Callisto 2.0, Susan English [i love reading .TXT] 📗

Diana, the woman who was reluctant to share her ideas and theories, who had been too focused, or perhaps too afraid, to open herself up to love, had been replaced by a strong, confident, self-assured woman, delighted to collaborate with Hadley on our research, full of love and life, ready to face the future head on, a future which I hoped would include Pavani.

“You know,” I mused, “in physics there’s something similar. It’s called resonance. I remember when I was an undergrad, in my first mechanics class, I asked my professor why resonance occurs, why is there this incredible spike in energy when the external vibration of an object corresponds to its natural frequency. It seemed like a miracle. He explained to me how he understood it: that at the natural frequency there is nothing holding back the vibration, no damping, no extraneous energy drains, and that’s when you see an often-dramatic increase in amplitude.”

“Resonance, I like that.”

“I suppose what’s happening here is we are all vibrating at our resonant frequencies, 244

no damping.”

“What a lovely thought.”

◆◆◆

As the shuttle left Shambhala, I looked back at my beautiful home—each of the six modules now equipped with its own stunning double-helix warp drive. It was a sight to behold.

When I arrived at the lunar facility, I found Sasha sitting by herself in the amphitheater, staring toward the stage.

“Hi, Sasha!” I called out.

“Hi, Calli. I didn’t know you were coming to the Moon.”

“Last minute decision.” I walked over and sat down beside her, grateful to be off my feet. As usual for my first few hours on the Moon, my body felt unnaturally heavy.

“How are you?” I asked, eyeing her carefully. “You look, I don’t know, serious.”

She observed me closely, as if she were trying to decide whether or not she could trust me. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”

“About what?”

“The Foundation has big plans, Calli. Bigger than Shambhala, bigger than Arcadia.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Look, I’m going to tell you, okay? I feel like I’ll go crazy if I don’t tell someone.”

“Of course. You can tell me anything.”

She took a deep breath. “You know the Foundation says they’re all about supporting basic science.”

“Uh-huh, that and sponsoring research for technological advancements which benefit the environment, too.” I said, remembering my first meeting with Diana, when she had told me about the Foundation’s dual goals.

“Yes, yes, the purpose has always been twofold: fundamental scientific research and green tech. But look who they choose to employ at their state-of-the-art research facility, Shambhala. If their only interest was supporting pure science, wouldn’t they simply hire people who excelled in their fields, whatever their focus? But they actively target specific specialties.”

I thought of Olivia. The Foundation had wanted an expert in terraformation. And what had Naomi said about Pavani? They had been looking to fill the position for a long time. Had they been explicitly searching for someone versed in genetic resurrection? Maybe these were simply fields Diana was interested in. It was her organization, after all, hers and Izumi’s. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean anything.” I gave a little shrug.

“Maybe not, but for the sake of argument, let’s take a look at the Shambhala scientists, shall we?” Sasha continued, warming to her subject. “There’s you and Hadley, both of you are working in a totally obscure field. The quest for warp drives went out 245

of fashion, when? Seventy years ago? But that’s your specialty, yours and Hadley’s.

There aren’t any other physicists on the orbital lab. Why not? Why the focus on something so esoteric?”

“I never thought about it.” I had been so grateful to be offered the position and couldn’t believe there was another physicist on the station working in the same field.

“Uh-huh. Though the decision to bring you on board real y paid off with your success. I imagine they never expected you would succeed. And a botanist? That’s obvious. We all need to eat.”

I almost laughed, but, judging from Sasha’s expression, I could see this was no laughing matter. “No argument here.”

“Now let’s consider the biologists. Raven’s working on suspended animation, correct?”

I nodded.

“Perhaps the original plan was for humans to travel long distances, but now I think it’s more likely to be used for animal transportation in microgravity.”

I thought of the bees in long-term stasis in Raven’s lab on Shambhala. Then Sasha’s words hit me: long distances?

“What about the new biologist, Pavani? What’s her specialty?”

“De-extinction,” I said, warmth spread through my body at the sound of her name.

“Yes, that fits,” Sasha said, almost to herself. “And the new geologist, what’s her name again?”

