Panspermia Deorum (30 page)

“Yes.”

“Then why the
deception?”

“I suppose I
couldn’t handle another rejection of such an important opportunity.
If your father fails to shunt the asteroid to a safe path, we’re
all doomed. My work becomes irrelevant. If he succeeds, the ethics
brigade will resurface and we both know what that means. If the
third scenario develops, a partial impact which brings nuclear
winter for decades, we need to be ready with a new medical
approach. Isn’t that why you set up this research centre?”

“Indeed it is,
but you can’t simply take unilateral decisions like this.
Unleashing viruses into the human genome could in itself become a
disaster. We must self-regulate in the current vacuum. We have to
discuss safeguards and have them in place before stepping into the
unknown. Unless you accept you are part of a team, and act
accordingly, I must ask you to leave. I need to see details of
every experiment you’ve conducted, both in this establishment and
your previous employment. That’s where we are. As seductive as your
work is, it needs restraint as well as direction. Once I’ve seen
all of the work you’ve done with this concept, I’d like to see
every specimen you’ve created, here and wherever else. I’m on your
side for now, so don’t screw up. I won’t let you out of my sight
until I have an understanding of the entire concept. We’ll be
accompanied by our security people whenever necessary. Are we good
to begin?”

“Fair enough.
At least you don’t see me as the bad guy. My former employer simply
accused me of playing God, and kicked me out, after having approved
the first steps of the project.”

“I can imagine
much of the record of your work still resides with your former
employer, it must have been developed over many months, if not
years.”

“It was, but
they erased all reference to the project when I was fired, but not
before I made copies. We can look through it from the start.”

“Fine, I’ll
follow you to the lab.”

*

Julien picked
up his phone and pressed the receive option when he saw the name.
Bondarenko’s news wasn’t precisely what he wanted to hear but it
could have been worse.

“This place is
like a wardrobe with a few clothes hanging inside, protected by
mothballs scattered around the interior. To cut a long story short,
I need to bring the remaining IT people over to Guiana. We need to
fabricate the new missile interface over there. There simply are
not enough of them to get the job done quickly. Please warn your
team that they will have to work with these Russian technicians, I
will bring more detailed schematics with me. Julien, I am sure if
we had not made this visit the plant would have been put in sleep
mode until the expected signal to activate came from Kolorov. In a
few weeks, Kaputin would have prepared for the remaining workforce
to shrink to the absolute minimum required to launch. He revealed
to me that when that event occurred, his instruction was clear. The
underground complex was to be bulldozed back to pasture. When I am
ready to leave you will receive another call.”

Julien could
appreciate how Bondarenko had become an indispensable asset in this
infinitely layered puzzle, and he was at least relieved that he
could now switch his attention to ongoing calculations and cosmic
images.

The Chilean
images were accompanied by a statement, and this was unusual. There
was clear visual evidence that the asteroid was pulling away from
the now detached cometary fragment at an increasing rate. In a few
weeks there would be data which would enable a more precise
calculation of this separation rate, and when the fragment would
reach Earth if the asteroid itself was deflected. A secondary set
of calculations to predict the likelihood of its ability to survive
atmospheric burnout would need more data regarding its composition.
The appended statement raised a different issue. The Chilean probe
showed irrefutable evidence that the fault lines in the asteroid
itself were now the main concern. The tail was getting brighter and
the cracks were now widening
and
lengthening. In the
estimation of the Chilean cosmologists, they would soon be relaying
images of four or five objects, depending on whether the second
cometary fragment survived the break up. Julien called his experts
together to discuss the significance of this information. One
element was clear, the probe could not track all objects if any of
them set off on a new course. There was also a possibility that
some of them could be propelled to a trajectory which was not a
collision threat.

*

When Eugene had
read through the full body of work, culminating in the pictures of
a new sub-species of rat, he asked to see the specimens.

“I keep them in
my quarters. I didn’t want anyone to see them. Nobody else suspects
they are anything but normal lab rats, the same as those which are
kept in the lab.”

“Then let’s go
to your quarters.”

What he saw was
difficult for Eugene to take in. Despite the wings being more like
a second set of ears, and totally incapable of conferring the
ability to fly, he accepted that this was an enormous leap toward
his holy grail. It had occurred within a single generation. He was
now being confronted by reality, whereas he had pretty much
accepted that the best he could have hoped for was a legacy for any
future survivors of any asteroid impact to inherit. He’d hoped that
the cataclysm would never come to pass, and his work could be a
valid stepping stone to more robust physiology, albeit with the
ethics implications debated and agreed as to how the science should
progress. What this young man had done was a phenomenal leap in
understanding of genetic manipulation. But there was always the
dark side if it fell into the wrong hands. It put him in an awkward
spot. The pretence of looking ahead to that convenient point where
he could use the constraint of time to ignore ethical issues, was
no longer comfortable. The enabling crossroads had arrived well
ahead of plan.

From Russia
with Love

Bondarenko had
to get special dispensation from the pilot of the Jetliner to make
an emergency call.

“Julien, I have
terrible news. I am on my way back to Guiana with the remnants of
the IT team, but that now appears to be a waste of time.”

“Why is it a
waste of time all of a sudden?”

“I can hardly
bring myself to say this but we were watching the Russian news
bulletin on board the flight and the main item of breaking news
showed the Siberian fleet being launched skyward. It cannot be
happening, but it is.”

“Sorry, just
back up a little, Alexei. What is Kaputin’s explanation?”

“He stayed
behind to begin preparations for the receipt and installation of
the new system we were going to send to Siberia. I am unable to
contact him. The bastard must have approved the launch, there is no
other credible explanation.”

