Panspermia Deorum (32 page)

“If I remember
correctly, you only picked up my problem during a yearly medical
check-up. I didn’t have any symptoms to report, and apart from
feeling tired now and again, I still don’t have any
discomfort.”

“That’s all
very well, but if we had found signs of cancer or a possible
embolism, you would have immediately opted for early treatment to
head off later complications. The scans don’t lie, Mr Delacroix,
that’s what they are for, to pick up things we can’t see in any
other way. It’s called prevention rather than cure. I strongly
advise you to submit to this procedure within days. Have you
considered that you may not be here to see the outcome of all the
hard work you’ve invested on behalf of humans and all other living
creatures? Surely that should be a factor in overcoming your
obstinacy. Another consideration is your age, you are entering the
sector of the population for whom it is not advisable to undergo
such surgery. It’s up to you, I’ve said all I can to you, but I
don’t feel as if I should honour my pledge to you about keeping
your family in the dark. I want to hear your decision now, not
tomorrow, next week – now!”

“Very well, but
how long will it take me to recover? I will have to return to work
in the coming weeks.”

“You should be
thinking in terms of a minimum of eight weeks, and that would not
be for a ‘hands-on’ role such as you have now. You need to begin to
delegate immediately.”

“Fine, let’s
get the damned thing over with. I need to tell the family, as you
suggest. How about the end of the week?”

“Excellent,
I’ll make the preparations and give you a more precise time by
tomorrow morning.”

*

Julien expected
a backlash from his wife and daughter, but they were utterly
dumbfounded by the news. Sophie broke down as she tried to find
words of sympathy. Her stuttering melted into a clinging hug. Elise
flopped down on to the nearest chair and just stared at the floor.
Geraldine couldn’t help feeling like an intruder, excusing herself
to use the toilet.

It was left to
Eugene to pick up the mood. He instinctively thought his father
needed a hefty dose of pragmatism.

“These
procedures are pretty routine these days. I’m not saying they’re
without risk, but not the same risk as just leaving things to take
their own course. Listen, Dad, I’ve just overseen a new line in
research and I’m kind of surplus to requirements at this stage, so
I can help to keep an eye on things to do with the asteroid strike
fleets. You’ll definitely have to rest up after the op, so if you
give me a list of things you’d like to keep up to date on, I’ll
work with Bondarenko and report back when necessary.”

Sophie didn’t
like this, Elise merely shook her head, and Geraldine invoked the
cure-all recipe, tripping off to make everyone a cup of tea. Eugene
ignored the prickly atmosphere and asked his father when the
operation would take place.

“It looks like
the end of this week. If you’re sure you have the time to work with
Bondarenko that would ease my mind, Eugene. In fact, I’ll make sure
he defers to you if there are any contentious issues. The last
thing we need is a vacuum of decision-making at the most crucial
time of the programme. I trust you implicitly, son. Dr Villeneuve
indicated that I might need a few weeks to recover fully, so I want
to put your mother and sister’s mind to rest about me getting
involved again too soon.”

Julien visibly
relaxed and pulled everyone together. “Now, where is the rest of
that champagne? You’ve all deserved this celebration for supporting
me over the years. And before anyone else says so, I’m going to
have mineral water. There will be another time for life’s
indulgences.”

*

During Julien’s
briefing of Bondarenko regarding his impending surgery and Eugene
standing in for him, the Russian had some news of his own.

“I asked one of
the Soyuz IT guys I brought here with me to check up on the
Siberian plant status following the ‘unplanned launch’. There is no
sign of any staff, including Kaputin. The place is already crawling
with gigantic earth-moving vehicles. I checked this out with Soyuz
HQ and they confirmed that this was all part of the plan. The
underground factory was always destined to disappear after the
launch, and the landscape returned to its natural beauty. I could
not get any handle on exactly who was authorised to do what leading
up to the order to set these missiles free. Kaputin was not part of
the restoration programme, and the official line is that nobody
knows where he is. It is my bet that it all goes back to Kolorov. I
cannot see us ever finding out more about the chain of command
involved with this company. Your plan to close down their entire
operation now seems to make good sense.”

“So, are you
saying nobody in either the Siberian factory or Soyuz HQ has the
remotest idea what the missiles are programmed to do?”

“No, I am
saying that some people may know, but nobody is going to tell. My
money is still on Kaputin, but unless he is found, we are never
going to know for sure. Anyway, at the speed these missiles are
travelling, we will know what they are programmed to do soon
enough. As annoying as this is, there are more important things to
work on. I will make sure Eugene knows everything I know as our
fleet progresses. I wish you a speedy recovery from this operation.
Am I allowed to visit you next week?”

“Of course, but
check it out with Villeneuve and my family. They are all fussing
over this and that. I just want the bloody thing to be over.”

Part Five:
Homo Diversitus

J
ulien was pleased he’d had the foresight of asking Dr
Villeneuve to prepare a recuperation room for him at home. The
operation had gone well, but the last place he wanted to lay fallow
was the medical wing. Every piece of necessary equipment and
various creature comforts were set up next to the exercise
apparatus. A specialist nurse was seconded to his home but could be
excluded from any sensitive discussions he needed to have with his
son.

He was
experiencing alternating bouts of weakness and vigour. However, he
had the voice of Villeneuve perched on whichever shoulder needed an
ally. The main benefit of this arrangement to the patient was the
closeness of his family, dispensing with visiting hours, duty of
asking silly questions, get well soon cards, and grapes.

Eugene already
had interesting information from Bondarenko and checked with Dr
Villeneuve before disclosing it to his father. As it was
potentially good news, or at least could be presented as good news,
she agreed.

