Worlds in Chaos

by James P. Hogan

  “I think I can do that for you,” Keene said dryly. “Okay, let me ask you for some numbers.” He paused and looked at the screen quizzically. “But first . . .”

  Idorf waited. “Yes?”

  “What’s going on? Do you know any more than I do? . . . What is this all about?”

  “Nobody’s told you yet, eh?”

  Keene showed his palms. “I’ve been trying to find out all day. It’s almost like you said. The whole of the Washington’s acting as if there is a war about to break out.”

  Idorf regarded him fixedly for a few seconds; then, he seemed to make up his mind and nodded. His expression was grim. “Yesterday evening, I passed some news down to Gallian that had just come in from Saturn. Our observatories there have been able to make measurements that won’t be possible here for a few more days until Athena moves farther out from the glare of the Sun. It seems we can forget further speculating about whether the electrical environment can be altered, Dr. Keene. Athena has come out from perihelion on a changed orbit. It isn’t going to cross fifteen million miles ahead of Earth as was previously thought. It’s coming straight at us!”

  Keene called Cavan on a secure channel to inform him as he had promised he would. Cavan seemed too stunned to make much by way of reply just for the moment. However, he wouldn’t be the person to send Idorf’s message through, since doing so would invite questions about his and Keene’s previous dealings. Instead, on Cavan’s recommendation, Keene contacted a presidential defense advisor called Roy Sloane and passed on Idorf’s warning. To back it up, he quoted the figures that Idorf had revealed, adding a few pertinent observations that he and Wally Lomack had made during their visit. He kept strictly to the script that Idorf had indicated, making no mention of Athena. Sloane was familiar with Keene’s name, took the warning seriously, and asked Keene to leave it with him. Thirty minutes later, he called back.

  “You say that you and your colleague Wallace Lomack actually saw these weapons with your own eyes, Dr. Keene?” he checked.

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “You can describe the construction and layout, detail the main assemblies, give performance estimates?”

  “Not of the actual pods, which were in shielded storage. But of the hoist and ejection systems, yes. And some idea of functions from the local backup controls.”

  “We need both of you here, Dr. Keene. Can you contact Mr. Lomack down there and tell him he needs to get ready to travel tonight? Or would you rather we have one of our people call him?”

  “Tonight? I don’t know if we can get a flight at that notice,” Keene said.

  “Oh, we’ll take care of that. When you’re coming to meet the President, it’s on Uncle Sam’s tab.”

  Keene called an astonished Wally Lomack and told him the minimum that was necessary at that point. He debated with himself about telling Vicki everything but decided that until he knew more than he did, there was little purpose to be served. So, giving her just the Idorf’s-warning part of the story, he entrusted the office into her charge once again and drove home. He just had time to pack his bag once again before a staff car with a lieutenant and a WAVE driver arrived from the Corpus Christi Naval Air Station at the end of Flour Bluff to collect him. From Keene’s place they went on to Lomack’s house to pick up Wally, and from there to the airfield, where an executive jet with Navy markings was warmed up and waiting. They flew to Andrews Air Force Base, Washington, and were met there by a car from the White House vehicle pool. The radio was running a program about vacation spots in South America for the rest of summer and fall. Athena was due to intercept Earth in less than three weeks.

  PART TWO

  SATURN:

  NURTURER OF LIFE

  25

  The meeting was clearly destined to run through into the early hours. It was being held in what Keene had been told was the Yellow Room in the South Wing, furnished in Queen Anne period against a background of satin hangings, ochre carpeting, redwood panels, and landscape paintings. Twenty or so people were present, including President Samuel Hayer, David Novek, head of the National Security Council, William Born, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and General Patrick Kilburn of Air Force Space Command. Voler was there also, with his astronomer colleague Tyndam, so far acting as if Keene didn’t exist. He spent a lot of time conversing with a man called Vincent Queal, apparently from one of the intelligence agencies. Most notably absent was the Vice President, Donald Beckerson, who was conferring with defense officials at the Pentagon.

