Dark Star Rising Second Edition (Pebbles in The Sky) (20 page)

“That is correct,” said Peter, “That is going to be changing very soon, however.  The James Webb Infrared Telescope is finally about to be completed and should be launched in the next few months.  That will give us some of the best data that we have had once it can start studying the Dwarf.  In addition, probably every telescope on Earth will soon be turned toward the Dwarf as it gets closer.  When it gets close enough to be seen with the Earth based telescopes we can really start to gather information.  By that time, we should have its speed, distance, and the expected interactions with the planets in our solar system worked out to near perfection.  All the information being gathered will be input into the best super computers we have to work out the final trajectory projection.”

“Peter, when your star passes Earth at its closest point will we be able to see it at night?”

“Well, I am not going to go into all the trigonometry involved, but from what I have worked out on a calculator before, it should be about one quarter to one third the size of the moon as we see it from Earth.  Depending on what its atmosphere is comprised of, it will probably be quite bright from reflected sunlight.  When it is in a position so that we see its entire sun facing side it will probably be visible in the daytime.”

“Wow,” said Marla, “that will be pretty impressive, but will probably be pretty scary too.”

“It should be quite impressive,” agreed Peter.

“So Peter, where do we go from here?  We have all heard the President’s speech about all the projects and work that has to be done.  It is quite scary to think that the West coast here may fracture off and fall in to the ocean from the earthquakes that they are predicting. The thought of the whole northern half of the United States being under the ice and snow almost year round sort of makes me as well as everyone else nervous.”

“Marla, there are a lot of very smart and very motivated people out there making plans and setting them into motion.  We are lucky that we have twenty seven years to prepare.  I think by that time we will be in much better shape to survive the challenges we will be facing.  There are already projects getting started.  All the different industries are pulling together to start building what we are going to need.  Rockets and space ships are being rapidly designed or modified to do what we need them to do in space to protect us. The government is deciding where we can build new cities and neighborhoods for everyone to live after the storm passes.  We will survive.”

“Our time is running out Peter, so I have two more quick questions for you.  We have all heard the President asking people to consider not having children, or to limit ourselves to one child per couple to reduce the amount of people that will need to be fed and housed in twenty seven years from now.  So, let me ask a personal question. Are you and your girlfriend going to have a baby knowing what is going to happen in the future?”

Susan jumped up and almost knocked the table over on her uncle. “That bitch,” she exclaimed.

“Uh, you are right, that is a very personal question Marla. Susan and I have not really discussed it at this point,” Peter replied.

“Fair enough,” said Marla with a twinkle in her eye.  “My last question is this Peter.  Where do you plan on being when your star makes its closest pass to us?  Are you going to be glued to a telescope somewhere or holding your girl?”

Mike looked at Eric and grinned, “He’s screwed no matter what he says.”

“Well,” said Peter, “Twenty-seven years is a long time away.” 

Marla looked at the camera and said, “Well girlfriend, wherever you are out there, you have some work to do also it seems.”

“This is Marla Albright with Doctor Peter Rockwell from JPL.  We bid you all good night.”

Susan grabbed up all the dirty dishes and stomped off to the kitchen.

Mike took a swallow of his beer and glanced at his old friend.  “When are you going to tell her Eric?  She looks just like her mother did back then you know.”

“I know,” sighed Eric.  “Sometimes, I actually think I see her mother again instead of her.  I just hope that Peter does not make the same mistake and bad choices that I did so long ago. I guess I will tell her when I think the time is right.”

Chapter 20

August 15
th
, 2017

Bethesda, Maryland

Jessica Driskall was so nervous she could hardly stand it as she kept pulling back her hair to look through the microscope.  Trying to focus on the microscope was making her nauseous again.  Brett and Doctor Jeremy Tomes were in the Break room eating a breakfast croissant.  She shook her head.  Men, they could drive a woman crazy in times like these.  They had been working on this day for over a year now and Brett was eating a stupid croissant, it drove her nuts.

Benjamin Greco was on his way to the lab with the woman he had chosen to be the surrogate to carry his child.  They had finished mapping his dead sons DNA about seven weeks ago after nine months of trial and error.  Doctor Jeremy Tomes, a fertility specialist had harvested eggs from Amy, the twenty six year old surrogate five days ago.  Brett and Jessica had then reproduced the DNA in the lab from the computer database and they had removed the entire DNA molecule from the nucleus of the eggs and replaced it with the laboratory reproduced DNA.  So far, it had been a success.  They had three viable Blastocysts living and dividing in a special nutrient dish.  Jessica was amazed as she looked at them under the microscope.

Doctor Tomes would be implanting those three microscopic clusters of cells into Amy’s uterus when she arrived at the lab.  If all went according to plan, at least one of them should implant and in nine months plus or minus a couple of days at least one identical copy of the six month old son that Benjamin Greco had lost to Meningitis would be born.  There was the possibility of triplets but odds were only one of the Blastocysts would implant.  The process of in-vitro fertilization was not new, but as far as they could knew no one had ever reproduced DNA from a computer data based source that itself had been derived from non-living tissue.  If this worked, the possibilities were endless.

