Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode Four: Meteors #17

The next morning over breakfast, Dan told the rest of his story. Between the president, his advisors, Blumenthal, and the guards who were eating and listening, Dan felt like he was giving a lecture.

In fact, getting into the feel of it, he stood and had the system pull up a holograph of Mars. "So on the way back from Shin, I had a layover on Angorak One, the solar station that is orbiting Mars. Me and—" He bit his tongue. He shouldn't mention Bakala on the job. "And some other travelers went to get lunch while we waited. Struck up a conversation with some of the local terraforming crew. Learned a great deal about what they planned, stuff we had no idea about."

"So they are keeping secrets from us?" one of the Secret Service men asked.

"Not exactly," Dan replied. "This is all public knowledge as far as they are concerned. The fact that I got this from workers on site shows that. As far as sharing this information, for one I don't think it occurs to them that they must. I mean, we're on Earth. What concern is it of ours what happens on Mars? That, and they assume if we wanted to know, we'd look it up. The plan is public record."

"So you are sayings it's our fault we haven't dug deep enough?" the man challenged.

"No, I don't think that, and I don't think that's how they feel. They just . . . forget. Forget that we don't have the same access or haven't had the time to study all their plans. There is so much happening on Earth, so much upheaval brought on by the Consortium's arrival, we're running full steam just to keep up. They keep talking about their expedition, how they are going explore planets in our galaxy, terraform them for settlements. We haven't had a chance to really ask what that means."

"It's the same problem we've had since the beginning," Blumenthal put in. "They are happy to tell us stuff we ask, but there's so much new information that we don't even know what we should be asking about."

"Exactly," Dan said. "We've known they were terraforming Mars. We thought we knew what that meant. Building domes that will produce greenhouse gases, growing plants that will add oxygen to the atmosphere, that sort of stuff."

"Isn't that what they are doing?" the president asked.

"Yes, but so much more. These men I talked to were miners. Preparing to drill huge holes all the way into the planet's mantle."

The president scratched his brow, which was furrowed. "For what purpose?"

"To fill them with iron. Tons of the stuff. No, tons doesn't even remotely get there. I did the conversion for the numbers they gave me. We are talking closer to 81 billion metric tons of iron."

"What would that do?" Blumenthal asked.

"Two things. It will nearly double the planet's gravity, for starters. Make it closer to the Consortium norm. The pressures from adding that much metal would create an incredible amount of heat and pressure. The iron will melt and—"

"And Mars will have a liquid core?" another of the Secret Service men sputtered.

"It doesn't now?" someone asked.

"No, it doesn't. Mars is too small for that," Dan explained. "And it's important because a liquid iron core is what gives Earth a strong magnetic field. A field which keeps most of the solar particles and radiation from sweeping our atmosphere clean. Earth-like conditions aren't really possible without something like that."

"So they're going to engineer the planet itself? That's amazing."

"Yes, it is, but honestly?" Dan said. "I've stopped being amazed, I've seen so many amazing things since I first encountered these people. The bigger question is this: where are they going to get that much iron?"

"Where?" the president asked.

"The asteroid belt, most likely. Once they get a detailed assessment of the system completed, that is."

"A detailed assessment?" Blumenthal asked.

"Yup, that's the other group that really benefits from the council: Mars. We convene the council. Shin gets the data contract. Shin likely gets the contract to remove any 'rogue bodies.' And where do they go? Into Mars's core." Dan stood back and crossed his arms.

"Excellent work, Oleson," Blumenthal said. He turned toward the president. "So now we know who the players are. How do we play them?"

"I don't like being played," the president groused.

"Nor I, but have you ever done judo, Mr. President?"

"What are you suggesting?"

"If we apportion votes and power by population, who wins? China. India. Then us. If we apportion by size?"

"Russia," one of the president's advisors chimed in. "Russia's the biggest land mass, right?"

"Not anymore. Not with its entire eastern seaboard now a new country," Blumenthal said. "Canada, surprisingly. Then China. Russia, and us, just about tied. Unified Europe just behind the top four."

"But Mars tops us all, by a long shot," the president said

"So let this Adari of Mars win. Let him guide us. He gets the power, but then he has to foot the bill as well. Meanwhile, we can use this back home to show that we are doing our part to protect Earth's sky."

"And we can use this to further our own political alliances," the president said. "Canada has been a close ally for years. In the current political climate, it would do well to show some of the smaller nations that America cares about them. Shielding them from an added expense—"

"Your successor will thank you, no doubt," Blumenthal finished. "And perhaps we can show the Consortium that we can play their games after all."