by Mich Moore
funeral party. Jameston turned around. Mrs. Montague had fainted onto the wet grass. The president stood quietly next to where her head now lay, wiping raindrops from his face. "We'll be there within an hour."
The news that Fields was presenting was nothing short of mind-boggling. Data just sent back from an unmanned Soviet spacecraft was verifying what astronomers at the Royal Observatory had seen almost a year ago: that the planet Venus had undergone some global environmental shift so quickly that the scientists believed that it had taken mere days for it to occur. The data also confirmed that that shift had been constructive and not destructive. Venus's toxic atmosphere had been blown completely away. The planet's rotation had sped up and was now just a few kilometers per hour less than earth's own. And there were color images of what were unmistakably oceans, white clouds, and snowstorms.
"The RO says that Venus now has a strong magnetic field extending from its north and south poles, again very much like earth's, and that it is apparently supporting an oxygen-rich atmosphere." He held up another series of photographs. "There appear to be two considerable land masses, maybe eight thousand kilometers apart." He offered up the pictures to the other men. "It's as though we've been looking at the wrong planet all along. If this turns out to be true, then the implications are truly without precedent."
Prime Minister Tennyson stared hard at the photographs and the accompanying technical data. "I'm sorry, but I really do find this difficult to believe. Planets don't simply evolve overnight. They may experience a sudden destruction that quickly, but it's never the other way around. Something like this would have to take tens of millions of years to happen. Not days. This is not even theoretically possible."
Jameston sat back in his chair. "You're right. It's as though we've been looking at the wrong planet. And there aren't any other class M planets in our solar system. So I also agree. This cannot be happening."
"So maybe it isn't," Grodin proffered. "This 'evidence' might just be the product of mass psychosis. I mean, we've had some pretty strange things happen right here on earth lately. The Advance South's in the dark about whoever's behind it as much as we are, despite what their religious wingnuts are saying. Who's to say that whatever it is isn't affecting our minds as well."
"You have a valid point," Tennyson said.
Fields could tell that he was losing them. "I've saved the best for last. Look at this." He passed a color photograph to the prime minister. Tennyson looked at it, put it down, picked it up, looked at it again, and then passed it on to Grodin.
After each man had studied the picture, there was dead silence.
"That photograph was the last one taken by the Solyuv. It was one hundred kilometers above the planet, over the ocean the Russians have named Saint Vladymer. When our scientists got these photos back, someone on a whim decided to enhance the image. This is what they captured."
It looked like a bridge straddling the ocean between the two continents.
Tennyson looked slightly bemused. "So now you're saying that it's inhabited?"
"We don't know yet, Mr. Prime Minister. We've detected no signs of life. But the bridge structure—if that's what it is— looks to be in good shape, which is completely amazing considering that it's been supposedly subjected to sulfuric acid winds for millions of years."
Jameston could no longer restrain himself. "Enough of this bizarre show-and-tell. Why don't you tell us what's really going on? How is this happening? Venus is supposed to have surface temperatures of molten lead and now you're telling me that suddenly it's move-in ready ... ?" He paused, his eyes glued on the ceiling. "Jesus Christ! That's what this is, isn't it?"
Tennyson shook his head. "I don't follow you."
"This is no friggin' coincidence," Jameston said. "We're literally being pushed off Earth by circumstances that we can't control. Venus suddenly does this reveal and BAM! we have another earth!"
"You think it's a trap?"
Jameston was feeling his innards go gooey. "I think that somebody is FUCKING WITH US! THAT'S WHAT I THINK!" He brought his emotions back under control. "I don't know. But ... if there's a breathable atmosphere ... and water ... and land.... The possibilities would be limitless."
13
Truman National Park, New Mexico
Mount Diego was the highest peak in the park and had quickly become the favorite new gathering place of émigrés and townies alike. Because of the steady rains that had fallen upon the state since the Super Quake, the hills were verdant and cool. On clear nights, more than six thousand people camped out on its slopes with small bonfires and thick blankets. Even the wild animals that frequented the émigré camps made the trip on especially nice nights. The humans did not mind. Room was made for them and they were left in peace.
