Book Read Free

Peregrinus Orior

Page 22

by Robertson, John


  As the young lieutenant threaded his way through the smoking remains of the regiment and crested the ridge marking NATO’s forward defense line, he realized that he had not seen a NATO handheld missile launch for the last several minutes, though the Hellfire missiles from the support helicopters had continued to devastate the few remaining Russian tanks. All that Gregor could see was a rapidly retreating line of personnel carrier and support vehicles making toward the next ridgeline a couple of miles away. He was tempted to fire a few main gun rounds at the retreating NATO forces that were still within range. The result would have been an immediate return of fire from the many attack helicopters hovering protectively a few dozen feet above the retreating anti-tank brigade. Gregor chose to live.

  Quiet descended on the battlefield, but for the continued shriek of 155 mm howitzer rounds passing overhead to pound the Russian divisions assembled in the rear. The 1st Guards regiment had achieved its objective and nearly on time. NATO had been driven from its line of defense and the Russian army was in Poland. However, there were not many left of the regiment to celebrate this success, and it wasn’t really much of a success from a practical point of view. The NATO retreat was entirely strategic. NATO casualties and equipment losses had been very light and they were well positioned tactically to repeat the damage to the Russians. A full tank regiment was nothing but tatters. The armored spearhead had been blunted.

  The Russian chain of command was hugely distressed at the outcome of the initial Poland attack. However, one battle does not win or lose a war. The two remaining regiments of the Division were ordered to sweep right and left to test the NATO flanks. Although they had been held in reserve, these two regiments had been close enough to the front line to be pretty badly beaten up by the Hellfires from the NATO helicopters. Nevertheless, those flanking attacks were not as completely one-sided, with more attention now being given to suppression of the Javelin squads. Yet, neither was there any decisive victory for the Russian division, and casualties of men and destruction of equipment continued to mount with little corresponding damage to the NATO defensive forces. By late afternoon, the Tamanskaya division had made no further progress and had been reduced to the equivalent of less than one full regiment. The remaining four divisions of the Russian battle group had also been significantly degraded by continuous artillery and cruise missile fire. Much the same pattern had been repeated at two of the other three Russian axes of attack.

  In the fourth case the Russian battle group commander had, at the last minute, discarded his preapproved attack plan and had executed a long flanking attack, trying to outflank the NATO defenders. However, the Javelin brigades were highly mobile, and the one facing this tactic had simply shifted its front line orientation to match the flanking attack. There was less direct engagement on this front, and therefore less destruction to the spearhead Armada division, but at the end of the day no significant penetration of the NATO defense had been achieved, and the tightly packed follow-on divisions in the rear had still been fish in a barrel for NATO artillery and cruise missiles from a U.S. Black Sea flotilla.

  At eleven o’clock in the morning Washington time — six o’clock at night in Moscow — President Rushton had initiated a call to his Russian counterpart. The American president had not chastised the Russian, though he had to maintain a tight rein on his emotions to avoid conveying the intense dislike he felt for the man. He had simply proposed that in the interest of avoiding further bloodshed an immediate cease-fire be declared following which Russian forces would have twenty-four hours to move back behind their initial line of attack and to remove all armed forces from Belarus. NATO forces would not pursue the withdrawing Russian forces, and artillery and cruise missile strikes would cease.

  The Russian president responded with his usual belligerence, proposing that NATO surrender or Russia was prepared to unleash chemical, biological and even tactical nuclear weapons if necessary. The American president responded calmly and coolly that NATO troops were trained to withstand nuclear, biological and chemical warfare and that NATO would not resort to such weapons itself, but if so attacked, the U.S. Air Force would commence high altitude strategic bombing of the rear areas of the current offensive, completely destroying the remaining Russian ground forces. The American president also added that if Russia was prepared to accept the cease-fire and certain other conditions, NATO might be prepared to return to normal economic relations with Russia and work cooperatively toward managing global cooling, which had seemed to be the direction Russia had been pursuing prior to commencing hostilities. This cooperation would include nonopposition to Russian emigration to an agreed list of Russian client states in southern latitudes.

  A short scuffle could be heard on the Russian end of the line. The Russian translator requested the American president to await a call back in a few moments. History may never know exactly what transpired in the Kremlin that evening, though it isn’t difficult to guess at the gist of it given the result.

  A few minutes later the hotline was activated again from Moscow’s end. The translator, who seemed slightly ruffled, announced that the president had resigned, and he was now speaking on behalf of the prime minister of Russia together with the commanding general of all Russian ground forces. These two individuals had been temporarily appointed as co-presidents pending further deliberations of the Council of Ministers. The Russian co-presidents had asked the translator to inquire of the American president as to what additional conditions, beyond immediate cease-fire and withdrawal, would have to be met by Russia in order to reestablish normal relationships with NATO and its member countries. James Rushton had calmly replied that they had already met the first condition, removal of the previous Russian president.

