tmp_f59497a75d8ceb820dc0aeddc2b436a0_SyoNZl.fixed.tidied

by Regolith (mobi)

  As they rose to their normal height, Wili ordered the ship forward again, surprised at how calm the ocean was now. Then the Lorena splashed down to their right. Wili had the helmsman turn the ship to face the Lorena, which rose out of the ocean and turned to face the Lina. Which was fortunate because the Enterprise crashed behind them, its bow sinking hundreds of feet deep before righting itself. The wave this created may have toppled them if it hit them broadside, but the Lina was facing the wave and the Lorena was facing directly away, so they both sliced through the wave, wondering when the fuck this ride is ever going to end.

  The USS Enterprise apparently landed at an angle, as it listed around 30 degrees to starboard before returning to an upright position. That was sure to clear their shelves. Hope they locked their cabinets. Wili saw through his binoculars that its entire bow was fucked up all to hell, like King Kong used it as a punching bag, whereas the Lina’s amorphous metal bow was fine. But it floated. 51 years old and it looked like it was going to live long enough to be scrapped. Thank goodness both carriers flew off all their planes before the impact, then put all their helicopters into the air right before the mega-tsunami hit. Ironic that the oldest carrier survived while the newest perished.

  But their work wasn’t over yet.

  “Lorena, we are commencing rescue operations.”

  The Lina and Lorena raced to the Bush to see how many sailors they could save. Amid all the debris, this was going to take awhile. But they were alive! Well, except for the baby dinosaur and the Bush, they were alive.

  Then his entire crew heard the unmistakable sound of a roaring T-rex, following by shrieks from the raptors and ratites.

  Great. That’s just fucking great. Wili couldn’t believe his lousy luck. The fucking dinosaurs have woken up!

  42

  Jackson looked for the tallest among them because, at 6 and a half feet, that was always his son. With his heat resistant outfit and florescent helmet, his thin son looked as alien as the landscape. Jackson motioned for his father to follow him. They met at the side of the heloplane where his son was emptying canisters of compressed hydrogen gas into the aircraft. Jackson opened his visor and they did the same.

  “I want to see the hole.”

  Sure, he pointed his thumb back at the wall of smoke that rose to the heavens, but they knew instantly what he was talking about. And they both knew lots of reasons why it was a bad idea. Like dust killing their engine in mid-flight, or falling regolith knocking them out of the sky. Instead, they nodded their heads and waved everyone into the heloplane.

  With everybody aboard, David flew high around the wall of smoke. They passed around three sets of binoculars, stunned at their state’s transformation.

  “It looks like Mercury,” the professor concluded, pointing to all the craters they saw.

  David flew carefully around the billowing hole where they could get the best view of it. Not that you could see much, past the dust, smoke, and gases. Jackson looked around for where Highway 10 used to be, but could not see it. He sure as hell hoped Arthur blasted the regolith clear.

  The crater hole looked alive, like Godzilla was about to leap out and fuck up Tokyo. Chava naturally filmed the hell out of it. Not wanting to waste fuel, Jackson pointed to the mountain ridge that towered over the crater, where David battled cross-winds to carefully land on what he hoped was stable land.

  As they stampeded out of the heloplane, the first thing that confronted them was the intense heat, like the mother of all bon fires. Steam rose from the ground at their feet. Everywhere they heard the sound of popcorn popping. Getting out of the aircraft was like opening an oven door and climbing inside. Unlike a rose, it looked like a volcano, smelled like a volcano, and burned like a volcano. It even had the billowing smoke coughing up burps of gases. The many background noises merged into one constant rumble. What couldn’t be heard were normal noise -- the chirping of a bird, the hum of street traffic, someone blasting Beyonce.

  The sight of a smoldering hole one hundred kilometers wide and twenty-five deep captured the senses and drew them nearer like a magnet. Jackson couldn’t even see the bottom of the damn thing. It looked big enough to fit the Moon. Nobody seemed to mind the dust and smoke enveloping them. Dirt balls pelted them like hail. Even from their vantage high on the mountain overlooking it, they could not see past the crater. The view was simply stunning. The crater looked perfectly round, with a small ring in the exact middle, inside a larger ring around it. To the crater’s north stood a high plain that extended to both the east and west as far as the eye could see. Which, admittedly, wasn’t far. Even at this height.

  Then, suddenly, Jackson heard another big meteorite strike over the northern horizon. They all stopped to look up to see if anything was coming down at them. Like lightning striking twice, it would really suck to get killed by a meteorite while standing alongside the newest mega-crater in the world. Then they heard another rumble, exactly like the first one. Chava took off north to see what he could film. Jackson and his father removed their helmets to hear better. Sure enough, they heard another explosion just like the first two. Same size and distance, and coming at regular intervals.

  Ah! Jackson relaxed. While one drone started dropping gamma-ray bombs from San Diego going east, another started at Yuma going towards San Diego. While one started at Santa Clara going north, another started at the Nevada border going south down the California side of the Colorado River. While one went from New Mexico to San Antonio, another started from San Antonio towards New Mexico. And, lastly, while one went from Yuma to New Mexico, another blasted from New Mexico towards Yuma.

