BOOK 4: PREPARATION / CH. 3:DEMONSTRATIONS AND ERROR ELLIPSES
TUESDAY 21ST NOVEMBER, 11AM, THE PALACE.
“And that ends my prepared verbal report, your Majesties.” Maria said, feeling the relief she always felt when the King had allowed her to get to the end of it without interrupting. The Queen had made some notes. She never interrupted.
“Thank you, Maria. As usual, you've given me just enough information to satisfy my need to know what's going on, but not so much to make me bored.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Except on one subject.” The King added.
“I wonder if it's the same subject I have a number of questions on,” the queen said.
“This informal threat-analysis committee that you say you've assigned two agents to.”
“Yes, sir?”
“Two agents says to me that you're taking it seriously, but your report is rather lacking in details about the threat they set themselves up to investigate.”
“Yes, sir.” Maria admitted. “The group presents a number of complications on several fronts, and I find it hard to be dispassionate about it.”
“Complications?” the Queen prompted.
“Your Majesties, the members include my daughter, her fiancé, my niece, and another, more distant relative, who called the meeting to start with. My daughter's fiancé and my niece are in witness protection, on two different cases. Several staff members of the Institute, including the director, are on it as well, since my distant relative is on staff there. They were trying to arrange for my niece to attend under cover of a counselling session at the Institute, but some things didn't add up and her protection agent got sufficiently suspicious that the Institute's director told me all about it.
I assigned one agent, who is known to most of the other members, and who is recuperating from an attack. Then as the meeting progressed, they decided to form a permanent committee and then something was said that caused them to call in my niece's protection agent. She's the second agent who's now assigned to this committee. I've also suggested that the committee should actually be under UN authority.”
“So, apart from there being too many of your relatives present, I presume you can tell us more about this threat?”
“Yes, your Majesty. It was, by nature, a prophetic revelation. Not a dream, since the person was awake at the time, in the middle of a phone conversation with another person at the meeting. The meeting was called to discuss what they'd said over the phone, and to take it from there.”
“Ah. So, a funny turn leads a lot of your relatives and acquaintances to form a committee to assess the reliability of prophetic dreams, doom-sayers and other people's funny turns?” the King summarised, jovially.
“You could phrase it like that, yes,” Maria conceded.
“What makes them consider themselves fit for the task?”
“Two members are trained psycho-counsellors, more than one have the full-blown scary mind-reading gift that we've discussed previously.”
“And they concluded that the triggering funny turn was just that, I hope,” the King prompted.
“No, sir. They initially concluded that the vision was supernaturally inspired but since all they had was a scary vision and a date, they would seek confirmation.”
The King raised a sceptical eyebrow at mention of the supernatural. He was adamantly atheist himself.
“You said initially? What was the date?” the Queen asked.
“Yes, Maam. It seems that actually the protection agent had had a number of similar dreams in the past, but had dismissed them as unreliable.”
“And the date?” the King asked, quietly.
“Next Valentine's day,” Maria replied.
“I thought so. Valentine's day... and a ruined city?” the Queen looked for confirmation from Maria, who nodded. “You can't just ignore it any more, my dear.”
The King patted his wife's hand, in acknowledgement, but said decisively, “Maria, you've been careful to not say, and so has Tasha, but we can put two and two together. According to Tasha this thing the press are calling the gift was somehow instrumental in the total collapse of her arguments against your God. That's her business. She stated that it was someone with high level clearance who used it on her, which excludes everyone based where she was, but your daughter and her fiancé were passing through at the time. I'm guessing your daughter has it.”
“Yes, sir. She was given it in time to call out to be rescued,” Maria said.
“Or developed it in that time of crisis,” the King added, resolutely refusing to abandon his scepticism.
“If you prefer that explanation, your Majesty,” Maria conceded.
“I do,” he replied. His wife raised her eyebrows. They'd both been agnostic when they married, but had moved in different directions during the past thirty years. “I'd like to speak to this agent with the confirming dreams, and to your daughter.”
“Of course, your Majesty,” Maria smiled, unable to resist the little dig: “The agent dreamt that such a meeting would happen too.”
“Oh joy, a regular prophetess. Tell me about her.”
“She's twenty-four, single, alert, capable of being a top ranking agent, if only she wasn't so satisfied with the status quo. Her dreams had her in a state of terror, and fortunately stopped in her teens. She also possesses the normal form of thought-hearing. Like, it turns out, her mother, who was also in the Service — in auditing.”
“Interesting! More thought hearers around than you might think. It's genetic, you've said?”
“Often skips a generation or more, but yes, sir.”
“And your daughter plans to wear Sarah's dress at her wedding?”
“Yes, sir,” Maria replied, wondering where this was going.
“My father apparently had the ability too. I often wondered how the original bride's mother was quite such a successful con-artist. Perhaps now we know.”
“It is possible, your Majesty.”
“Very well, please call in the two youngsters. Four o'clock this afternoon, if humanly possible.”
“I'm sure it will be, sir.”
“Good.”
After Maria left, he turned to the Queen and asked, “So, do you tell him, or do I?”
“Who, dear?” she asked, confused.
“Albert. You never know.”
“Just because you married a Security agent, Albert doesn't have to.”
“I know that, love, but it would solve a couple of issues.”
“You mean the fact that he finally explained that he's not interested in someone he can't think with?”
“Yes. And the fact that we've been tearing our hair out hoping he'd find someone to marry for the last few years.”
“Of course, she could be totally unsuitable.”
“Of course she could be. But do we warn him to wear his gloves when he shakes their hands?”
“I think that would be enough of a hint.”
----------------------------------------
Maria called her daughter first. “Hi, Karen! I hope you've not got anything to cancel this afternoon. You and Bella are going on a little expenses-paid trip to the palace.”
“Oh. I'd better wash my hair then.”
“There's a hypersonic ticket booked for you. Don't be late, it won't wait for you.”
“I don't suppose it's a first class ticket, is it? I've always wanted to go first class.”
“You can pay for the upgrade yourself if you want it that much.”
“Ouch! No, thank you!”
----------------------------------------
LUNCHTIME, THE PALACE.
“Albert, we've got a follow-up national security-related briefing this afternoon,” the King told his son.
“So much for our chess game.”
“It should be interesting for you too. We'd like you there,” responded the Queen.
“Oh. OK. Anything I should know? I presume it's Maria?”
“Maria's daughter actually, with a security agent. Wear your gloves and keep your thoughts under control.”
“Maria's daughter's got the power?”
“Horrible term that, but yes. Both of them do, apparently. Maria's daughter, she's called Karen, by the way, also has a fiancé.”
“I remember her from years ago, some ball or something. Odd to think of her grown up.”
“Yes. Time happens to us all. You know my scary dream from last year?”
“Yes. Not the sort of thing you forget, your Dad waking up next to you on the plane screaming.”
