I feel like I want to cry, but laugh instead. “No pressure, right?”
She laughs. “Right.”
I half-gesture to the people around us. “You know that we’re going to have to tell them. It might even make it easier to do this.”
She nods. “Why do you think I told you? This was never going to be a long term secret since there are far too many telescopes out there. This merely gives doing this a little more urgency. Although, tonight, I think we should concentrate on exactly what you said, getting to know our counterparts.”
Jenny pretty much sticks by Ryu and my side the whole evening as we talk to people and small groups. Several nations have already said they are going to commit to the coalition, which is a good start. Others… Well, they may take a bit more convincing.
On the way home, I call Hestia and have her perform calculations on the amount of nanites it would take to break down a nickel-iron asteroid of that size along with giving her a time frame of no more than two years to do it. She says she’ll text me the answer.
That’s one idea of dealing with it. The other is a bit more exotic I suppose. Instead of breaking it down, we program nanites to build engines in it and bring it into orbit around the moon. Then hollow it out so we can create a habitat. After that, we could move it to wherever we need it. I’d much rather do that than simply waste all the resources that an asteroid of that size offers.
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[Sunday, February 9]
Apparently, Mama doesn’t trust me to pick out my own outfits for simple meetings because she came up first thing this morning and laid out my outfit for today while we were bathing.
Don’t take that as me complaining, because I do appreciate the help since I have so much going on at the moment and it is a cute outfit. A sky blue wrap dress, nude stockings and a pair of my yellow pumps. She even laid out my jewelry to go along with it.
Chinatsu does ask if she can come along, and while I would love to have her there with me, I believe she would be bored to death in short order. Even Ryu isn’t going with me today, just Dad, Honoka and me.
After dressing and eating, we head out for the meeting. Jenny basically meets me at the door.
“Good morning, Sora.”
“Good morning, Jenny. I’ve been thinking. Rather than me telling them about the asteroid, I believe it would be better if you told them.”
“I think so too, but this is your conference and I didn’t want to assume.”
I shrug. “NASA found it, so it’d be best if you told them about it. I’ll open things and then introduce you so you can tell them. Regardless, I don’t believe any of them are going to be all that happy that you hid the information for two years. Before you say anything, I think you were right to do it, but not everyone is going to agree.”
Akari comes up to us and says, “Morning Sora. Are you ready?” I nod. “Okay then, let’s go.”
I hold my hand out to Jenny and say, “You heard her, let’s go.”
She grins as she takes my hand and we follow Akari to the podium. Leaving Jenny a little behind and off to the side of me, I tap the mic and say, “Good morning everyone. I hope everyone is well rested because we have a busy day ahead of us… Now, before we begin, I was informed of a situation last night that you should know about. With that said, please welcome the President of the United States.”
Stepping off to the side, I gesture for her to take my place. Once she has, she begins, “I would say good morning, but with the information I have to share I don’t believe it will be for long. Two years ago, NASA’s Space Watch, and later confirmed by the US Space Force, found a large asteroid. It’s named Asteroid (19274) 2057 EG7. Now, asteroids are found all the time and nothing is ever really thought about it, but in this case, it’s what scientists call a planet killer. It’s potato shaped at 48 miles in diameter by 19 miles long or 77 by 30 kilometers to those who use the metric system. What makes it more dangerous is that NASA believes it to be a nickel-iron asteroid.
“After several months of tracking it, AI modeling showed it’s likely to impact Earth in 27 years. When I say likely, I mean the current probability exceeds 97%.” A lot of them begin muttering amongst themselves until she gestures for them to settle down.
“That number has been steadily climbing as it’s track has been refined. I didn't even know about it until after President Polaski died and I was sworn in. It was being that closely held. I’m sure you can imagine the panic and riots that would ensue if this became public knowledge.
“Since then, I’ve had the best and brightest minds in America trying to come up with some way to save us. All to no avail, until maybe now. Imagine my amazement when one of my staff members brought the interview of a 14 year old Japanese girl to my attention. She was talking about the very things we need to save ourselves and wanting to save the human race from the very thing that is threatening us.
“She captured my complete attention with her interview. She never said it would be easy or quick, but pointed out that we had to do it if we, as a species, want to survive. I’m going to turn this back over to Sora now, but if any of you want to see the tracking information or ask me any questions that you have, I’ll do my best to answer them openly and honestly.”
She steps away and I step back up to the microphone. “I believe that information makes developing this coalition just that much more urgent. 27 years may seem like a long time, but it isn’t as if someone is magically going to hand us the means to reach the asteroid so we can do something about it. I already have ideas on how to deal with it once we’re able to reach it. Our options are basically time limited. The closer we come to impact the fewer alternatives we have.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a long, hard road ahead of us and unfortunately, fate has decided that burying our heads in the sand is no longer an option.
