by Chris Hechtl
Chloe was clearly upset and dispirited by the lawsuits and eventual collapse of the project. She'd heard rumors ... all sorts of stuff was spinning around her, threatening to spin her out of control. Her life's work down the tube. The entire incident and how it came about tore at her, threatened to envelope her, consume her. She fought tears as she sat in anguish in Jack's board room.
“It's not over, is it?”
“It is. All but the picking over of the carcass. The buzzards have already started circling. They'll be on us soon enough,” Jack told her.
“So …,” she looked at him with lost eyes. Hope had deserted her. She'd had a lingering hope that he'd had something for her. Why did he call her in for a face-to-face if he hadn't?
“Chloe, buck up. Venus may be canceled for now,” he saw her eyes flare with hope over that but kept rolling on. “But that doesn't stop us from moving to the next phase.”
“Next phase?”
“Of course!” he threw his hands apart in a grand gesture. “What else did you think I was doing this for? Venus is one planet. One among billions and trillions out there, Chloe! Race and your contributions won't be forgotten. We're getting out of the project; I'm working on selling our control over to LGM and good riddance. If they want to play the long game, that's fine by me. I want more. We're going to move on to exploring this option for extra solar worlds. Worlds that will need to be tweaked before they can be colonized,” he reminded her.
She blinked at him.
“And you won't have as many problems to deal with. Legalities hung the entire process up way too much,” he said shaking his head. She looked at him with a curious look. He shrugged. “You will have to do it remotely, and you'll have a hell of a time getting resources. I'll give you what you can, but you're going to have to automate a lot. But each process will have to move fast. Terraform a planet in a century or less if possible. Much less if we can swing it. That's going to need a hell of a lot of computer support for the modeling,” he mused shaking his head.
“What … sort of resources? What kind of targets? I've got so many questions,” she waved a hand in frustration. He could tell she was getting excited by the idea, however.
“Take your pick. Create a program that identifies the best worlds for terraforming. Mars type? Closer to Earth? A moon? Venus? Tailor each terraforming plan to them. Time is a factor, but whatever we can do to accelerate that process … we do. That includes genetically engineered organism.”
Her eyes went wide. “Oh my.”
“That's right,” Jack replied with a smile. “One of the reasons we've been pushing the plant genetics lab so hard lately. I want to build an ecosystem within a decade if possible.”
She blinked, then pursed her lips. Slowly she shook her head.
“I know it's not possible, but if I shoot high, I may be happy where we do end up. Remember, we're talking about seeding a planet from orbit. Dumping thousands of tons of biomass onto it, not just the carefully cultivated stuff from a lab—industry doctor.”
“You're talking about industrializing terraforming. But that's never been done ...,” she waved a helpless hand.
“Then we'll make precedent, won't we?” the old man asked with a grin. She blinked again. “I'm an old man. I know the value of patience, but I also know I'm not going to live forever. I want to see those worlds; I want mankind to have more than one home. I plan on doing it.”
Slowly the doctor nodded. “Where do I start?”
“That's the spirit,” he told her with a chuckle.
~V~
“The following is an excerpt of a recording we have that was attached to a historical file recently recovered from Pyrax. We believe it was a part of the Lagroose historical database held there at one time.”
~V~
The EETC was hammered by provisions and add-ons in the assembly bogging the beleaguered department in red tape until her directors gave up in despair and quit one after another. It became a running joke on how long a director would last running the department. Some measured their time in weeks or days. They were all resigned to failure.
Eventually the entire tangled mess was repealed and rewritten. The rewrite was stalled as various factions jockeyed for whatever they wanted to protect or exploit. A lot of behind-the-scenes backroom deals were held to break down the department or even scuttle it completely.
The idea that various people were pushing the project for their own ends sparked hot debate over what if scenarios within the media. A discussion between a group of learned talking heads sparked a lot of concern among various circles.
“What if someone claims a planet and someone else wants it? Or even a piece of it? Isn’t there enough out there for everyone?” Doctor Klaus Hemdail demanded, staring at the other learned people sitting politely around the table the producer had set up. He blessed the trend in a more comfortable setting of a wood paneled living room over the sleek modern look favored in the previous century by the media. The stuffed chair he was in was far more comfortable, he thought.
“Not that many that can support life, at least not initially. And there are those who will attempt to take advantage of efforts from others that have proceeded them. Either by taking their survey data and trying to get colonies out first or going to them and dropping their own people right on top of the existing colony. Or worse, going to the extremes and destroying the people on the ground first and then claiming they abandoned the colony,” Professor Walkins said. She'd managed to pick herself up after her career in higher education. She'd tried to get in with Star Reach but had been passed over, which had pissed her off. She'd done quite a bit for them playing head hunter; getting dumped had destroyed any good opinion of them she had harbored. She'd lived off her savings for a bit before she had made a few talk circuits runs and blog posts. She'd written a book or two, sat on the talk circuit as a talking head for a year before she'd found a new home at Mars University ten years ago. The university had sent her to Earth to participate in the discussions to protect their own interests.
