by Hylton Smith
“Herr Brandt, good evening. Finally, I am able to confirm what I said on my last transmission. Not only has the launch date been brought forward, but by a significant amount of time. It will be approximately two months ahead of yours instead of one month behind. I cannot believe there are corners we can cut to achieve this safely, but the decision has now been taken. What do you want me to do?”
Julien’s eyes widened as he realised where this was going.
“No, no, no, Volker, we can’t respond to this, surely it’s a bluff.”
“You may be correct, Julien, but I won’t take the chance of Kolorov being wrong, or working as a double agent. You’re constantly pressing me for more expertise, so how would you like Ivan to join your launch team? I was going to recruit him anyway because his Intel has always been reliable, and I have to get him out of there; such an offer and his response would tell me if he is indeed a double agent. We now have to look at 2031 for our launch. It is the next year in which the two planets are in reasonable alignment.”
“It can’t be done, you heard the man say himself that safety will be compromised if Soyuz accept their new deadline. Anyway, Soyuz only make the spacecraft and train the crew, there must be some other organisation involved in bankrolling the mission itself.”
“Naturally. It doesn’t take a genius to see it’s not the Russians, it is NERO. I’ve known for some time that Waverly was funding this surprise from ‘under the counter’. But you unknowingly blew a hole in his illusionist strategy by spilling the beans on Chocolate Orange becoming an impact event. He was then going to be pressed into spending two fortunes rather than one, just as we are. But his chicanery would have eventually been caught out by the bean counters in NERO, because he hadn’t budgeted for anything but watching the asteroid glide past Earth. Then, in his mind, two fortunes could be combined into one fund, and Soyuz would assure his glory by leap-frogging us to Mars. He hadn’t accounted for you letting the genie out of the bottle, even though you didn’t know it was in there.”
“All very interesting, but it doesn’t change anything. We can’t launch in 2031, the planets are relatively close then, but it will be impossible for us to be ready in a year from now.”
“In normal circumstances, yes. These are not normal times, Julien. With Kolorov’s help we can do it. This change in plan must be kept absolutely to the very minimum of personnel. Create another ‘dummy’ unmanned mission, for a craft which is supposedly intended to sit out there, relaying data about Chocolate Orange from space. By the time we are ready, we will announce that it is crucial for this to be combined with our revised manned mission launch date in 2031. This deception is necessary, Julien. I won’t be beaten by these bastards. Just tell people for now that we’ve decided to exhume the option of monitoring the asteroid from out in the cosmos. It does come at significant extra cost, but we are the only ones dedicating resource, transparency, and responsibility to the people on this planet. We can only do this because we are fractionally ahead of schedule on the Mars launch programme. It is belt and braces, Julien, the public will buy that. And before you tell me the astronauts’ safety will be compromised, please note that I’ll be one of them. By the time the truth gets out, we’ll be looking at Soyuz accepting defeat. So, even if they could hit their new target date, it will be too late; their cooperation with NERO will have lost all credibility, and then they’ll be plagued with internal wrangling. The two partners will know they’ve been screwed, and with a bit of luck, blame each other. Now, I can also provide proof of Waverly’s misappropriation of tax payers’ funds, which I will only do when we decide to join the clique. And that will only happen when the whole world knows that none of its space research member companies trust each other. This will possibly produce a clamour for us to lead the asteroid deflection programme instead of being perceived as a bit part player. Julien, we have a responsibility to get the entire species to come to terms with reality, someone has to. The other organisations with ‘World Body’ status are complicit with NERO, simply by condoning the drip-feeding of known bad news to the public. That’s what you always get from politically controlled organisations. Go away and think about this, my friend. Come back and see me when you’ve factored everything into the choices ahead, including your family.”
*
As Julien wandered back to his office, he reflected on the changes over the last two years. Sophie was in great shape. She’d taken to the way of life in Guiana, the societal primitiveness, the natural scope for her art, and the true friends she’d made. Julien saw her once or twice a week, and that was her idea. Elise had been convinced that her daughter had come through the hell she suffered in Lyon, and returned to live with Geraldine. As hard as it was to leave Sophie behind, she knew it had to be done, as she herself said she couldn’t handle the climate. The pull of city life also played a big part, creature comforts being high on the list. Eugene had come and gone, but had landed a really good job in Boston. His remit was right at the cutting edge of research into manipulation of DNA, not the cloning of existing species, rather how natural mutations occurred and how they could be corrected.
Julien snapped out of his daydream and was able to see why Brandt wanted to address the threat of a NERO/Soyuz claim to Mars. The stench of corruption was bad enough on Earth. Wasn’t this why he’d joined VB Aerospace in the first place? He hadn’t forgotten the duplicity of NERO when they hung him out to dry. Perhaps with the assistance of Ivan Kolorov he could meet the new deadline of 2031. At least he now had no need to convince Brandt that they should monitor the asteroid from Mars space, as he had already come to that decision of his own volition.
