The Sinister Moose

This is a workin progress with the working title "New Calinth" written by Carlie J Bentley a.k.a. The Sinister Moose copyright 2009

The news spread quickly through our major cities. Despite our best efforts our planet was doomed to become uninhabitable. It was not a sudden thing, in fact, our scientists had been warning us for the last 15 cycles, so we had quite a bit of time to prepare. As always there were a number of factions through out the citizenry as well as our ruling body that refused to take the warning seriously, even going so far as to scoff at the changing climate.

Our leading scientists and astronomers watched the cataclysmic event unfold through space based telescopes and orbital observatories. Technically if this problem had arisen closer to home, we would have been able to at least make an effort to stop it, but we didn’t have the time or the capability to stop it once the chain of events spiraled out of control.

The fifth planet in our solar system was pulled out of it’s orbital plane and into an orbit that would bring it into the path of our planet, the forth in the system. Our mathematicians and astronomers all agreed that the 5th planet, Redoura as we called it, would not get close enough for physical contact with Calinth, our home world. However, the new trajectory of Redoura, which out massed Calinth at least ten fold, would bring it close enough for a catastrophic meshing of magnetic fields. Not only would this stop the rotation of our Calinth’s core, it would strip away 90-percent of the atmosphere and stop our planet’s axis from shifting.

Redoura would continue on her new orbit, which would take here out of the system far enough to escape our primary star’s pull.  The destruction of our solar system wouldn’t end there, unfortunately. Redoura would pass near enough to the third planet to allow her remaining satellites to impact the third planet and shift it’s orbital plane enough to change her climate as well. Our scientists opted to ignore the consequences Redoura’s passing would have on Varth, the third planet, since efforts were better spent on saving all of the people on Calinth.

Once Redoura became visible to the naked eye as an ever present visible warning, our civilization turned it’s collective effort on evacuation. We were no stranger to space, having already conducted deep space exploration for roughly 500 cycles, we had found an inhabitable world circling a distant star in a system we had named Kalendra. The journey was mapped, and would be possible, provided we had enough vessels to get us there. Every production facility and resource was thrown at the effort, hastily.

I was in charge of designing the escape vessels and overseeing their production. My design was simple, a sphere that was 9000 kilmets in circumference. They were mini-planetoid in size but inside the ceramalloy hull were multiple layers descending to the core. I designed the concept based on a local fruit, which was eaten by pealing layers off, until finally reaching the hard pit in the center. The slowly rotating fusion core would provide power, heat and gravity, to the evacuees. The inner most layers were reserved for things such as water storage, and atmospheric handling. The layer of water near the core provided sufficient protection from the burning heart of the fusion core, so the evacuees wouldn’t be slowly cooked from the inside out. Once completed and supplied, each vessel could provide well over 1000 cycles of life support, which wouldn’t be needed, but would make for a comfortable margin of safety for evacuees.

I stood with pride on an observation deck seeing my ideas being created, but my pride was tainted by dismay as I could easily pick out the approaching planet in the background of stars. Redoura was fast approaching, and while the construction crews were making astonishing progress, it would be a race to the finish line.  A few hundred kilmets from the orbiting station I was on there were 28 vessels taking shape hanging like a cluster of fruit on vine. They appeared to be under attack from a swarm of insects, which I knew to be surface to orbit craft, in an endless line of supplies from the surface of Calinth.

If only we had gotten an earlier start, I thought to myself. A chime in my ear brought me out of my desperate thoughts, to alert me to an appointment I could not miss. I left the observation deck and headed to a cluster of offices deeper within the orbital station.

Entering the outer office a woman behind a desk smiled and told me to go right in to the inner office, as I was expected. Inside a man I had known for many cycles greeted me.

“Tyzhard, come in. It’s good to see you well.” Councilor Fanth offered his hands in a familiar greeting.

“Councilor, I trust you are well.” I said to him.

“Well enough, how goes the project?” Fanth asked, and I was certain he knew better than I.

“I’ve just returned from a tour of the first completed vessel. I believe it’s been named Lundir. The construction crews have exceeded even my specifications. It’s miraculous.” I said as Fanth invited me to sit.

“Glorious. I’m due for my first tour of that vessel this evening. I’ve been told she will begin receiving evacuees shortly.” Fanth said with a look of satisfaction on his face.

“I believe they will be underway within an 1/8th of a cycle. The rest will follow as their completed. On which vessel will you be departing?” I asked him.

“Oh, I’m far down the list, probably the 27th vessel to leave, but I have to be here until the end anyway. My family is listed on the 3rd to depart.” Fanth answered reassuringly.

Fanth and I had been friends through out our education, and working careers. Our families were of the same enclave and I was proud to have him as the lead councilor on this project. Secretly I assumed I was named as designer only by his nomination. There were certainly other designers as capable as I, however it wasn’t a competition. Fanth was a few centimets shorter than I, and life behind a desk had added a few kilgras to his weight. His eyes were surrounded by fine lines typical of someone our age, and he wore the sigil of a single regeneration process as did I. Regeneration was responsible for expanding our society’s life span to nearly double what it was 2000 cycles ago.  Fanth and I were 739 cycles old, and after regeneration we would easily live to be 1500 cycles, or longer with another regeneration treatment.

“Will you attend evening meal with us Ty?” Fanth asked.

“I would be honored, and it will prevent my having to return to the surface.” I accepted.

“Excellent. Now, let us, get on to business. Fortunately everything is running smoothly, but I’ve been told you’ve had misgivings about exit vectors, of the last few vessels. What are your concerns?” Fanth asked his attitude sobering.

“I’m sure I’ve over estimated the critical nature of it. However, at the current rate of construction it leaves very little room for delay on the 27th and 28th vessel. Redoura will be incredibly close, and the listed trajectories will put both vessels traveling through the conflicting gravity fields. The field engines will have great difficulty dealing with the stresses. I don’t want to be an alarmist, but we haven’t had the opportunity to test the design, in that particular situation.” I explained.

“Ah, I see. But you designed the field engines to have eighty-percent of their power in reserve, did you not?” Fanth asked.

“Yes, and as I said, I don’t want to be an alarmist, but I’ve spent a great deal of time simulating every conceivable situation, and those last two ships will have to use better than ninety-percent of their reserve power to manage an escape velocity. I don’t want them to burn through the fusion material, simply getting out of the way of Redoura.” I said.

“Understood Ty, I will immediately study the time-table to see if we can speed the process along. I also understand that you’ve opted to take passage on the 28th ship. Surely you would be better served by one of the earlier ships.”

“No, I’ll be needed here, much like yourself. In the event there is a problem, I am one of the few people that will be able to keep things on course.” I said, acknowledging his own sacrifice in this situation.