The BridgeBook III: The Starhell Mutinyby euhal allen |
Table of Contents Chapter 4, part 1 appears in this issue. |
part 2 of 3 |
* * *
The Oversight Committee was deadlocked with a problem that had come to the fore. The people, working hard to meet the goals set before them, wanted more recreation facilities. Those in charge of such things had recommended that the recreation facilities in each of the new Project Stations be doubled. Those in charge of equipment production countered that to do that would put their schedules for producing needed equipment back so far that everyone would miss their deadlines.
It was clear that both sides wanted too much and were willing to give too little. It was up to the Oversight Committee to decide how to solve the problem equitably, and some wanted the peoples’ morale to be raised by granting more resources to a temporary program to do a major upgrade to all the recreation facilities, saying that satisfied people would produce more in the end.
Others, noting that resources were finite, made the argument that even the happiest of people would not be able to complete their jobs if the equipment they needed was absent. So, of course, the recreation equipment would have to wait.
Finally, Hi noted that though Katia was back, she had not become involved in the problem. Since she had always had good advice, having dealt with such things in many offices, including that of Grand Minister, he said that it would be nice to hear some of it now.
Katia smiled at him and then said simply, “One with no shoes has bruised feet; one with many shoes has gained a master. It is something I read once.” Then, after waiting for a few minutes, said, “I would raise the capacity of the recreations areas in stages.
“Schedule a quarter capacity increase for the next half year. Schedule another quarter capacity for each half year after that until it is finished.
“The rest of the resources should then go to other needed things. As the equipment availability grows and the work on the surface grows with it, I think that you will see that the first quarter is all that will be needed. They will have enough satisfying work to keep them happy.”
* * *
“Charlie,” said George, watching the screens’ every change, “do you have any idea what will happen to my reputation if this doesn’t work?”
“Now don’t worry about it, George. Didn’t you use your arithmetic to work out all the figures?”
“No, Charlie I did not use my arithmetic to figure things out. I used mathematics and I used the computers and I had Katia and Cyr check my figures. This is way beyond arithmetic.”
“Well, whatever you call it, you figured it out. And, so far, everything has gone okay, hasn’t it? First you got a hold of that big ice mountain and stuck a field generator on so that it was inside one of them force fields.
“Then you shoved that thing through that big Door out in that Oort cloud so as to make the ice mountain go around the sun real close and melt. Now that big force globe of water is heading for another Door that is set to plop it right down on that mountain of salt we put in the deepest pit of our ocean bed. And in a few minutes it will all be done. Then all you have to do is repeat it a few more times and we will have our ocean.”
“Charlie, you certainly have a way of simplifying the most complex things. There have been weeks of figuring in all of this. If we make one mistake, put one decimal point in the wrong place, we may get nothing. Or we may find ourselves in a disaster. Now if you will just be quiet, I have a lot of worrying to do.”
The ice asteroid was almost to the final Door and George was making minor adjustments with inertial thrusters, seeking to have the globe of water hit the exact middle of the Door’s field. Then, just as the force field began to touch the Door’s field, the auto-disengage circuit of the force field shut the field off and shot the field generator back away from the transport field and sent it to its rendezvous with the pickup ship stationed nearby.
Everyone in the room held their breath as the water, losing its container but not its speed, began to lose its shape as it rushed through the Door.
Almost instantly, the screen showing the future ocean floor became white with the ascending steam as the ninety-degree centigrade water hit the frozen rock that would become the sea floor.
Switching to another, more distant camera, the group watched as water boiled and rocks cracked with the sudden change in temperatures. They saw some of the mountain of mined salt dissolve as the hot water hit it with the force of a major tsunami.
George would have been awed by the violence of the action, but he was already back to the first screen guiding the second globe of water towards the final Door. It was something he would do four times this day, since the figures indicated that the best chance to lessen the formation of ice in that basin was to make sure that the amount of water exceed the amount in at least one of the Great Lakes on Earth.
