Panspermia Deorum (25 page)

Julien looked
at Bondarenko. A hesitant nod closed the discussion and a
pre-contract was signed. Julien then announced that he would detail
their respective remits the following day.

“I have to
leave now to see my daughter, as she is about to undergo a medical
procedure. It means you guys have all evening to forge a new
relationship. I can’t guarantee you will be able to avoid each
other completely as you take up your new roles.”

*

Eugene had
decided to conduct the genetic snip and implant task in the
evening. It enabled the required secrecy he insisted upon. Only two
trusted assistants would remain in the centre with him for the
three hour operation. Julien was to act as a sentry, ensuring that
there would be no spectators. He entered the theatre to let Eugene
know he’d checked out the rest of the building, and just as
important, to reassure Sophie that they were all looking forward to
her new beginning. He kissed her gently on the forehead. She was
still apprehensive and he detected a tear creeping down the side of
her cheek, but she squeezed his hand and managed a smile.

A different
kind of anaesthetic was an essential part of such pioneering
sub-micron surgery. Many of the normal brain functions had to be
kept active and the actual ‘interference’ would be conducted by
nanoprobes, assisted by neurologically instructed stem cells.
Instead of the countdown from ten to unconsciousness with general
anaesthetics, a derivative hallucinatory narcotic messenger was
employed to tap into the mind-expanding capability of the
patient.

Sophie remained
conscious in the sense that her eyes were open throughout, and she
became an interactive inhabitant of the normally closed world of
rapid eye movement stasis. Without being able to converse with her
brother, she was able to feel and touch thoughts. She was able to
relate to the time taken for the procedure, in sharp contrast to
conventional surgery, in which the subject could only account for
beginning and end, even if a day had passed between the two. She
was sure that the whole rollercoaster ride had taken less than
thirty minutes, probably because the intensity of amplified thought
worked in reciprocation with perceived thought, a variable in some
equation of cerebral processing usage. Perhaps it could be
analogous to ‘automatic’ or ‘as required’ turbo boost in the CPU of
a computer.

As she
gradually returned to conventional time and ocular appreciation,
she began to elucidate on what she had ‘seen’.

“Not yet,
Sophie,” whispered Eugene, “you have to rest first. Please just
close your eyes for me and then we can talk.”

She smiled
continuously as she took the oral sedative and began to feel
disoriented before she experienced total fatigue; she immediately
began to snore as her chest heaved; it was so regular it could have
been controlled by a metronome. Several hours after midnight she
stirred and was then given assisted revival therapy. She no longer
had the compulsion to describe what she’d ‘seen’ but hoped it might
return in some form or another.

She was hungry,
both for food and information.

“In good time,
Sophie. Food we can do right now, the rest will depend on your
reaction to our post-op tests. Then we need to get you home.”

She nodded and
smiled, although she was a little disappointed.

“Well, that’s a
good sign,” enthused Eugene, “you’ve never really done polite, have
you?”

*

Julien phoned
ahead to tell Elise and Geraldine that Sophie was on her way back
and the procedure had gone smoothly, but it would be some time
before they could expect to see how successful it would be.

Dawn was
creeping over the landscape, which was shrouded in mist. Julien
went directly to the office, he’d never get to sleep after such an
adrenaline-inducing night. He also had mist to disperse there with
the Russians.

Bondarenko
arrived first.

“I am having
difficulty trying to understand your proposal for Kolorov to work
with me. I am grateful for the offer to share the money which you
will pay for Soyuz, but the trust is broken between Ivan and me. It
will never come back.”

“Good, I’m
rather counting on that. Let’s just wait until he arrives.”

Twenty-five
painful minutes passed before Kolorov made an appearance. He
offered no apology, merely taking a seat alongside Julien, and
opposite Bondarenko.

“Let me outline
what is going to happen,” stated Julien, “and as far as I’m
concerned there is no alternative other than you guys simply walk
out of here and I never set eyes on you again.”

“You mean we do
not have any say in how we would work for you?” queried
Kolorov.

“You won’t have
any say in what we are seeking to achieve. You will have limited
input on the manner in which we meet this objective, but you will
have control over the finer details employed to get us over the
line. I know it might come as a surprise that I want you to run
Soyuz into the ground with as little fuss as possible.”

