Authors: Ben Bova
Venus (39 page)
A burst of electronic snow nearly blotted out the picture on the screen, but Alex’s voice continued, scratchy and weak.
“There’s no relationship between what’s happened here on Venus and what’s happening on Earth. Just no relationship at all. The two planets might have started out with the same conditions, but Venus lost almost all its water very early. Where Earth built up oceans, Venus was so hot that almost all its water boiled off into space right away, billions of years ago.”
He was speaking rapidly now, as if afraid that he wouldn’t be able to tell me everything he wanted me to know.
“There’s no way to compare Earth’s greenhouse warming with conditions here on Venus. No way. The Greens are going to be very disappointed; they won’t be able to use Venus as an example of what will happen on Earth if we don’t stop our greenhouse warming.”
He coughed suddenly. The picture cleared slightly, and I peered as hard as I could, trying to make out his face behind the visor.
“The pod’s systems are breaking down,” Alex said, his voice almost calm. Not quite, but he wasn’t the least bit panicky. I imagine he realized there was nothing at all that could be done to save him.
“Getting really hot now … really … broiling.” The screen went blank for an instant, then a faint, grainy picture came on again.
No!
I screamed silently.
Don’t go away, Alex! Don’t die! Talk to me. Tell me
—
I screamed silently.
Don’t go away, Alex! Don’t die! Talk to me. Tell me
—
“Failed,” Alex said, sounding sadder than I had ever known him to be. “I’ve failed …”
His voice faded out. I waited for more, but the audio gave me nothing except a background hiss. Then the picture winked out completely.
I sat staring at the blank screen, listening to the hiss of the speakers. Then even that sound stopped. I could hear nothing but the background hum of the computer itself.
Alex’s final thoughts were about failure. With his last breath he believed that he had failed, Venus had defeated him, his bright hopes for helping the Greens to reverse the greenhouse warming of Earth had died on the hellish surface of Venus, along with his crew, along with himself. My brilliant, handsome, charming, laughing big brother died thinking of himself as a failure.
And thinking of me. He hadn’t addressed his last message to his father. Or to the Greens. He wanted to speak to me! He wanted to confess to me his final thoughts, his last realizations.
I looked up from the dead screen, leaned my head back against the padded chair, and saw in my mind the times Alex and I had shared. They seemed so pitifully few, a handful of moments in our two lives.
I resolved to do better.
I
called Marguerite to my compartment. She slid the door back less than a minute later, and I realized she must have been in her own quarters, next to mine. Then I glanced at the desktop clock. It was past midnight, more than five hours since she’d handed me Alex’s chip. I’d been sitting at the desk for more than five hours.
called Marguerite to my compartment. She slid the door back less than a minute later, and I realized she must have been in her own quarters, next to mine. Then I glanced at the desktop clock. It was past midnight, more than five hours since she’d handed me Alex’s chip. I’d been sitting at the desk for more than five hours.
“I woke you,” I said.
She almost smiled. “No, I don’t dress that quickly.”
She still wore the coveralls she’d been wearing earlier.
“You couldn’t sleep?” I asked.
“I was working,” Marguerite said, taking one of the chairs in front of the desk. “Thinking, really.”
“About what?”
“Your brother.”
“Oh.”
“He must have loved you very much.”
“I loved him, too,” I said. “I think he’s the only person in the solar system I’ve ever loved.”
“So we’ve both lost the ones we loved the most,” Marguerite said, her voice low.
“Your mother,” I remembered.
She nodded once, tight-lipped, holding on to her emotions.
I stared at Marguerite. How like her mother she looked, yet she was a very different personality.
“Marguerite, how much … material is there in my brother’s remains?”
She blinked at me, puzzled.
“Enough to get a good sampling of his DNA?” I asked.
“For cloning?” she asked back.
“For cloning,” I said.
She looked away from me for a moment, then returned her gaze to meet mine. “It won’t work, Van. I’ve already checked that. The heat was too much, too long a time. It dissociated all the polypeptides, all the long-chain molecules. The nucleic acids, everything … they were all broken apart by the heat.”