Once the initial amount of water was placed, then the additional water globes could come in two a day until the western ocean was nearly half filled. Then the eastern ocean would be started in the same way until it was half filled. At that point, both oceans’ volume would allow them to accept water with less violent reactions.
Charlie, seeing that George was really busy and that the others were also deeply involved in their work, slipped quietly out of the room, knowing that they would welcome his comments later.
* * *
Even with so many having moved out of the caverns to the new project sites, there was still an unacceptable amount of crowding. Because of that need and the need for great amounts of minerals to make the water in the new oceans salty, several huge salt caverns had been mined and thoroughly cleaned. They were now available for other uses. Soon new quarters units were being constructed for the ones who remained in those overcrowded conditions.
Also being constructed, in advance of the increasing depth of the oceans, were shelters that would be covered by several hundred feet of water when the oceans were filled. These shelters were accessed only by Doors and would be used if it became necessary to hide large portions of the population from any ship investigating things too closely. At other times they would be used as observation posts for scientists working on establishing an ecosystem in those oceans.
Higher up, in waters of lesser depth, a great chain of shielded generators, that would work off the tides, were being installed. They, being invisible under the water and using the tides for their muscles, would supply the underwater facilities with power. When the time came to hide, they would be the only sources of power operating on the planet.
As these projects as well as those on the surface came online, fewer and fewer people found themselves with too much leisure time. One exception was when, because of all the water vapor sent into the atmosphere from the rising oceans, it rained for the first time on Starhell. Those in the area of the rain ran out to be in it and the rest of the population watched, jealously, live coverage on their video screens.
As the oceans rose and precipitation became more common, people began to notice that the air was becoming thicker as the rising water had a compressing affect on it. And in areas away from the ocean basins they began to see snow and ice.
With the success of the melting of the ice asteroids came the realization that carbon dioxide asteroids could be treated the same. Soon significant amounts of quite hot CO2 were being injected over vast, unsettled areas. It was causing some rather interesting storms as it interacted with Starhell’s frigid atmosphere, bringing rises in temperatures as the high temperature CO2 spread through atmosphere. And with the increase of that gas there came an acceleration of global warming. Warm days in some areas had now been recorded with temperatures as high as ten degrees Centigrade.
The new moon, rapidly becoming a size nearly that of Luna, was now shining in the night sky and causing tides to occur in the new oceans. Even better, its existence was just one more way to disguise the system from those looking for a cold, dry, moonless planet.
Things were becoming so far ahead of schedule that the Oversight Committee was hard put to keep the planning ahead of the immediate work.
Soon, when the concentration of minerals in the oceans was diluted down to a salinity level close to that of Earth’s oceans, they would have to send more parties to Earth to get the basis of aquatic life. It could be used to begin fields of oxygen-producing life. Later, as the simpler forms of life began to thrive, more trips would have to be made to increase the number of aquatic life forms needed to build a self-sustaining ecosystem.
* * *
Kalvin Shapirov and his wife, New Earth’s Minister to the Galactic Council, found themselves again in a small room in the great headquarters of the Bureau of Galactic Security. Both of them, because of their positions in society, had to be handled carefully. However, carefully in the lexicon of the BGS, was a concept somewhat different from the rest of galactic society.
So, our socially prominent couple found themselves sitting in very uncomfortable chairs under very hot lights answering questions that they had answered before with Kalvin wishing the whole thing was over and Me’Avi angrily taking notes that she hoped would give her questions of her own the next time she sat with her colleagues on the committee that oversaw the BGS. Notes that, of course, since the Minister from New Earth made their purpose known, helped the interrogator to be somewhat nervous himself.
In what was a very short time for such an interview, the two very important people were escorted to the exits and their answers were analyzed for whatever new could be learned. The total came up to be nothing. And it was then realized that they had irritated ones they should not have, at a stiff price that they would have to pay later.