“Are we so barbaric that we could do that? I would think we're above such things!” Sorenta De Bauch demanded, clearly aghast at such an outlandish idea. She was a card carrying liberal; one who thought of violence as a horrible barbaric thing that mankind had put behind them. But she was fully aware that there were still barbarians in uniform ready to start fighting at the slightest opportunity.
“Without a strong police presence, who's to stop them?” Alphones asked, acting as one of the moderators. He had taken over the Oliver Twist show and placed his own imprint on it. His ratings had dipped at first. It had been too much of a change too soon, but they'd picked up when the younger generation had taken an interest in him.
He glanced at his co-host Miss De Bauch, then back to Professor Walkins. Professor Walkins thought that was a bit of a stretch. The young man and his female counterpart were really there to throw blood in the water and then let the rest of them duke it out.
Miss De Bauch nodded enthusiastically. “A good question. We should pose it to Lagroose Industries. So far they have invested quite a bit into terraforming and starships. I believe they wish to protect their investment. But I will point out that so far there are only the two companies that have access to extra solar companies anyway.”
“At least for the moment,” Hiram Sayede interjected. Like his learned colleagues he had a doctorate to go with his name. But he didn't mind going by his first name. He was a bit less of a stuffed shirt than Klaus the professor judged.
“Would they answer? I wouldn't in their shoes because it would allow others to know their strategy,” Alphones said.
Klaus nodded. “Ja. True.”
Professor Walkins pursed her lips and then took the momentary slow down to wade in a bit. “Look at what happened to them and the other Megacorps that had invested so much into Venus! When the speculators, scam artists, and finally the United Nations got involved, they pulled out. Now the project is deserted; the world is starting
to regress back to its past state. To some they are happy with it, but to others it is a lost opportunity. We could have been settling mankind on another world by now if the greedy people had been kept at bay.”
“That isn't true!” De Bauch said, eyes glittering. “They were protecting mankind's right to her own worlds! Preventing a soulless corporation from grabbing it all for themselves is what they were after! They should have at least finished what they started!” she insisted indignantly.
“The corporations invested trillions into the project. What did you expect them to do once they were told they couldn't keep the planet?” the professor asked, looking at Klaus. He frowned but shook his head as well. “They pulled out as any smart investor would do when someone else stepped in to take over and deny them the payoff they'd worked so hard for. A lot of people lost their investments when they were forced to pull out.”
“That is the fault of the corporations! Not the United Nations!” De Bauch insisted.
Alphones frowned, drumming his finely manicured fingers on the table as Klaus played with his pipe. “I believe this latest attempt by the EETC was a blatant attempt to steal their thunder once again. To make them back down or to surrender after achieving starflight,” he said glancing at the professor. She nodded in reply. “The United Nations didn't think they could achieve it, and when they did, public opinion hammered them in the polls.” He turned to Hiram who nodded grimly. “Clearly they aren't willing to do that. I am curious as to how far they are willing to go though.”
“To protect their investment? To protect their dream? I'd say as far as it takes. I believe, as you pointed out with Venus, they pulled out but for different reasons. Yes, because of the United Nations' crap, they tried to take advantage of them on the moment of their success. But outside the solar system is an entire universe waiting to be explored, and yes, exploited,” the professor admitted. “Lagroose can fend off any attempt to take another system. The United Nations has been … reduced. It is clear they can't rule outside of the atmosphere, look at what they try to do on Earth!” She shook her head in disgust. Everyone knew that the United Nations was a paper tiger on many subjects. If a large enough nation refused to follow along with the other nations, they could cause all sorts of problems. “I believe the expression is herding cats? Now throw in other colonies?”
“Which will resent the United Nations high-handed unilateral acts. The United Nations will be focused on its own needs and power. Such a situation is ripe for a civil war,” Hiram pointed out darkly.
The others nodded grimly. “So, the United Nations' best course of action to avoid that is what?” De Bauch demanded. “Give in?”
“For now? I can only say that the United Nations has to limit itself to the world government it is. If they want to extend their authority beyond Earth, they will need to pull the other colonies into such things as equals. Earth will have one vote, and each of the others will have a vote, including the colonies set up outside Sol,” Hiram said. He glanced at De Bauch then out of the corner of his eye he caught a discussion going on off stage. He turned his head to look that way, catching a couple of producers angrily whispering at each other. From their expressions they weren't happy about the direction the discussion was going.
“An interesting concept, I wonder if it will come to be?” Alphones asked.
Klaus made a disgusted face. “I doubt it. It makes too much sense for that,” he said sarcastically. “Communications would be an issue. A representative government assuredly. A strong one?” He shook his head. “Funding?” Again he shook his head.
“The economics of trade?” Alphones asked. “I'm curious about how that would extend to the colonies. How is Lagroose and others going to make a profit? I can't believe they will make it by charging tickets and freight costs,” he said.
“Such things will have to be worked out,” Klaus replied with a small smile, interrupting Miss De Bauch as she opened her mouth. “And we have to get to that stage of course,” he said. The others nodded. Some reluctantly, others with diffidence.
“What is in it for Pavilion and Lagroose? And the others? The Chinese I get; they need to expand and get off of Earth,” Miss De Bauch said, shaking her head.