“Someone at the IHM had something similar and the agent had lots of similar ones when she was a teenager.”
“People with the gift have confirmed that it was supernaturally inspired,” the Queen added.
“Well, at least God didn't leave you out of the loop, Dad.”
“No one said it was God, Albert. Or proved he exists. Or proved to me that people who claim they got their so-called 'gift' from a non-existent God haven't got a biased view of what makes things supernatural. I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this.”
“Yes, Dad. You can wrack your brains for a perfectly logical explanation full of hypothetical non-detectable time-travelling thought particles or something, and I'll cut it to shreds with Occam's razor and a simpler one: God exists and he gave you a dream about the future.”
“Whatever the source, we've got three 'witnesses' that something nasty is going to happen on Valentine's day. At least one of them says it's this one,” the Queen interjected, heading off a familiar argument.
“Hence the agent and the security briefing. Why Karen too?”
“She's going to report what happened at the meeting where they were discussing the vision,” responded the King.
“And she might well convince your father that the gift is real.”
“Oh. She's got the gift? Interesting!”
“She developed it in a time of great trauma and crisis — lost in a tunnel with a broken leg,” explained the King.
“I suspect some praying happened too,” Albert added.
“Stop it, you two! Albert, do some praying yourself and stop needling your father.”
“Yes, Mother.”
----------------------------------------
4PM, THE PALACE.
After his parents had shaken Karen and Bella's hands, Albert pointedly removed his gloves. Karen interpreted the signal correctly and removed hers.
[Your Highness,] she thought in greeting.
[You've grown since we last met. Congratulations on your engagement.]
[Thank you, sir.]
[I hear you don't actually need us to be touching.]
[God gave me the gift, yes.]
[Mother and I pray for father to renounce atheism. I hope you can cast doubt on his faith better than I've been able to.]
[I'll do my best, Highness.]
Bella wasn't sure if she should remove her gloves or not, but decided that the prince could always replace his if he didn't intend to think to her too. He wanted to use the power.
[Your Highness.]
[Thank-you for removing your gloves. It isn't often I can think to someone. Forgive me if I'm out of practice.]
[I'm overwhelmed, your Highness.]
[My grandfather had the power also, but he died a long time ago.]
[It must have been hard. And you've had no-one to think to in all that time? Sorry, am I allowed to ask that?] Bella was getting flustered.
[No, not one. I don't think we need to stand on ceremony too much when no one else can hear us.]
[Thank you, sir. But they can watch.]
[That's true. May I ask... do you have any faith?]
[Lots of people are trying to help me trust God. So far... I know he exists.]
[An important step.]
[I've known that a long time, though. Recently, I am starting to read the Bible. The supernatural scares me.]
[And this?]
[Oh, this is perfectly normal.]
He laughed and switched to spoken words, though kept her hand in his. “Perfectly normal! So, you often hold men's hands and think at them?”
“No, your Highness. Not at all. But it's a normal way for me to talk, even if I've only done so with my mother until recently.”
“Thank you for not excluding us from the conversation entirely, dear,” the Queen reproached her son.
“It's been a long time since I've been able to talk to anyone that way, Mother.” Albert replied.
“Is that what you were doing? I thought you were just holding her hand and gazing into her eyes,” the King said.
[Don't mind Dad.] Albert thought to Bella [He says that sort of thing every time I talk to a pretty girl.] But having said that he did let go of her hand.
“Maria tells us that you had some scary dreams, Bella,” the Queen prompted.
“Yes, Maam. Lots...” she glanced at Karen in mute appeal for help.
“Bella's mother kept a log of them. We believe they were from two sources, and they seem to have been in sequences. Did Mother's report include the list, and George's analysis of them?”
“George?” asked the King.
“My fiancé, he's good with computers,” Karen supplied.
“Assume we just got a summary, not the raw data. Could you explain what you mean by there being two sources?” the Queen asked.
“There were conflicting details: sometimes it was day, other times it was night. Sometimes there were bodies, sometimes there were none. Sometimes it was related to Valentine's day, other times it was some other date. But there were patterns. Normally it was two dreams and the third which figured the ruined city. Another pattern was that the wild variation and the scariest dreams usually ended with bodies in the city. Another pattern was that the dreams with no bodies were Friday and Saturday nights.” Bella said.
“So we concluded that God was sending Bella consistent dream sequences ending up with no bodies in the city, and the Enemy was sending a lot of nightmares to confuse her. The lack of bodies agrees with the vision that Sarah had,” Karen concluded.
“And the dreams just started out of the blue and stopped just as suddenly?” the Prince asked.
“No, your Highness. I was a stupid teenager and wasn't content with just hearing thoughts. I became obsessed with the idea that I should be able to see the future. The night before my first dream, I enacted a little new-age-pagan ritual that I'd found in a book and asked the spiritual forces in the world to let me do that. The nightmares grew straight out of that. So, you see, I've got good reason to be afraid of seeking help from the supernatural.”
The Prince nodded, and asked, “How did they stop?” He felt something close to shock at what he'd just heard Bella admit. No wonder she was scared.
“They only stopped when, something like a year later, I went to a lonely place and screamed and screamed, 'God, anyone, make these dreams stop!' That night, I dreamed about talking to mind-readers about my dreams in a room I'd never been in. That room was where I met Karen and the others for the first time, and told them about my dreams.”
“You dreamt about holding hands with them and thinking to them?” Prince Albert asked.
“No. I dreamt about them thinking to me without touching.”
The Queen replied, “So you dreamt about the gift before you'd heard about it! And it happened that way?” She looked to Karen.
“Actually, no. We saw how scared Bella was about the whole situation, so we just spoke normally most of the time. Also, it was just... more polite. We didn't want to exclude the others there.”
“So, the dreams are not an exact representation of the future,” the King observed.
“No sir, they seem to allow for free will.”
“And your dreams leave a lot of scope for reinterpretation, if we don't filter them,” the King said, obviously mulling something over in his mind.
“If we don't filter them, then there's a very confusing picture. If we just filter based on when I had them, then the picture is quite clear, I think,” Bella said. “And also there is a good tie-in with what Sarah saw.”
“Something black, and therefore I presume harder than normal to see, coming from space, aiming at a city, impacting on Valentine's day,” stated the King. “I understand you believe it to be Restoration?”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“Well, we'll obviously get the space-watch programme to look out for it. I don't suppose you know which star wasn't seen?”
“No. Not at all,” Bella said.
“And Karen, your impression of Bella as a reliable source?”
“Your Majesty, I didn't look in her mind at what she saw, but the person who did saw some corruption, or editing of her memory with time. That's normal. My own memories of events tend to become distorted even after a few months. I would say that her current memories of her dreams are reasonably reliable, but I wouldn't say they were entirely accurate after such a long time. The dream diaries, however, were made by her mother at the time, under medical direction. I would say that those diaries are a very reliable record of what she dreamt.”
