VI
Future Leaders
The project now was in high gear; the necessary raw-material requirement had been painstakingly procured. A gargantuan cylindrical structure was towering some one and a half miles in the gloomy sky. Some huge platforms and steel scaffoldings had been erected to accommodate giant mechanical robots that stood 100 yards high, with hydraulic arms stretching some 40 yards that were used to lay several layers of reinforced thermal blanket or insulated covering. Inside the shell were huge rocket engines, a chamber for a nuclear and ion propulsion system, an orbital compartment carrying a rendezvous radar tower, an oxidizer chamber, a combustion chamber, exhaust nozzles, an altitude control system, quarters for the crews, chambers for convoy spaceships, the ammunition arsenal, etc.
In the project’s main office, the professor was presiding over a weekly progress meeting. Wearing a shaggy mustache and uncombed hair, the professor glanced at the bar chart-time schedule.
“Gentlemen, so far we're ahead of schedule. . .. I do hope that we finish this project without a lot of problems . . . so that we can witness the fruit of this remarkable undertaking,” the professor remarked. “Before the Martian ultimatum expires.”
“Sir, if you don’t mind, how big is this infant spheroid out there?" asked Eddie Parconi, a junior astrophysicist.
“Mark, please answer Eddie."
“Based on twentieth century astronomical data, something from five miles to seven miles in diameter.”
“Oh, I see . . . it’s very interesting. . .. I think, sir, we could switch to another source, which I believe could be the best alternative. This spheroid could have been seen by people from all ages without using a sophisticated telescope. It’s only some four miles in diameter, a whirling fireball that produces a characteristic tail stretching up to 80 million miles . . . which I believe has stored enough energy to rejuvenate our planet,” Eddie explained.
“Excuse me, Eddie. I believe you’re talking about Halley s comet….am I right?”
“You' re right, Mark.”
“Well, before anything else I will brief you on two astronomical terms: the aphelion and the perihelion. . .. The former means the farthest distance of the comet from the sun in the course of its orbit . . . while the latter is the closest distance of the comet to the sun. . .. Now we’ll study the movement of Halley’s comet. . .. When it’s approaching its aphelion, beyond the orbit of Neptune, it will bounce back into an elliptical orbit, and its perihelion is within the orbit of Mars . . . with a period of about seventy-six years’ cycle . . . and one interesting cosmic body also, the Icarus, known as the ‘sun grazer in excelsis.’ At aphelion it is well beyond the orbit of Mars; due to its eccentric path at perihelion it is closer to the sun, much farther than Mercury. . .. Icarus has a diameter of about one and a half to two miles . . . with a complete circuit of just 400 days. But unfortunately, Icarus does not qualify for our energy requirement, not only because it’s smaller, but it is classified as an asteroid! . . . In my opinion, an asteroid has no source of energy; it’s just an ordinary huge boulder being pushed by the solar wind or forces originating from other planetary bodies. . .. I have ample time I wish to investigate the real identity of Icarus, whether it’s an asteroid or a comet, including its big brother Hidalgo—”
“Hey. man, you're drifting away from the subject,” Eddie interrupted.
"Sorry, Eddie. . .. What I'm trying to figure out is why when a comet approaches its aphelion it will slow down. Probably it has encountered a resisting force, as noticed by James Muirden, the author of a Guide to Astronomy pocket book. . .. The comet then will decelerate again toward its perihelion. . .. Eddie, you've got a reasonable mind. . .. We should have intercepted this cosmic energy instead, but unfortunately, at this moment we’re not in the right timing to catch Halley’s. It’s already halfway between its aphelion and perihelion. It has achieved a much faster velocity. . .. Perhaps if we had enough time we could have devised a plan to tail and intercept Halley’s. At present we shall be content to snatch the far-distant cosmic energy that is about to form into an infant planet. At present it's moving at snail’s pace . . . probably it’s manageable.”
“Professor, if you don’t mind, may I ask you something?" Kareen approached the professor and gently pressed the ON button of her hand-held compact cassette recorder.