  Chapter 27

  January 17, 2030

  Near Pasadena, California

  Darya shivered in the cool mountain air as she stood gazing up at the night sky a little before midnight. Although she’d spent so many nights staring up into the vast universe — as a child, as an undergraduate student, a graduate student and now as a full-fledged astrophysicist — this night was different from all those other nights; it had never happened before and would never happen again. Her planet, Peregrinus, hung in the sky above her at its closest approach to Earth. It was a huge, radiant ball reflecting back light from the Sun, which was now shining brightly on the other side of the Earth, but fully illuminating Peregrinus. On certain nights as Peregrinus climbed up through the plane of the ecliptic, the Earth’s shadow could be seen falling on the face of Peregrinus, though the huge planet was now slightly above the plane and beyond the Earth’s shadow.

  It was also a full Moon tonight, with no part of the Moon obscured by the Earth’s shadow. The Moon was still high in the western sky and the two celestial bodies hung near each other, lighting the night with their combined glow. Peregrinus appeared to be more than twice the size of the more familiar orb despite its much greater distance away. It was a spectacular view — beautiful and awesome beyond description.

  Darya had spent many evenings in the last two years observing the approach of Peregrinus, the Wanderer, as it rose steadily in the southern sky. Much of that time during the first year, she had been looking at the monitor of the Big Eye at the LSST observatory in the Andes, and the focus had been purely scientific. She had continued to monitor the Wanderer closely since her initial discovery of it, gathering as much data as possible and supporting her colleague and teammate, Tony Galletsia, as he continually refined the path of the planet. Of course, after the initial announcement and revelation of the visitor, she had been far from alone among astronomers, professional and amateur, observing the rise of Peregrinus. Nevertheless, she still had the best vantage point and the best tool for the job, and she was the primary astronomer on the president’s Peregrinus advisory committee. So, she took her role very seriously.

  After the initial big surprise, there had, thankfully, been no further surprises. Peregrinus’s diameter and mass had been confirmed at valu
es close to the initial estimates, nearly one and a half times larger than Jupiter and three times more massive. Most importantly, the planet’s projected path had remained at a comfortable distance from Earth, with a point of closest approach of ten million miles, which was occurring this very night, a few days after rising through the plane of the ecliptic. Unfortunately, a comfortable separation distance from a collision risk perspective was not, as Darya well knew, going to be all that comfortable from a climate perspective.

  While she continued to monitor the approach of Peregrinus, Darya had ample time to complete her thesis on exoplanets. Though a valuable contribution to her subject area, the thesis itself was somewhat anticlimactic relative to her discovery and study of Peregrinus. In fact, she had since submitted for publication a couple of papers on the transient planet, exploring its possible origins. These would be more extensively read than her thesis ever would be.

  Darya’s oral thesis defense had occurred in the ivied halls of Oxford University in the summer of 2028. Ivy is generally tolerant of cold temperatures, so there was optimism that it would continue to dress the campus in year-round green for many years to come. Darya was surprised and delighted to discover that her examination committee included both Dr. George Rigby and Dr. Eli Wayman. The defense had gone well, in this case a forgone conclusion. She had received her doctorate at the university’s fall convocation, at which the prime minister had delivered the keynote speech with none other than the president of the United States of America in attendance. Darya had also been awarded a two-year post-doctoral fellowship to continue her studies of Peregrinus.

  During the last several months, Darya had been spending fewer hours in the antiseptic confines of the Big Eye and more in direct visual observation. She had watched as Peregrinus grew from a bright pinpoint of light, not distinguishable from the resident planets by visual impression, to the size of a coriander seed, to a pea, a marble, golf ball and, dramatically in the last weeks, to a softball and finally a beach ball.

  As on many of those prior evenings, the young astronomer was standing outside on the top of a mountain with a clear view of the western horizon where Peregrinus hung, a little further to the north each night, before it set into the Pacific Ocean. The mountain she was on tonight was not in the Andes. She stood on Mount Wilson in the San Gabriels just east of Pasadena, California, in the staff parking lot of the Mount Wilson Observatory. It had been many decades since Mount Wilson had been at its prime as a center of astronomical research and it now primarily served as a public education and engagement facility. Nevertheless, it contains the one-hundred-inch Hooker telescope, which had been the largest in the world from 1917 to 1949, as well as its predecessor, a sixty-inch telescope, which also held the size record in its time. It was the site of many great strides in astronomical research, including Edwin Hubble’s discovery that the universe extends far beyond our Milky Way galaxy, which is really just our immediate neighborhood, and that the universe is constantly expanding away from a central point.

  At 5,715 feet above sea level, the Mount Wilson Observatory lay well below the altitude of the LSST facility in the distant south, though it was still cold at this time of year, with a blanket of snow covering the nearby meadows and woods in white. Darya was warmly dressed, and she was not alone. Tony Galletsia was standing with his arms around her gazing at the two orbs. The two young scientists, with differing but complementary fields of expertise, had grown very close over the last two years. What had begun as a friendly and mutually cooperative professional relationship had progressed to a personal friendship and then a full romance.

