Panspermia Deorum (31 page)

The shrug of
the young researcher’s shoulders was indication enough.

“As I feared,
you haven’t even considered it have you?”

“Of course I
did, but I was more concerned by arousing anyone’s suspicion. And,
as you are well aware, I would have needed to justify time on the
specific lab equipment, thus exposing the nature of the work I had
undertaken. But now those checks can be done.”

“How can you be
sure that you haven’t already created that very risk at the same
time as the new sub-species? Rats are one of the most effective
means of spreading infection. What I’m really trying to get into
your head is that your work is a very long way ahead of where we
need to be right now. The guiding principle of the project is and
always has been to identify a means of reinforcing human resilience
to our environment, whether it changes drastically or not. I want
you to allow these specimens to be terminated with immediate
effect. Perform post-mortems in private and let me know the
results, before we talk more about what can and cannot happen next.
We need to extract as much value as we can, even though it will be
retrospective, from your unilateral breach of our code of practice.
This is the only way I can allow you to remain in your post. There
is no room for discussion.”

The young man
was about to protest.

“Don’t,”
snarled Eugene, “your undoubted talent will simply be wasted unless
you accept that safeguards aren’t just for other people. Decide now
or I’ll have you escorted from the building. Such a summary
dismissal would require me to inform your colleagues how you have
discredited their work by flagrant disregard for the rules. They
will be tarnished by association, as will I. That’s how it works,
and don’t pretend you didn’t know this, especially since you failed
to declare you had previous with your last employer. We can get
back on the right track if you do as I say. If you can’t respect
the project guidelines and my authority to enforce them, I fear you
may never work again.”

*

Bondarenko was
back and advised Julien that the IT people he’d brought with him
should be interrogated before they were allowed to mix with any VB
Aerospace personnel.

“I had the
chance to study their behaviour in response to the TV pictures on
the flight. They all seemed to be just as shocked as I was, but
then if one of them was involved in the launch it could be a
rehearsed reaction. I want to question them one at a time. I could
not do that on the plane or since we arrived.”

“I agree. What
I can tell you from our observations is that the missiles are on
the heading we would have chosen ourselves if we’d launched at this
particular time. Which brings me to what I propose to do next, with
your help. Rather than wait until we had planned to launch our own
deflection force, I suggest taking a calculated risk. If you can
reconfigure our control system to achieve Mars orbit, we can have
each warhead primed to act, in the event of the Soyuz fleet either
detonating too early or hitting the target and causing
fragmentation. If we launch as soon as this can be done, our fleet
will arrive long after that of Soyuz. So, we can be more certain of
how many targets we have to track, where they are heading, and hit
them before they disperse out of range. It would mean that we need
more tailored control of each missile and I know that brings
complexity, but such flexibility is needed if we require different
detonation times and coordinates. There seems to be three
scenarios. The asteroid breaks up without any terrestrial
interference and the fragments spiral away from us or they just
keep coming at us. Secondly, the Soyuz fleet causes an explosive
break up which has more chance of dispersing the remnants. And
thirdly we have to recognise the probability that the Soyuz fleet
will have no effect for whatever reason. If we don’t launch our
fleet until we know the outcome, we allow the asteroid to come
closer before we can affect its path. You should know that I’ve
asked the management team to take some time off so that we can cut
down the relentless speculation, and replace it with hard facts. In
truth, I wanted to give you time to make these alterations and keep
that between the two of us. So, let’s get these damned
interrogations underway and out of our face before business as
normal is resumed.”

“You expect me
to reconfigure the interfaces of the entire fleet myself? Just me?
That’s impossible.”

“Alexei, that
isn’t a word we can entertain. Do one missile at a time, and launch
them as they’re ready. Think outside the box. Look, just get
started with eliminating your IT people one at a time and when
they’re cleared, get them to help you with the reconfiguration. I
don’t want to use any of our subordinates. Somebody must have
leaked Kolorov’s death. If only we’d had the flight deck up and
running again, we may have been able to eavesdrop in Siberia.”

“That was not
an option, Julien. I saw how tight the security operation was over
there. Remember, Ivan built the place after he saw Volker Brandt’s
espionage system.”

“Yes, but he
was also convinced I had destroyed it.”

“Ok, first the
interrogations, then the interface reconfiguration process, then we
can reboot the flight deck.”

*

The post-mortem
results were somewhat ambiguous. Eugene pointed to several slides
which showed irregular behaviour of tissue samples.

“This is
exactly what I didn’t want to see.”

The young
researcher could only manage his acknowledgement by a nod.

“I’m referring
to these ‘zones of conflict’ for the want of a better expression.
In your zeal to create a new pathway to DNA manipulation you
discounted the long term force of gradual evolution. Scores of
generations are required to cultivate natural response to
environmental stimuli. And as long as the stimuli remain, there can
be resistance to other invasive attempts to alter course. Viruses
have faced this challenge over aeons and have had considerable
success, but only as far as step one, infiltration. Killing the
host is counter-productive for them, and they have to adapt. They
are making gradual progress, and like bacteria, are responding to
change. Antibiotics are all but spent as an efficient means of
treatment. We need to harness the virus infiltration capability
without creating a secondary rejection scenario. The rats are a
perfect example. The crude intrusion of wings into an already
designed spinal system lacks accommodation of the effects of
growth. The wings have caused both micro and macro deformity and
the rejection is evident. It’s now more difficult to determine
whether there is lower immune protection to further viral attack. I
would assume that to be the case, and unless we can be sure there
isn’t, we have to close this line of research and begin again. I’ve
decided that you should present the idea to our entire team as if
you haven’t started the process. We can debate the principles of
the technique again and perhaps define more modest objectives, with
more checks and balances in place. We’re a team, get that through
your head and you may just get broader support for your
concept.”