“But the problem remains of the source of the dreams, of this information,” the King decided. “There have been theoretical models which might explain prophetic utterances — brief sightings of the future through some kind of space-time pre-echo. But that would not equate to the way that your dream about meeting the others did not conform to reality. You explain it away as free will, but I see it as unreliable information. OK, we happen to have two other people with the same sequence, but I expect if we carried out an exhaustive search we'd find several people and a city destroyed full of bodies and probably a city full of marsh-mallows too.
“We have no knowledge of what was going on in your mind, Bella, to cause these dreams, or why the weekends should be key to the more regular pattern. Without some hard data to back up your assertion of something genuinely due to hit us, I can't authorise this to be disseminated further or decide that we should evacuate the city or anything drastic like that.”
“Father,” the Prince said, “don't you feel that your disbelief is possibly clouding your judgement?”
“Don't you feel that your willingness to believe someone just because God gets mentioned is prejudicial to sound decision making?”
“Oh, don't start that again! Please!” the Queen interjected. “Your father's logic is reasonable, Albert. We might not agree with it, but that's only because we share a concept of God who sends prophesies but allows for free will. Even within the church there would be people who said that since some details did not match, they weren't from God. Or if we presupposed that there were no prophesies today, then we'd say that the dreams were the work of the evil one. We've heard Bella's confession, you know where your father stands. We only have one Christian's word that this is from God. That's assuming this Sarah you mentioned is a Christian?”
“She is, your Majesties, Highness. I have absolutely no doubt,” Karen said.
“You don't think you might be mistaken?” Albert asked.
“No. I have what I see as incontrovertible evidence.”
“Through your gift?” Albert guessed.
“Yes,” said Karen, and thought quickly to Sarah. [Sarah, would it be OK if I tell their Majesties that you've got the gift?]
[What? Yes, go ahead.]
“She had the gift before me, was one of those who found me in the tunnel, and taught me a lot about how to use it,” Karen said simply.
“And your mother is aware of this?” the Queen asked.
“Yes, Maam.”
“I see. Does that change your opinion at all, dear?”
“Not significantly. Karen believes she has a gift from God. I don't accept the existence of God, so I'm afraid I don't count her account as very useful in this respect.”
“But your Majesty does accept that I have a rare ability?”
“You say so, your mother who I trust says so. Yes.”
“May I be so bold as to ask if your Majesty understands that the scope of my ability defies various physical laws?”
“You have it. I am sure there is a mechanism, even if we don't know the laws it obeys.”
“Any miracle may be explained away, your Majesty, with a sufficiently complex mechanism.”
“But you are willing to demonstrate your gift?” Albert asked.
“It would depend on the request. I have no desire to invade anyone's privacy.”
“I understand you can find people?” Albert asked.
“Yes, Highness.”
“And do I believe the papers saying you can know where they are in a particular room, wherever that might be?”
“Yes, Highness.”
“Then I believe we have a test,” Albert said. “I will call a friend, ask him to stand still, and you can tell me where he is.”
“I would be willing.”
“Father, would that be a good proof to you?”
“It would indicate that she can find people, yes. I approve.”
The Prince called someone who he'd been at school with. “Shorty, I'm helping in a demonstration. Can you stand still for a bit?”
Shorty, actually called William Short, stood still. “What's going on, Alb?”
“Hold on, tell you soon.”
Karen was already ahead of him, and had looked at Shorty's feet. Without being asked, she said, “The man you call Shorty is standing roughly in the middle of a room, facing the north window, on the top floor of a ten story building, on the Eastern edge of a large city in what I think is Mongolia. I could pinpoint the city and the block on a map, but I don't know the name, sorry.”
“Did you hear what she said, Shorty?”
“Yes. You're talking to one of those gifted people? Every detail correct.”
“What are you doing there, Shorty?”
“Business trip,” he explained.
“Do you know his full name?” asked the Queen.
“No, but I can find out everyone's name in that room if you want me to and if I have permission.”
“Did you hear that, too Shorty?”
“Yes. Is she pretty? You need a wife.”
“Yes, she's pretty, and engaged.”
“Can't you send him to the moon or something?”
“I don't think I should, no.”
“Shame. Is that all?”
“Can I ask her to tell me who's up there with you?”
“Urm, yes, sure. Let me put you on speaker. We're... sorry, everyone here is listening.”
Karen looked at the floor of the room in as much detail as she could, and reported, loudly enough to be heard, “In that room, there's William Joyce Short, Jemimah Louise Short nee Montgomery, and Oh! I didn't know I could see that! Congratulations!”
“Pardon?” William asked.
Jemimah grabbed William's phone and asked Karen: “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I'm sure. Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything,” Karen replied, deeply embarrassed.
“Do I gather...” William said.
“I'd been hoping it was true, William. I was going to go for a scan when we're back home... I'm expecting.”
“Wow!”
“Congratulations, Shorty! Sounds like you're going to be a Dad.”
“Time to celebrate, I think!”
“We'll leave you to it,” Albert said, and disconnected. “Karen, that was, urm... quite scary, actually. Dad, comments?”
The King was silent for a while. “You have a very impressive ability, Karen. A very impressive demonstration.”
“You saw the unborn child too?” the Queen asked.
“Yes. I'm glad they took it well. I assumed they knew already! Really though, I guess I shouldn't have said anything,” Karen said, still somewhat shaken.
The Queen agreed: “In other circumstances. You're right. You breached your ethics code, but I don't think they'll be pressing charges.”
Bella wasn't sure. “You had permission, Karen.”
“I think it could be argued that I had permission to tell about everyone they knew of. I was caught off guard but should have considered it before I spoke up. I hope, Majesties, that I've demonstrated that I have access to a level of knowledge which defies explanation. I should not have been able to identify your son's friend from just a nickname, but the nick-name was enough to locate him, and identify those in the room. It is not reasonable to assume that such a quantity of information is being transmitted world-wide for me to pick up.”
“I admit, I cannot think up such a mechanism,” the King conceded.
“Karen?” started the Queen. “You can find people by category too?”
“Yes,” Karen acknowledged.
“Why don't you look for the people in the spaceship?” Karen was silent for quite a long time.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“Would locating those people, and having them confirm the events that Bella saw provide your Majesty with sufficient information that the filtered dreams are more reliable than random chance?”
“Yes, I believe it would.”
“Then I will try,” Karen agreed.
Karen looked for people who had been on that spacecraft on the skin of Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Earth. No results. She looked on the skin of Mars. No results. She looked for people aged thirty with fair hair on the skin of Mars. Lots of red dots on the red planet. Her gift worked there, but she had found no one from the space-ship. Carefully, without entirely shutting off her awareness of the room, she sought peace. There was heat. Not very dangerous, but she needed to stop.