The Russians
displayed contrasting responses. Bondarenko burst out laughing and
Kolorov shook his head in disbelief. But Julien continued.

“I have to
eliminate any shred of potential interference with the launch of
our diversion fleet. No matter whether it is accuracy, timing,
payload, delivery trajectory, or technological monitoring of the
asteroid itself, we must know as early as possible, the degree of
success or failure we have achieved. All of the foregoing is
dependent on ensuring zero sabotage. Both Kepler and the Soyuz
nuclear force were shrouded in such speculation. Even the crew of
Laika initially received orders to commit suicide, for no other
reason than to provide early warning of success or failure –
especially if it meant we were all going to die, and if so, exactly
when. Surely that must strike you as strange. The only sense I
could make out of this was that I was missing some critical piece
of knowledge. The kind that may have actually made the asteroid
more dangerous. So, gentlemen, I’d like to know precisely what I
don’t know, and at the same time devise a means of eliminating such
a more complex threat. And then we must neutralise any conceivable
action from past or present Soyuz personnel. Shutting it down is
necessary.”

Kolorov rose to
his feet. “So, do you really have to ruin the company to achieve
that? Jesus! I cannot see my government just standing back and
watching it happen. Do you, Alexei?”

“He is right,
Julien. They will not want to take it over, but it would cause a
revolution if it was deliberately liquidated by a western
competitor. It is still seen as the only hope the Russian people
have of avoiding Armageddon, even though I accept it may be too
late for Soyuz to prepare another credible attempt to bounce the
asteroid to safety. We must not destroy all hope.”

Julien pounded
his fist on the solid oak desk.

“That’s
precisely the problem, Alexei. We have a world problem out there
and a sectarian attitude to dealing with it. The damned asteroid
isn’t Russian, it’s like cancer – totally indiscriminating in its
victims. Now, listen carefully to me. Between you, there is an
important piece of information which has miraculously failed to
reach other world bodies which have been involved in either
observation or deflection programmes, or both. Either start talking
or take a hike back to the Motherland. By the time you get there
the world will know everything about your CVs, including the
censored bits.”

Kolorov wanted
written assurance that if he complied, he would never need to
return to Russia.

“I want
immunity, a new identity and a hermitage once this is over. If I do
not get that, I will take my chances back home.”

Bondarenko
agreed with this counter-ultimatum. Julien smiled as he continued
to press for them to blink first.

“You will have
your guarantee in writing today, but it will not be signed by me
until you both confirm there is a quantifiable risk in VB Aerospace
deflecting the asteroid. And, that this is somehow connected to the
Soyuz failure.”

“That is
acceptable,” admitted Kolorov. “I signed my shares over to you in
principle yesterday, without total confidence that you will hand
over the money. That is what the lawyers are for. You have to
reciprocate with this declaration. The detail comes later, but yes
there is something you need to know.”

It was agreed
to reconvene after the initial letters were exchanged.

W
ith the Russian lawyer on his way, Alexei Bondarenko
insisted that they get everything agreed before he arrived.

“Ivan, you and
I are the only ones who know what we are about to disclose to
Julien. It has to stay that way. We must not include some
mealy-mouthed lawyer in the revelation. You have to accept that
over the years we are guilty of screwing with Julien, much more
than the other way around. If this is going to work then we need to
take the first step to level the playing field again.”

There was no
dissent. Julien suggested a better place than the office to hammer
out the final details.

“I have a
private secluded beach and the sea is very welcoming. If we adjourn
to the cove we can be certain there are no prying eyes or ears. We
dress only in shorts and that eliminates the possibility of being
wired up with even tiny microphones. It’s then down to the three of
us.”

They descended
to the pink-hued sand and picked a spot which was out of the wind.
Even the breakers seemed to respect their need to hear every
syllable.

Kolorov jumped
in first. “How do you expect to wreck Soyuz without drawing
attention to the real reason for what is actually going on, if as
you say, Bondarenko and I are the ones who are supposed to make it
all happen?”