“I’ve drawn up a tentative list of the very basics of what we’ll need to establish ourselves in space.” A screen lights up behind me to show the points I’m about to make. “Some of these we have the technical ability to do already. The only reason I can see that we haven’t would be financial. Hence, why I want to put together a coalition of nations to do this. As I said before, no one nation can shoulder the burden alone because this is going to take trillions of whatever currency you want to name.
“Originally, I’d thought of merely improving the engines we use to get into space, but immediately afterward, I asked myself, ‘why should we keep doing the same thing over and over?’ It’s such a waste of resources. Back in 1895, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was inspired by the Eiffel Tower to come up with the idea of a space elevator. I’m quite sure everyone here is familiar with the concept. We’re going to have to build a spaceport at the top of it as well.
“Now, to make the most efficient use of a space elevator, we have to be able to reach geosynchronous orbit as quickly as possible. That means developing some way to dampen or eliminate the inertia of getting up to speed so that the turn around isn’t as long.
“We need new, much more powerful and efficient power sources. Not only to power our cities, but to power space vehicles, etc…
“Next would be much faster propulsion systems for space vehicles. In addition to those, I’d like to see some type of faster than light drive created as well. Taking months or years to get around our solar system isn’t feasible.
“I’m sure there are things that should be on this list that aren’t. We have many brilliant people in our little world who can lay out a more realistic view of what we need first. Our job is to get them all together, along with all the resources they need, to develop the technologies. I’m willing to bet good money that many of them will have ideas that they shelved due to lack of funding. It’s time to dust off those plans.
“DTI, along with Japan, the United States, and several other nations have already made solid commitments, be it financially and/or logistically. If all your nation can contribute is money, that’s fine. Anything and everything will help get us there. Money, material, manpower or any combination of those, it’s all going to be essential.
“What we don’t need are egos getting in the way of progress. Remember, we are on a strict timeline here and I seriously doubt orbital dynamics is going to give any extra time simply because we delayed ourselves with infighting. More than anything, I’d like to see one person in charge to forestall constantly shifting priorities. We can’t afford the political game of appointing a committee for every new issue and allowing them to suck up money and time while not actually doing anything.”
I lean forward and rest my forearms on the podium, looking around the crowd intently.
“Make no mistake, this is a war. A war for our very survival, and we must treat it as such. To do anything less is suicidal.
“What I want… No, that isn’t right. What we need is a solid commitment from each and every one of you. I assure you that once we begin all of this, the people of Earth are going to realize that something is going on because we’ll be rolling out new technologies faster than ever before. Merely building the space elevator is going to bring out the conspiracy theorists in droves.
“Alright, that’s enough for now. I’m going to circulate around so that we can talk and discuss any questions you might have for me.”
Jenny again sticks by my side as we move from person to person among the group to talk and answer their questions to the best of our abilities, until lunch is served. Jenny and Mr. Mita of JAXA join Dad, Honoka and me at a table.
After taking a couple of bites, I look at Jenny and say, “I think we’re doing fairly well. Fourteen more committed to us.”
She nods, swallows, and replies, “Those were the ones who were always going to join. The others may not be as easy.”
I nod in agreement. “They have to see that joining us is in their own self-interest. Personally, I have no qualms about withholding new technology from those that refuse to help. Why should they reap the benefits of everyone else's hard work?”
“That’s a little harsh, not that I don’t understand why you would say that. If nothing else, selling the new tech to them would be money in our coffers.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t very clear in what I meant. I’m all for selling them new power plants and such, but the new space technologies are another matter. Space is no place for those who only want to ride on others' coattails.”
Dad chimes in with, “Baby, there are always those who want to take the easy path in life.”
I grimace and then shrug. “And look where that usually gets them. From what I’ve seen, life doesn’t have an easy path. Sure, we have societal safety nets and other measures in place to make sure people have what they need when times are hard, and I’m all for that.”
Jenny nods. “We learned the hard way that giving people everything they wanted was a sure way to have a lazy, entitled populace who thought that they deserved anything they wanted and a stress free life. It took a minor civil war, a couple of constitutional amendments and over a decade to undo the damage that those who enabled them caused. 2024 was the beginning of a very bad time for America. However, that was then and we have a much bigger issue to deal with now.”
We continue our chat as we eat and then rejoin everyone in the meeting hall. Believe me when I tell you that I was exhausted by the time we closed the conference at 8, although I am happy to report that of the 38 people who attended, 26 committed to the project. The other 12 said they would have to consult with their superiors. I’ll be crossing my fingers and hoping for good news. The way I see it is if we can get the 38 most prosperous nations on board, the others will follow.
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I have a feeling that they will set up a place like Academy city in A Certain Magical Index/Scientific Railgun