Benjamin had made them agree not to share any of this particular research until after his son was born.  Brett was very excited that they could offer this process to the brave astronauts that were training to start construction of the space based asteroid defense system.  They were going to be exposed to pretty high doses of radiation and if they could preserve their DNA before they went into space they could still safely have healthy children in the future.  Also, they both were excited that they could use this process of storing DNA for all of the species of animals that would probably be going extinct after the encounter with Peter’s Star.  One day it might be possible to restore a habitat where a species could be brought back from extinction and survive.

Brett came out of the break room and said, “They just drove up.”  Doctor Tomes jumped up and went to verify everything was ready.  “Are they ready for implantation?” Brett asked Jessica.

Jessica nodded.  “They are looking for a warm dark place to hide and grow into babies.”

Brett went and unlocked the door and let Benjamin and a beautiful young blond women enter.  They were doing this on a Saturday morning when none of the other staff members were here.  This part of their research had been kept secret until they proved it would work.  Only Brett, Benjamin, Jessica, and Jeremy Tomes knew the whole story.  Amy, the surrogate only knew that she was going to be a surrogate.  She was not aware that the embryos that were going to be implanted had been produced from the DNA of Benjamin’s dead baby son.

Benjamin introduced Amy to Brett.  “Amy, this is Doctor Brett Driskall, he and his wife have prepared the fertilized eggs that Doctor Tomes will be implanting in you.  I turn you over to their care.  I will be in your break room Brett.”

Brett nodded and shook Amy’s hand.  “It is very nice to meet you.  If you will come with me I think my wife and Doctor Tomes are about ready.  They will actually be doing the procedure.  I will sit out here and keep the future father company.”

Jessica met them at the procedure room door in a surgical gown and mask.  “Hi Amy, please come with me and we will get your prepped and ready.”  She led Amy into the room, blew a kiss at Brett, and closed the door.

Brett went back to the break room and sat down with Benjamin. “Today is the big day Benjamin,” joked Brett.  “You’re going to be a father again.”

Benjamin looked up, “I am as nervous as the day my son was first born he said.  Hopefully, things will work out better this time.”

Changing the subject, Benjamin said, “I want to let you know that I am amazed at the astounding progress you and Jessica are making in your procedures for the vaccines.  You have done more in the past year than anyone had thought was possible.”

“Well, it helps that we have almost unlimited funding,” said Brett.  “All this equipment and research work has cost you a small fortune.”

“It is an investment,” said Benjamin.  “While the pharmaceutical companies are falling all over each trying to finish development of the vaccines, it is the work you two are doing with the digital cataloging of DNA that is the true breakthrough here.  That is why I am not the only one bankrolling you.  I am a member of a group of very wealthy and influential people that believes that the techniques you are working on could pay us back quite well for the investments we have made.  My business associates and I have also bought a pharmaceutical company that has previous expertise for producing affordable vaccines.  The world is going to be experiencing a crisis in a couple of decades, and millions if not billions are going to die.  We have decided that we can use our financial resources to help alleviate some of the suffering.  Call it a humanitarian gesture.”

“I do not understand,” said Brett. 

“We are going to mass produce the vaccines that you have prepared and distribute them free of charge to the billions of people living in the third world countries whose governments will not be able to afford them from the other pharmaceutical companies.  We are going to do this totally free of charge,” Benjamin explained.

Brett was speechless.  “Benjamin, you did not get rich giving away billions of dollars to the poor of the world.”

“No, I did not.  However, like I said, I am not doing this alone.  There are others who are willing to contribute to make our world a better place after the Brown Dwarf passes.”

“That is very admirable of you and your friends Benjamin,” said Peter.

“Well, while we are waiting, there are a few technical questions that my colleagues and I need answering Peter.  How soon will it be before the vaccines for all the epidemic diseases like Typhoid, Cholera, and the others are ready?  After the floods, you know that Yellow Fever, Malaria, and many of the other mosquito borne diseases are going to run rampant and we feel that we need to start distributing the vaccines very soon.”

  “Actually, we are almost there,” said Peter.  “Everyone in the world’s health care organizations agree there is no time for decade long clinical trials.  Since the President and the courts decided it would be legal for death row inmates to volunteer for testing the vaccines, we are years ahead of schedule.  Due to prison overcrowding, they are even letting prisoners with long sentences volunteer for the trials in returned for reduced sentences.  At first, even I thought that this was rather un-ethical, but it was decided that if the victim or the families of the victim agreed to it, then it would be allowed.  Only the inmates deemed a threat to society are not being given a chance to earn their release.  It is actually turning out to be a good thing.  They earn their release by volunteering for the vaccine trials, and then serve their parole working on the national housing projects that are getting started.  We are getting quick results from the testing. We have a motivated and cheap workforce, and are spending less money on keeping people in prison.  The one strike rule that will put them back behind bars with their original sentence seems to be a good motivator for them to stay clean and most of the released inmates are turning over a new page in their lives.”

“I have another question for you Brett.  Is there a way, or will it be possible to combine several of these vaccines into one injection?  It would be a lot easier to give a crying child just one or two injections instead of multiple ones.  It will also make it easier to distribute and require far fewer supplies to administer all the vaccines.”

Brett thought for a minute.  “Yes, that should be possible.  We already have combination vaccines like the Tetanus/Diphtheria one, or the Measles and Mumps vaccine.  That should not be a problem.  They could probably reduce it down to two or maybe three injections.  The volume of the vaccine needed for each disease will be the limiting factor.”