Panspermia Deorum (33 page)

As the VB
Aerospace fleet mission control began to deploy the micro
manoeuvres of individual missiles to attack the four major
fragments, the Chilean probe moved away to a safe distance. This
effectively meant that their stakeout was at an end. Bondarenko
knew this was going to be the most demanding phase of the hurriedly
installed interface controls. He and Eugene agreed to strike one of
the two fragments which was no longer on collision course. It was
considered to be better to observe the outcome of this before
taking on the two which were still heading for Earth. The planet
held its new-found breath once more. Images of the interception
would not be displayed to the general public until the tedious
post-strike calculations had been regurgitated.

*

Julien asked
Eugene to bring Bondarenko to the house. When they arrived he
thanked them both profusely for the way they has handled things in
his absence.

“Hopefully I’ll
be able to thank you properly when I’m back to normal. I have one
more request for you, Alexei. Please speak with your Russian
contacts on my behalf. This pinpoint accuracy of the Soyuz fleet is
both gratifying and disturbing. It seems that our old fox, Kolorov,
wanted to be the one who should be remembered as the man behind the
first Mars landing, and the saviour of the species by taking down
the asteroid. Whether it was Kaputin or the ghost of Kolorov who
pushed the buttons, the brains behind both operations was surely
Ivan. So, just in case there is some other snare out there waiting
for us to step into, I want to send congratulations to your country
and make the gesture of handing back ownership of Soyuz to the
Russian state, to its people. I know they didn’t want to touch it
when I decided to take it over, but the anarchists are in the
twilight of their campaign. The pride that comes with the Soyuz
name now is a force for coming together. I’d like you to make this
gesture before we hit the first fragment with our missiles. We’re
so close, and I don’t want to screw up so close to checkmate.”

“Are you
serious, Julien? I can’t see how my homeland can influence any
control of our fleet. And it is still dangerous for me to speak
with these people. ”

“Look, I paid
peanuts for a prestigious company and as I said in my address to
the world, we need to start the healing process within our species.
I want to transfer that burden to the people. The establishment
will follow. This is a new beginning and I don’t want to be stung
yet again by that bastard Kolorov, this time from his grave! I
realise I sound more than a little paranoid, but we don’t know
where Kaputin is or what he was primed to do other than launch
Kolorov’s fleet. Just indulge me in this, Alexei. All you have to
do is make the call. You’ve already been back to Siberia, so what’s
the problem?”

“Siberia is not
Moscow. If you insist on this I will only speak with that lawyer,
the one who transferred Soyuz stock to you from Malenkov’s kid. He
can call you and take your instructions. That is all I am prepared
to do.”

Bondarenko
looked at Eugene, who shook his head repeatedly. “No, no,
definitely no. I trust my father’s word on this. I don’t know what
the hell he’s talking about, but I’m not getting involved. As soon
as you deal with these asteroid fragments, I’m heading back to my
research. It’s a full time job and I’m going to have to shape it to
fit with whatever you achieve with these missiles. In fact, I don’t
even know why I’m here. You two could have had this chat without
me.”

*

Later that
evening, Eugene returned from the research wing and found his
father on the phone. Julien motioned him to sit. The call was
obviously from Russia, but didn’t take long to conclude.

“That wasn’t
too difficult, I don’t know why Alexei was so jittery.”

“Dad, I don’t
think you realise just how much this bypass op has affected you.
I’ve done my best to keep the wheels turning during your recovery,
but you have to let Bondarenko get on with the task you delegated
to him. He’s worked his nuts off and a little appreciation wouldn’t
go amiss, especially as we’re at the trickiest part of the mission.
Throwing this Russian crap at him could have taken his eye off the
ball.”