  A large wall screen uncovered by sliding panels showed several views of the Osiris and a chart of its internal layout that the Kronians had released some years previously. On it, the weapon-launch housings were left unidentified and the armory serving them conveniently obscured by other details of the structure. Keene had described his and Lomack’s impressions close-up, and outlined the nature of the weapons. After being launched a safe distance from the vessel, each pod would detonate a moderate nuclear charge at the center of an array of heavy-element lasing rods, probably in the order of six feet long, that could be aimed independently at a mix of near and distant targets. In the billionths of a second before the rods and the ellipsoid-walled focusing cavity surrounding them were vaporized, the energy from the bomb would be concentrated into intense beams of X rays aligned along the rod axes, which could be aimed with precision. From the scale of the hoist machinery between the shielded armory where the weapons were stored and the launch housings, Keene guessed that the pods carried a propulsion unit, indicating that they needed to get a long way from the ship before activating. This gave a minimum estimate for their power, which fitted with the numbers that Idorf had supplied. Keene explained from beside a table near the screen, where he had placed his notes.

  “A medium hydrogen bomb produces around ten to the power fifteen joules of energy in a millionth of a second, which works out at ten to the twenty-one watts, or a one followed by twenty-one zeros. That’s equivalent to the output of a trillion large power plants. That power radiated equally in all directions would be distributed over a sphere, which is divided into four pi units of solid angle called steradians. That gives you a density of around ten to the twenty—twenty zeros—watts per steradian.” He paused to let that sink in and invite questions. Solemn silence persisted.

  “As a conservative estimate, assuming figures I was using ten years ago, the divergence of a beam generated by this kind of device might be five feet over a distance of a thousand miles, or in other words a millionth of a steradian. That means that anything within the cone defined by that beam will be hit by a bolt of energy a trillion times brighter than a hydrogen bomb. Putting that in practical terms, you could easily destroy an ICBM booster at launch from lunar distance. Or you could take out a harder target, such as a reentry warhead, say, from ten thousand miles.” Low whistles and some ominous glances greeted his remarks.

  General Kilburn shook his head. “I don’t know. . . . You said you were working on this? We could have had it years ago. What happened to it all?”

  Keene shrugged. “It was talked about. But a lot of people said it was impossible, and they were the ones who were listened to. The same ones who said planes could never fly, satellites were impossible inside a hundred years, and the Moon landing would never happen, I guess.”

  “So what happened to the other people who were working on it?” Kilburn asked.

  “One of the top ones I used to know was Robert Sterman at Los Alamos,” Keene said. “He and his family moved out to Kronia. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had a hand in what we’re talking about now.”

  Novek from the NSC sat forward on one of the couches to reach for the last of some salmon sandwiches that had been brought in earlier. “So at the hundred-mile limit that Idorf has stipulated . . .”

  “Don’t even think about it,” Lomack said from a chair near where Keene was standing. “Any material absorbing energy at that rate will turn into a piece of the Sun.”

  Seemingly, Novek
had ordered the block on communications with the Kronians as a precaution immediately after he learned of what was still being referred to as the “situation”—which Keene wasn’t supposed to know about and Lomack still didn’t. Nobody had criticized the decision, and President Hayer had expressed approval that Novek had done no more than his job. The hold on providing a shuttle to take the Kronians up to the Osiris was simply an extension of the same policy until the official line was decided.

  More serious was the demand that had been put to Idorf to allow the Osiris to be boarded, which Keene obviously knew about since it had been the last straw that prompted Idorf to contact him. The explanation given was that the President had authorized the signal after satellites observed launch preparations at Chinese and European military bases, and intelligence analysts voiced fears that a foreign move to seize the Osiris might be imminent. These reports had been exaggerated, and Born had given a contorted account blaming the confusion on a mixup in communications between Defense and State. Keene had no way of knowing whether the story was accurate or just for his and Wally’s benefit. He had a feeling of some wriggling and shoe-shuffling going on, and from Hayer’s reaction got the impression that the President had suspicions too—but it was hardly Keene’s place to comment. Why foreign powers should want to seize the Osiris had not been explained.

