Best of British Science Fiction 2016
Page 24
He continues his work on the intersection, sweeping and scanning, scanning and sweeping. The next time he looks, the other person has disappeared behind a turn in their tunnel.
Bart has finished an entire section of wall when the alarms go off, ear-piercing. The ceiling lights switch to the highest setting, bright, almost blinding. Bart puts down his scanner, sealer and sweeper and heads towards the centre of the intersection, as he’s supposed to. He’s nearly there when a girl comes running out of tunnel number 7 and bumps into him, almost throwing him off balance. He grabs her arm without thinking, steadies her. Her uniform is torn. She’s not wearing a mouth cover. Bart can see her eyes behind her goggles. He would expect them to look frightened, but they are not. There is something else in there. Something bright. It makes Bart think of the sun. It makes him think of Ajdenia.
“What are you doing?” he asks. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
She brings a finger to her lips. “We can live under the sun, you, me, all of us,” she whispers. “They are lying.” And then she lets go of him and she’s off, running into tunnel number 5.
Bart thinks of following her, but he knows he’s not supposed to. He’s supposed to stand in the middle of the intersection and wait for the alarms to go silent, for the lights to go back to normal. So that’s what he does.
Soon, a pair of guards come out of tunnel number 7, helmets shiny and batons in hand.
“Which way did she go?” one of them asks.
“Who?” Bart blurts out, and immediately receives a blow to the ribs from the guard’s baton.
“Your cooperation will be rewarded,” the other guard says. “Two more minutes under the filter will be added to your next payment, if the information you provide proves correct.” His tone implies that something will be taken away if not, but the exact nature of it is left vague.
Two whole minutes of light, Bart thinks. Two whole minutes of sun.
As if noticing his hesitation, the guard who struck him scans Bart’s forehead, proving they’ll keep their word, one way or another. “Come on,” he says. “Spit it out!”
Could it be true?
Bart raises his hand and points towards tunnel number 5.
Bart is in the filter room, waiting for his payment. He’s thought of the girl in the Ra intersection often, ever since they day he found himself in her way. He’s thought about what may have happened to her, and about her words. Could they really live under the sun, without slaving away in the tunnels for a few moments under the protection of the filters? She was probably one of those who lost their mind in the tunnels, he assured himself in the end, one of those who don’t know how to deal with the cold and the repetition, how to make themselves worthier than they are. Bart shuffles in his chair. And if not... but as the thought crosses his mind, the time finally comes, and the lid of the filter room opens, letting in the sun. Bart unzips his side pocket and brings out the plastic pot with the pink flower growing in it. He raises it towards the light. “Drink up, Ajdenia,” he whispers.
He watches the pink petals shine against the sun until the lid comes on again.
To Catch a Comet
Sylvia Spruck Wrigley
From: Samantha Schandin
To: Greg Smith
Regarding: Asteroid Strike
Dear Greg,
Attached please find our revised projections regarding the inbound asteroid based on newly collected data from Observatorio del Teide. The results have been verified by the Astrophysical Unit here in Cambridge.
As you can see, it’s more bad news. You haven’t sent any updates lately and I am hoping there’s no delays on the intercept mission as we have only a few months until impact.
Please get in touch and let me know the status.
Samantha
------------------------
From: postmaster@europa.eu
To: Samantha.Schandin
Automated Response
I am sorry to inform you that Greg Smith no longer works for the department of special projects within the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. You may wish to get in touch with another project department regarding this. Your email *Regarding: Asteroid Strike* has been deleted unread.
From: Samantha Schandin
To: European Institute of Innovation and Technology
Asteroid 2007 QS August 2016
Dear Mr Peeters,
I’m with the Near-Earth Objects research project. Can you please tell me who is leading the AEGIS intercept project regarding Asteroid 2007 QS? It’s urgent.
------------------------
From: European Institute of Innovation and Technology
To: Samantha Schandin
Regarding: Asteroid 2007 QS August 2016
Dear Samantha
I regret to inform you that the AEGIS project has been cancelled due to funding issues. If I can help further, please let me know.
Thomas Peeters
------------------------
From: Samantha Schandin
To: European Institute of Innovation and Technology
Regarding: Asteroid 2007 QS August 2016
Dear Mr Peeters,
I’m not sure if you are aware, but the AEGIS project was an intercept mission against a meteorite which is due to impact this August. This isn’t a research project but a matter of a defence project which has been ongoing for the past four years. Can you please tell me who to speak to in order to get the project back on track? There are lives at stake.
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
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From: European Institute of Innovation and Technology
To: Samantha Schandin
Regarding: Asteroid 2007 QS August 2016
Dear Samantha
I’m afraid the AEGIS project was cancelled three weeks ago and the team has already been disbanded. It’s out of my hands. Have you considered contacting the military?