Julien cleared
his throat. “I have studied your company accounts and balance sheet
very thoroughly. It shows a clear trend of outsourcing tasks which
are peripheral to the core activities of producing space-faring
vessels, whether they be carriers of humans or warheads. So, we
just continue that existing policy to the extreme. You already got
out of fuel exploration and refining. You sub-contract all
electronics research, you sold off interests in metallurgical
development and specific alloys, and then there is the propulsion
technology itself. You kept the fundamental aspects of new methods
in house, but the rest was specified to suppliers to produce a base
template for Soyuz internal modification. It’s a rather
short-sighted policy, but it has streamlined the operation in terms
of direct labour, and increased your apparent net worth. Now, after
the lawyer ratifies the takeover, I have every right to continue
that policy. The fact that the acquisition includes the services of
the two of you is contractual, and you can’t be blamed if I insist
on pursuing such a ‘successful’ strategy. Once we’ve achieved the
absolute maximum focus on core technologies, we begin to
deliberately piss off the suppliers to the point that they consider
pulling out. By that time I hope you have both become different,
reclusive people. I will then report that you were fired for
resisting my direct orders.”

This final
assurance was well-received by the Russians, allowing Julien to
continue.

“Of course this
is all subject to what you are about to reveal to me. So, make it
good.”

Bondarenko
urged Kolorov to begin.

“You touched
earlier on the ludicrous instruction of Malenkov, that of asking
Kuznetsov to abandon Mars and track the nuclear fleet. I argued
with him to the point of becoming dispensable. I knew it was purely
for his own benefit. He wanted the same thing as you do – realistic
early warning of potential failure. He was already a marked man in
Russia, but in holding the hopes of human salvation in his hands he
became temporarily untouchable. If the strike fleet failed he would
have to get out of the country quickly. He had to have advance
warning of such failure, so that he could command a place on the
next Mars vessel, which was being prepared for exactly that
contingency. He seemed to prefer choking, starving or freezing to
death on another planet than falling into the clutches of those who
had been after him for years. His decision to intimidate Captain
Kuznetsov turned out to be ill-advised. She outsmarted him and
myself, first refusing to lead her crew to their almost certain
death, and then by convincing us that she had found a better way to
do as she had been asked. When I realised what she was actually
doing I knew I would have to get rid of Malenkov. It seemed to have
worked when Alexei killed him and shot me, but the relief was
fleeting. Kuznetsov reported that their scanners had picked up a
terrifying variation in composition of the asteroid. Laika was
still a long way from the target but from their vantage point there
was no mistake regarding the implications. There were two
previously unobserved areas which were extremely loosely held in
place by the rest of the rock. They were cometary in nature, and
they thought to need only minimal force to cause separation from
the parent. I told Kuznetsov that I had never agreed with Malenkov
and she should get the hell out of there. When Alexei and I ran
thousands of simulations of when and where to detonate whichever
warhead we chose, the answer was the same. The alternatives of
blowing the entire mass to pieces or trying to shift the same mass
just would not compute with any reliability, because of the number
of unknown variables. There was no formula to deal with seriously
haphazard fragmentation. Whereas, gently blowing the parent off
course would potentially leave at least the two cometary bodies on
collision course with Earth. We seemed to have no choice, and
although Alexei urged me to contact you, I chose to detonate
warhead three prematurely. It took out the others and was early
enough to avoid disturbance of the asteroid. The real pisser is
that even now it is not possible to observe the embedded comet
fragments, as the angular spin of the parent has changed and we are
in the wrong place to detect them. Kuznetzov gave us the warning
but we did not have the required capability to conduct microsurgery
on a cosmic body at such a distance. I am afraid you will confirm
this when the asteroid gets closer to your point of deflection.
Either or both of the cometary pieces could produce minor
extinction events as a result of their own behaviour, if they
manage to separate from the asteroid of their own accord. That
isn’t the end of the really bad news, the collision which embedded
them in the asteroid has created multiple fault lines in the
parent. Knowing this means we then cannot rule out the parent
splitting up if the two cometary chunks do break free during the
remainder of the journey. Sorry, Julien. I am afraid I did not have
the guts to tell the world.”