“Even with a massive fleet of colony ships they would only be able to transport a tithe of what needs to be moved,” Professor Walking replied, shaking her head. “Each colony ship can carry what, a hundred thousand?” she asked, frowning thoughtfully as she checked her implants. She nodded quickly before the others could say anything. “Yes. Lagroose's first colony ships will carry up to fifty thousand, but the follow-on generation is projected to double that. I think they will max out their life support to do it, however. But that is still a drop in the bucket when you think of all the people who want to go, who need to go.”
“Why go at all?” Miss De Bauch demanded. “Why put yourself so in debt …,” her voice cut off as a thought struck her. “Is that why? They want to indenture people? Make them slaves?” she asked, eyes gleaming. “First their Frankenstein creations and now the human race?” she suggested with a silky voice. Jack saw her reaction from Mars orbit and swore. That would be all over the web within ideas. The very idea appalled him, but people were still bugging his company about the Neos.
“The cost of the ticket is only part of the problem,” Klaus rumbled, playing with his pipe. He ignored Miss De Bauch's dig. “Then you have to factor in the facilities and infrastructure on the new colony. An interesting economic problem. I'd love to see their business plan,” he said.
“If they have one that you'd wish to read,” Hiram said with a frown. “If they would let you see it.”
“We could get a subpoena under the United Nations renewed Freedom of Information Act of 2155,” Miss De Bauch suggested. She smiled to the camera. “I'm certain many of our viewers would also love this information. I suggest a petition effort be put out in that regard. If enough people put forward a demand, they will surely have to come clean about their intentions. Their true intentions,” she said.
Professor Walkins shook her head in slightly hidden disgust. “Which won't work, they are a corporation. They will just laugh at you. A corporation that is off world and organized and incorporated on Mars I believe. They are out of the United Nations' jurisdiction.” Jack nodded. The professor was right. He made a note to keep her in his files. She might serve as a good talking head later.
“Then why are they bothering with sending their lawyers to the United Nations at all?” De Bauch demanded, annoyed.
“Well, we can but hope and wait and watch,” Alphones said, picking up the cue from the director. He turned to the camera. “We'll be back after these messages,” he said as the program cut to the commercial break. The camera pulled back and then the image cut to a commercial.
~V~
“So, that's it?” Chloe asked, looking at the image of Venus. “We were so close!” She'd hoped it had been a dream, a nightmare that would end. That people would wake up and let her get back to her job, let her finish what she'd started. Apparently that was not to be.
Her right fist balled in helpless impotence over the situation. Another decade and they could have been on the surface. Hell, they could now if they wanted to, but the group hadn't agreed on the risks involved. Jack's plan of using Venus and Mars as a template ... it was a pipe dream. Scary. She wasn't going to live that long. She wanted to breath the air of another world, to see the ocean waves, feel the sand and soil in her fingers, see the trees … she closed her eyes in pain.
Jack looked around the virtual table. All of the backers were in the room, all unhappy about what had happened. They were all going to take a loss on it. His company was selling out to LGM at a considerable loss. Chloe understood it, yet she still clung stubbornly to try to squeeze a rabbit out of a nonexistent hat.
“Not even close. Years away if it'd worked, and longer still before we had it to shirt level. Beyond what LGM, Mars Tek, and others have been doing with Mars.” He nodded to Will
y Henderson, CEO of LGM and Miss Chalice, representative of Mars Tek. Both nodded soberly back to him.
“The process isn't the same with Mars of course. Apples and oranges really, Venus was a runaway greenhouse. What we learned I believe you could use to apply to Earth to reverse some of the climate change there,” Chloe said severely.
“True, But …”
“It's over Chloe. Focus on the future. Mars is one, but we're looking beyond the horizon. I'm treating Venus, Europa, and Mars as test subjects. Venus may have been shut down prematurely, but we've gotten tons of data and a lot of lessons on how to do the job. And what not to do,” Jack said eying the CEO. “Gia and Radiak will survive, right?”
“Part of our byline was this project. A lot hinged on it.”
“Did you learn enough to do it again? Faster?” Jack pressed.
“Well, yes. But …”
“But me no buts. We're going to the stars. How many planets out there can support life as is? We haven't found many candidates. Ten that I know of, all outside the 1,000 light year limit the blasted United Nations set on us. I should never have agreed to it. But I'm stuck. I am a man of my word.” He noted a few of the others grimace but didn't agree or disagree.
“So …”
“So we don't know for certain these worlds support life. That means they might need some tweaking. And I'm not settling for ten. Not by a long shot,” Jack smiled grimly. “I'm thinking big, thousands of worlds. The raw material is there. We learned a lot. Now it's time to go out there and apply it.”
“You are insane. Thousands of worlds? How? Who will pay for it all?” Willy demanded, throwing his hands up in the air in despair.
Jack smiled. “Who else? The colonists. We find a candidate planet, sell the information to someone like you, you take it, craft a plan to terraform the planet to suit whatever you want to do. This is real estate on a grand scale folks. I'm thinking general Earth-like planet, but that's really up to the end customer, right? The colonists who end up buying it?”