  To hide behind the meteorites, the first ones were the biggest bombs, which the computer models said would clear a circle several kilometers in diameter with an optimum airburst. They needed to detonate those big ones right after the main impact and before the asteroid’s immediate trail crashed into Earth. The highway farthest from survivors would be cleared last.

  Holy crap! He was going to have a corridor 1500 miles long, from San Diego to San Antonio, right through the thickest regolith. As the distant explosions continued with regularity, Jackson felt his anus unpucker. He gestured to everyone that everything was okay.

  Lorena took her helmet off and motioned for the rest of them to do the same. They huddled together to hear what she had to say through the filter mask covering her mouth and nose. Never in a million years would Jackson have guessed what was on her mind. His anus re-puckered in anticipation.

  “Henry Frances Jackson, thirty years ago you promised to build me the home of my dreams. Ever since I have lived where you wanted me to live. Now it’s my turn. This is where I want to live. Build me my dream home right here.”

  Jackson could easily tell she wasn’t kidding. Lorena had that don’t-you-dare-fuck-with-me tone of voice that her kids were so wary of. Beneath her filthy hair, dirty clothes, and dust for makeup, Lorena never looked better. Lots of practical objections immediately rose up, like the nearest grocery store is a thousand miles away, or bringing material will be really fucking expensive. Or there is no water. Or electricity. Or roads.

  But none of that really mattered. He did indeed promise her a dream home, and apparently what he built in Green Valley wasn’t it. And money really wasn’t a concern. They could get here by heloplane. The ridge was big enough, and it sloped down before the mountain rose up and away from them. Hell, there was enough room for several thousand homes on this ridge. He could even custom-build Lorena’s out of amorphous metal, then airlift it here. And he could generate his own electricity with solar panels and wind turbines. He could get TV and phone service through OmniNet, if he could wrestle control of Butler’s company. If Butler stayed at his log cabin, then Jackson would have to talk to his heirs, who would probably be happy to sell.

  “Dad, all this land belongs to the main Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation. Without infrastructure, they can’t live here now, and they lost their three Desert Diamond casinos, so they’re gonna be hu
rting for money. And I did save their fucking lives by flying them out of here. You and the chairman are old buddies. Do you think you can get the council to sell me their main reservation and the San Xavier District near Tucson?”

  “That’s like 4500 square miles. Where would they live? How much you gonna pay them?”

  “The government isn’t gonna let them keep Ground Zero. There will be intense pressure to turn it into a national park, so they’re gonna lose it anyways. They might as well make some money from it. Start my offer at $10 million, but I’ll go up to $100 million. With that, they could build themselves several thousand McMansions in the San Lucy District near Gila Bend.”

  “A hundred million! Dollars?” Lorena seemed shocked. “You don’t need to spend a hundred million just to make me a home. I’ll live anywhere you want.”

  Both Jackson’s father and son laughed.

  “He can afford it,” the professor assured her.

  “Dad, how much you gonna make? Several trillion?”

  “At least,” his grandfather agreed. “The markets dropped dead, so he stands to make trillions once he covers those shorts and triggers them derivative contracts.”

  Jackson desperately tried to hide his surprise. He had a pretty good chunk of the world’s $500 trillion in derivative contracts, most of which would soon trade for a tiny fraction of their former value. Before the impact he collected several trillion from thousands of smaller financial institutions, hoped to collect several trillion more from the world’s blue chips, and assumed he would be owed several trillion more that he would never be paid.

  “What the hell are you all talking about?” Not knowing what was going on enraged Lisa.

  “Dad made a fortune. If everyone pays him, he’s looking at several trillion. Hey, dad, can I have a billion for every trillion you make?”

  “Sure.”

  David stared, incredulous. “Are you serious?”

  Instead of answering, Jackson was lost in thought.

  “David, how much longer can Sally stay on Henderson?” Sally was the most dinosaur-like creation, a sauropod that grew astonishingly fast. “She’s gonna be ready to lay eggs soon. No way Henderson can support a dozen or more sauropods.”

  Which David knew better than anyone.

  “I always assumed that your dinosaurs had to stay on an island for containment purposes. Yet these craters are surrounded by very sheer walls. Even without adding barriers around the rim, those sauropods couldn’t possibly get out.”

  “You’re not serious!” David bellowed.

  “Well, I need compelling reasons for tourism. The world’s only dinosaur park would sure as hell be compelling. We could put all the herbivores in a big, nearby crater, after we cultivate the necessary bushes and trees, of course. Customers could look at them with binoculars from the rim and from various towers near watering holes.

  “Hell, there are so many craters nearby, we might even be able to put theropods, raptors, and ratites into separate craters, after fortifying the rim. We could feed them pigs, cattle, deer, etc, via tunnels cut in the crater walls. I bet people would pay a pretty penny to see dinosaurs with their own eyes. Who knows? Maybe we could have a petting zoo with the smaller ones.”