“Your Majesties, I am afraid I have not found them, but I have used my gift sufficiently that I must let my brain rest.”
“So, either they're somewhere you didn't look, or they don't exist?” the King asked.
“Yes, your Majesty.”
“And where didn't you look?”
“I looked at Earth and Mars. That leaves the rest of the solar system.”
“Mars! You think you would have seen them so far away?”
“I wasn't sure. As a check, I looked for thirty year olds with fair hair on Mars. I found too many to count. I believe that the travel time for light is considerably more than a minute. The information was available to me instantly.”
“But you haven't found anyone from the spaceship.”
“No, your Majesty.”
“So the dreams are not reliable,” The King said.
“Or they are on the moon, or somewhere else in space, or they have died. I should not check further, but with your Majesties' permission, I will ask Sarah to look for me.”
“By all means,” the Queen asked.
[Sarah, I've bitten off more than I can chew. Can you help?]
[Of course. What's up?]
[The King is playing 'I need hard evidence', and the Queen asked if I could find the people on the space-ship Bella saw. I said I'd give it a go, and scanned Earth and Mars for matching people. I wasn't sure about reaching Mars, so I also checked for fair-haired 30 year-olds, and got a bit too hot to continue.]
[OK, got it. Any reason you tried that way?]
[Urm, the queen asked about categories. I don't know their names.]
[Yes, but we found your thoughts by naming you Damsel.]
[Oh, I'm stupid! Could you try, please?]
[Of course. Shall we call them Julian, Dick, Anne and Georgina, after the Famous Five books?]
[Why not? Julian the oldest man, and Georgina the oldest woman?]
[Yes. OK. I'll report back in a few seconds.]
Sarah looked at the feet of Julian — He was in orbit round Jupiter. Georgina, on board some sort of cargo ship a long way from anywhere, it seemed. Anne looked like she was standing beside Julian, and she therefore had both of their names. Dick... Dick was either out of range or not alive.]
[Karen! Georgina is on a cargo ship, out further than Jupiter, but not in that direction. Julian and Anne are actually Jack and Nancy, currently orbiting Jupiter. No sign of Dick, I guess he's died.]
[Thanks! Make sure you don't overheat.]
[Of course!]
Karen had been aware that the conversation had lulled, waiting for Sarah's response, so she felt no qualms about passing on what she'd been told. “Sarah reports that Jack and Nancy, two of those who were on board, are currently in orbit around Jupiter. The younger male who was on board seems to have died, and the older woman is on a cargo ship in the outer solar system, beyond the orbit of Jupiter in another direction.”
“Do you have her name?” the King asked.
“No, sir. It could be obtained, of course,” and asked Sarah. [If you're not too hot, can you find out Georgina's real name, please.]
Albert asked the next question: “Karen, your gift for finding out about people seems not to be limited by boring things like the speed of light. Is that true for reading thoughts too?”
“I haven't tested that aspect of it, sir. Sarah did tell me that she suspected that to be the case.”
“I don't suppose there are any thought-readers on that space-ship you could talk to?” he asked wistfully.
“I think, sir, that your respected Father would prefer more conventional and verifiable ways of communicating.”
“Smart thinking!” commented the King, “Of course I would.”
“While you were talking to Sarah, I found a list of space-accidents.” The Queen said. “I don't think we need to talk to anyone so far away. Listen to this: from about ten years ago, 'A cargo vessel on a resupply run was hit by the plasma trail of an out-of-control comet-harvesting-tug also known as a 'sheepdog.' Later investigations suggest a programming error in the self-diagnosis routines permitted a critical malfunction to not be tested for correctly. Blah blah, crew and passengers on board put on oxygen masks for safety and improvised a simple leak detector. The harvesting tug eventually exploded. Kuiper belt object's last known orbit suggests Jupiter impact. Orbital data passed to Jupiter Watch as observation possibility. Jupiter watch assigned object number Ko594a.'
There's a crew list, two of the names are Jack, ending tour of duty on shepherd six, and Nancy, flight engineer. I looked and couldn't find any data from Jupiter Watch on that object.”
“Maam, Sarah tells me the other woman on board is called Wilma,” Karen added.
“Well, interestingly this report says the pilot was called Wilamina, but there is an attached letter of commendation for pilot Wilma.” She looked expectantly at her husband.
“Very well, ladies, I'm becoming convinced that there is at least some reliable data in Bella's filtered dreams. We obviously need to get Space Guard or some tame astronomer to look out for things that might hit on Valentine's day.”
“Is it reasonable to assume that it is that missing asteroid?” Albert asked.
“It would certainly be a good candidate,” the Queen answered. “There must only be a small set of orbits that would take a rock from where it started from, not smashing into Jupiter and getting to us on that day. In which case it should be much easier to find. But that's up to the astronomers.”
“I think I'd like to follow up on this personally, Mother, Father.”
“Good,” the King said.
----------------------------------------
10AM, WEDNESDAY 22ND NOVEMBER, ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT
The security officer showed Prince Albert into the university office, and discretely stood outside.
“Dr Green,” Prince Albert greeted the confused astronomer, “thank you for making time to meet me.”
“It's an honour, your Highness. But I'm not quite sure how I can help or what I've done to occasion it.”
“It's very simple, but not very flattering, I'm afraid. You are in the unfortunate position of being the nearest expert on orbital mechanics my staff could find who is not at a conference, up a mountain, or on holiday this week.”
“Ah! I see. Well at least that sets my mind at rest that I haven't upset anyone. Although I do wonder why the crown prince should need an expert on orbital mechanics.”
“I'm sure that you're much more familiar with the little game of cosmic billiards that the Mars terraforming programme is involved in.”
“Yes. Yes, indeed. It's not the sort of thing that we are very happy with at Space Guard, but none of them have missed Mars so far, so it all seems to be going OK.”
“With your Space Guard mindset, I'd like you to consider this report from about ten years ago.”
He handed over the report.
“Yes, yes, I remember that event. Throttle on full and totally out of control. It's very fortunate that it was heading straight towards Jupiter. It would have been going quite fast at the impact time, lots of data for Jupiter Watch.”
“What concerns me is that Jupiter Watch have not reported the impact. Or indeed any impact around the time in question, or any sign of an impact cloud on the
surface of Jupiter in the surrounding days. It looks to my untrained eye like it missed.”
“That would be concerning, yes. But there are so many asteroids flying around the Solar system, the chances of it causing any damage are miniscule. And if it missed Jupiter then it'll be on a hyperbolic orbit. It'll be on a one-way route through the Solar system. Unless you have additional data, sir?”
“There have been three, what you might call independent prophecies, that something will cause a Tungaska-style event over a city on this coming Valentine's day. One of the prophecies included data which matched that report, so while that's not the only candidate, my parents would like you to consider that one first. Is there a chance of that object hitting Earth?”