Thomas Peeters
From: Dr Samantha Schandin
For the attention of the European Defence Agency
Regarding Imminent Meteorite Strike August
Dear Sirs,
I am trying to find the right person to speak to regarding Asteroid 2007 QS, a meteorite which is inbound to Northern Europe. Our analysis has shown that the impact site will be land-based and cause considerable devastation. We believe that the most likely point of impact is Luxembourg if the asteroid is not intercepted.
The EU-sponsored AEGIS mission was the first line of defence against the destruction which this meteorite will cause and this project has now been cancelled. We urgently need to meet with you to discuss this situation and look at how to defend against this incoming meteorite.
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
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From: European Defence Agency
To: Dr Schandin @ NEOWatch
Imminent Meteorite Strike August
There is no appropriate department within the European Defence Agency for missile intercepts of near-earth objects and Luxembourg is not a high priority target.
I looked it up and there’s no confirmed records of any human ever dying in a meteorite impact. How bad can it be?
Tony Martins
------------------------
From: Dr Samantha Schandin
Tony Martins, European Defence Agency
Imminent Meteorite Strike August
Dear Mr Martins,
I’m not sure you understand the urgency of this issue. Asteroid 2007 QS will cause considerable devastation. Although my department’s work has shown that the impact site will most likely be Luxembourg, this is not an exact science. Perhaps it will be easier to gain the attention that we need to deal with this by citing Brussels or Paris as likely strike sites, as there are significant staff in both locations.
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
------------------------
From: European Def
ence Agency
To: Dr Schandin @ NEOWatch
Imminent Meteorite Strike August
Quite frankly, a 30 metre rock is not an issue for the European Defence Agency. If you have some sort of proof that the rock is sentient or launched by sentient beings, we would be very interested in hearing further. Perhaps you should contact the European Space Agency to see if they can help you with your issue.
I am sorry that I am not able to help you further.
Tony Martins
------------------------
From: Dr Samantha Schandin
Tony Martins, European Defence Agency
Regarding Imminent Meteorite Strike August
Dear Mr Martins
It is not my issue. NeoWatch is three dozen people who have spent the last four years analysing data on Asteroid 2007 QS. We have coordinated with observatories and astrophysics departments around the world who have all confirmed our findings. We have updated our website with a factsheet about the asteroid in order to help you highlight the issue.
An asteroid with a diametre of 7 metres would have the equivalent kinetic energy of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Over one thousand people were injured by the Chelyabinsk meteor airburst event over Russia in 2013.
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEO-Watch
------------------------
From: European Defence Agency
To: Dr Schandin @ NEOWatch
Imminent Meteorite Strike August
Understood, but this damage would be specific to Luxembourg, is that right?
Tony
From: Dr Samantha Schandin
For the attention of the EU Space Department
Imminent Meteorite Crash
I’m with Near-Earth Objects research project in Cambridge and I’ve been tasked with finding the right person to speak to regarding Asteroid 2007 QS, a meteorite which will impact the earth in just eight weeks. Possible crash sites include Brussels and Paris. We expect significant localised consequences.
The EU-sponsored AEGIS mission was planning an intercept but the project has been inaccountably cancelled and we now have no defence. Can I speak to someone within the EU Space Department urgently about coordinating a response?
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
------------------------
From: EU Space Department
To: Dr Samantha Schandin
Regarding: Imminent Meteorite Crash
Dear Dr Schandin
Thank you for your email. I am afraid to say there is not anything we can do to help. As you are no doubt aware, a mission of this size would take at least one year to put into place and even if there were enough time, we have neither the staff nor the funding to launch an intercept craft capable of withstanding the meteorite and taking it off track. There is also significant risk to our reputation if this mission were to be undertaken and then be unsuccessful.
Elisabeth Jacobs
EU Space Department
From: Dr Samantha Schandin
Council of the European Union
URGENT: Imminent Meteorite Crash
To whom it may concern,
I am Dr Samantha Schandin, an astrophysicist employed by NEOWatch in Cambridge. We analyse Potentially Hazardous Asteroids. An asteroid is heading for Northern Europe and will crash into the Earth next month.
I have assembled a petition of 1,742 scientists and researchers who all confirm that this asteroid is an immediate hazard and will create a one to two kilometre crater on impact. The most likely impact sites are Brussels and Paris.
We have contacted staff representing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, European Defence Agency and the European Space Department and am unable to find anyone who will take responsibility for coordinating a defence. Can we have your support?
