Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky)

by Bagley, Jeffery

  “Mr. Greco, I am glad to be here with you tonight to try and clear up some of the accusations that have been directed toward you and your associates. You freely admit that your group purposely included the birth control vaccine in your mixture of vaccinations. You also admit that this was a closely guarded secret that only a small handful of your associates were aware of. You have even said that the Driskall’s, whom you had provided millions of dollars in research funds to, were totally unaware of the full scope of your effort.”

  “That is correct, Marla. Besides myself, there were only fourteen other people in the world who knew of the effort we were making to save billions from mass starvation when the Earth goes through the large climate change after the encounter with the Brown Dwarf, or Peter’s Star as it is widely called.”

  “Mr. Greco, there are a lot of very angry people out there in the countries that you profess you were trying to help. Maybe you could explain tonight, why, and what, you were thinking. Perhaps you can try to alleviate those ill feelings.”

  “Certainly Marla. In the year 1800, there were approximately one billion people residing on planet Earth. In one hundred and thirty years, around the year 1930, that number had doubled to two billion. Then in only forty seven more years, that population doubled to four billion. Around the time that it was discovered that Peter’s Star was going to affect us as it passed through our solar system we had nearly seven and a half billion people on our planet. Nearly two thirds of that population was in India, China, Africa, and Southeast Asia. It was not coincidental that these were also some of the countries with the poorest living conditions and widespread disease and starvation. My colleagues and I calculated that unless something was done there would be approximately ten billion people in the world right about the time that our planets orbit is going to be so drastically changed by the passing of Peters Star. Our planet would have been stressed beyond its ability to support that many people, even without Peter’s Star coming and causing its havoc.”

  “We have all seen the simulations on what is going to happen during the encounter. Floods, tidal waves, volcanoes, and all other manner of chaos is going to break lose. About three quarters of the world’s population lives along the coasts in the most vulnerable areas. Billions would die, as all these people are not so fortunate to live in the more affluent countries that are taking huge efforts to protect and shelter their populace. Children, as usually happens in such calamities since they are helpless and unable to fend for themselves, take the brunt of such disasters. The population of these countries showed no interest in controlling their own population or taking the time to think about what would happen to the children that they were producing. So, we decided to take action and protect those that would have been born from all the suffering and death that awaited them.”

  “After E-day, when our world spins farther out in space away from the sun, many of our northern and far southern areas are going to be basically un-inhabitable. The best estimates by some very good scientists, which by the way are not on my payroll, are that the world will only be able to safely support about two billion humans without totally denuding what is left of the world’s wilderness areas. Because of our actions with the vaccination campaign, we now estimate that the world population before the encounter will be five billion. Only about twenty percent of that population will be under the age of twenty-one. It is also estimated that as many as a billion people may die within weeks as a direct result of the encounter with the Dwarf Star. There will probably be another billion to die within two years from starvation, war, and freezing to death. That will bring our population down to three billion, still fifty percent higher than the planet can safely support, but it is at least a start.”

  “Mr. Greco, so what you are admitting to is basically playing God with these peoples destinies. Many or our viewers want to know, what gives you the right? You do not live in one of these areas, and if you did, you have more than enough money to ensure your survival. Why not let them decide for themselves their own destiny?”

  Benjamin leaned forward in his chair, obviously trying to control his emotion. “Because Marla, there would be about four billion people out there who are starving to death and willing to do anything to take or steal what the civilized countries of the world are trying to protect. They would be trying to take the food from your mouth or take your shelter from you. What would give them that right? And who would be able to tell all those little children starving to death that it was their parent’s fault, by not listening to reason, that caused them to be born into such a world. I reserve the right to do what I fill I need to do to protect the innocent, whether they have been born or not. That was our goal. And yes, we are proud of what we did, given the same circumstances, we would do it again.”

  “Mr. Greco, I see we only have time for two more questions. Now that the vaccination campaign is over, what have you been doing to get ready for Encounter Day? The word is that a huge, heavily fortified area in Bolivia has been cordoned off and is protected by a private army that is financed by you and a large number of the other ultra-wealthy people of the world.”

  “Marla, the wealthy have always required security to keep those who are less fortunate from trying to take what we have. I will say that in helping to get ready for E-day that my clients and I have personally donated over fifty billion dollars to the DNA Ark project as anonymously donors. We have also heavily invested in the companies developing space sciences that will help protect our world from errant space rocks after the encounter. We are not the totally selfish group of recluses many will have you believe.”

  “One more question Mr. Greco and our time will be up. Is it true that at the time that you were developing your plans for the mass sterilization of over two billion women that you paid Doctors Brett and Jessica Driskall to clone your son that had died at the age of six months, and that as a result of that procedure you now have twin sons?”

