A little teaser of my jump into the future, the start of what will become known as the Eugenics war. And something else in the offering for those who might be able to figure it out. I won't say what even if someone guesses, though.
L1 Station
23 January 2020
For the third straight day, Persian Airstrikes have struck the Palestinian town of Ramallah. The death toll continues to rise as the response to last Saturday's terrorist attack in Jerusalem is being conducted not by the Israelis but by the Royal Persian Guards. International condemnation has been slow in coming, only the Soviet Union, from Premier Putin himself, has even mentioned the airstrikes. The Trump Administration has been strangely silent, perhaps as President Trump focuses more on the upcoming election, in which Representative Chelsea Clinton holds the edge over rival Joaquin Castro in the latest Iowa Poll. Clinton's stock, bolstered in part by the recent death of her father, and the release of her mother from Federal Prison, serving three years of a five year prison sentence for her role in "Emailgate". Meanwhile, Castro continues to play up the continued protests over President Trump's Immigrant Zones, it doesn't appear to be gaining him much traction in Iowa, which only has one Immigrant Zone in the entire state, but Castro appears to be playing a long game that could conceivably put all Super Tuesday states in play for him, especially his home state of Texas, which could go for the Democrat Nominee, if it was him, for the first time in 44 years.
"You look like you're thinking about something."
James glanced up from his monitor, and over to Sam. He stared at her for a second before blinking himself back into reality, "I was just thinking about how much I used to like floating here listening to the news."
Sam scowled as she got out of bed, "That's not what you were thinking about. You haven't had that thought since about three weeks after we installed the gravity plating and rebuilt the habitat section."
He gave her naked body a couple of passes with his eyes, considering what she said, it had been about a year since they finished rebuilding the habitat section, no longer a centripetal gravity deck. The gravity plating provided a gravitational pull of .75 ESL, more than the Gravity deck ever produced, and without the nausea. The last major rebuild of the station was complete, and they had nearly wiped out all the debt they owed. The discovery of enormous amounts of precious metals in the belt has spurred a space race, and between tariffs and docking fees, they only owed a few million dollars. She walked over to him and draped herself across his shoulders, "What is it? It's been a long time since you've gotten up in the middle of the night."
He craned his head and pecked her cheek, "The four years of stabilizing is about to come undone." James pointed at the Europe. "Last winter was exceptionally cold. It led to the re-establishment of the Soviet Union. Two straight harsh winters was enough for the Baltic states. When Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania broke with the Western Alliance and went back to the Soviet Union, Belarus and Ukraine followed. The Soviet Union is back to the borders it had in the 1980s. The Southern Hegemony in South America has survived a coup attempt by Maduro, and they've been bolstered by a colder than normal winter, Chilean and Argentine dissidents have pretty much shut right up when their southern regions set record lows for twenty straight days back in July. China has all of Southeast Asia under her thumb now. Only Africa and North America are as factionalized as they were four years ago." James went over to the Middle East, "Khan is putting an end to the last of the Terrorist stronghold in the Middle East. Palestine was the last hold out, as there was continuing arguments over the disposition of the Palestinian Territories. Do they join Persia? Do they join Israel? Did either really want them?"
She wrapped her arms around his neck, "So why is it about to come undone?"
"You noted a few years back that the Sun was going dormant. It's been a boost for space. But it's getting cold down there. Thankfully we haven't needed anything from Houston, but it's paralyzed. It got six inches of snow overnight. In a place that's usually lucky if it sees six inches in a winter. They've had accumulation for the first time in recorded history. Areas that were safe havens for crops, they're gone, they had a freeze as far south as Tampico, in Mexico. I don't think they have ever had so much as a frost there. Food shortages are everywhere. This winter might just be the breaking point."
She nibbled on his ear, "We've got food. In fact we'll have the best crop we've had since we opened the agrodome in '16."
"You know as well as I do that there's not enough to even put a dent in the demand. And anywhere we do try, we'll be accused of playing favorites."
"We'll do what we can." She leaned over him to put her finger on Europe, "We don't have to worry about them. Remember they banned from import any foodstuff grown on the Moon. So we really only have the Soviet Union and the US and Canada to worry about. East Asia, so far, has been just a normal winter, and even though its cold in East Mexico, Los Angeles is reporting normal temperatures."
He turned his head into her cleavage and gave her a nuzzle before turning back. "Rio is reporting that their temperatures, in the middle of summer, are almost ten degrees below normal, and that's Celsius. Australia is five degrees below normal. South Africa is running normal temperatures, but they had a very cold winter. The Sun going dormant has done more to the planet than even the most radical of climate change scientists thought possible. I'll bet everyone on Earth right now wishes that Global Warming was actually a real thing. I think I saw 100 below in Alaska yesterday."
"Its interesting in how fast the temperatures have plummeted. The Sun went dormant in '16. Two years later the entire world is starting the freeze over."
"A year later it already is. The Bering Sea may completely freeze over this winter. Marking the first time in well over 500 years that there is a land crossing possible from Russia to Alaska."
She glanced over at the chronometer on the wall. "You realize that we have to be on duty in three and a half hours."
He nodded.
"That means we have two more hours to sleep."
He shook his head, "I'm not tired."
She grasped his hand and pulled him out of his seat, "You will be."
Topic: All the King's Horses (Read 3058 times)