it, and almost ten years after his death, the IAU decided he hadn't found a planet at all but just another KBO.

With a wry smile, she pushed the thoughts about her project away. She needed to do something else for at least a little while, and she did owe Chris a reply.
Owe?
She did owe him, but she'd found that she liked messaging him, and she also liked that she could think about what she said before sending those thoughts off. It also didn't hurt that he'd given her hints about the Noram inspectors, either.

Chris—

I hope this reaches you without too much delay, and that your new assignment is something you'll be looking forward to. If it's not, you do have my condolences, and even a trace of sympathy.

She wasn't about to say what else she thought, that he'd likely have a job with the Space Service or DOEA as long as he wanted it, unlike her. Alayna was well aware that finding a job in her field, even after a stint at COFAR, was going to be extraordinarily difficult, even if she had discovered a comet, if it even turned out to be one. More likely it was an ancient burned-out relic. That might explain the silicon.
But what about the silver?

She shook her head. In an infinite universe there had to be a cometary nucleus with silver traces. And finding something slightly odd wouldn't distinguish her that much from the hundreds of others who made cometary discoveries, many of whom were dedicated amateurs. Professional-level jobs were difficult to find and even harder to hold, and the last thing she wanted was to have to go into some form of personal service, no matter how dignified the title or remunerative the pay, although most personal service didn't pay that much.

Almost another week [Earth measure] has gone by. I've got lots more observations and data, but nothing yet along the lines I'm looking for. That's often the nature of observational astrophysics. I wouldn't call it a “truth,” especially after your last quotation. I do think there's a great deal of accuracy in those words, though. In terms of the havoc that proclamations of truth cause, is there any great difference between politicians, religious fanatics, and pathological liars, especially when they say things like, “The truth of the matter is…” and then go on to spout some nonsense? Scientists aren't immune from believing in nonsense, of course, but most nonsense from scientists occurs when they venture outside their field. In time, any nonsense we spout within our field is usually discovered quickly. Usually, anyway.

In the spirit of trading thought-provoking quotations, I've enclosed something a bit different.

She called up the more lengthy selection she'd attached.
Lengthy compared to what you sent before, but you don't want him thinking he's the only one who can find longer meaningful passages.
Even as she thought that, she wondered why she cared so much about what he thought. It wasn't as though they'd likely even see each other again. Her eyes dropped to the excerpt.

Scientists too often accept the criticism that they don't get excited. We do get excited. We just don't get as excited in print or publication. Nor do we get excited about the everyday. Too many people get too passionate about too little, and not as excited about what matters. Who cares who won what event in the Olympics? Millions! Who got really excited and concerned about the carbon levels in the Earth's atmosphere? Thousands, and they were all scientists. But everyone forgot who won what medal in two weeks, and the entire world was left coping with the disasters caused by the greenhouse effect fueled by increased carbon levels. People remember the great comets they have seen their entire life, or a spectacular view of the aurora borealis …