*
Unknown to any of the organisations which would make up the reconstituted clique, Chocolate Orange was hurtling through the silent blackness of the Cosmos bearing a scar. The altercation which shifted it to an impact path with Earth involved an unregistered comet, from the Kuiper belt. Julien had known of some collision for some time now, but not precisely where it occurred, nor exactly which kind of cosmic object it was. Its remains were embedded into the asteroid, like a cuckoo in a happenchance nest.
*
Brandt’s announcement of the decoy Mars listening post deception was allowed to ferment before he offered Ivan Kolorov a key position in VB Aerospace’s genuine mission to set foot on another planet. The Russian was only too happy to consider joining Brandt, giving the impression that Soyuz was about to conduct a thorough security x-ray of their entire operation. Presumably this was required before rolling out details of the changes needed to comply with their altered launch plan.
Kolorov accepted Brandt’s offer almost immediately, in fact, a little too easily for the German’s liking, not asking for many of the usual assurances for such a post. But in fairness, he had to concede that it would be better to take the guy on before he would have to spring VB’s new launch date in 2031 on the unsuspecting Russian. Kolorov would have to accept such ‘insanity’ just as Julien had.
Brandt hadn’t yet ruled out that Kolorov’s haste may be explained by him being a double agent, but he’d get an inkling of that when the reaction of Soyuz was analysed. The stakes were so high that Brandt had to be a willing participant in a poker game which was rigged by every player.
His patience paid off. Soyuz hit him with every legal challenge in the book. It would take months to even get to an international court, which meant Kolorov was unable to take up employment with VB Aerospace, yet couldn’t continue to work for Soyuz either. The bigger loser was Soyuz. Brandt had bought a fresh delay for the Russian launch without having to pay anything upfront. He came over as being devastated when he told Julien that his new recruit was on hold. They had to move on and begin the search for other candidates.
Things got even better when global polls showed VB Aerospace as the most trusted outfit in tackling both the Mars project and preventing Armageddon. This would go a long way to Brandt being officially asked to share his vision with the world, and ultimately coordina
ting all available resource to achieve it.
Julien began to see that the corruption which had triggered his outburst in Osaka had only been a symbolic event in a ruthless mosaic of diplomacy and cunning. He began to wonder if he’d jumped from the frying pan into the fire. It caused him to shift focus back to his family.
Chapter 9
2031
The world media had assembled in the remote, locked-down facility in Guiana. Ninety-nine percent of the circus personnel had never been within a thousand miles of the location. In the past, all press releases from VB Aerospace had been handled by the company’s PR division. This was different. Volker Brandt’s name was reasonably well known, but the man himself was quite a mystery to most of the world population. Philanthropist or recluse? Perhaps both?
He rose to his position at the front of the gathering; there was to be no lectern or prepared written notes for referral. He cleared his throat.
“Thank you all for coming today. I wanted to address the entire world, as I have updates for ongoing programmes and a crucial announcement regarding one of them. I wanted to avoid any misunderstanding or room for doubt about what is going to happen in the next few days.”
The murmurings gave way to utter silence before he continued.
“We are all facing difficult years ahead. I can confirm, despite what anyone else may have you believe, that an asteroid will impact the Earth in 2039. Our latest tracking data clearly and unequivocally demonstrate its trajectory. It is a fact. What can be done about this? Well, we have researched various methods of dealing with the problem and now they are narrowed down to three feasible approaches. Let me deal with the simplest one first. If the other two were to fail, we have a last line of defence in the form of nuclear warheads to destroy the asteroid. That brings with it unpredictable consequences, one of which could cause fragmentation, and thus change the threat from a single impact into multiple impacts. We have therefore allocated most of our research resource to safer options. The favoured one is to impact the asteroid itself when it is far enough away to eliminate immediate collateral damage to our planet. There are a number of ways we can do this, and we are still researching the ones which can deliver the best reliability. The trade-offs with this method are distance and accuracy. The work in hand also has to be geared to the optimum time. Seven years may seem like more than enough time to figure this out, but we must not forget that the asteroid would not be on an impact course if it hadn’t been struck by another cosmic body. So, we need be aware that this could happen again. There are several possibilities, and I apologise in advance for any confusion which follows, but we must take into account all manner of events which could nullify our efforts.
“If the asteroid was bumped again as it heads for the Earth, we may not have to do anything. But, we need to exercise caution here, because we must be certain that it will not then collide with anything else in the solar system which could put it back on impact trajectory with our planet. Another scenario also has to be considered; if we send our deflection force out into space too early only to find the asteroid isn’t where it should have been, we still can’t rule out a new collision which restores the threat. Therefore, a logical conclusion would be to wait long enough to be sure that any deflection attempt can be quantified in terms of altering the asteroid’s course and that the new path is clear of further possible incidents.
