Chapter 27
The tiltrotor plane flew along the Moroccan coast just south of Agadir, then veered towards East. It flew for another twenty minutes, before the giant solar power plant started appearing on the horizon. Despite the fact that Louis had read all the documentation during the flight, he could not help being in awe once he saw the construction worksite.
It was like a huge tent camp, spreading over more than ten thousand square miles. The tents were pinned by carbon fiber poles, each more than one hundred yards tall. From time to time, some clearings populated by buildings and plants opened in the immense camp.
The plane flew to a point in the center of the area, where the clearing was bigger than usual. Then it tilted the engines upward and landed on the helicopter pad next to the heavily guarded control building. Or, Louis thought, he’d better call it the control village, as more than one thousand people were living in the compound.
He got off the plane and headed to the visitor welcome area. Dorian and Tarek were there, waiting for him. They shook hands as if he were one of the many dignitaries who were regularly touring the site.
“Tarek told me you were achieving something great,” Louis commented as he followed Tarek, who was making way for them, “but he understated it big time, Dorian. It’s simply huge.”
“Please, spare me the father’s pride comedy. I cannot stand it,” Dorian replied, “and do not forget you are here on business. You will have time for hugs at home tonight, with Camilla and the kids.”
“Are they all right? I would not like to find out that she is expecting another baby when it is born, as with the first two. Mom could not handle it. Do it for her, please.”
“No surprises this time. Now hold on...here is the meeting room. Let’s continue our discussion later.”
Louis entered the room, where around fifteen attendees, coming from all corners of Eurasia, were waiting for him. Louis immediately recognized Dinesh Kheradpir and went straight to him, almost ignoring the rest of the team. They shook hands vigorously, while patting each other on the back.
“It has been a long time that I have been waiting to meet you in person, Dr. Kheradpir,” Louis said warmly. “If there is a case where the pupil has gone further than the master, this is the one. Unfortunately, this war has made traveling anything but easy.”
“You are the living legend, here, Dr. Picard. We will have time for smalltalk afterwards, now let’s start the meeting. We have to persuade some politicians.”
The attendees went to their places, put on their virtual reality goggles and connected to the biosensors hanging in front of them. Then content started to flow.
At the end of the session, the picture was clear, and was summarized by Matthias Morganti, the representative of the European Union.
“Basically, the energy side of the equation is solved, at least in principle: new solar cell technology is giving us access to nearly unlimited amount of energy. Thanks to this, we can turn any desert into a garden, like we have been doing here. In addition to that, the outstanding need for fossil fuels - in order to move planes and ships - can be fulfilled by extracting hydrocarbons from outer solar system planets and asteroids, thanks to the orbital elevator and advanced rover technology.”
“Yes, it is like this,” Tarek replied, speaking as the representative of the Arab League, “Access to these technologies would basically remove the main source of conflicts on the Eurasian continent.” He paused, and then turned his head to Dinesh.
“Dr. Kheradpir, on the other hand, has just perfected a Telomerax version that decays. That is, unlike the previous ones, it does not make anti-aging effects permanent. Dr. Picard has confirmed the finding, so we can also address over time the problem of the pest swarms.”
“But unfortunately it is still a bit early to uncork champagne, isn’t it?” The objection came from Artyom Gordeev, the personal secretary of the Russian President. “We are still not able to get the pandemic really under control, as the excessive usage of antibiotics in the early years of the crisis has made germs stronger than ever, and on top of that, to build the orbital elevator on time, we need access to American technology and space launch sites that neither the rebels nor the government seem willing to grant us, at least until the civil war stops. Their representatives did not even bother to attend this meeting.”
“In other words,” Dorian jumped in looking at both the Russian and Chinese delegate, “we could have had the tools on hand, if the two of you had not destroyed each other’s space infrastructure over the last ten years, and now, even if we know exactly what to do, it might be too late. Unless things in the States go in the right direction, then we have no control.”
The Russian visibly resented the remark, while Yuan Zhang, the Chinese, who was the vice-minister of Economic Affairs, politely smiled at Dorian and then looked at Dinesh.
“It’s not just us, Mr. Picard Junior, you also need to factor in the depletion of fossil fuel reserves carried out by India and Pakistan while pursuing their war in the Middle East. That’s why we had to put coal plants back into service to produce electricity to survive. This obviously did not help the environment, but between immediate death and slow agony you always pick the last one.”
Dinesh noticed the growing irritation in Dorian, and raised his hand to speak.
“Gentlemen, we are all guilty here, period. I could add the massive deforestation in Africa and Latin America, triggered by the lack of easy access to oil, and all that followed. And yes, I might have pushed my government too heavily to use antibiotics. We are already paying for that. But we might have a way out, if we act quickly. We have evaluated a number of scenarios and discovered we have between two to three years to get all this technology before it is too late.”
“Otherwise?” the question came from Louis.
Dorian swiped to the last video.
“This is the most likely outcome. By 2065, there won’t be more than 150 million survivors on the planet, spread mostly along the tropics where climate conditions will remain more favorable.”
Artyom Gordeev pushed his chair back.
“Do the Americans know this? Do they care?”
Dinesh answered,
“Yes, they know, and no, they don’t care. Neither the government nor the rebels. They say they do, but they’re really only thinking about how to win their war.”
Tarek summarized the situation in the silence that followed, without bothering to hide his amusement.
“Even if we decided to stop war in Eurasia tomorrow and invade America to get what we need, it would take too much time. We can only try to push and influence as much as we can, but basically we need a miracle, given the current political outlook in the States.”
He stopped and thought that this would be one of the situations that Valerio would have liked to witness. The amusement gave way to sadness, he looked once more around the table, then he pointed at the gardens below and said,
“We managed to rebuild the garden of Eden just to risk losing it again but this time forever.”
The Last Enemy - Parts 1,2 & 3 - 1934-2054 Page 73