by Chris Hechtl
She stilled. “You know?” she asked.
“I looked into it a bit before we started the project. I actually kicked some of those asteroids on their way here. The earlier ones, not the freight train coming in now,” he said. “But I went back when you came on board to read your paper.”
“You did?” she asked, voice softer now with love and a trace of approval.
“Of course,” he said softly, leaning over to kiss her hair. “So, magnetosphere started, check. Burn off some of the atmo, check. Cool the planet though …”
“That's a toughie. I'm still working on it,” she admitted, sitting up to look down at him. One of his callused hands went to support her side. His thumb cupped her breast. “I think some of the heat on the crust and surface will be soaked up when the core started to spin. We've already increased the rotation by a factor of ten. Moving the planet and shielding it from solar rays has also helped cool it, but …,” She felt the thumb caress her breast, then the other hand came up to cup and caress her left breast. “Are you listening to me, you cheeky bastard?” she accused.
“I'm admiring a different Venus now. One almost as warm but very kissable.”
“Oh, you are,” she replied, voice purring. “And what do you think you are going to do with this Venus?” she asked with a slight trace of humor and expectation in her voice.
“Anything I can to please her,” he said, immediately rolling to be on top. She squealed and laughed as he kissed her neck, then her token protests died into hmms as his lips found hers.
~V~
Chloe shook her head as she went over the latest research. She'd been on the station more than two years now and had seen some very interesting proposals. The latest involving a Dyson motor was intriguing on the surface, but they were already well past it with the asteroid impacts.
Thousands of asteroids and comets were impacting the planet every year. They came in what Race had dubbed freight trains, timed to hit brief periods to maximize their punch, and to allow the observers to observe the results and make adjustments to the next series of impactors if necessary. And they were necessary.
Race had tried to whip up a billiard's table for her, but they just didn't have the room or materials. She glanced at the ball he had made. It was sitting on a three-pronged holder on her desk and looked like Venus but had an eight on it. Trust Race to enjoy the moment.
She frowned thoughtfully as she went over her calculations once more, not just the astrophysics, but also the political ones. They had to make it work, just had to.
Adding comets to the mix had added hydrogen to the atmosphere. Most of the native free hydrogen, oxygen, and lighter materials had separated from the planet's atmosphere and been carried off by the solar wind due to the lack of a magnetosphere. Now that was changing.
Adding the water and hydrogen from the comets had altered the chemistry of the atmosphere. It wasn't much. Many scientists kept insisting each comet was but a drop in the bucket to what was needed, but there were a lot of comets in the pipeline, with more to come. They were turning into a steady rain. And with the rain would come the supporting water vapor for genetically-engineered bacteria they were introducing while following an updated version of the Oberg-Fog plan.
But getting every element to work right … coordinating them like the nanoparticles LGM and Mars Tek had released into the atmosphere … it was all tricky. It could unravel in an instant if someone or something went wrong.
Planning the steps out took vision and careful modeling. She shook her head. A lot of modeling, and she had to keep running the variables daily.
Getting the planet cooled down was still iffy. But they were getting there, slowly. Oh so slowly. Fortunately the company was now extending life extension treatments to all of its employees. She just might make it to see the end. She had her doubts about Race, however, she thought with a pang as she saw him enter the room.
“Race, you need to get treated,” Chloe said, looking at him. He coughed again, a death's rattle that made her wince. It had been getting worse and worse. She knew the cancer was bad. Technically, he should have been evacuated months ago, but he stubbornly clung on to his post. She wondered how much of it was out of pride and how much of it was his love for her? She couldn't leave; he knew it. If she did the project would falter; it could collapse entirely. Though the negotiations might be easier in Earth orbit, she felt torn, and guilty.
“I'm okay. It sucks, but …”
“Race …,” she sighed. He was such a stubborn man, which was why she cared for him deeply. She'd come to find out that he had multiple degrees in space and engineering. None of them doctorates, but he'd mastered what mattered most in space, the hands-on. Cerebral types like her tended to overthink the situation. Besides, she had other things on her mind.
She was the glue, the conductor of the grand project—her gift, her legacy to mankind, to grant them a new world. Getting it all right was troubling, however. It had taken time, blood, sweat, and a few tears to get it together. But it was getting there, slowly.
They'd made a few mistakes along the way, but the project was on track. Using rocks and comets to move the planet had been genius but only a small part of the equation. She'd gotten the backers to hit the planet with the right angles to add additional spin too. Not a lot, but every little bit helped.
She enjoyed the teasing that Race gave her. She was British, though she tried to hide her accent from him because of his wit. But she did secretly enjoy the twittering and would miss it.
“You have to go. The next shuttle. Doctor Eron can't help you, Race; you and I both know that. You need a full facility, one dedicated to cancer treatment. It's not too late …,” she held out a hand to him and touched his craggy cheek. His eyes were sunken, face pale. He'd lost weight; the chemo drugs hadn't helped him much.
“I'm already past my due date, Chloe; we both know that. Too much radiation. Too many solar flares, close calls, cosmic rays … there is a price we pay for living and working in space. I knew it going in. It was worth it. Worth building a new tomorrow.”