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
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From Jean-Luc Vasseur
To: Samantha Schandin
Regarding: URGENT: Imminent Meteorite Crash
Dear Samantha,
We recommend you come to our next meeting on the 17th of July and see if you can find a representative who is interested in your cause. I have attached a document with travel information and local hotels. We look forward to seeing you.
Jean-Luc
------------------------
From: Dr Samantha Schandin
Jean-Luc Valais, Council of the European Union
CRASH AND BURN
Dear Mr Vasseur,
My entire department went to Brussels for a meeting and there were more translators there than MEPs. This was a completely wasted effort. Asteroid 2007 QS is incoming straight for us right now and no one seems to be able get the EU to react. We’re running out of time here! PLEASE HELP ME FIND THE RIGHT CONTACT!
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
------------------------
From: Dr Samantha Schandin
Jean-Luc Valais, Council of the European Union
Regarding: CRASH AND BURN
Dear Mr Vasseur
It is now only four weeks until impact! I understand that you are originally from Paris which is one of the likely impact destinations. Are you really willing to allow what is effectively a large bomb land your home town and do nothing?
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
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European Parliament
Dr Schandin
Regarding: CRASH AND BURN
Dear Dr Schandin,
Paris is empty in August anyway, so I don’t think that’s of particular concern.
However, I have forwarded your emails to the department most likely to be interested in the situation. I hope you are able to resolve this.
Jean-Luc
Department of Geology and Mineral Exploration
Dr Samantha Schandin
NEOWatch
FW: Regarding: CRASH AND BURN
Dear Dr Schandin,
Your information was forwarded to me by Jean-Luc Vasseir of the Council of the European Union.
Could you please specify the exact details of the meteorite, including metal composition and other things so that we can correctly identify the value? It is possible that the Belgian Department of Geology and Mineral Exploration (BDGME) is interested in this occurrence. If, as you say, the meteorite will definitely land in European territory, then we are definitely interested in more information which will allow us to recover the meteorite after impact.
Kristina Krinov
Department of Geology and Mineral Exploration
From: European Institute of Innovation and Technology
To: Samantha Schandin - NEOWatch
Regarding: Asteroid 2007 QS August 2016
Dear Samantha
This is a follow-up email as a part of our quality control to ensure that queries to our department are correctly handled. Were you able to resolve your issues regarding Asteroid 2007 QS August 2016?
Thomas Peeters
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Dear Thomas,
I have left NEOWatch and relocated to the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bengaluru.
I have come to the conclusion that Brussels could only be improved by a meteor strike.
Kind regards
Samantha
PS: I appreciate that at least you took the time to check back with me. Have you considered taking a holiday? I’d recommend the third week of August. Head South.
How to Grow Silence from Seed
Tricia Sullivan
Rob has never been so happy. As he runs up the stairs of the community lab on Romford Road his boots make the metal steps resound like gongs. He is fresh from a finance meeting. Even though it’s after eleven pm and most of the crew will be in the pub, he knows Injala will still be working.
Except that Injala isn’t there. At her station a child crouches on the floor, covered in emergents. They look li
ke worms. He recoils. He stares for some seconds before he realises that this is Injala herself. She is shrunken and distressed out of all proportion to the problems Rob knows how to deal with. When he bends over her she grabs hold of his forearms with a bitter strength, her young eyes nightshade with fear.
“The walls are trying to kill me,” she says in a tear-guttered voice. “The walls have a mind and it’s trying to shrink me to a point and then bang me to a negative dimension. Look!”
She points. Up in the high industrial windows curl Injala’s augmented vines, their leaves gilded by streetlights. All around, the pock-marked walls of her workspace are the same as ever, their paint spewing a cycle of news and entertainment feeds because she has been working on the ambient effects of mainstream media culture.
Her friends also spill bright and unreal from the walls, expressing increasingly concerned enquiries for her well-being.
“Injala? Do you need someone to sit with you until it passes?”
“Quit running your cogs, baby. Take a break.”
“Remember, it’s only information. It’s not real, Injala. You can pull out any time.”
The friends’ distant panic makes Rob feel oppressed. He shuts them down. In a thin film over every other data layer, Injala’s work pops and fizzes along the walls with what looks and sounds like noise: the activity of the plants she has been training. No one but Injala understands them: she has laid her cogs open to them.
“There’s your trouble right there,” he mutters. He should have seen this coming.
He glances around the loft as if expecting to find a helpful fairy godmother to take over from here. At the far end of the deserted communal space, Abdul is doing some old-school recreational DNA hacking, oblivious. Rob looks back at his girlfriend. She used to be so wild. Her ideas used to take his breath away. Who knows what lives in her flesh now? Interfacing with plant AIs has turned her into an illegal mess of terror, irrationality and snot. She has become a phenomenon wholly beyond his scope.