Another
sheepish nod enabled Eugene to set up a session for the entire
group, to chew on which doors could be opened by this technique,
and which ones could be closed again, if deemed necessary.

T
he interrogations were intense, exhaustive, and
extremely enlightening. Without being able to collude with one
another every single IT technician threw scorn on Bondarenko’s
assertion that Kaputin was scientifically illiterate. He was
unanimously portrayed as one of the leading plasma propulsion
experts in the world. And Kaputin was in fact his little known
middle name. Introducing himself as Sergei (Kaputin) Shevchenko
would have given the game away when Bondarenko first phoned the
Siberian plant and asked to speak with the director. It was a
well-rehearsed ploy which had been used with all suppliers to the
assembly line. Kolorov’s influence could be seen in this spider’s
web. Attracting unwanted interest after the disaster with the first
fleet was to be avoided at all costs.

Some of the
more senior technicians were adamant that not only did this outward
deception become the operational bible of the place, but
reinforcement had been relentlessly pursued by making cosmetic
changes to the director’s appearance. Finally, all contact with the
outside world projected the man as merely a facilitator. Hence the
high wages and no time off for the staff until the project was
complete. All of those interrogated were extremely confident that
the missiles would succeed in their quest. The senior group also
insisted that Kaputin would have all the codes and the capability
to launch the fleet unaided, and even more certain that if he’d
ever suspected that Kolorov had encountered any misfortune which
prevented his ability to instruct Kaputin, the latter would be
primed to act.

This
effectively meant that Bondarenko could now turn to the task of
making the VB deflection fleet control interface capable of
instructing each missile independently and simultaneously, if that
was required. Julien Delacroix was, in Bondarenko’s mind,
surprisingly unsurprised. Julien calmly acknowledged the news and
told him to press ahead with the plan. Privately, he wondered how
Kaputin found out that Kolorov’s life had expired, and whether it
was by natural causes or by a decision to switch him off.

One Month
later

Although Ivan
Kolorov himself could not rise from the dead, his legacy was not
bound by such mortal constraint. The resurrection of the flight
deck eliminated one further line of investigation. There was no
window into the shadowy world of Soyuz Siberia, however, there was
also good news. Even if the telemetric evidence had to be tempered
with caution, Kolorov, via Kaputin had successfully conspired to
get the fleet beyond Mars, and remarkably, still on course for an
altercation with the asteroid.

Bondarenko’s
progress with the reconfiguration programme was nothing short of
remarkable, and much of that achievement was down to seamless
cooperation between the Siberian and VB Aerospace IT staff. The
fleet would be ready within seventy-two hours. This had been, in no
small way, assisted by Julien’s people voluntarily returning early
from their proposed two week break. There was an atmosphere of
optimism, one of finally believing the balance of probability was
moving in their favour.

The Chilean
images kept on coming and indicated that the fissures in the
asteroid had not widened significantly. One consequence of this was
the gradual stabilisation of the distance between the detached
cometary fragment and its mother. Both the gravitational force of
the asteroid and the repellent influence its tail had diminished to
the point of being eliminated as a variable in the cosmic equation
harvesting.

Eugene’s
mediation regarding the Zika virus research tributary paid off
handsomely. Exposing the success of only the infiltration step
fired up a waterfall of lateral thinking. Consensus was reached to
study the mechanism rather than work on the basis of actually
employing the virus and its attendant risk. The resultant
outpouring of options to progress this approach led to the
convergence Eugene felt was so important. Team ethic began to
flourish again.

Quality of the
Delacroix family life was also on the rise. It felt as if they had
forgotten, if only temporarily, the weariness of confronting only
bad news. Could it be true? Was the worst case scenario somehow
receding of its own accord? Picnics by the sea, flotillas of
windsurfers, the odd kite, and seasonal flocks of seabirds, helped
to blur the negative thoughts which had assaulted human endeavour
over the last few years.

*

Julien’s hand
hovered over the launch controls. His was a symbolic role, setting
in motion the sequence for those delegated to take over the
countdown process. Nevertheless, he felt a lump in his throat, and
he found himself transported back to that fateful day at the Osaka
conference. The sheer number of kinks in the road since then had
seriously worn him down. For the first time since that conference
he was drawn to the attraction of full retirement. He glanced over
to his family and was met with tears of pride masked by unbridled
joy. Nobody was thinking of failure any more. He wondered whether
he should bring forward the disclosure of Dr Villeneuve’s
diagnosis. He was in urgent need of a heart bypass procedure. There
had always been a better time to concede. Not now, he thought,
possibly after he truly realised he was in denial. Broken promises
to oneself didn’t seem to weigh as heavily as those made to others,
especially if those people depended on him. Perhaps pushing this
button would be the catalyst to unburdening himself.

As the missiles
were absorbed into extra-terrestrial space, and the applause died
down, Julien glanced sideways and his gaze was met by Dr
Villeneuve. She nodded firmly. He acknowledged the signal and left
the throng to share the moment with his family. He asked Eugene to
drive them to the house and open a bottle of chilled bubbly. He
casually celebrated the moment and told them he had to discuss
something with Dr Villeneuve.

“It won’t take
more than a few minutes, I promise.”

*

Julien entered
the office.

“Mr
Delacroix.”

“Dr
Villeneuve.”

“I assume you
are finally ready to make the appointment for your bypass
procedure.”

“I am. I was
thinking of next month, by then we’ll know if the Soyuz fleet has
any further part to play.”

“Have I been
wasting my breath for the last fifteen months? You are at serious
risk of cardiac arrest, even as we speak. I can’t believe such an
intelligent person can be so stupid.”