  Hayer’s immediate concern was to smooth things with the Kronians before Idorf took it into his head to start broadcasting his grievances to the whole world. “Let’s make sure we manage our own public affairs,” Hayer said to the room. “That Idorf chose to communicate privately with Dr. Keene tells us he’d still prefer to straighten things out with us than compound the problem, so let’s use that chance while it’s there. Then we can do something about relaxing these restrictions.”

  A silence followed. Keene waited for any further technical questions but everyone had evidently gotten the message. Eventually, Voler spoke. “It sounds as if we’re talking about just restoring our relationship with the Kronians to the point where we feel we can trust in their discretion, and then sending them on their way.”

  Hayer nodded. “Yes, that’s pretty much the way I meant it, Professor. Their mission here is over, and we’re going to have other things to worry about. Did you have something else to propose?”

  “I think that the possible seriousness of the situation forces us to be realistic about considering all our options,” Voler replied. He looked pointedly in the direction of Keene and Lomack. “However, before continuing, I should point out that there are still people present here who do not possess the necessary clearance for the subject to be discussed. Could I suggest that we remedy that situation before proceeding?”

  Hayer eyed Voler pensively for what dragged into several seconds, then shifted his gaze to regard first Keene, then Lomack, with curious looks. Hayer had straight yellow hair parted conventionally, and a somewhat florid face. It was his second term, and while Keene had always regarded him as basically honest in his dealings and well-meaning, he had never been what could be described as a strong leader determined to leave his mark. Although competent and solid enough, he was not a great innovator of change, tending to opt for the easier life that came from preserving the safer, proven ways that the established corporations and institutes thrived on. He kept them happy, while they had kept the campaign funding healthy, and stability and order reigned. It really was no surprise that the Kronian endeavor should have run aground as it had, against such an administration. Keene wasn’t sure if the blandness was in Hayer’s nature or due simply to the absence of any occasion to rise to. If the latter, then the next couple of weeks should certainly put that right.

  “Under normal circumstance you’d be right,” Hayer agreed. “But what we’re facing is hardly normal. We’re going to need more people like these, but we can’t use them if they don’t know what’s going on. In a matter of days, a week at the most, maybe, it’s going to be common knowledge anyway.”

  “I protest,” Voler said, tossing his papers down on a table by his chair. “What I have to say is of an extremely sensitive nature.”

  “I have to agree,” Queal chimed in. He was heavy-jowled and stocky, with a shadowy chin and close-cropped black hair. Keene had mentally dubbed him “Bluebeard the Black Belt” when they came in, before he knew anyone’s name. “It’s a breach of procedure. Unnecessary risk.”

  “Noted and understood, but I’m pulling rank,” Hayer replied. He looked back at Keene and Lomack. “Out of curiosity, have either of you formed any theories concerning what this is all about?’ he inquired.

  “Something pretty big to keep all you people up at this time of night,” Lomack said.

  Keene decided he could do a little image polishing without arousing suspicions about Idorf’s discretion. Why act dumber than one needs to? “As a matter of fact, yes I have,” he replied.

  “Namely?” Hayer nodded for him to continue.

  Keene glanced around. “Well, we all know what happened at the recent conference at the AAAS. I see that Professor Voler is here. And suddenly the Kronians are being held incommunicado—from what I’ve heard, because of the risk of them broadcasting something that the public isn’t ready for yet. Could it be something they learned from their people at Saturn, which is in a different observational position? My guess is they have been proved right, and what supposedly couldn’t have happened with Venus has happened again to Athena: its trajectory has altered, and maybe we’re in trouble.” He looked around the room as if for confirmation and nodded in a way that said there was no need for anyone to answer. Keene was glad now that he hadn’t given Lomack the whole story. The shock on Lomack’s face couldn’t have been faked. Keene couldn’t resist a lordly look in Voler’s direction. Voler turned his head away ferociously.