  Jessica sucked in her breath and Brett about choked on the sandwich he had been eating. Jessica swore to herself that you could hear a pin drop all over the world at that particular moment. Benjamin stood up, straightened his tie, and strode from the room where he had been doing the interview with no further comment.

  The reporter turned to the camera with a perfectly innocent expression on her face. “I must have touched a nerve on that last question. This is Marla Albright, from CNN World News Live, goodnight to you all.”

  “That bitch,” yelled Jessica. “She purposely set him up for that last question. It was not like that at all.”

  “Oh crap, now every nut in the world is going to be asking us to clone their dead kid, wife, or dog or something,” replied Brett. “We will need even more security outside the lab. We may need to contract some security people like Benjamin has down there in South America.”

  He motioned the TV off and sauntered back into the kitchen to find something sweet for dessert. Jessica just sat on the sofa staring at the blank TV monitor with a worried look on her face.

  …

  “I hope someone strings that asshole Greco up,” said the President. “Turn that crap off Marius. The only person I dislike more than Benjamin Greco at the moment is that bitch Marla Albright. She set him up just like she has set up so many other people she has interviewed, including me.”

  Marius switched the TV off. “Mr. President, as your Chief of Staff I would have to consider that interview as a win for you and the country as a whole. He just admitted that the whole birth control scheme was dreamed up and carried out by him and his rich cronies. He did not implicate the United States at all. Maybe this will get the rest of the world off our backs. And in all fairness, he probably did do a good thing for the world as a whole and saved a lot of suffering. If not for Miss Albright blind-siding him about the cloned dead boy at the end, many people would have thought him a hero. Her bringing up the point that while he was stopping billions of women from having children he was having his own dead son cloned is probably not going to go ove
r very well.”

  “Maybe,” reflected President Bailey thoughtfully. “I was not aware of the cloning thing before. Have someone look into that. Contact the Driskalls down at the DNA Ark and see if that is true. If so, I want some information about how they did it and how practical the procedure may be.”

  Marius looked at the President in surprise. “Do you want to make some clones of your ex-wife Mr. President?”

  The President snorted. “No thanks, one of that woman is enough for anyone. However, remember in the news last month how the Russian President lost both his wife and daughter to an Iranian terrorist attack? Maybe we can mend some fences with them if we offered a way he could get his infant daughter back. Get me that information. We may be able to use this. We will see how this shakes out,” the President said thoughtfully.

  Chapter 35

  May 1st, 2031

  Farside Base, Earth’s Moon

  Colonel Abraham Allan watched from the bunker as the huge lunar lander slowly dropped toward the landing field. The field was almost a kilometer away from the base as it would not have been prudent to have that hot engine exhaust come anywhere near the base and its one hundred and thirty inhabitants. Colonel Allan was the commander of Farside Base, the second base being built on the moon. Schackleton Base, the first basethat had been built,waslocated at the lunar South Pole. The main purpose of the southern polar base was to mine and process the water ice found in the deep craters there that were never exposed to the sun’s unrelenting heat. That water was what made the human presence of the United States Space Force on the moon possible. Rather than shipping water, oxygen and rocket fuel up from the gravity well of the Earth to the space and lunar stations, it could be done vastly cheaper from the lunar south pole.

  Farside Base had a totally different purpose. A huge phased-array for a space based radar system was being built here. Its purpose was to constantly search the solar system for asteroids, comets, or large meteors that could be a threat to Earth. After the detection and tracking of such objects, Space Force could then determine what threat the object was and what means was needed to alleviate it. It was also hoped that asteroids containing large amounts of valuable metals and volatiles could be identified so that they could be captured and brought into a lunar orbit where they could be mined and processed at Lunar One, the space station in orbit around the moon. A great deal of expense could be saved by mining the resource rich asteroids in orbit without the materials ever having to be hauled to and from the surface of the moon.

  The large nuclear powered lander easing itself down to the surface contained the first elements of that radar system. The lander itself would never have flown in Earth’s, or any other planet’s atmosphere. It was basically a large Nuclear/Thermal Propulsion system with an open steel girder frame and a crew cabin at the very top. Various arrangements of cargo pods, tanks, and containers could be fastened to its frame for transport down to the lunar surface or back into lunar orbit. The intensely hot, slightly radioactive hydrogen gas being exhausted from its engine nozzles was all but invisible except where it came into contact with the regolith of the landing field. There it stirred up a strange looking dust cloud that quickly settled back down onto the surface. Since there was no wind or air to keep it suspended, the fine regolith powder would settle back down and coat everything below it with a fine layer of dust.

  “Farside base, this is Lander Three. We are down and shutting down engines,” came over his suits radio system.

  “Roger Lander Three,” came the reply from the flight control center of Farside Base. “Good to see you guys again. Let’s let things cool down for about four hours and we’ll roll out the welcome mat for you.”