My heart sank.
“There’s nothing we can do,” Marguerite said.
“He thought he was a failure,” I told her. “My brother died thinking he’d accomplished nothing.”
“I don’t understand.”
So I explained to her about the Greens and Alex’s hope of using Venus to convince the people of Earth that they had to take drastic steps to avoid a disaster on Earth from global warming.
Once I finished, Marguerite said, “Yes, the Greens will be dismayed, all right. Crushed. They were counting on making Venus a visible example. They wanted people to think of the greenhouse warming every time they looked up and saw Venus in the sky.”
I shook my head. “That’s not going to work. The scientists like Mickey and the others will have to tell them the truth, that Venus’s greenhouse and ours have nothing to do with each other.”
“Your father will be very pleased.”
I looked up sharply at her.
“He and his kind will trumpet the news, won’t they? He even sacrificed his son to learn that Venus has nothing to tell us.”
“But that’s the good news,” I heard myself say. Whisper, almost.
“Good news for your father,” Marguerite countered.
“No,” I said, my voice louder, stronger, as I realized the truth of it. “No, it’s
bad
news for my father and good news for the rest of us.”
bad
news for my father and good news for the rest of us.”
She leaned forward slightly in her chair. “What do you mean?”
“The greenhouse warming on Earth has no relationship to the runaway greenhouse on Venus!” I said, almost jubilant.
“And that’s good news?”
I jumped up from my chair and came around the desk. “Of course it’s good news! It means that what’s happening on Earth isn’t the inexorable workings of nature, as it was on Venus. It’s man-made!”
“But the scientists—”
I grasped Marguerite by the wrists and pulled her out of her chair. “The scientists have been telling us for nearly half a century that human actions are causing the global warming. We’ve been pouring greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by the gigaton.”
“But the industrialists have claimed the warming is part of a natural climate cycle,” Marguerite said, almost bemused at my sudden enthusiasm.
“Right. But now we have the imagery of Venus, where nature has produced a
real
greenhouse … and we can show that it’s nothing like what’s happening on Earth!” I was so excited I wanted to dance across the cabin with her.
real
greenhouse … and we can show that it’s nothing like what’s happening on Earth!” I was so excited I wanted to dance across the cabin with her.
Marguerite shook her head, though. “I don’t see how that helps the Greens.”
I laughed. “Let my father and his friends trumpet the news that Venus and Earth are two completely different cases. Let them tell the world that Venus’s greenhouse has no relationship to what’s happening on Earth.”
“And how does that help the Greens?”
“Because we’ll come back and say, ‘Yes! You’re right. Venus is a natural disaster … . Earth is a
man-made
disaster. And what humans do, they can undo!”’
man-made
disaster. And what humans do, they can undo!”’
Marguerite’s eyes flashed with understanding. She broke into a wide, warm smile. “If human actions are causing the greenhouse, then human actions can fix it.”
“Right!” And I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her soundly. She didn’t object. She kissed me just as hard, in fact.
But then she pulled back slightly and said, “Do you realize what you’re getting yourself into?”
“I think so. I’m going to be an even bigger disappointment to my fa—to Martin Humphries. He’ll go ballistic. Maybe he’ll even attain escape velocity.”
“You’re going to become the spokesman for the Greens,” she said, quite seriously.
“I guess I am.”
“That’s a heavy responsibility, Van.”
I shrugged and nodded, without letting her out of my arms.
“Some of the Greens’ leaders won’t trust you. Other will be jealous of you. There’s a lot of politics inside the movement, let me tell you. A lot of knives in the dark.”
I realized what she was telling me. “I’ll need someone to guide me, to protect me.”
“Yes, you will.”
“My father’s people will be after my scalp, too. They can play very rough.”
She looked directly into my eyes. “Are you certain you want to take on all this?”
I didn’t hesitate for a nanosecond. “Yes,” I said. Then I added, “If you’ll come with me.”
“Me?”