  The two members of the president’s Peregrinus scientific advisory committee had some time ago, even before their relationship had progressed to romance, agreed to observe together on the night of Peregrinus’s closest approach. It had seemed a fitting thing to do together, even then, for the person whose research had first led to the identification of the wandering planet, and the person whose expertise had quickly alerted humanity to the coming close passage of the visitor. Now that the time had arrived, they wouldn’t have been apart on this unique and spectacular night no matter what.

  The couple had carefully thought through their life plans in a post-Peregrinus world. Pasadena seemed the obvious choice of place to live. With a relatively southerly location and less than one thousand feet above sea level, it would retain a hospitable climate in the years to come, possibly even more pleasant than at present in the peak of summer, and at worst an occasional snowfall in midwinter. Tony would keep his job at the JPL and on the faculty of the California Institute of Technology, and the university had been delighted to offer the now famous discoverer of Peregrinus a faculty position as well. They remained in touch with Eli Wayman, but their part of the drama was now largely behind them.

  For many people the rise of Peregrinus would lead to great stress and dislocation, if not a threat to their very survival. Darya and Tony were among the fortunate few to benefit from the galactic event, its discovery leading to their discovery of each other. They were aware of, grateful for, and humbled by this reality. Would they be able to live happily ever afterward despite the travails of much of the rest of the world, they both wondered. It appeared that would depend on them and not on the broader global and galactic happenings they had forewarned mankind about.

  Chapter 28

  December 2030

  Boston, Massachusetts

  Larry Johnstone sat gazing out the window of his small apartment in Tang Hall. He still served as the president of Fresh Water Solutions Inc., which required less and less of his time as the desalination technology matured and the commissioning of new desalination plants and new fabrication plants around the world became routine. He was now relatively well-off, at least by the standards of a young researcher, with a generous salary and a parsimonious lifestyle. He could easily have afforded a larger, more upscale apartment off campus, or even a fancy home in one of the more exclusive neighborhoods of Boston or Cambridge. He preferred the familiar surroundings of the MIT campus and had been grateful when the university administration had agreed to extend his research fellowship and allow him to retain his apartment.

  One reason Larry was fond of his apartment was its proximity to the Charles River and the extended pathway system along both banks of the river. Over his years at MIT he had often generated new ideas while out running along those paths, arriving back at the apartment eager to record the idea and begin fleshing it out. Both the physical location and the proximity to several great academic institutions contributed to a creative environment. However, today was not a running day. Outside was a cold and blustery winter day and the running path was spotted with patches of snow and treacherous ice.

  As Larry peered toward the morning sun, it seemed a feeble and shrunken thing, even though he knew that the reduction in its apparent size was actually too small to detect by eye. The northern hemisphere was experiencing its first full post-Peregrinus winter. It was, as expected, shaping up as a cold winter with average temperatures in November and December running about two degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the five-year average. It was by no means the coldest winter in recent decades, but knowing that it presaged even colder times to come made it seem bleaker than it actually was. Yet Larry was determined to stick it out for the time being. He still had his small desalination laboratory to tend to with potential for further efficiency gains or cheaper materials to be found. He still had the first fabrication plant down at the Weymouth Fore River mouth to oversee. He also had another little project he had begun to think about.

  Larry’s mental state was a conflicting combination of fulfillment and restlessness. The fulfillment came from having established a clear path toward achieving what had been his life’s ambition for many years. He had done so by the age of thirty. Recently he had attended a celebration of the Weymouth plant’s production of the hundredth two-million-gallons-a-day desalination plant. The original fabrication plant had tripled in capacity shortly after the f
irst facilities in Libya had been commissioned and was now producing four cells every day, so six days to complete a twenty-four cell plant, which could supply the needs of a town of one hundred and fifty thousand people.

  A typical complete desalination facility consisted of three plants supplying together sufficient fresh water for irrigation as well as drinking, cooking and bathing. There were now sixteen such facilities on the coast of Libya, which had been producing nearly one hundred million gallons per day for almost two years. Satellite imagery revealed a distinct green fringe along the coastline where none had existed in written history. Libya was still a politically fragmented country, but progress was being made toward reestablishing a democratically elected federal government. With increased stability, tourism and other commercial development were on the rise.

  Beyond Libya, additional large-scale desalination facilities were now in place in many other Middle Eastern and North African countries, and some in southern Europe as well as Northern Mexico and the southern United States. Some of these had been fabricated at the Boston Fresh Water Solutions Fabrication Center, but there were now two more such centers in Italy, two in Mexico and two in New Mexico. Before the advent of Peregrinus, it would have been a financial challenge for some parched underdeveloped countries to afford much desalination investment, even with Larry’s low-cost technological breakthrough. The developed countries now had ample motivation, beyond philanthropy, to develop ties with their southern neighbors. Terrorism, war, genocide, starvation and disease did not vanish instantly from the troubled regions of the world. However, global cooling was providing an even greater and more urgent impetus for global cooperation than global warming had, reinforced by a stable and broad-minded American leadership, and with fresh water as an important tool and incentive.

 

‹ Prev