“I realise
that, Eugene. I used to be a very trusting person, just like you,
before I joined VB Aerospace. Kolorov changed all that. He took
advantage of my trust and outmanoeuvred me time after time. It’s
quite ironic in a way that he was taken out of the picture by a
pure accident. A master poker player eliminated by the perennial
patsy. I only pushed him to get out of my way, I never thought he
would get out of my way permanently. Anyway, all I asked Alexei to
do was set up this deal with the Russian administration, and it’s
done. You see, I wanted some insurance in the event of our good
fortune running out. By acknowledging that the first strike against
the asteroid was of Russian origin, they take their rightful place
in history. But it has created at least two harbingers of doom from
one. Our task is a little more complex now, and I wanted the world
to know that if anything other than miscalculation by VB Aerospace
causes our failure to neutralise these fragments, they know where
to look. I’m sincerely hoping that this gesture of gifting Soyuz
back to the Russian state will avoid any preconceived attempt to
sabotage our programme, if one exists. I’m sure Kaputin holds the
key, but he could be connected to others through his former mentor,
Ivan Kolorov. It’s just belt and braces, Eugene. In any case, Soyuz
ownership doesn’t belong here, I was going to run it into the
ground, but this gives us more leverage. I haven’t lost my marbles
just yet. Now, I’ve given a lot of thought to your question – how
to proceed with your research breakthrough.”

*

There were
beads of sweat trickling down the temples of Alexei Bondarenko. Two
missiles had been selected to make consecutive rather than
concurrent strikes at the chosen fragment. The logic was that
sacrificing a double detonation would be more than compensated by
the opportunity for the second missile to home in on derived points
of weakness from the first strike. That was the theory. In fact, it
turned out to be a wise decision. The second missile was not
required to rupture the fragment. The splintering was immediate and
the resultant components were of a mass which was felt wouldn’t be
a major threat to Earth. It would take some time for the precise
patterns of trajectory for these ‘marbles’ to be established, but
many were already heading on non-impact paths. Bondarenko was
overjoyed with the degree of control he’d achieved, especially as
it had produced the bonus of having an extra missile in hand for
the next fragment.

Julien had been
advised by Dr Villeneuve that he should stay away from mission
control during this nerve-jangling exercise. She’d insisted that
building stress without having any control of events could cause a
major setback in his recuperation. Any lingering desire had been
extinguished by him being trapped at home by the family. Elise had
threatened to drug him with sleeping tablets. Sophie declared she
would lose motivation for the aftercare unit if he suffered a
serious problem by ignoring Villeneuve’s advice. Eugene echoed this
sentiment by telling him he needn’t bother answering his question
on future research unless he spent a quiet afternoon with the
family. Geraldine declined to say anything other than she’d made
Julien’s favourite Lyonnaise dish for dinner.

Eugene took the
call from Bondarenko and asked him to come to the house and deliver
the news, asking him to keep a lid on the euphoria until it had
sunk in with Julien that they were one step away from success.

“That’s
wonderful news, Alexei! You beauty! Words cannot describe how I
feel about this. I hope you can summon your devil’s advocate
persona when you tell my father. He’s been told by the good doctor
to avoid too much adrenalin production for a few more weeks. This
news could send it through the roof, I know it has with me. Well
done, my friend.”

*

Despite the
matter-of-fact presentation of the accomplishment from Bondarenko,
Julien found it difficult to sleep. Were they really just one
strike away from giving the human race another chance at looking
after their planet? Eugene arrived earlier than expected.

“Ok, Dad. Let
me have it, what difference does this make to our research
programme?”

“I’ve agonised
over this bloody asteroid so much in the last few years that I seem
to have got everything else out of proportion, including the needs
of my family. Now that we seem so close, it’s tempting to think the
job is done, but it isn’t. When I first asked you to set up this
research team, my judgements were driven by uncertainty, and this
gave me a thorny problem to tackle. The best way I can put it is to
weigh up the short and long term benefits and disadvantages. It
would be a real shame if we killed off the asteroid threat and in
our efforts to enable physiological and mental improvement of our
weaker characteristics, we engineered an unnecessary problem. What
I mean is probably best exemplified by a scenario in which we’d
already introduced changes in the human genome which went wrong,
and we had already neutralised the asteroid. Nobody would thank us
for that. On the other hand, if we do no more research and somehow
snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with the asteroid, we will
have abrogated our duty. It’s a very difficult one, Eugene, not
least of all because in scenario one, the ethics brigade will be
back.”