“Yep, go on.”
“Let's say that our men will be successful with this strenuous undertaking . . . will you please explain the system by which the spheroid will approach the Earth’s atmosphere?” Kareen paused for a moment. “Is there a guarantee that it won’t deplete the ozone layer or punch a hole in it?”
Kareen’s inquiry widened everyone’s eyes in disbelief. So far, nobody had touched on this sensitive topic for discussion: the imminent environmental catastrophe! And they were also aware that Kareen was a no-nonsense environmental watcher. She could rely on her media exposure to mount very steep public opposition.
“Professor, does this mean that the cosmic energy can create damage on the ozone layer?" the worried emperor asked.
“Certainly, Your Excellency. It would,” the professor asserted.
Mark was very concerned about this unavoidable stumbling block. He, too, thought deeply, hoping that the right solution would flash into his mind.
“I think there’s no reason to be alarmed.” Eddie Parconi turned from his swivel chair. “According to the old Science journal review, here were countless asteroids and meteors of variable sizes that landed on the Earth. Some created big craters: one of them was found in Siberia, and the biggest crater is the one along the former Yucatan coast in the Caribbean area. When the Chinese conducted an underground nuclear test in the late twentieth century, the American observatory stations on the US. mainland made a bizarre discovery by means of an ultrasound type of instrument. They had detected a 300-square-kilometer continent about 3,000 kilometers off the Pacific coast of Mexico.
“The presence of that land mass suggests it’s not just another rare case of land displacement underneath the seabed due to a major geophysical anomaly, but rather it must have a cosmic origin, from something that struck the Earth. And we could not classify it as a meteor, for it is quite enormous . . . so it definitely qualifies as an asteroid. Which the scientists in the past believed was responsible for the extinction of dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. So, it is apparent that there really were some giant asteroids that struck the Earth without leaving any trace of an ozone hole near those places,” Eddie Parconi stressed. He leaned back into his swivel chair and interlocked his fingers at the back of his head, very confident that he had done an excellent defense. chewing quickly the fruit-flavored gum. Everyone gave him a congratulatory smile except for the professor and Mark.
“Eddie. if we limit our studies to those particular areas alone, I would say that you were absolutely correct. But we cannot just ignore the gaping hole found in the Antarctic ozone layer, right there facing the south polar axis of the Earth. You know, there's something strange about the hole's location, because if we examine the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it lies on the same plane with the Earth's equator. So, if those cosmic bodies had slipped and struck Earth, the point of entry would definitely be along the equatorial rim, as the trajectory of the so-called Yucatán asteroid shows, descending due west. But that doesn’t mean that this gargantuan body won’t create any ozone damage.
“Since the lone ozone hole is in the southern pole of the Earth, logically that doesn’t complement the theory. So, it is very safe to say that apart from the meteorites no asteroids or comets or other foreign bodies have ever intruded this planet.” The professor felt contented. “And let’s assume this extreme possibility: let’s say that this ozone hole was really smashed by a foreign body, say a comet, before this cosmic projectile reached the Caribbean it would first create a piggy bank-shaped gaping hole . . . unless it was guided. Otherwise that famous 300-kilometer crater could have been found in the Antarctic instead,” the pr
ofessor urged. “Or vice versa.”
Then everything once again returned to the complex universal jigsaw puzzle, where everyone was free to move the loose pieces of available mysterious factual evidence and hope to find an acceptable variation
“In the past, some people clung to the belief that the land mass found 3,000 kilometers below is no other than the lost continent: the legendary Atlantis." Eddie Parconi presented another viewpoint while cracking his knuckles, creating an annoying noised. “Perhaps they had all the reasons to believe, like, for instance, the Aztecs. They depicted in their wall paintings people fleeing by boat from an erupting volcano, probably inspired by the Caribbean eruption. I presumed that underlying the periphery of this volcano it was composed of a massive alluvial aquifer system consisting of intercalating beds of assorted boulders, silica sand, and silt.