Ian Ferguson was one of many biologists and modern anthropologists who had come to the Santa Fe area within the last six months to study the post-quake phenomena. Two vastly different cultures of peoples from all over the world had conjoined themselves with no apparent outside influence and formed, at least part of the time, a homogenous third culture that was almost completely devoid of social differentiation. In addition, the reports of UFO activity in the area were off the charts. From Ferguson's chair in Oxford, it had seemed a fantastic myth with just enough points of valid science attached to it to make it worthy of investigation. And so here he was, atop a tall mountain in the middle of what once used to be a scorched desert, smoking a marijuana cigarette with Raffe, a neurosurgeon from Calcutta, and Samuel, an escaped prisoner from Nevada. Tonight the crowd was extra large because the Perseid meteor shower was pelting the earth with its annual visitation, and the view from the mountain was supposed to be spectacular.
Raffe was discussing the poverty that he had grown up around during his childhood. Depressing stuff, but Raffe was not positioning it that way. He was telling the stories of those individuals who may have been lacking money but never lacked heart or guts. Samuel sat listening intently. Ian had known him for about three days, and the man seemed content. He had not asked why he had been in prison, but Raffe had assured him that it was not for anything too serious.
A series of loud grunts came from the distance. Soon a huge, hulking creature began making its way towards the main campfire. It was an exceptionally monstrous golden bear, and she was being followed by two equally monstrous cubs. The humans in her path casually moved out of their way. Once the bear family reached the fire, the mother bear plopped down onto the ground with a great huff and gazed lazily into the fire. Her children stayed close to her, only occasionally giving into mild play.
Ian had to get a grip on his instinctive fear of being around such a large predator. "Does this happen a lot?" he asked Raffe.
"What?"
"Do bears come around here much?"
"Sure! That's Minnie. She's a grizzly. Probably one of the last to make it out of Yellowstone. I don't know the names of the cubs. Hey, Samuel. You know their names?"
Samuel took a hit off the joint. "Cal and Mack, I think. Something like that."
Ian shivered, although it was definitely not cold. "Isn't it a bit dangerous having large meat eaters around? Especially with so many children in the area."
Raffe yawned. "No, I don't think so. They've been with us for months now. We feed them, so they don't get the normal eating urges."
Ian took the joint that Samuel was passing to him and took a deep hit off it. "You feed them? Like what?"
"Oh, they eat what we eat. Fruits and veggies. But mainly beans and cornbread."
A tall fellow walked by. Samuel called out to him. "David!"
The tall gentleman stopped. "Hey!" But he did not seem to recognize anyone in their group.
Samuel stood up. "How you been? I haven't seen you and Jennifer in weeks, man."
The man named David smiled. "Yeah, we've been so busy in town. Business has really picked up lately." He took a closer look at Samuel's face. "Hey, I know you, right?"
Samuel broke out in happiness. "Yeah. We fir
st met you right outside of Reno. Me and my friends were at a truck stop, and you and your brother gave us money. I guess we were stinking real bad."
David tapped his head. "That's right! I remember now. You had children with you."
"That's right! They're still with us. Cody is attending school in town, and Isabel goes to the pre-school here in Camptown."
"That's great. It's good to see you again!" He waved and disappeared over the next hill.
Ian stared after him. "Was that the famous David Brown?"
Raffe looked at him through a cloud of bluish smoke. "Well, that's David Brown, but I don't think he's famous."
Something caught Ian's attention. There. In a huge tree down the trail a ways. Three bright lights.
He pointed at them. "What are those?"
Samuel looked to where he was pointing. "Oh, we don't know. They show up sometimes and just hang out. My girlfriend, Aimee, calls them Orion's Bracelet because sometimes they move around in a single line and it looks like those three stars in Orion's Belt."
The lights were definitely spherical and seemed to pulsate with an orange-gold glow. He could not tell if they were resting on a tree branch or merely floating between the branches. Chinese lanterns, maybe?
"I'd like a better look at them." He left Raffe and Samuel in deep discussion and stepped onto the trail that would take him past the tree. His attention focused on the strange lights, he