“But we were
both convinced that he didn’t have the codes.”

“Maybe, but he
either lied or knew someone who did. Look, there was no management
structure left in Siberia, so if he had to obtain these codes from
another person, my money would be on one of the guys travelling
back with me. In any case, you need to get your tracking equipment
on to the fleet. I am astonished that this has not been reported
already in Guiana. The pictures I have seen clearly illustrated the
entire fleet leaving the silos all the way to orbit. I have not
been able to find out who shot this footage. I stand by my gut
feeling that Kaputin does not have even the rudimentary knowhow to
launch these missiles on his own. He has to have a collaborator to
guide him on the input of the codes. I have to go, the pilot wants
me to get off the line.”

“Ok, Alexei.
See what you can extract from your tech guys on the flight. I’ll
inform all observatories about this, maybe some have already seen
what you’ve just described to me.”

*

Sophie’s
previous encounter with the planning authority ended up being
pivoted with either compromise or rejection. She had been
characterised by the officials as a shape-shifter, regularly
morphing from a cute puppy to a baying Rottweiler. She took the
precaution of taking Reuben with her, tasking him with any early
warning he felt was appropriate, by kicking her under the table. It
proved to be a welcome corroboration of her acquisition of the new
sequencing of her thought process. She listened, as well as asking
to be listened to. Her opening remarks were set in the context of
the object of the aftercare unit, but crucially they were liberally
sprinkled with soliciting the planning advice on the design of the
exterior. It turned out that Reuben was nothing more than a
spectator. There were no raised voices, the concept was approved
without fuss or undue analysis. Such a good cause, the recipient of
which was the local municipality, not only helped that body feel
better about itself, but acted as a catalyst to short circuit the
process of approving the detailed proposal. Sophie left the meeting
with the reassurance that the planners wanted to see this detail as
a matter of urgency. Her new personality had not yet acclimatised
to the existence of a vested interest gene in many public servants,
but the outcome had at least reinforced her pleasure in this
personal journey, this particular stage providing her very first
unknowing hook into pragmatism.

T
he meeting agenda had to be broadened to take account
of Bondarenko’s message. Julien knew many of the team were
suffering extreme fatigue, and he’d already decided they must head
off serious burnout within their ranks.

“I’d like to
declare that I have some good news, but as you know, the asteroid
will always have us dancing to its rhythm, as long as we haven’t
dispatched our countermeasures. In that light I have to report that
we have one less of those measures to worry about. Let me get to
that first, because it may well have a bearing on the primary
subject of the latest Chilean implications. I was informed that the
newly acquired fleet of Soyuz missiles has been launched. It took
me some time to get reliable, independent confirmation of that,
because there was apparently quite some concern expressed by the
remnants of international government sources, as to their purpose.
A blanket of silence was felt necessary until there could be
clarification of this. A nuclear strike against the West was not
ruled out because not many people knew the fleet was already
launch-capable. In fact I only knew this myself a couple of days
ago. Once the missiles were seen to be heading out to space, the
anal-tightening muscles relaxed and I got the answer I’d requested.
Now, you need to know that I was not involved in the decision
process to launch this fleet. Alexei Bondarenko is on his way back
here, his plan was to re-fit the entire interface system for the
Soyuz missiles, to have seamless launch and guidance compatibility
with our own.

“So, turning to
the images from Chile, and the appended prediction, we have another
unknown. Until Bondarenko gets here with the Soyuz IT people, we
are in essence in limbo. I can therefore reveal to you that
Bondarenko’s mission to change the interface was triggered because
Ivan Kolorov was the only person we know of in whom the launch and
control codes were invested. As some of you may now know, he
recently passed away, but without being able to disclose them to us
or where we could find them. Until Bondarenko gets here, I’m
suggesting we take a short break from the treadmill of calculating
response algorithms for every eventuality. In the light of what
I’ve just told you, two crucial variables have been taken out of
our hands. Knowing Ivan Kolorov as I did, his death probably set
this train in motion. But how news of his demise leaked out to the
wider world, I cannot say. However, in the absence of an
alternative explanation, I’m prepared to believe there is a chance
the Soyuz missiles may still be on intercept course with the
asteroid. We, sadly have no control over that. The logical
consequence of this would appear to be a pause in our endeavours
until the outcome is known. My concentration is focussed on the
journey time of the missiles. The plan I had in mind for this fleet
was to strike this side of the asteroid belt. However, this early
launch means that the missiles will arrive at that point in 40
days, according to our own propulsion expert, potentially
detonating long before the asteroid reaches those coordinates. In
that regard, I do take our propulsion expert’s judgement seriously,
but at present that is in the realms of theory. There is no record
of this new propulsion system having been tested. So, at best, the
Chilean prediction is imprecise and the damned thing could fragment
before or after the Soyuz missiles detonate. I’d therefore like you
all to take a short break and come back refreshed and ready to
re-engage with whatever develops. Let’s not become paranoid over
stuff we simply can’t control. Enjoy your time off. Thank you.”

*

Seeing the live
rats scurrying around the cages in the young researcher’s quarters
conferred a different experience to that of looking at still
images. The absence of a language to factor into the scene
intensified Eugene’s ambivalent discomfort. The mother appeared to
be totally unaware of her offspring resembling tiny dinosaurs.
Nevertheless, he had to establish a way forward which would not
become a divisive force if his father succeeded in his celestial
challenge. Society was already fractured in a number of ways. He
challenged the young man’s regard for this aspect.

“As the
director of this research I have to look beyond the scientific
elegance of your work. One such responsibility I must respect is
that of ensuring there is no danger to public health. So, tell me,
how have you addressed this in your experiments?”