“You’ve just
about replicated my dilemma. So, I think I need to tell you more
about what appears to be possible from our latest tests.”

“Before you do
that, son, my gut feeling is that we should just pause everything
for a few more weeks, until all calculations are corroborated by
observational data. I know time is important but in the worst case
outcome with the missiles, we still have a few months to take your
work forward.”

“If only that
was the case, Dad. I should have told you earlier. The work has
gone further than merely mimicking the mechanism of the virus in
infiltrating our immune system. Without telling me, one of the
young researchers actually pressed on with experiments to evaluate
the potential to meddle with genome switching. He contrived to
inject the Zika virus into lab rats, and before they were allowed
to conceive, he flicked a few switches. I couldn’t believe what I
was looking at. The litter had rudimentary wings and grotesque
alteration to their tails. I made sure these specimens were allowed
to die and the access to virus samples only authorised by me. I
stopped any further work in this direction but the documentation is
filed with me. Obviously this young man cannot repeat this venture
into the unknown without state-of-the-art lab facilities, but he
could find employment elsewhere. I wanted to keep him here until we
knew more about the deflection programme and I could talk with you.
I didn’t know you were going to need a bypass at the time. It’s a
mess.”

“Jesus, it
certainly is a mess, which could become a catastrophe. We must find
a way of keeping this under wraps for now. The infiltration concept
is a worthy breakthrough. We have to park everything there until
Bondarenko has dealt with the second fragment, then I want to speak
with this young man. You were right to come to me with this,
Eugene. I’m sure we can work out a solution.”

*

One of the
missiles wasn’t responding to vector commands anymore. Bondarenko
decided to leave it out of the strike, but it could still be useful
as the detonation protocols were active. Using the same one-two
technique which had been successful with the first fragment seemed
to be the logical strategy. However, nothing was certain in the
theatre of cosmic pinball, especially when the cue ball has known
characteristics, but the target is asymmetric in shape,
composition, angular spin, and structural integrity.

The invisible
force emanating from detonation, in the vacuum of space delivered a
wounding blow rather than a fatal or disruptive one. The fragment
veered significantly then took on a marginally quicker and
directional axial spin. Bondarenko wanted to observe this behaviour
for a few minutes before engaging the second missile.

Eugene watched
the unfolding drama with a dual concern. He was torn between asking
Bondarenko to speak with his father before the second strike, and
potentially bringing on the cardiac problem Dr Villeneuve had
warned about. He stayed silent, bound up in the tension which
engulfed everyone in mission control. Bondarenko consulted with his
two most reliable IT officers. Eugene couldn’t hear what was said,
but saw that there was agreement. The second missile was instructed
to circle around the fragment and strike the opposite side once
there was telemetric and visual corroboration that the new
trajectory was not an impact risk.

Further
observational data detected the slightest effluent issuing from a
point which was positioned on an equatorial spin line with the
missile. Bondarenko gave the order to strike.

The noiseless
obliteration of the fragment was greeted with unrestrained emotion
from everyone in the control centre. Countless pieces of rock
swirled away from one another and the threat was finally over.

When Eugene
dialled the home number, the rest of the family was gathered around
Julien’s reclining chair. It was as if his father was afraid to
pick up the receiver. It rang and rang for an uncomfortably long
time. Finally he heard the click. Still very much aware of a sudden
surge in adrenalin production, he decided to break the news into
two parts.

“Dad?”

“Eugene?”

“Well, I
believe we’ve done it, but it has yet to be confirmed by more
calculations than ever. There were many more mini-fragments from
this lump of rock than the previous one. I’m on my way home and
Bondarenko will call in later when the calculations have been
completed. It’s a hell of a relief, Dad, but Alexei has put
celebrations on hold until he’s absolutely certain the job has been
done. I suppose he wouldn’t mind me offering premature
congratulations to my own father, I’m so proud of you, Dad. See you
soon.”