She closed her eyes in pain. Statements like that reminded her that she wouldn't be here, wouldn't be giving her gift without the support of others like him. It wasn't just her gift, her solo effort; it was a team, she reminded herself. She had to get rid of the ego, get everyone marching to that.
“Race, we can do something. Nanotech, the company has the best medics …”
“I've consulted with them. They can ease the symptoms, maybe buy me a couple more months. But the stress of going to Earth orbit now could kill me. Probably would, I'd be bored to tears the entire way there. And I don't want to die in a hospital bed wishing I'd done more. I'm going to keep doing what I love, right up until it kills me,” he said.
She leaned forward and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck to cling to him. The tears fell then, as sobs wracked her body. He tried to sooth her anguish but his own tore at him, tore at his throat, robbing him of speech just like the coughing spells did.
~V~
“Aurelia has the packets of lichens ready for you to try. I believe they are working with scientists on Earth to harvest cultures of organisms around volcanic vents on the surface and underwater if this lot doesn't work,” Jack Lagroose said. He grimaced. “I hope so. You said the surface is still hot though?”
“Quite a bit,” Chloe stated. “More than the plants and some bacteria can handle apparently. Too bloody hot for a tree!”
“That wasn't on me or her. Some goof of a grad student wanted to be the first in the history books to plant a tree on Venus.”
“A bonsai tree of all things. Messy,” Chloe said, “and it took up a lot of room in the container! That and the materials to keep it alive to get to the surface!” She eyed him severely. “I hope you didn't keep the idiot on!”
“No, no, he's gone. Long gone, I can assure you of that,” Jack said dryly. “Now, about the naming of the station …”
She stilled and then le
aned forward so their eyes could meet. “I'm not asking you Jack, I'm telling you. Race deserves recognition for all of his contributions here and to your company over the decades. He deserves that. He's going to get it. We're already calling the station after him; I want you to make it official,” Chloe said eying Jack Lagroose's image. She was as serene as she could be, but she knew her hands were clutching the table top a little too tightly.
“I thought you wanted to name it after the discovery of Venus?” Jack asked.
“We can name the moon that when you finally move one into orbit. When you do,” she said, eying him severely, “or the capital city or something.” She waved an airy hand. “Jack, don't be …”
He waved. “Okay, okay, let me finish,” he said. She stopped. Sometimes she had to remember the time lag. “I was going to say, okay. I know when I'm beat. I get roughed up by Aurelia enough as it is; I don't need you doing it too.”
“Okay?” she asked, eying him.
He smiled slightly. “Yes, okay. Race did a lot for me. I … knew him a little. Not a lot I admit, I'd lost track of him. He was good people. And yes, he did a hell of a lot for me over the years. I'd forgotten that. Thank you for reminding me.”
“He was great people. Someone who should be remembered.”
“Agreed. We'll hold a ceremony for him, re-christen the station in his honor. I'll have someone make a plaque.”
“And a statue of him on the ground and in that VR site you've got for fallen employees and friends,” she said severely.
“Done and done. My, you are up in arms over this,” he observed. “Race really got to you?”
“You have no idea,” she said, biting her lip as she reached to disconnect the signal. “I miss him every damn day.”
Jack eyed her and then nodded slowly. “You have my condolences, Doctor,” he replied softly. She nodded again and cut the signal.
~V~
“Lagroose Industries genetics department led the genetic engineering venture for Venus after the lesser corporations gave up. Doctor Ursilla Lagroose did some minor groundwork, but it was Aurelia Lagroose who led the team to bioengineer the bacteria and lichens for Mars, Titan, and Venus. The company had established a series of space platforms near the planet or in orbit. Periodic adjustments of their orbits were necessary due to the 'freight train' of collisions coming in from across the solar system, as well as the movement in the planet they eventually incurred over time.
The largest of the stations was Race Track Station, so named not because of the prototype antimatter decelerator on it, but actually for Race Shannon Track, an engineer of Lagroose Industries who had been instrumental in a few of the company’s large successes. When he passed away, the CEO thought it only fitting to name a space station after him in his honor.”
“It is around this time period, 2150, that several things began to take place at once. The real estate scams, Ponzi schemes really, were initiated by backers on Earth. We cannot, of course, trace their origins, and we cannot take for granted the word of the historians who accused One Earth of the effort in order to sabotage the project. Nor can we dispute or set aside the opposite contention that Lagroose Industries or some other party started the sabotage of their own project for reasons of their own, such as to extract themselves from an unprofitable venture. We will again, never know for certain.”
That accusation dovetails slightly with the realization that Lagroose Industries had again taken the long view. The company had set up the terraforming of Venus not as a generous venture to benefit mankind, but as a crucible to test various terraforming techniques and to perfect them. To not only perfect them, but prove they are viable while also forming methods of speeding the process up.”
The professor nodded to a few of the students who scowled or clicked in irritation. “This is proven in that the company went on to terraform worlds such as Eden in the Pyrax star system as well as most of the habitable worlds in this sector.” That made the doubters pause and consider what he had said carefully.