  David was stunned into silence, but Monique clearly wanted to know what the fuck they were talking about.

  Jackson continued. “There’s something else you should know. I started two insurance companies. The non-profit handles healthcare, and the other everything else.”

  “But you said every insurer will go bankrupt.”

  “Exactly. And I’ll have everything to myself. Property, auto, mortgage, commercial, life, disability, professional liability, etc. With everyone else facing huge losses and little revenue, I’ll have almost no competition. I’ve been headhunting for months.

  “Anyways, I’m telling you this because the non-profit, JacksonCare, will cover pre-conception genetic screening and in vitro fertilization so couples can make their next baby with their healthiest egg and sperm, all screened of genetic diseases. Future generations will live longer and healthier, which we need for interstellar travel, and a separate for-profit will delve into life extension medicine.”

  David was speechless. This was a dream come true.

  “I’m also rethinking your idea of expanding the Pitcairn Islands since I unexpectedly have a few thousand ships to utilize. Until they rebuild the world’s major ports, I won’t need most of them. You could cement thick amorphous metal walls around the shallowest areas around each island, capturing the surrounding islets, then use our fleet to transport rocks and rubble as filler. For the next few years you could have virtually all the ships that don’t have roll-on/roll-off capabilities. Within a decade or two you could probably multiply that shallow area from under 50 square kilometers to over 1000. Oh, and I may try to buy Easter Island from Chile since the locals refused to leave and are now all dead.”

  David looked magically stunned by Harry Potter.

  “What else am I going to do with trillions?”

  “Trillions? Trillions!” Lisa literally jumped up and down, finally finding something she liked more than shoes.

  Lorena’s eyes looked glazed over. “Are you really gonna spend $100 million to give me my dream home?”

  “If I can. Dad, do you think they will sell?”

  The professor carefully considered it.

  “Only several thousand took up your offer to fly to Alaska. The rest were too stubborn to move and are probably dead, including the several thousand living in Mexico. The survivors will have to elect a new council, then that council can take a full tribal vote. Several thousand Indians splitting $50 million? Given current events, I’m sure they’ll take your cash. And they have several other districts they can move to like San Lucy. But don’t you think it’s a lot of money for barren desert wasteland? I mean, there’s nothing here.”

  “Oh, but there will be. Look, when it rains, that crater is going to have a pretty big lake, and I’ll dig canals to maximize waterfront properties. Plus, the Santa Cruz river should flow nearby, and even the Gila River isn’t too far north. I could farm and ranch the hell out of this area, now that it has some decent organics on top.

  “Inside this crater I could build a whole city, with casinos to attract tourists. That earthquake probably knocked Las Vegas down before burying it under regolith anyways, so Crater City will become the new Vegas. With Lake Mead full of regolith and Hoover Dam destroyed, Vegas lost its only water supply. People from around the world will flock to Ground Zero to experience it for themselves.”

  He turned to his wife.

  “Mi amor, it may cost $100 billion instead of $100 million, but I’d love to build the home of your dreams. I’ll hook you up with some architects so you can design it just the way you want.”

  Lorena, in tears of joy mixed with dust, hugged him like an alien on Sigourney Weaver.

  “Can we live here, too?” Monique asked an astonished David, who just remembered he was getting fucking married.

  “Building on that tall out-cropping where Chava is shooting would probably give you a great view of everything north of this mountain,” the professor suggested. “Hell, I wouldn’t mind a slice of that pie myself. You mind me staying with you? I could help with the twins.”

  Like David was going to refuse his grandfather, a man he treated more as his dad than his actual father.

  “Hell yeah you can stay with us. The homes would only be several hundred meters apart.”

  “Well then I want my own pad to the south,” Lisa insisted, hands on hips, dying to be treated like an adult.

  “Sold!” her mother immediately agreed, stunning Jackson more than the asteroid impact itself. “The three of us,” apparently referring only to the women, “will design our own homes. After all, we’re gonna be neighbors.”

  “Are you freakin’ serious?” Lisa could not believe this, her depression temporarily gone. This was not like her mother. She must have a concussion. A ho
me of her own? That she designed? At 16? Kiss my booty, Britney!

  Her father, however, understood. Lisa just lost her fiancée and she needed something to look forward to. And giving her a home next door would tie her to them and prevent her from starting a new life far away. In the corporate world, this was called a golden handcuff: you are free as long as you stay right fucking here! What Lorena wanted most was to keep her family together. This sealed it.

  “Congratulations, mi amor,” Jackson offered his only daughter as he hugged her tight. Then everyone else hugged the two of them, happy to be alive and together.

  Then Chava returned, smelling news like wolves scent blood. He filmed the family hugging with the smoking crater in the background. Jackson shushed everyone quiet as Chava approached through clouds of smoke and dust. With his helmet, gloves, and camera, Chava could pass for an alien with a ray gun.