Lifeline

Magsaysay sat up straight and blinked his large eyes, then smiled. “Welcome, Luis. Feel free to join us.”

“I have learned something important. As your chief scientist I am required to point it out—” He stopped. Sitting cross-legged in a chair against the back wall was the Barrera boy.

Sandovaal blinked in surprise. Only minutes before, Ramis had been playing with the sail-creature nymph up in the core. Sandovaal’s taxi had encountered only the typical delays—how could the boy have gotten here so fast? Had he somehow directed the nymph where he wanted to go?

“Yes, Luis?” Magsaysay said, raising his eyebrows.

Sandovaal turned back to the Council members, trying to mesmerize them with his bright blue eyes. They would survive, thanks to him. And he was about to pull another rabbit out of his hat.

“You asked me to see if we could somehow help the other colonies—get wall-kelp to the lunar base and to the American Orbitechnology colony. You must decide if we should assist the Soviet Kibalchich as well. If they had a nexus of the wall-kelp, the other colonies would be able to grow their own supply. They would survive. But we have no rockets, no shuttles. How will we launch these packages to them?”

Sandovaal went to the display holotank in the center of the chamber, activated it, then logged on. He accessed the files he had just been viewing in his laboratory, and displayed the results. The Moon, the Earth, and the Lagrange points appeared on the screen.

“The concept is simple, and the celestial mechanics models say it will work. You will have to discuss details with one of our orbital specialists, but I am confident we have the ability among our distinguished engineers and physicists to implement my idea.” He scanned the senators’ faces again. Ramis stared at the tank, fascinated.

Sandovaal tapped his fingernail on the glass in front of the display. “Reaching the Moon is relatively simple. We can, in effect, just toss the wall-kelp there. We can sling a package there by attaching it to the end of a tether. According to the diagram, if we make the tether long enough and reel the package away from the Aguinaldo, then the package and our colony will be in different orbits.”

He worked with the keyboard on the podium and animated the display. “If you think about it, the concept is clear.” He flashed a glance at the thin senator from Leyte. “The length of the tether determines the package’s orbit. We can calculate an orbit that will intersect the Moon’s and adjust the tether’s length to match it. Once we release the tether, the package will travel in the new orbit until it impacts the Moon. Think of children slinging themselves across the core, playing crack-the-whip. It is the same principle.

“It is possible to impact the Moon with a velocity less than one kilometer a second. If we package the wall-kelp properly, it should be able to survive the shock.”

Sandovaal smiled at them, satisfied. “My results are open to confirmation, of course.”

Magsaysay stood and clapped his hands. “That is wonderful, Luis! My confidence in you was not misplaced.”

“Of course not.”

The senator from Leyte stood up. “Why all these complications, Dr. Sandovaal? Can we not simply launch the package at the Moon?”

Sandovaal raised his eyebrows and gave her a withering look. “Madam, we are trying to deliver a fragile package, not shoot a missile that will strike the ground like a bullet!”

The dato seated himself again. The other senators nodded and smiled. The senator from Leyte muttered something and sat down as well.

“Reaching L-5 will be much more difficult.” He didn’t want them to get complacent.

Ramis spoke from his seat. He studied the curves on the holotank, taking no notice of the others in the chamber. “How will you get there?”

Sandovaal raised his eyebrows at the interruption. Magsaysay waved Ramis into silence, but waited for Sandovaal to answer the question.

He turned to the group. “Conceptually, we could use the same technique, I suppose. But with the Moon we have an entire planetary body as a target. Given the right parameters, it is not a challenge to get there. The Lagrange well is more subtle, though, and the colony itself is so small we cannot expect to hit it. The uncertainties are too great.”

Magsaysay pressed his fingertips together, overlapping his long nails. “And your solution?”

“We will have to guide the package, of course—deliver it ourselves.”

The other senators muttered. The senator from Cebu raised his hand. “How do you propose this, Luis?” Magsaysay said, ignoring the senator’s question.

Sandovaal smiled. Now it was time for his gamble.

“Given an optimum orbit, which I am certain our mathematicians can provide, ten days should be enough for a sail-creature to travel from here to Orbitech 1.” He changed the image in the holotank to recordings taken years ago of the first sail-creatures, their gossamer wings stretching kilometers across as they were slowly swept away by the solar wind.