“After the pressure built up inside the volcano’s chamber rises, it eventually exploded, creating a bell mouth 300 kilometers across and the land around the vicinity slipped and filled up the void. Probably Plato, one of the great philosophers in the history of mankind could have been dancing the fandango with his fellow disciples above their tombs upon learning the startling revelation of the lost continent. It could have been one of the reasons he poisoned himself, when nobody dared to believe him when he insisted that there really was a lost continent.” Eddie Parconi thought to himself that his dart pin had hit the red ball this time and silently declared that the game was over.
“It makes sense, Eddie. Then we’ll zero in on the ozone's gaping hole in the Antarctic,” the professor suggested.
Mark didn’t buy the foregoing explanation; he thought to himself that there was no such thing as mysterious in this case; there must be a hidden Yucatan crater and the Antarctic ozone hole. It required a comprehensive study, he stressed in his mind. Mark was very aware that the US, NASA scientists in the late twentieth century identified the alarmingly rich concentrations of chlorine monoxide (C10) in the stratospheric layer above the Caribbean and the area along the fifty-degree latitude, particularly Russia and Scandinavia. They had warned the world community that the next ozone hole would be opened on the northern hemisphere in a few years’ time.
The worried scientists pinpointed the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCS) and industrial chemicals as the real culprits. Their findings wiped out the skeptics who insisted that the ozone thinning was an unfounded theory. But deep in Mark’s mind some boggling questions had developed. If it were really the industrial pollutants that were behind this mess, then where did those chemical emissions come from that bored into the southern hemisphere’s virgin seal when, in fact, its geographical hemisphere tells us that it was very far from industrial cities at that time?
And why is it that there’s no significant amount of those chemicals above the area comprising the industrial kingpins Japan, China, and their prospering neighbors, the little dragons of Asia? It could have been very convincing if the ozone hole had occurred first in one of these populated regions or specifically, in the northern hemisphere. He belittled the periodic eruptions of Mount Vesuvius, Krakatau, Mount Pinatubo, and some other violent volcanos as less significant. He had a second thought that those rich concentrations of chlorine monoxide were the relics of Yucatan and the early-twentieth century Tunguska blast.
As the industrial chemicals had found their nests in these deeply scoured pockets that had complicated the ozone dilemma much more. Imagine how high those explosions went in the sky? The Yucatan blast created a 300-kilometer-diameter underwater crater, while the Tunguska debris reached London! And Mark was nervous about the damaged done to the ozone layer during the horrifying days of the nuclear war. Will future innocent Earthlings still be shielded by the sensitive ozone canopy? He elected to keep these questions to himself to avoid panic and just hoped that the right time would come to collect the necessary information. He stressed this in his mind.
“No . . . no . . . please refrain from exploring further your little dream world, folks,” the emperor interrupted. “Let’s not guess further on how that ozone hole came into existence . . . because that hole has been a subject of extensive argument in the past. It required a lot of lobbying among the Everglades watchers and the industrial-leaning scientists before they reached a compromise on production of environmentally friendly fuel. May I suggest that we had better join our heads together and overcome these obstacles at once? Otherwise everything that we’ve achieved up to this moment shall go bananas," the emperor warned.
There was a long silence, everyone thinking deeply for an acceptable solution.
“Miss Sandover, kidding aside,” said the professor, who wore his newly platinum hair, “suppose one day you’re cocooned in a cave together with an unfriendly fox minus foodstuff and water for several days. Even if you shout loudly for succor, the only response you get is the echo of your cold voice. Then out of your own frustration you’ve discovered that your selfish inmate has surreptitiously managed to escape by digging a hole large enough to free himself. You can’t follow the creature to freedom because of your size. Then by all good luck your cheerful redeemers come; they’ve brought you some foodstuff and water. What do you think they would do first?”
“Before anything else, naturally, they’ll give me the foodstuff and water through the fox’s hole,” was Kareen’s innocent reply.
“Yep! You’ve got it! Smart girl!” the professor exulted. “So, our trouble is over. We’ll defy tradition . . . we’ll use that foxhole in the Antarctic as our entry corridor!”