“Olivia.” I swallowed hard, thinking of our last interaction.

“Right, she’s a specialist in terraformation, which, I grant you, is justifiable based on the Foundation’s green-technology goal, because most people working in terraformation are repairing and healing the environmental damage on the Earth. De-extinction is the same, to repopulate wildlife. But if the ultimate goal is to help the environment, then why bring Pavani and Olivia to Shambhala? Why not have them work in one of the labs on Earth?”

“I don’t know.” I stared at her, eyes wide.

“And that brings us to Elena.”

“You mean Elena on Shambhala?”

“Uh-huh. Her PhD thesis was on habitable extrasolar planets, did you know that?”

An idea was taking shape in my mind. “Wait a minute, do you think—” I stopped.

“Extrasolar colonization?” Sasha raised her eyebrows. “Yes, I’m certain of it, and I’ve been studying the Foundation for a long time.”

“How long have you worked here?” I asked.

“Three years on Earth and four here on the Moon. I’ve been involved almost since the beginning, and I suspect building another colony has always been the long-term plan. My original speculation was they wanted to start a new colony here in the solar system, though not Mars, because there are already plenty of organizations and countries who are working on that, but possibly on Titan. It’s in the neighborhood but 246

doesn’t have many available natural resources other than water. Plus, it would take seven years to get there. But now, thanks to you and Hadley, we have the warp drive, which changes everything.”

It was true. Colonization had never been a realistic option outside of the solar system—using even the most advanced propulsion engines, it would take hundreds if not thousands of years to reach any promising planet, and even then, there was no guarantee the planet would be habitable. But now, with the warp drives …. I opened my mouth to speak, but Sasha continued, and I closed it, listening intently.

“Look at what they’ve already accomplished here on the Moon, everything they’ve learned about building a self-sustaining habitat in an inhospitable environment. And Shambhala is basically self-sufficient now. The farm produces enough food to feed a crew ten times larger than the one on the station, and they can easily increase the yield.

With all the modules, the station is big enough to house, I’d say, a couple hundred people, maybe more. They have stockpiled enough helium-3 to last essentially forever, but why so much? Unless they’re thinking of using it for something else, something that requires a lot of energy, or energy for a long time.”

My hands felt sweaty, I rubbed them against my legs, eyes fixed on Sasha.

“And warp drives for each of the Shambhala modules? A little excessive, don’t you think? I can understand one module, to test the drive large-scale like you did with the dock module, but all six? Oh, and did you know the modules can also be used as surface structures?” Not waiting for my response, she continued. “But I imagine they would prefer to use bots to construct habitats, like they did here on the Moon. There are plenty of construction bots in storage on Shambhala, the ones that were used to assemble the station, and Kamana can easily reprogram them.”

Now that we had warp technology, the Universe was wide open. Who wouldn’t be considering the possibilities of colonization? I had been so focused on my research, I didn’t even think to look at the big picture. It wasn’t the first time I’d missed the forest for the trees.

Sasha took a deep breath, then continued. “Think about it. Parthenogenesis? Only women working for the company? The culture of compassion and cooperation? They have a vision, I’m telling you. They want to build a new society, possibly even create a new ecosystem. If the next step really is colonization, I don’t think they will be inviting any men along for the ride, or males of any species, for that matter, except drone bees.”

Sasha laughed, but with little humor.

“You think they want to create an all-female society? That’s huge.” I thought of my conversation with Izumi about the intrinsic violent tendencies of males of so many species, and a chill ran down my spine.

“I honestly don’t know.” She gave a humorless little laugh. “And forget about getting any information from Annie about all this.” Her mouth twisted in a smirk. “Cause she’s not talking.” Sasha brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. “Oh wait, I haven’t even mentioned this part. I have a friend who works in the genetics database center on Earth, 247

the one just outside Los Angeles, and apparently last year the Foundation was negotiating with the director. Then, around the same time, there was a big shipment from Earth that was delivered to Shambhala. Quinn mentioned to me there are tons of crates, but no one knows what’s inside. Diana told her to put them in deep storage.

Think about it! A biologist that specializes in de-extinction. A supply of genetic material from the database. And I’ll bet a year’s pay they also have contacts at