  Colonel Allan made it a habit to observe every takeoff and landing in person. Although his base personnel were well trained and had practiced flight operations until they could do it in their sleep, no one took chances on the moon. The moon was a harsh mistress and six men had died so far due to accidents while constructing the base. He knew that his ground crew would wait the mandatory four hours for the ground beneath the lander to cool and for the short-lived radioisotopes that had been formed by the few stray neutrons from the lander’s exhaust to decay away to safe levels. They would then do a quick radiation survey and roll the cargo carriers and cranes up to the lander and get the cargo pods detached and on their way back to Farside Base.

  He waved his space suited arm at his driver, Sergeant Mays. “Let’s get back to base Sergeant, I want to be there when the crew disembarks and arrives. The pilot is an old friend of mine.” They left the observation bunker and climbed back into the six wheeled moon buggy. The Sergeant pulled back onto the road of compressed regolith and sped up to the buggy’s top speed of forty kilometers per hour for the quick sprint back to the base.

  …

  About five hours later Colonel Allan was waiting inside the egress storage room as the airlock cycled from outside the base. The stations inhabitants jokingly referred to the room as the “coat closet,” as it was the major entry and exit point for the base onto the lunar surface. Except for the airlock building and the assorted storage tanks and vehicle garages, the majority of the base was about twenty five meters underground so that it was protected from cosmic radiation and small meteorites by the regolith and lunar rock above them. He saw from the status display screen that the men entering from outside the base were clear of the airlock and into the de-contamination room. They were presently being sprayed down with high pressure air and that air was being filtered to remove all the moon dust off of their suits. They would then be sprayed down with water and then high pressure air again to dry the suits. Every precaution was taken to keep the dust out of the base. The regolith could work its way into any mechanical joint and ruin bearings in no time, as well as being a major atmospheric contaminate that could irritate the eyes and lungs.

  Finally, two men stepped from the decontamination chamber and walked over to the suit racks. Two technicians were on hand to help them remove their space suits. After they were free of the cumbersome suits, Colonel Allan walked over and greeted them.

  “Colonel Mike Pierce, damn it’s good to see you again,” he said as he shook his hand. “Major Jenkins, I knew that had to be you driving that pig, Mike would have missed the whole landing field,” he grinned as Hank gave him a somewhat floppy salute.

  “Colonel, if Colonel Pierce had been driving, we would have missed the whole moon,” he joked. Hank looked around, “Wow, they have improved the place since I was down last. There used to only be room in here for about two people.”

  “Wait until you see how the rest of the place is changed,” Colonel Allan said proudly. “We are up to almost eighty thousand square feet of pressurized space now. In another year, who knows?”

  “Well, we brought down the first parts of the phased array for you. That stuff ought to keep you guys busy for a while so you don’t get bored,” said Mike.

  Colonel Allan motioned for them to follow him. “You guys come on down to the cafeteria. We can get you some hot chow. There might even be some fresh lettuce and stuff you can make a salad with. We have two of the underground greenhouses up and running now. The salad stuff is not too bad. It is a hell of a lot better than freeze dried rations.” They walked down the corridor until they came to the cafeteria. The three of them made a salad and scored some fresh bread from the kitchen and took a seat over in one corner. It was not meal time yet, so they pretty much had the cafeteria to themselves except for a foursome playing cards over in another corner.

  “So, I have been trying to keep up with Space Forces two hottest pilots,” said Colonel Allan. That was pretty nice work out there trying out the thruster modules on that asteroid. I am not sure if I would have had the balls to ride one of those things down until it hit the asteroid.”

  Mike laughed. “Actually, neither one of us did. It was that crazy ass engineer that was with us that did it. And believe me; after he did it three times, he had no balls left either. H
e said it about tore them off the first time as he had his legs wrapped around a grab bar when it hit the asteroid. He has already designed a seat to be put on all future models in case it had to be done manually again.”

  “He sings soprano real pretty like now,” joked Hank.

  “It looks like you have been real busy here also,” Mike said as he gestured at the new cafeteria.

  Abe nodded proudly. “In one year, we have increased our pressurized space by over fifty thousand square feet. We hope to double what we have now in another two years or so. Most of the new space is greenhouses and lab space. The new radar control center and its computers will take the rest. Since we perfected molding the regolith into high stress concrete, we call it Regocrete; by the way, the underground construction has really taken off. We have two nuclear reactors on the surface about two kilometers away and a large solar panel array that can provide backup power if we happen to be facing the sun. If we have to take both the reactors down for maintenance or repairs, we have to make sure we are in the right orbital position to get the sunlight. Since we only have sufficient sunlight for about two weeks a month or so, any maintenance on the power plants has to be well planned out.”