“Hi Dad, I know
it’s my second visit today, but I wanted to ask your advice. It’s
not the sort of subject I’d be happy discussing in front of the
rest of the family. But first of all, Bondarenko gave me updates on
all fronts just over an hour ago. The Soyuz missiles have slowed
dramatically as they head toward the asteroid belt. If this
continues they will halt before they reach it. The Soyuz IT guys
believe this means they will strike the incomer from where they
stop. Two of these technicians say they overheard many
conversations in which the asteroid belt was mentioned, and this
was during the installation of the interface system. At any rate,
the missiles are still on rendezvous with our asteroid, except it
is now coming to them, relatively speaking.”

“Very
interesting, Eugene. But I suppose that could be one of many
possible situations. There could be a fault with the propulsion
system, remember, it’s never been tested. On the other hand, they
haven’t detonated in no man’s land, so we keep our fingers
crossed.”

Eugene thought
this didn’t sound like the father he knew. Julien seemed relatively
unconcerned.

“Hope springs
eternal, Dad. As far as our fleet is concerned, everything is on
track. Bondarenko said he was quite jittery about this whole new
control system, but so far so good. Now, the Chilean probe reports
that the gap between the asteroid and the cometary fragment has
become constant, even though it currently is quite some distance
behind. The cracks in the parent are as before, but they seem to be
emitting more matter judging by the size of the tail, which in fact
is making it more difficult to observe the individual
fissures.”

“Well, on
balance, we shouldn’t lose too much sleep over these reports. I
need to get Villeneuve to step up my exercise programme. You said
you wanted my advice, about what?”

“The research
programme has thrown up a dilemma. Briefly, we have hit on what
seems a safe way to mimic viral deception of our immune system
without actually using a virus. Substantial re-engineering of stem
cells is the principle gateway, but it now provokes the question of
priorities regarding what we want to enhance and by how much. As
this entire approach was your idea when you offered me the job, I’d
value your take now that we seem to have swung the pendulum in our
favour in dealing with the asteroid. Could you give it some
thought? There’s no rush, in fact it could take your mind off the
pain if Dr Villeneuve agrees to your request to ramp up your
exercise regimen. Don’t try to walk before you can crawl, Dad. I’ll
come back to you about my question in a couple of weeks.”

2039

Over the last
few years people had come to associate the passage from 2038 to
2039 with some kind of unplugging of the human race. Such an
abstract concept quickly dissolved into fear of lingering death,
perhaps radiation sickness, toxic inhalation, gruesome but terminal
injury, and being swept up by a tsunami were the most common. The
absence of hard evidence to the contrary had been the fertile
ground for the weeds of despair. Until now.

Despite his
recuperation being slower than he was prepared to admit, Julien
Delacroix insisted that he should personally deliver the news to
the world. A broadcast studio was hurriedly set up in Guiana, and
the country was almost overwhelmed by the media invasion. The
announcement was short but carefully measured in terms of the
expectation it could create.

“I speak to all
inhabitants of this planet. It is often said that patience is a
virtue, but sometimes it becomes a heavy burden. Today, I can tell
you that the burden has become a little more bearable. We have
irrefutable confirmation that the Soyuz missiles, which are part of
VB Aerospace, have intercepted the threat which was on collision
course with Earth. This strike force detonated just inside the
asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. The result of such a strike
could never have been predicted with any certainty. However, I can
tell you that the target already had several fissures, which could
have then caused its breakup by natural cosmic forces. This could
have occurred close to Earth, and that could have been disastrous.
The Soyuz fleet has achieved this breakup well beyond Mars. We have
determined that there are now five objects heading toward our
planet. Four fragments of the original asteroid and one cometary
fragment are now coming our way. Each one of these bodies poses a
lesser threat than the main asteroid from which they splintered.
The cometary fragment with these remnants is not a major concern.
It is small and could possibly be burned by our atmosphere before
it can reach the surface of Earth. There is another such fragment
which detached itself from the parent asteroid some time ago, and
is still on course to impact our planet, but like its sibling, is
not a serious extinction threat. Our main concern now is to
confront the four components of the original asteroid as soon as
possible. Two of them appear to be on a trajectory which would not
collide with our planet, but there is a remote chance that they
could suffer collision with another small cosmic body which could
deflect them back towards Earth. The good news is that we have the
VB Aerospace fleet approaching Mars space and it is primed to deal
with all four large asteroid fragments. Further bulletins will be
broadcast as events develop, but we are now looking at a promising
scenario, one in which a major extinction threat is neutralised. I
urge caution in thinking the battle is over, but the odds of
victory have moved in our favour. I hope this news can at least get
every inhabitant to concentrate on the healing process we need to
embrace on our precious planet, if indeed we avert the potential
disaster we have lived with for more than a decade. Thank you.”

This was
received with a kind of welcome numbness, similar to a local
anaesthetic, which may well wear off and allow the pain to flourish
again. The healing process to which Julien referred could not begin
in earnest until there were no caveats to the apparent success of
the first step to a stay of execution. In such a vacuum, it would
be reasonable to expect a heightened jockeying for position and
power. The anarchists quickly distanced themselves from the
‘half-truths’ of the announcement. After all, Julien Delacroix was
an extension of the establishment. Rekindling hope brought
religious tension back to the fray, the various deities hadn’t let
the human race down, despite the atheist messages of doom, and they
could now re-engage with sectarian friction. Creaking government
institutions viewed the gap as a signal to restore their grip on
recently conceded influence. From their retention of monetary
access, they banded together, beating the drum of unprecedented
federalism as the only answer to correcting the economic tilt of
the global axis. It was not so much trust which aided their cause,
but the sheer chaos generated by the anarchist barons. Despite all
of this uncertainty, and realisation that the word ‘future’ was no
longer an unwritten taboo, it could at least become semi-unspecific
once more.

*