“Your Highness, if it missed Jupiter, but went close, then it could be almost anywhere. I'm sure that's what these prophesies are based on. It depends so much on how closely it passes, of course, but...”
“So there is a chance?”
“Yes, sir, there is a miniscule chance. I've heard some strange prophecies of doom in my time, but to predict anything based on a missed Jupiter impact... Sorry, sir, I can't give credence to any such calculation. The error margins are too high.”
“I'm sorry, Dr Green. You seem to have misinterpreted what I said. No calculations have been made. These are prophesies in the sense of dreams and visions. One was from about ten years ago, the other two were more recent. The people who had them found them traumatic and are not seeking fame, newspaper interviews or any other reward. The question is this: If there are possible orbits which would take this object from the Kuiper belt, past Jupiter and intersect Earth's orbit on or about February the fourteenth, then which way should telescopes be pointing to confirm or deny that the object is coming?”
“I can calculate that, of course, sir. But I'm sure you're on a wild goose chase.”
“I personally hope that I am not.”
“That you are not, sir?”
“The people concerned have absolutely nothing to gain from making this up, Dr Green. We've learned recently that mind-reading is not thing of fantasy novels. I myself have recently met a young woman who was able to correctly identify where a particular friend of mine was, and who was with him. I think perhaps our society should be open to the idea that there are other sources of true knowledge than science, even if that is the one we are most comfortable with. If this candidate object is nowhere to be seen with a telescope, then given the credibility of the witnesses and the fact that there are three of them, that would not convince me that the prophesy is incorrect, only that we'd picked the wrong candidate to look for.”
“I find it hard to believe in prophesies, sir.”
“So does my father. However, and you must not pass this on, he was one of those who received this disturbing dream.”
Dr Green worked hard not to do an impression of a gold-fish for a about ten seconds, and eventually gathered his wits enough to say, “I'll start the calculations immediately, your Highness.”
“Thank you. Will they take long?”
“I do not think so, sir. I could give you an approximate answer in five minutes, I expect, but perhaps twenty minutes would be better, as it would allow me to refine the search better and perhaps identify what error happened with the Jupiter impact prediction.”
“That would be good, yes, as much accuracy as possible. I'll leave you to your work. I do have some other business, but I'll try to return in about an hour.”
----------------------------------------
10:30AM
Prince Albert spoke into his wrist unit. “Hello, Bella. Albert here. I thought you'd like to know that I'm hoping to have coordinates for an observation programme in the next hour or so.”
“Oh. Thank you for calling, Sir. That's good to know.”
“I'll let you know what the results say.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“How's your Bible reading going?”
“Umm, quite hard to say, Sir. I'm meeting some new concepts. It's quite challenging.”
“Keep it up.”
“I intend to, Sir.”
“I'll be in touch later. Bye.”
“Good bye, sir.” Bella looked at Eliza. “That was urm, unexpected.”
“I heard you calling someone 'Sir'. News from headquarters?”
“Not exactly headquarters. Prince Albert.”
“Oooh! Well, you never did finish telling me about what happened yesterday. What was this call about?”
“I guess he's been talking to an astronomer. He told me that he was hoping to hear coordinates to look for the asteroid in an hour.”
“That, Bella, sounds rather a feeble motive for a call.”
“That's what I was thinking. Maybe he was bored. And he also asked me about my Bible studies.”
“Oh, that's what the new concepts comment was about. So, what's he like?”
“Prince Albert? Intense. There seems to be a constant battle with his father about God. The King sounds like an atheist, but Albert obviously isn't. He's what, twenty-five?”
“Sounds about right. Eligible, single...”
“Eliza!”
“Well, isn't he? The papers are always full of speculation about when a girlfriend is going to come to light.”
“I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't had one.”
“Oh?”
“People like us don't tend to.”
“'People like us'? What do you mean?”
“He'd obviously been told about me having the power, and greeted me silently. He's got it too, but hasn't had anyone to think to since his grandfather died.”
“Oh, Bella! And then you walk into his life, confident, pretty, with the power, and he starts calling you for no good reason?”
“I hardly said ten sentences to him, Eliza. He was really shocked when he heard about my stupid pagan ceremony.”
“So he knows you've been a silly girl, but still calls?”
“Maybe he's just interested in saving my soul.”
“There's quite a few of us interested in that.”
“I've noticed.”
“We prayed that you'd be able to think clearly the other night. What do you think about God, right now?”
“That you think he's the answer to all my problems. You prayed that I'd be able to decide this on my own, but on the other hand, I heard you decide that you'd pray quietly that God would help me love him, you, you sneaky person.”
“Argh. I should have hidden, shouldn't I? That reminds me, I need to teach it to you sometime.”
“True. Anyway, I know you're probably going to keep on bringing it up if I don't accept God, which fits with how you think of him. So you're sneaky and consistent. I think that if I'm not a Christian then I ought to be safe from the prince making any plans for me, which would be nice.”
“Really?” Eliza asked, surprised.
“Really. You know the Queen used to be a security agent?”
“Yes, I'd forgotten, but I read it once.”
“I saw her name on the self-defence trophy when I won it. I don't really want to be a queen, Eliza. I much prefer my current job to going around opening schools and stuff like that.”
“Maybe she sees herself as the King's personal security agent.”
“Maybe. I don't think I'd like the public duties.”
“Fair enough. But, back to God? You haven't told me what you think of Him, Bella.”
“I don't really know. You obviously think he's the most wonderful being in the universe, but in that passage we looked at last night your Jesus sounded distinctly aggravated.”
“Well, what's wrong with that?”
“I thought angry was wrong?”
“Let me ask you a question. If you saw someone threatening a harmless little old lady you know with a knife, what would you do and what would your emotional state be?”
“I'd disarm them and arrest them. Emotionally, I'd try to be cold, calculating.”
“Fair enough. Anger leads to mistakes. What about if the prosecutor made a mistake and you heard they'd walked free on a technicality?”
“I'd be angry, I guess.”
“Right. And what about if the prosecutor had deliberately let them off because the little old lady didn't have the right friends, but they did?”
“I think you'd rather I didn't swear. Very angry.”
“And would your anger be wrong?”
“You're telling me that some kinds of anger are right?”
“Of course. You should feel anger at injustice, when you see others maltreated. It's just typically human that we feel angry when someone doesn't let us do things how we want them to. That's not exactly the best sort of anger.”
“So anger which starts 'He can't tell me to do that!' isn't on a good track.”
“Yes. But anger which starts `Doesn't he know right from wrong?' is off to a better start.”
“Interesting. I'd never thought of there being two different sorts of angry. I presume you've got yet another special word or phrase for them?”
“Of course! Righteous anger and selfish anger.”
“Oh. Yes. I'd heard of righteous anger. So... according to you it's OK for God to be angry, but not for us, often.”
“Yes. God's not going to get upset about people trampling him underfoot, no one's big enough to do that. But, on the other hand, you find times in the Bible when he does get angry when his people damage his reputation.”