  “I’m impressed,” Hayer said, addressing everybody. “I said we need people like these two with us. You’re absolutely correct, Dr. Keene. Currently we’re waiting for indications to come in of just how much trouble. Our own observatories have the matter on top priority, obviously, and we’re getting the Kronian readings transmitted from Saturn. . . . And now, Professor Voler, you had a point to make.”

  Voler sat up tersely, still looking ruffled. “Very well. As I said, in view of the possible seriousness of the situation, I’ll be perfectly blunt. If the first estimates I’ve been hearing are close, we could be talking about major disruption, conceivably comparable to all-out war. In times of war, one does not settle for half measures, gentlemen. Until we know more, we cannot exclude the possibility that it may prove necessary to evacuate key personnel from the surface for a period in order to ensure a smooth reintroduction of order and social controls after the worst of the disturbances have abated.” Voler raised a hand to point directly overhead. “In orbit right now over our heads is the most advanced and dependable means of affording such capability that we’re going to see. In my opinion, it would be the crassest irresponsibility not to take full advantage—for the nation’s benefit—of the unique opportunity that it represents.”

  “In plain English, you mean keep the ship here as a lifeboat in case things get rough,” someone said.

  “In war, you requisition whatever is needed,” Tyndam, the other astronomer, replied.

  “I second it,” Queal informed the room. “Are we supposed to just sit here and let it go back to Saturn when we could end up needing every cubic foot of ship capacity we can get?” He made an appealing gesture that took in everyone. “We’re already looking into what we can mobilize from the lunar bases and remote stations. What’s the sense in talking about bringing that back while at the same time we’re letting go what’s already here?”

  “So the first overt act of war is to be on our part?” the President queried. “We steal it or impound it by force—supposing we could find a way. That’s what you’re saying?”

  “Not really,” one of the defense advisors pointed out. “The Osiris only came here with a complement of, what was it—twenty or some
thing?”

  “Twelve on the delegation and eight crew,” Keene confirmed.

  “But it’s built to carry a hell of a lot more than that. We’d only be asking them to stay on and help their own kind in an emergency. Is that so unreasonable?”

  “And what about the emigrants it was supposed to take back?” Novek asked. “Some of them have already started arriving in Guatemala. More are on the way. They’ve had places booked for months that they’ve given up homes, everything for. What do we do? Just throw them out and say sorry?”

  Voler emitted a long sigh and extended his hands in a gesture of regret. “Oh, I admit, I admit . . . It’s a harsh decision. But sometimes harshness is forced.” He looked up. “I said I would be blunt. The emigrants are a mixed selection typical of the seven billion persons on this planet. Nothing exceptional or extraordinary. The space aboard that ship should be kept for individuals who are exceptional and extraordinary—the kind of individuals who will be needed if leadership and rebuilding on a large scale has to be undertaken.”

  “What kind of individuals do you think go to Kronia?” Keene couldn’t help asking. Voler ignored him.

  “I repeat, to let misplaced sentiments take priority at a time like this would be foolish and irresponsible. The knowledge that enabled that ship to be built originated on Earth. The wealth that went into founding the Kronian colony was created on Earth. The ship belongs to Earth.”

  “How are you proposing we take it, then?” someone invited. “You heard what Landen Keene said. It could melt a battleship from a hundred miles away.”

  Voler bunched his mouth for a moment, then replied, “We are already holding passports onto it. The Kronian delegation is still down here. We keep them here until the situation becomes clearer. Then, should it be necessary, we return them on the condition that the remaining places are filled with people of our choice. It’s as simple as that.”