Immediately the head of the BGS contacted the chairman of said committee and explained that the newest member of his committee might need a little encouragement to see things differently than she did at that moment. Perhaps a favor might be offered to New Earth that would mollify their Minister.
When Me’Avi and Kalvin reached their quarters there was a message for her to, please, call the Chairman of the committee about an urgent matter. Me’Avi did so immediately and learned a wonderful lesson about legislatures.
Let it be known that you might cause a little unwanted trouble and, sometimes, important people became very generous with Galactic funds for your special projects. Somehow it seemed funds for the construction of an Art Center in the area around the Great Concert Hall wouldn’t be as hard to come by as everyone thought they would be. Certainly, Man’s great gift of music should not be the only one of his arts to be celebrated.
* * *
Charlie was sitting in the Headquarters coffee shop when he saw George come in. Smiling, he moved over and made a place for him to sit down. And, for once, George seemed glad to come over and sit with him.
“Tell me, Charlie, just how old are you?” George asked.
“Well, I’m in my high sixties, why? You aren’t going to try to put me out to pasture are you?”
“Do you know, Charlie, what Katia would do to us if we tried to do that? She says that you, with your crazy ideas, since about a third of them seem to work, are one of the most valuable people here. I don’t think she’ll ever let you retire.
“No, it is just that the guys at the office were talking about you the other day and someone said that he thought you were in your sixties. Most of the rest of us thought you might be just a little older. Some said seventy-five and even eighty. I stuck my neck out and said you might even be in your nineties.
“I guess, since you are in your high sixties, Joe Wilcox will win the bet.”
“What does he win?”
“Well, you know how each of us wanted to the one be to guide the last planetoid into its place on our new moon. The guy that finishes it gets to have the first base up there named after him. It is not much, but it is sort of a neat way to be remembered after you’re gone.
“I sort of had my heart on it being called Georgia Field.”
“Are you sure that you aren’t just trying to get me booted to the wheelchair crowd?”
“No, Charlie, honest. My word on it.”
“OK, then, you just come with me, young man.”
They got up and Charlie headed them to the Agriculture Cavern and his little shack there.
“Charlie, there are quarters far better than this little shack not five hundred yards from here. Why do you live in that thing?”
“Lived out in the open as much as I could all my life. Even in Alaskan winters I only stayed in during blizzards. A man spending his time indoors all the time never really lives, I say. I can hardly wait until it gets a little warmer out on the surface. I am going to find a little valley for myself and my mule. Then, I’ll see about having a better cabin.
“For right now, this is good enough to cook in and store some of my things. I don’t even sleep in there, got my hammock over there in my tomato patch. A man can really sleep well with the smell of fresh tomatoes filling the air.
“Now you just wait here and I’ll go in and get you what you need.”
Charlie went into the shack and was soon out with a very old piece of official looking paper. “Yep, here is my birth certificate. You take this to your office and have everyone see it. I think you’ll find that moon base is going to be called Georgia Field after all.”
George took the paper and glanced at it, seeing a form with all its boxes filled with numbers and started to fold it back up when something struck him a bit hard. Carefully, he opened the form again and, looking at the dates written on it, said, “Charlie, you said that you were in your high sixties. This certificate is dated one hundred and three years ago.”
“Well,” replied Charlie, “I guess that would make me in my really high sixties.”
* * *
In the Great House of da Laich the First Head of the Family Heads observed the activity of those on Starhell with the greatest of interest. In all the previous cases, progress had been very slow. These people seemed to jump ahead at the least of incentives. Perhaps Jonkil had been right. Perhaps these people were those who filled the need.
Jo’Eya was called into the chamber and told to sit in front of the Family Heads.
“Jo’Eya, you are she that remembers for Jonkil. You may now open those memories and speak to us of those things your grandfather inscribed of this people you watch. We would hear the thoughts of Jonkil.”
Copyright © 2005 by euhal allen