“It is frustrating to view this time period sometimes, but one has to take a deep breath and not attempt to fill in the blanks with your own ideas and concepts. Hopefully in time we will get more of the story from other star systems. Then the full picture will emerge.”
“In other words ladies and gentle sophonts, do try to keep an open mind,” he said with a tight smile.
~V~
“We are making a handsome profit on the Venus venture. But we're near the saturation point,” Gerald stated, eying Jean Pierre. “We've got enough cutouts between us and the investigators, and of course we can steer the investigators that we have contact with. But the outside ones are a different story.”
Jean grimaced. Gerald meant the megacorps. They were digging for who was responsible for the mess he'd created. There were enough copy cats out there to muddy the waters for them, but eventually they might get to the truth.
“Should we shut it down?”
“Scale back our efforts to something modest like the others. Have a golden parachute handy in case of need,” Jean ordered. He hated cutting and running, but he had no choice. The greedy corporate bastards played hardball if they were threatened.
“The good news is, with everything they've done the planet should be habitable in less than thirty years. The changes to the orbit and rotational speed are the most important, obviously. But now that the biomes are established, it won't be long before they start introducing larger species.”
“Ah. I see. Should we invest in some of the companies that specialize in that?” Jean asked carefully.
“Unfortunately, most like Radick and Gia, those companies that are mostly Terran based that we could invest in, pulled out earlier in the project.”
“I see. And we don't want to invest in Lagroose of course. Though it would be ironic to profit from them doubly I suppose,” the Frenchman stated with a slight twist of his lips. His fingers twiddled with the rings around his fingers.
“I'm not comfortable with their use of nanotech. The nanites used to ablate the sun are one thing. But they are using others to convert the various compounds in the atmosphere and ground into hydrogen and oxygen,” Frodo Bridges, one of the directors, stated with a shudder. Apparently it wasn't completely true, but close enough Jean thought. Some of the sequestration of the atmosphere had been done by carefully selecting asteroids with large concentrations of magnesium and calcium in order to sequester the carbon dioxide or so he'd heard. “Can you imagine what those tiny monsters could do if they were unleashed on Earth?” Frodo went on, eying them all His shiver was no longer feigned. Others grimaced and shivered slightly, envisioning such horrors unleashed on Earth.
They all knew such threats existed and far too close to home for comfort. During their work on weaving their tentacles into various governments on the planet, they had found that several of the large governments had created nanotech weapons. If they were ever unleashed …
“We need to step up the work in the United Nations. Get control of Venus. Ease or push the corporations out and take over. Preferably before they get to the surface,” Gerald stated.
“Agreed. Ideas on how?” Jean asked, eying the man.
“I think we can work our contacts. The push to colonize is pretty powerful. I'm glad Megan talked us out of standing against the tide,” he said eying her. She nodded.
“We can start with a viral campaign,” Megan said, rising to her feet. “Everyone hates corporate greed and excess. That is a given, so we can harness that meme and exploit it. We'll need to set trends, to pick some photogenic talking heads carefully. Some supporting comments from famous people would help us frame the message.”
~V~
Chloe shook her head as another stream of demanding emails came into her inbox. They were from people she didn't know who claimed they owned a chunk of the planet below. That bothered her; she hadn't known that the various backers had started dividing up the planet yet.
Lagroose was supposed to filter
out such distractions but obviously they hadn't done a good job. She dropped each distastefully into her spam box. “Computer, remind me to shoot Jack another email. Something needs to be done about this mess,” she ordered.
“Yes, ma'am,” Athena's voice replied.
~V~
October 2158
Jack had to deal with the impatient public, investors, governments, the media, and fans who thought that since the ceremony had blocks coming together fast, they could continue at that pace. Barbie called a meeting to discuss it. Charlie and Sven were busy, and Jack didn't want to jog their elbow or piss either man off so he pulled Trey in. It was late in his day; he was overdue to go home. He wasn't sure if he was looking forward to it or not. Zack was a joy to be around, but Aurelia was still moody.
“We're getting a lot of flak. A lot,” Barbie warned him, opening the meeting up with a broadside salvo. She silently used her remote to take control of his vid screen to show graphs of the trends as well as a scrolling bar of comments.
Trey sat next to her. He looked briefly at the screen then shook his head. “I know, and I don't care,” Trey told her, fighting to keep his tone professional. He had gotten a lot of flak and didn't like people breathing down his neck. “We're going as fast as we can. Running into teething issues was expected. And you of all people know that they'll find something to bitch about no matter how fast we go.”
“True,” Barbie agreed with a shrug as she smoothed out her plaid skirt. She crossed her legs. She looked at Jack. “But we still need to tell them something.”
“People, it's not that simple.” Jack sighed. “What do you want to do?”
“I think repeating the same line isn't getting us anywhere. We've got our own talking heads going on the air on friendly stations, but we're running into a lot of resistance. They think we are making excuses,” Barbie warned.
“So, the investors are nervous, governments are poking us, the public is snitty, and the media isn't sure if it is for or against us. What else is new?” Trey demanded. He turned to Jack. “That sounds like a normal day for us,” he said.