“This is where the third option comes in. Many of you are aware of our intention to have an advance monitoring station out in the solar system to help in gathering data on the asteroid continuously. What you do not know is that I have decided that it won’t be an unmanned listening post, as was initially intended. We will launch a manned craft with all the necessary tools to accomplish extremely comprehensive, more accurate monitoring of the threat than we have on Earth. However, the second objective of the crew apart from setting up such crucial scanning programmes for the asteroid from Mars orbit, is to land on the planet. This manned mission to Mars was initially scheduled for 2033, but after many months of debate I took the difficult decision to bring it forward. Whatever we may do in a dedicated attempt to preserve life on Earth, things can go wrong, and as the stakes are so high, I felt we needed to create a second chance for the species to survive. Now, this is where I really do want to avoid any misunderstanding. Is it completely safe to bring the Mars landing so far forward? The simple answer is a resounding NO! However, that will still be true in 2033, missions like this are never free of danger. If Earth was to fall prey to an impact, even if it wasn’t an extinction event, it would probably kill off any chance to supply those already on Mars. So, other launches of essential life supplies will follow in 2033, 2035, 2037, and hopefully by then we will have good news on the deflection programme. I insisted that the crew would have to be volunteers, and I couldn’t ask something of others that I wasn’t prepared to do myself. Therefore, I will also leave in a few days from now. At my age, it is unlikely that I will ever return, or even withstand the outward voyage during the months in space. Just as well then that I have a very capable man to continue the leadership of VB Aerospace. His name is Julien Delacroix. I fervently hope that this dual strategy gives every last human the best odds of surviving well beyond 2040. I try not to think too much about it, but I’ve got to admit I’d dearly like to make that return trip to a better world here on this planet. And in that spirit, I want to turn to the sentiment which pushed me into this course of action. A few years ago, you will remember newspaper offices in Germany being invaded by sixty armed individuals. I should stress that I could never condone the way they did this, but they made no ransom demands, they killed no employees, and they freed every one of them. It turned out that their planned suicide was to remind all of us that society was breaking down in our world. These sixty martyrs hoped to achieve a turning point in anarchism, terrorism and corruption, a task in which no world government have ever succeeded. Wherever my final resting place is to be, I will remember the profound effect these sixty people had on my life. Thank you for your patience in listening to this monologue. Hopefully, you will have another speech to hear if everything goes well and I can return home before 2039 to announce the deflection programme was a success.”
*
Brandt’s bugle call to the human race was well received, and particularly within the scattered family of Julien Delacroix. Eugene rang his father and asked if there was anything he could do, such was the inspiration he felt from Volker Brandt.
“Dad, before you lecture me about the good job I have in microbiology, I feel useless because I’m not doing anything which will help with neutralising this death sentence in 2039. You’re going to be the boss in a few days, so there must be lots of support work to do for both of the tasks Mr Brandt spoke about. If you think I can be useful in any way, let me hear it and I’ll be on the next flight. I think it could be pretty cool working with my father on a project with such a potential payoff. But remember, I don’t come cheap.”
“I don’t know what to say, Eugene. I’m actually a bit overwhelmed emotionally, but I’d love to work with my son in some way or another, let me give it some thought. In any case, if the worst happens, we shouldn’t be spending the next few years apart. Sophie is really happy here. In some respects it’s like a step back in time, but people interact with each other much more than in Western Europe. We have to think about your mother though. We don’t want her to be on her own.”
“Leave that to me, Dad. I think she could be talked around to our way of looking at this after hearing Brandt. Helping the entire species, surely she can see it isn’t all about the Delacroix family.”
“Ok, son. You have no idea how much I appreciate your offer. I’ll definitely get back to you soon. Bye.”
When Sophie heard about Eugene’s intention, she also volunteered to speak with Elise. Julien hadn’t felt so good in years.
*
Volker Brandt had one more outstanding issue to take care of before setting off for Mars. He asked Julien to joi
n him in the ‘flight deck’. This time every screen was turned on, and the shock, blatantly reflected on the face of the new boss of VB Aerospace, temporarily rendered him speechless. When he fully realised what was happening, he spoke.
“Volker, how long have you been able to tap into the activities of other organisations to this degree?”
“A long time, and this is why I want to speak about how it must continue like this. You would be naïve in the extreme if you believed they don’t try to spy on us. So far, I believe we’ve managed to thwart them, and that responsibility now falls to you. As I told the world, I would dearly like to return to Earth, but I owe it to the crew to see out the establishment of survival and beyond on Mars. I have therefore decided to transfer my stock in the company to you. I have never been married, have no children, and therefore no heir. So, you are the new owner of VB Aerospace as well as the boss. Now, take this card, he is the only other person who knows about our espionage activity. He set up the system and smooths out glitches every once in a while. He is only known by this reference – ‘Cyclops’. It’s the only way he works, and I’ve asked him to contact you after the launch. You are the only person I can trust to see things through at this end, Julien. I know you recoil from such underhand practices as a matter of principle, as do I, but you will come to realise that the gloves are already off as far as our competitors are concerned. This setup will convince you more than any words I can muster. It’s very sad that the people we cooperate with are actively planning to take us out. I learned this the hard way and I’m sure you will be astonished when you get the time to view these screens regularly. You are a man who has never coveted wealth, but in order for this organisation to protect its moral code, such wealth is an essential enabling tool. In fact, in most organisations around the world, corruption is rife, simply because individuals with the responsibility for running them do little else but feather their own nest. You’ll get the hang of it.”