“Oh?”
“For instance when the Israelites keep on pretending to be just like the other nations around them, fitting in, not creating a stir, not refusing to worship idols like they should. Do you see how that would affect God's reputation?”
“If God's people aren't different, then their God's not so different either?”
“Yes. Not only that, but things like: If their God's really so wonderful and far more powerful than Baal, like he says, then why do I see them going to Baal-worship regular as clockwork?”
“But they wouldn't say that! They didn't have clockwork.”
“OK, as regular as whatever simile for extreme regularity they used.”
“That doesn't sound as snappy, somehow,” Bella said.
“But you get the point?”
“How you behave affects God's reputation.”
“And the God who spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not just some kind of local tribal totem like the pagans considered him, or even the sun-god. He made the Sun, and it wasn't even his first creation. He made us, and has been in the business of rescuing us from our attitude of `I know better' ever since. If we go ruining his reputation then people will not believe what he says. For instance about approaching asteroids.”
“How is it that I believe God about asteroids, but not about anything else?” Bella asked.
“You believe he can deal with demons too, and you trust that when you ask him to make them go away he isn't going to take up residence himself without you asking. I know enough history to know I certainly wouldn't trust the average human empire to act like that.”
Bella thought long and hard about that. “OK. So it looks like I think God is trustworthy. So, what am I scared of?”
“Total guess, not my field of expertise at all, but how about the changes that a life-long relationship brings?”
“That's silly!”
“Really? I don't think you like change, Bella.”
“I don't mind change!” Bella said indignantly.
Eliza hid her thoughts and looked at Bella for a while, putting her arguments in order.
“Bought that new stove yet? Got scared by the thought that our nation's most eligible bachelor might be interested in a date? Been worried sleepless about a change of job? Want to stay sitting on the fence as far as God is concerned, even when you know deep down that he exists, he's the good-guy, and you're in the firing lines of his sworn enemies and that he would protect you better if you joined his camp?”
“You're not cheating, are you?”
“Well, I hid my thoughts so I could hit you with that lot in one go. Why?”
“I thought of some of those things while you were looking accusingly at me.”
“I wasn't accusing. Was I?”
“I thought so.”
“I just thought you'd made yourself a lovely target.”
“For accusations!”
“No, for reminders that you might not be as aware of your motivations as you'd thought. I'll make some tea, or would you prefer coffee?”
“Coffee, please. How did you know I'd been worried about changing jobs?”
“You said you didn't sleep well last night, remember?”
“I didn't say it was about changing jobs. It might have been about protecting you from kidnap attempts.”
“Fat chance! That's all in a day's work for you, no, better than that, you enjoy it, just like arresting muggers.”
“Hey, how did you get to know me so well?”
“I guess we've been talking a lot.”
“Yeah, we have, haven't we? It'll be sad to lose contact after I'm not assigned to you any more.”
“Don't think you can escape that easily, Bella.” Eliza tapped her head and thought to her, [I can call you anytime I like.]
“Show-off! So you don't think we'll lose contact?”
“I doubt it. I expect Maria's got her plans for both of us, well beyond the trial. Speaking of which, any news about when the trial is?”
“No, sorry.”
“Never mind. You're good company. Now, I really should read this book, so I can pretend to know something for my seminar tomorrow.”
----------------------------------------
11:30AM, THE ASTRONOMY DEPARTMENT.
“Dr Green, you look like you've got news for me?”
“Well, yes. I got the computer results and put out a query if anyone had seen an object in the right patches of sky. I heard back almost immediately from a colleague. He was studying the spectrum of a variable star, it's doing some very odd things, but never mind that, he'd got it nicely in the middle of the spectrometer, and just as he was starting to collect data it stopped reporting anything. He thought the equipment had failed on him, and then he realised that there's been an occultation.”
“An occultation?” Prince Albert wasn't familiar with the term, and it didn't sound like a positive one.
“Something went in front of his star, hiding it from view.”
“Oh. The asteroid?”
“It would be reasonable to presume so. There was nothing in the catalogues that should have been there, and it was too long for an untracked piece of space debris.”
“Thank you, Dr. So, the object is aiming at the Earth?”
“Just about, sir. It's not aiming at the centre of the planet, you understand, and there's a considerable degree of uncertainty, even with this data point. I urm, hope that I've not broken any laws. It just sort of slipped out when I was talking to him.”
“What `just sort of slipped out?'”
“Well, sir, I told him I'd been given a commission to look into what had happened to that asteroid, sir. But he realised that my search area was too small to be a general search so he asked what my other data-point was...”
“And you told him an Earth impact on Valentine's day?”
“I'm sorry, sir, I told him that the authorities were concerned about a prophesy. He can easily work out when it's due.”
“I'd like to politely ask him not to pass it on, and I'd like to know your colleague's name and present location. It shouldn't go further.”
“Certainly, sir.” He wrote them down on a piece of paper (it seemed Dr Green liked low technology for some things) and handed it to the prince. “Urm, he's not actually in this country, and, urm, perhaps it wasn't wise of me...”
“Between you you've published the orbit?”
“I didn't mean to, sir, but it's part of the system. I submitted the query through the normal system we use to check observations or predictions. A confirmation result, which his was, automatically refines the orbit, and highlights it as worth further study, especially as it's on Earth-approach. Everyone on the Space Guard list will have got a message, sir. I'm sorry if this was supposed to be a secret. There will be a lot of telescopes pointing at it over the next few days, trying to reduce the error ellipse.”
“I presume you didn't enter the asteroid with a datapoint of it hitting the Earth?”
“No, sir, I put in the original position, and a vector which I could have worked out from the original report. I'm quite proud that I managed it in such a short time, actually. It should be embarrassing to someone — it looks like they didn't account for the ejection of the space tug properly.”
“You mean that the data was actually there in the original report?”
“Yes, sir, well, almost. There were some frames from after the explosion and there was a minuscule dot near the asteroid which could have been part of the sheepdog. They'd got the track of the part that went off quickly, and they'd assumed that the whole dog went off on that vector, but with your date for the impact, I discovered that if I revised the mass ejected then I could get it to miss Jupiter and impact here. It turns out to have been half the dog.”
“So, you do actually have a plausible story for the press.”
“The press?” Dr Green felt a little like the ground was about to open under him.
“When they come to ask how you found this doomsday rock.”
“Pardon?”
“Dr Green, if the prophecy is correct, you've just published data that will alert the planet for the first impact that Space Guard has had to deal with. You spoke of an error ellipse. How big is it?”
“It's roughly twice the size of the Moon's orbit at the moment, but it's centred half way out from the Earth's centre to its limb.”
“By limb, you mean the Earth's edge?”
“Yes, sir.”