“To be my guide, my protectress.”
An odd expression came over her beautiful face. The corners of her lips curled up slightly, as if she wanted to smile, but her eyes were dead serious.
“The mother of my children,” I added.
Her jaw fell open.
“I’m a very wealthy man,” I said, still holding her about the waist. “I don’t have any really bad habits. I’m in reasonably good health, as long as I get my medication.”
“And?” she prompted.
“And I love you,” I said. It wasn’t exactly true, and we both knew it. Neither one of us knew what love really was, but we’d been through so much together, there was no one on Earth—no one in the solar system, actually—whom I was closer to.
“Love is a big word,” Marguerite whispered. But she snuggled closer in my arms and rested her head on my shoulder.
“We’ll learn all about it,” I whispered back. “Starting now.”
I wasn’t prepared for the enormous interest the news media showered upon me. As soon as we established orbit around the Moon I was deluged with requests for interviews, docudramas, biographies. They wanted me to appear on global net shows, to star in an adventure series! I was a celebrity, asked to sit next to media stars and politicians and make appearances everywhere.
Politely but firmly I turned them all down, giving the news media nothing except the highlights of our expedition—which was dramatic enough to keep viewers all through the Earth-Moon system riveted to their screens night after night for a week.
I granted interviews, of course, but very selectively. In each interview I stressed the idea that Venus’s greenhouse was completely different from Earth’s, that the Earth’s warming was largely the result of human actions, and that humans could stop the greenhouse if they were willing to make the necessary changes. The Greens at first were furious; I received loud demands to “recant” my heretical (to them) views. I even got threats. But as my message began
to sink in, some of the Green leaders started to realize that what I was saying could be beneficial to them, very helpful to their political stance. I still got threats from angered fanatics, but the leadership began to use my interviews as ammunition in their campaigns.
to sink in, some of the Green leaders started to realize that what I was saying could be beneficial to them, very helpful to their political stance. I still got threats from angered fanatics, but the leadership began to use my interviews as ammunition in their campaigns.
Meanwhile I handed all our data over to Mickey Cochrane, who flew up to
Lucifer
while we were still in lunar orbit, quarantined until the medical inspectors determined that we were not bringing alien diseases back home with us.
Lucifer
while we were still in lunar orbit, quarantined until the medical inspectors determined that we were not bringing alien diseases back home with us.
Of course we were carrying samples of the Venusian aerobacteria and the fragment of the feeding arm from the creature on the surface, which enormously complicated our quarantine period. Mickey and her fellow scientists were overcome with joy at the samples and all the data about Venus that we had brought back with us. I was offered an honorary membership in the International Academy of Science. Marguerite received a full membership, and hints that a special Nobel Prize would eventually be awarded to her.
One of my chores while we waited in parking orbit was to contact Gwyneth, who was still living in the flat in Barcelona.
She looked as exotic and beautiful as ever. Even on the wall screen of my compartment aboard
Lucifer
, her tawny eyes and rich, full lips made my pulse throb faster.
Lucifer
, her tawny eyes and rich, full lips made my pulse throb faster.
But after a few moments of chat, I told her, “I’m deeding the flat to you, Gwyneth. It will be yours, free and clear.”
She didn’t look surprised. She accepted it as if she’d expected as much.
“This is good-bye, then,” she said. It wasn’t a question.
“I’m afraid so,” I said, surprised that I didn’t feel any pain. Oh, perhaps a little twinge, but none of the pangs of separation that I thought I’d suffer.
She nodded slightly. “I thought as much. I’ve been watching your interviews on the news. You’ve changed, Van. You’re not the same person anymore.”
“I don’t see how I could be,” I said, thinking of all that I’d been through.
“You’re going to see your father soon?” It was her parting shot, with just enough of a barb in it to tell me that she was far from pleased at my ending our relationship.
“I’m going to see … him just as soon as they lift quarantine on my ship,” I said.
She smiled slightly. “To claim your ten bill.”
“Yes, that,” I replied. “And a few other things.”
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