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[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
of the Moon from Earth. And it was full, of course; Earth always
was, as seen from here at L1, suspended between Earth and sun.
Earth hung low over the shield itself, and its pale blue light
glistened from a glassy floor that stretched to a horizon that was al-
ready vanishingly distant. The emerging shield had yet to be posi-
tioned so that its face was correctly turned toward the sun; that
would come in the final days before the sunstorm was due.
It was an astounding, beautiful sight, and it was almost impos-
sible to believe that mere humans had made this thing, here in the
depths of space.
On a warm impulse she turned to her press secretary. Nico-
laus, forget the damn cameras. You must see this view . . .
He was cowering against the rear bulkhead of the chamber, his
face twisted with an anguish she had never seen in him before. He
rapidly composed himself. But it was an expression she would
think of again, three days later, as Boudicca made its last descent to
Earth.
1 6 8 " C L A R K E & B A X T E R
On the way out of the observation deck, Miriam noticed a
plaque, hastily carved from a bit of lunar glass:
ARMAGEDDON POSTPONED
COURTESY OF
U.S. ASTRONAUTICAL ENGINEERING CORPS
25: Smoking Gun
For the reentry into Earth s atmosphere aboard the spaceplane,
Nicolaus chose to sit beside Miriam. He seemed stiff and rather
silent, as he had been all the way back from the shield, and indeed
for much of their time up there.
But Miriam, though she knew she was exhausted on some deep
level, felt good. She stretched luxuriously. The big softscreens
around her showed the broad blue-gray face of Earth below, and a
pink glow building up at the leading edge of Boudicca s stubby
wings as they bit into the thickening air. But there was no real sense
of deceleration, only the mildest of vibrations, a tickle of pressure at
her chest. It was all remarkably beautiful, and comfortable. After
seven days in space I feel wonderful, she said. I could get used to
this. What a shame it s over.
All things must end.
There was something odd in Nicolaus s tone. She looked at
him, but though his posture remained stiff his face was blank. A
distant alarm bell rang in her head.
She looked past Nicolaus across the narrow aisle to see Captain
Purcell, who had been quiet for a while. Purcell s head was lolling
like a puppet s.
Immediately she understood. Oh, Nicolaus. What have you
done?
1 7 0 " C L A R K E & B A X T E R
Siobhan arrived at the Chelsea flat, with Toby Pitt at her side. It
was an ordinary place, Siobhan thought, and this was an unre-
markable March day. But there was nothing unremarkable about
the woman who opened the door.
Thank you for coming, Bisesa said. She looked tired but
then, Siobhan reflected, two years out from sunstorm day, every-
body looked tired.
Siobhan followed her through the flat s short hallway to the
living room. The room had the clutter you would expect: a soft-
looking sofa big enough for three, occasional tables littered with
magazines and rolled-up softscreens. The main feature on which
money had been spent was a big kid-friendly softwall. Bisesa was a
single parent, Siobhan knew, with her one daughter, Myra, now
eleven, at school today. The other tenant was Bisesa s cousin, a stu-
dent in bioethics who was now working on a pre-sunstorm conser-
vation program run by an alliance of British zoos.
In a suit and tie, out of his natural environment in this domestic
scene, Toby Pitt looked uncomfortable. Nice softwall, he said.
Bisesa shrugged. It s a bit out of date now. It kept Myra com-
pany when her squaddie mum was away. Now Myra has other in-
terests, she said with a mother s fond exasperation. And we don t
watch so much. Too much bad news.
That was a common pattern, Siobhan knew. Anyhow, today
the softwall was now hooked up to a government comms channel,
and was showing the flickering images of Mikhail, Eugene, and
others, images relayed from the Moon and Earth orbit to this living
room in a flat in Chelsea.
Bisesa bustled away to make coffee.
Toby leaned toward Siobhan and said quietly, I still think this
is a mistake. To be pursuing theories of alien intention behind the
sunstorm people are becoming too disengaged as it is.
Siobhan knew he had a point.
The impending sunstorm itself was bad enough for the public
mood. Now the preparations for it were starting to bite signifi-
cantly into people s lives. Immense construction projects like the
Dome were causing monumental traffic problems. Across the city [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