“So, at the moment the Earth is in the cross-hairs, but there's a lot of uncertainty in your calculations.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“So, the press probably won't come knocking quite yet. Security will send someone to help you practice your story. I think that a scientific discovery will be less threatening to people than hearing that God says a city is probably doomed, don't you? And we don't need to make the public panic, do we, Dr Green?”
“No, Sir, not at all, Sir.”
“Do you believe in God, Dr Green?”
“Urm, I had wanted to weigh the evidence myself, but I've never taken the time.”
“I suggest that you might want to, Dr Green. Or take someone else's word for it. The evidence is far more reliable than your current error ellipse. I will be encouraging my father to plan for the evacuation of the relevant city. I only hope your colleagues can refine the orbit quickly enough. If we have to tell people that God says we're the target, they might choose to ignore us. I'd rather not be callous enough to say it serves them right for not having any faith. Goodbye, Dr Green.”
“Goodbye, Sir.” Dr Green quickly called his friend. He hoped that he hadn't passed on the information about the prophesy.
----------------------------------------
As the prince left the office he was already starting to call Maria.
“Maria, Albert here. A slight situation, which needs a cover story-crafter.” He explained where he was, and what had happened.
“He did what?”
“My fault partly, I didn't actually tell him not to publish anything, I just asked him where to point the telescopes. He'd gone beyond what I asked for and had worked out how the thing got on its present orbit and put it up for confirmation, just like he normally would. Someone called back immediately. It had gone in front of a star he'd just happened to be observing. But he was curious, as you might imagine. He told him what his second data point was — Earth impact on Valentine's day.”
“So, there's a scientist with a loose tongue but a somewhat credible cover story, and a colleague where?”
He told her. “Really? Well, it's a good thing we're on good terms with the president. It just depends on who he's passed it on to.”
“I'll leave it in your capable hands.”
“Thank you, your Highness, I need to act quickly on this, I think.”
Maria dropped that connection and called her husband.
“Hi, love, there's a drip I'd like you to patch up quickly if possible,” Maria said, speaking in their mutual shorthand. Drips were a sort of leak — they made a messy splash, possibly all over the news media.
“Anything for you, my love. I take it that it's landed here?”
“The real splash will be if it lands back here. The good news is that someone there has a confirmation on our Valentine's day delivery, the bad news is that the professor here was so excited that his tongue got carried away.”
“Oh. So someone here knows why he was asked to look?”
“Part of it. The professor wasn't that informative, but he knows there's a prophesy which has us worried.”
“Well, I'll have a talk to the President.”
“Please do.”
----------------------------------------
“Mr President, I have an embarrassing favour to ask you.”
“Yes, my friend, I'm all ears.”
“It seems that an academic in my home country was told a certain piece of information, and accidentally his tongue ran away with him and he told it to his colleague here. I believe it would cause great... public concern in my home country were it to become common knowledge all of a sudden.”
“Oh, a scandal! Do tell me more!”
“Of course, my friend, but if you'll give me permission, I'd like to first talk to the respected academic, to ensure that he understands the situation.”
“There would be a representative of our government there, of course.”
“Of course. I would prefer it not to seem that we are threatening this honourable scientist.”
“Certainly. And it would be of great embarrassment to your government if it were to be known?”
“Not embarrassment so much as panic, if the news comes too quickly.”
“Ah? Then perhaps the matter has already crossed my desk, and is at the forefront of my mind.”
“Really? If so then news has indeed travelled fast.”
“It is to do with the Space Guard alert?”
“Yes, Mr President, it is indeed.”
“You know that at the moment the predicted target is our beautiful country?”
“No! No, I did not know where the scientists are predicting, but I know that several people have had dreams sent by God that there will be a ruined city, and at least one is convinced that the city is her home town - in my nation.”
“Ah, and the one who knows all is a better source of such knowledge than scientists who guess at much.”
“I think we have seen that repeatedly, my friend, although there is always the hope that God might be merciful.”
“If it is his will, he will be.”
“Indeed. But you have spoken to this scientist?”
“He knew that young Adam had Deborah's heart, and that my cousin has my ear. He heard there had been the prophesy, and saw where it was aimed from his data, so he talked to Adam.”
“Ah, that was a hard message to carry. There will be relief, I am sure, to hear that the impact is not in this beautiful land.”
“Yes, but it is sad to hear it will be in your own land.”
“It is a long time since we have rebuilt a city, but we have the resources. You unfortunately have the experience, and because of that less resources, I believe.”
“I think you are right in this, my friend, though it will be a painful task. Go to the university! Adam and Deborah will meet you there and take you to the scientist. He has been warned not to speak words that will cause panic, but all will be relieved to hear your message.”
“I thank you, my friend.”
“I thank you. You have removed a great care from my mind.”
----------------------------------------
9AM, THURSDAY 23RD NOVEMBER, THE PALACE
The Royal Emergency Committe (TREC) did not meet very often. When it did, there was a serious problem, and so there was little time for pleasantries. The committee meeting had been called in a simple message: “TREC meeting, 9am tomorrow, the Palace. Be there.” One person, the minister for religious affairs, was particularly surprised to get the royal command. He knew his king had embraced atheism, roughly at the time his wife had turned to Christ, and hoped this wasn't something to do with their marriage.
The King spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen of TREC, Valentine's Day, next year, is the date that Space Guard will remember. Either as the day they justified their existence or failed, depending on your point of view.”
The science minister raised his hand to speak, and the King acknowledged him. “I have read the alerts, your Majesty. There's an enormous error ellipse.”
“That is true, minister. If you glance at this briefing document you'll see
that there is other information that Space Guard and the press do not have. My son and I disagree on the ultimate source of that data, but it is there, and we need to reckon with it, and given the severity of the emergency, we need to take it seriously.”
The prince added, “I will point out that the reason, the only reason, that Space Guard located the asteroid is that I asked Dr Green
to work out where that asteroid would be now if it was going to hit us on Valentine's day, given that it had failed to impact Jupiter like everyone had predicted a decade ago. Publicly, for the moment at least, we allow Dr Green and Space Guard to continue to claim to have found the asteroid. Dr Green and another member of Space Guard who he unfortunately blabbed to know the truth. This discovery is not to be attributed to human genious, but to divine intervention.”
The King made a snort of disagreement to the word divine, but the prince continued: “We propose to let the public gradually become aware that there is a growing risk of an impact, while we plan, knowing that there will be one, unless God has mercy on us.”
The minster for religious affairs spoke up: “Sir, I understand why I'm here now, but, should the credit not go to God right from the start?”
The King spoke: “This is one aspect we're struggling with at this meeting. Would the fact that this information originated through scary dreams be something that would encourage the people to listen, or a distraction, something people would argue against? Would it help or hinder efforts to evacuate the city? Personally I don't acknowledge the being my son attributes the information to, but prefer to think there is a naturalistic explanation. But that's not relevant for the moment. The important issue is what would the public think? Would the truth cause confusion?”
