Chapter 30
Charles stared at the empty bottle. The House Speaker was not supposed to drown his grief in vodka, but that’s all that was left to him the week after the burial of Sally, and he could only thank his bioengineers for the drug he was using to quickly get rid of the hangover. Skip was also moving away from empathy and back to business as usual. When he saw the incoming call from India, he took it as a welcome change in his bleak routine. His surprise grew when his assistant informed him that the caller was Dinesh Kheradpir.
“Hello, Dinesh, it must have been about ten years since we have talked to each other. Are you speaking as the Chief Executive of the biggest Indian biotechnology corporation or as the top scientific advisor to the Indian Prime Minister?”
“Hi Charles, I’m not calling as either one. I wanted to present my condolences for the loss of Sally. Her death was so unfortunate.”
“It was not unfortunate. She was deliberately killed in the middle of an attack to her congregation, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Along with thirty other people, for the record,” Charles replied coldly.
Dinesh paused, wondering if Charles was reviving his resentment for the way he had left their startup, thirty years before so he tried to change the topic.
“Has your intelligence found out who armed the gang?”
“Not yet. Nor does it help that the police killed all the members of the attack team. It looks like one of the many Afro-American gangs who routinely raid Jewish neighborhoods and in general all non-black areas in New York, despite all the post-civil war pacification effort. We are kind of stuck, just like you guys in the Middle East.”
“I see,” Dinesh thought it was the right time to switch subjects again, “Is your orbital elevator a key part of the reconstruction plan?”
“Um, yes and no, Skip wants it because he does not want it to be left behind the two Eurasian superpowers. The Russians and the Europeans will have it up and running in a couple of years, while your project with the Chinese will follow shortly after. I said publicly it’s a bit of a me-too approach, but the President has a magnetic grip on Congress.”
“Charles, it will be wasted effort. You know the world does not need three space elevators. What we need is somebody to develop and deploy the space oil extraction and refinery station, and it cannot be but you to do this. We will give you access to the orbital elevators to assemble the station in orbit.”
“Dinesh, it’s you guys in Eurasia that have made a major disaster, depleting fossil fuel reserves in the last fifteen years with your continental wars. I do not see why we should come to the rescue. We are recovering from a civil war, I may remind you. Our country cannot last without a key piece of technology like the orbital elevator. We can help you develop the space oil station, though, plus, countries are building solar plants like crazy, so there will be plenty of energy anyway.”
“It’s not enough, Charles, and you know it. Five billion people already perished in the last twenty years, we need to clean up the mess quickly. To do that, we need vast amounts of fossil fuels, which we no longer have on this planet. That’s also why we need NASA to develop a large scale version of the space oil driller, to send it over to the external planets of the solar system and bring back huge chunks of frozen methane. It’s paradoxical, but only more hydrocarbons will allow us to get rid of the excess carbon.”
“Dinesh, even assuming we start building it tomorrow, and we commit all our effort, it will take ten years before we have a significant production. Nothing will happen until 2060, and we have to be prepared for that.”
“Charles, we have way too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere now, and not to mention all the war-related pollutants. Take the effect of the pest swarms into account, and we are where we are now, with mankind squeezed in an area no bigger than the United States, mostly along coastlines in tempered climates. If we just rely on current resources, the area will not be able to support us all. And we have to continue to fight the pests. There is no way Earth can be given up that easily. We need to start tapping resources from outer space. You guys have a key piece of the technology, just focus your effort on that and..”
“Enough said, Dinesh. I know all the data, it has been debated in public several times. The basic problem is lack of trust. Skip does not want to depend on Eurasia for the elevator, it’s as simple as that.” Charles moved closer to the screen. On the other side, Dinesh instinctively backed away.
“Is the problem just with Skip, Charles? I mean, does Congress have the exact same mindset?”
“Thirty years ago I trusted you, Dinesh,” Charles abruptly said, “and it was not a good idea.” Dinesh was expecting this and tried to reply, but Charles raised his hand to stop him.
“However, things have changed now. I still don’t trust you, but I have learned to trust facts instead. Yes, you are probably right. Yet this is not enough to move the will of the people, that is, Congress.”
“What do we need to do more, Charles? We are already doing a lot of lobbying with the Congress and the White House, our Prime Minister and the Russians have proposed very favorable treaties for you to join our space elevator ventures, Europeans are constantly begging you to join the effort. What else do you need?”
“I do not know, Dinesh. We are learning to trust each other again here at home, maybe we just need some more time. You know, many Congressmen realize this, yet they are not able to share their view, and go against the President. Skip is the winner of the Civil War, and he is guaranteeing the newly found, fragile unity of the nation. The future of mankind can wait for the next election, which he is likely win, by the way.”
“So is Skip the real issue?” Dinesh quietly asked, “Will things change once he is gone?”
“For sure, they won’t change until he is in place. At the end of the day, you do not have that many options to force him out. I have known him for more than thirty years, no matter how far you dig, you won’t find any juicy scandal in his life. This leaves only the violent ways, but they are difficult to carry out, given the security around him. What’s more, assassination can make someone’s position even stronger. Believe me, the only realistic option is to hope in a stroke or some other kind of heavenly sign, if you believe in that.”
Charles statements were followed by the silence of Dinesh, who eventually commented.
“I hope I have not compromised your position with this open talk, I guess our conversation might be listened to, sooner or later.”
“Of course, I am used to that. Actually, I did not tell you anything that I haven’t already discussed with Skip over the past several months. On the other hand, you would not be a welcome guest here, as you are openly contemplating scenarios against the President’s security. You know what? You’ve just decreased the already slim chances that Skip changes position on the space program.”