No one raised an objection. The emperor tapped the professor’s shoulder in a gesture of admiration while others raised a thumb’s-up sign, but not for Kareem, whose mind was preoccupied by the foreseeable future of the ecosystem of the Earth. Her eyes were momentarily fixed on one corner of the soundproof chamber. “One moment please,” came Kareen’s low voice. All eyes focused on this young journalist who had mellowed into a novice of reincarnated environmental advocate ready to launch another offensive.
“Are there some more problems that bothered you, Miss Sandover? Please voice them,” the professor asked Kareen with the utmost respect.
“Yeah,” Kareen replied. “Can’t we get rid of those greenhouse gases?”
“I think you’re getting nowhere near the main objective of our tasks,” the professor chuckled.
“No sir, I believe I’m on the right track.” Her eyes glowed.
“I’m taking advantage of this rare opportunity.” The adamant journalist protested, “Maybe we can utilize that cosmic energy to suck those industrial pollutants that have been depleting the ozone layer for many years.”
In an instant Kareen got warm applause in the chamber. Now everybody was thinking that the professor was locked into Kareen’s pro-green proposal. The professor, on the other hand, pondered for several minutes and inhaled deeply before he responded to the aggressive environmental liberator.
“You’ve got a great idea, Miss Sandover, the removal of those ozone-thinning particles. You get an A plus, plus, plus for that," the professor praised the pretty journalist. “But what is ambiguous is the overall conceptual picture regarding this global warming. It is firmly believed in the scientific world that those greenhouse gases prevent the entry of sun rays into the atmosphere that caused global warming.
“I now begin to suspect that this outlook is no longer valid on our planet. As Mark had mentioned before, the Earth has numerous pressure valves that release pressurized air into the atmosphere. These marine mechanisms we now understood were responsible for the movements of ocean currents, the formation of killer tornadoes, blizzards, the El Niño phenomenon, and super typhoons. This routine has been going on since the early stage of the development of this planet several million years ago augmented further by the periodical volcanic eruptions that spewed thermal temperatures into the atmosphere, and take note; allow me to repeat this: when air is compressed it becomes hot; global warning could have started way back with the extinction of the dinosaurs.
<
br /> “The pressure density of the atmosphere could have been very dense a long time ago, more than enough to blow up your eardrums, and ditto the temperature. It could have been very warm . . . intolerable to any lifeforms. But even before the outbreak of the nuclear holocaust, the Earth was ideally inhabitable by any living creatures. And just observe, how in our present time we’ve got an extremely cold atmosphere! . . . How does this happen? . . . Well, it is because the Earth has another unique mechanism that it has been able to sustain itself despite those destructive thermal factors. The secret? It has a celestial pressure relief valve where the excessive pressure builds up surges. It’s now certain that the gaping ozone hole in the Antarctic has its main function as an exhaust hole, nature’s wonderful gift to the inhabitants of the Earth.”
Everybody was amazed by the professor’s new outlook on global warming.
“And one more thing about this dinosaur mania: it’s an accepted norm that when the great explosion took place in the Caribbean the dinosaurs were annihilated due to the intense heat worldwide. Questions: How about those other lifeforms, say, the giant aquatic mammals . . . the whales? . . . Why is it that they survived? . . . Why is it that the fossils of those reptiles, dinosaurs, are concentrated in the deserts of Mongolia and North America? It is very suspicious that those reptiles didn’t succumb to the warm temperature but to the opposite: chilling cold! . . . You know, when the great explosion took place, the intense heat was normalized shortly by the gaping Antarctic hole, but not dark fumes that had engulfed most parts of the globe for a long period. It refused the entry of sunlight, and when the acrid temperature was ebbing, the Ice Age countdown began to take place and those mammoth reptiles sought refuge in warm, dry places: the deserts. As the cold winds started to blow in their newfound havens, those reptiles became vulnerable to the severe cold, and they transformed the Gobi Desert into their ultimate abyss,” the professor explained.
The Embryo of the Star Page 7