Twin Earth

Chapter 13

"No, we can't fix it," Trevor announced loudly as he bounded through a side door brushing foliage debris from his shoulders and sending a gust of wind through the whole office.

"What not at all?" Hayden replied, frantically picking up various papers that had blown onto the floor.

"It's too windy out there. I've ordered everyone back inside, it's too dangerous to be outside now."

Sighing heavily, Hayden turned his attention to me, "Trevor, I believe you've met Tom already? And this is his father Doctor Takahashi from the Tokyo Aerospace Exploration Agency."

"Yes, it's good to see you again Sir. It's been a while. Tom, I'm sorry I didn't get a better chance to speak to you in Morocco. I was desperately trying to get some larger samples back to the lab before we were all kicked out of the country. I tried to fight your case, but well, you know..."

"I'm sure you did," Rachel muttered, causing a confused expression to appear on Trevor's face as he shook my hand.

"Miss Jenkins isn't it? I believe we met too?" Trevor asked turning his attention to Rachel. "I'm sorry if I have caused you any offence..."

"Err... Rachel is just upset that she did not get longer at the site," my father interrupted with a smile.

Huffing, Rachel walked off to join James and Yuki on the other side of the room and I stifled the urge to have a go at her. She was really beginning to piss me off with her rudeness and immature attitude and I was beginning to question why my father had wanted to bring her along.

"I will go and check on James and Yuki," my father whispered patting my shoulder and clearly reading my mood.

'Maybe Robert was right,' I thought. 'Perhaps it would be better if she did go back to London to finish her degree and hopefully learn some manners in the process,' I thought. "Trevor, I understand you have detected the same fluctuations as I did on the asteroid samples?"

"Err... we did yes," Trevor replied, seemingly happy to ignore the awkward atmosphere, "however I can't show you unfortunately as the samples are back in Washington. I was hoping to get them shipped over here, but the weather has had other ideas. In fact, only Doctor Felix and I have managed to get out here in time. Have you met Magnus Ferguson yet?"

"I was just about to take Tom down to meet him," Hayden interrupted.

"Oh, I see, so you haven't asked him yet?"

"Like I said, I was just about to take Tom down to Level 5."

"Ask me what?" I asked nervously.

"Has your father said much to you on the way over here?" Hayden asked, motioning me to join him. Confused, I followed him and Trevor out of the room and into a lift.

"I'm not sure what you mean?"

"We want to send a team into space. There is only so much we can do here and only so much our probes can do in space, and even then, none of them are designed for this type of mission. If we were to build and develop a probe specifically targeted to monitor this anomaly, it could take months, if not years."

"We also don't have the funding from congress for such a project," Trevor added.

"Not even with the effects it's having on our environment?" I asked confused. "If this was to get worse..."

"No, our government understands that, that's not the issue. It's the timing that's the problem," Trevor interrupted, "which is why we do have funding for a private-sector partnership."

"Magnus Ferguson?"

"Exactly."

The lift came to a halt somewhere deep underneath where we had been, and I followed the two men along a dark industrial looking corridor to where I had no idea, but the one thing I did notice was just how much quieter it was down here. The wind had been howling for so long outside that it had almost become white noise.

"So why Magnus Ferguson? I know he's rich, but how can he help us?"

"Well, another problem we have is that we just don't have the technology to launch so far into space. Sending up a shuttle to the international space station, yes, fine, but this anomaly is well outside the low earth orbit of the ISS. We have the whole of the medium earth orbit to contend with, which stretches for thousands of kilometres, then we have the high earth orbit and then finally we reach the moon. That alone is over 380,000 kilometres away. This anomaly sits over 100,000 kilometres past that, so you can see our dilemma," Trevor remarked with a hint of desperation in his face.

"We haven't sent anyone that far out into space since the 1970s," Hayden added. "And to do so now at such short notice... well, you can imagine."

"Dare I ask about the SLS Mars Mission?" I asked.

Sighing, Trevor stopped us in front of a heavily secured door and turned to look at me.

"You know as well as I do that the Mars Mission, in its current status, won't be ready for another decade, if not longer. The funding has been cut since the fatal launch of 2024 amid the heavy criticism of the project. If I'm honest, the technology is way behind schedule and the public as well as the private investors behind the project are beginning to ask questions. It's an embarrassment, but what really frustrates me is that we do have the technology to send humans out as far as Mars. We just can't talk about it."

"Why not?" I asked confused. "Surely, it's in NASA's interests to use whatever means we have to hand."

Raising his eyebrows and ignoring my question, Trevor scanned his finger print and we waited as the heavy steel door slowly slid open.