The religious affairs minister said thoughtfully, “If the error ellipse from SpaceGuard does not shrink sufficiently rapidly, then I think it will be difficult to convince people that we know something that SpaceGuard do not. In that case, evacuation could be very difficult. On the other hand, if we tell them right from the start that God told us something in a dream, there will be many who will laugh and pay no attention. And they would possibly doubt the science if it supports the dream, when they would not if it was just the scientists speaking; some people are like that. I myself would prefer complete honesty, and then maybe the nation will pray and God will relent.”
The defence minister spoke up “Your Highness has said that the discovery was made on the basis of dreams. How certain are we that their purpose has not now passed? Can we not leave it in the hands of the scientists to tell us where the rock will land? Trajectory prediction is not exactly a modern invention.”
“Madam Minister, there are some dreams that suggest there are decisions we must take, or attempts that we might make which will prove fruitless. It is not certain that the error ellipse will be sufficiently small to prompt the complete evacuation of a city in the time that that takes. There are, I admit, some dreams that suggest the outcome is not one hundred percent certain. And some other dreams, whose significance is not understood.”
The science minister was confused about something. “You speak as though there were a large number of these dreams.”
“Appendix one of the briefing document lists the dreams and their number.
If any of you can cast light on the less clear dreams, that would be most helpful. The dreams were experienced by a teenage girl twice a week — on Friday and Saturday nights — over the period of a year.”
The finance minister objected “These numbers are the count of dreams? They add up to several hundred, not just one hundred.”
“Most nights she had three of these dreams. They terrified her, and her mother recorded them at the medic's request. We therefore only have the final eight or maybe nine months' worth.”
“And this girl is the only source of this data?” asked the minister for science.
“No,” the King said. “A year ago I had a dream in which I saw a destroyed city, and knew it was Valentine's day. More recently another person had a similar experience. The details are from the young woman's dreams, however. She has also told us where she believes the impact point will be — Restoration.”
There was a pause as the ministers absorbed that piece of information, and flicked through the briefing document.
The King changed the subject to more practical matters “So Gentlemen, Ladies, assuming that all above surface buildings are reduced to rubble, and with no data about anything below ground yet, we need a list of national treasures that need to be moved or protected, and somewhere to put them. We need to move prisoners in a not-too conspicuous manner, so that they're moved long before the civilians have to evacuate. We need a timetable for the evacuation, and destinations for the population who don't have friends or family they can move to. If possible, we'll want people to be able to move as many personal effects as they can, so that they don't have to totally rebuild their lives. But that takes time and of course there needs to be a secure area to store their possessions in. We'll have to set a limit on how much space we can provide. A cubic metre for half a million people only makes a square kilometre, even without stacking and some space between them, so hopefully we can let them take at least that much. Closer to ten cubic metres would be better by far. Minister for transport, will you find out how many shipping containers might be available, for delivery by the start of February? I think that would suit
an average family quite well. Let's say a family gets a container, adults share one between four. Now, we don't
want this to be happening in the last week, Gentlemen. The roads would be clogged, accidents would happen. Minister for planning and development, assume we're going to need to house three quarters of the city, in about two months. Winter's coming and I understand it's hard work to build an emergency city when the ground is frozen.
Make it possible. Finance minister, this won't come cheap, put all departments on a war footing, immediately. Nothing gets spent which doesn't need to be. This project has priority over ministerial salaries, even. And whatever you do, stop any renovation or infrastructure works going on there, immediately. It'd be a total waste. The builders will have other work to do. Minister for science, find out when the error ellipse is going to shrink to something useful. Otherwise we'll have to listen to the religious minister.”
That gentleman spoke up. “Respectfully sir, It will be a lot easier to explain this if we did tell the people as soon as possible.”
“Of course it would. It would also increase certainty that I've gone mad. Now, minister for defence. You have your target and your missiles, Mars teraforming have information we need about what it's made of. Bring me feasible options to let life in my realm go on unaffected.”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Justice minister, the prisoner transfers, as soon as possible. Find a good excuse and get them moved by a week's time. While they're doing that, I want some laws to sign. The right to industrial action is suspended, conscription into construction teams and evacuation forces if necessary. Emergency legislation for the temporary confiscation of lands if necessary — work with the planning minister on that. Some suitable penalty for theft or looting. We want to keep law and order and not have a riot on our hands. Planning minister, you need to find me somewhere to put these people and their possessions. Good road transport links are a must, of course, and something like a hundred kilometres from the city, just in case. I don't want our temporary city knocked down by the same impact, but the lorries are going to be busy, so keep the distance within reason. Preferably land that's already in government or crown hands.”
“Minister for religious affairs,” the prince added “whatever is publicly stated, this should be prayed about. Prepare a circular for all churches and I guess other religious groups since we're not supposed to show too much partiality. Nothing specific beyond what's officially released, of course. Father, if you don't release at least some information about the dreams, none of the specific measures will make much sense.”
“I'll look a fool.” the king moaned.
“I don't mind looking a fool, Father, if that's what it takes to save lives.”
The queen, who'd been silent all this time said “That is indeed the question. Will we save lives by maintaining this fiction, by misleading the people, or will the truth hurt people too much? And if the truth comes out later, will the people be comforted that we were acting on secret knowledge, or will they be distrustful that we've hidden things from them? Which is the best, not for us, but for our country? And I also wonder two more things. One is how certain are we really that the city is the one we believe it to be? The other is that this girl's dreams showed people praying and the asteroid missing. Are we going to act upon that, or will we let the opportunity pass?”
The king dismissed his wife's last question from his mind and focussed on the first. How certain were they? It was such a vital question.
“How did we not address this earlier?” he asked his wife and son.
“I guess that we were not as sure as we are now that anything was coming.”
the queen answered. “But now we are sure, and we do not know how certain we can be of the exact target.”
“How can we be sure? Father, were there any geographical landmarks you might recognise in your dream?”
“It was a year ago! And I wasn't looking at the landscape.”
The queen spoke decisively: “Then we must ask the experts to help us once more.”
“The astronomers don't even know it's going to hit Earth yet.” the prince said derisively.
“I wasn't talking about them. We have met someone who astounded us with her power to know where people were and who they are. I think perhaps the other aspects of their gift can give us some more details.”
“You've talked to one of those mind-readers?” asked the defense minister.
“Yes, minister. I knew that a friend of mine was not at home. The person we talked to was able to tell me which way he was facing in his hotel room, just from me using his nickname. I am sure that was not the limit of her power.
“And you can contact this woman again, Highness? And they could examine the girl's memories?”
The queen answered. “I'm sure that we could. We asked her about this, and she agreed it was possible, but she stated that the problem is that human memory is not perfect. That is the issue. And the memories we are discussing are from a long time ago.”
The king spoke. “There is another witness. If their memory and mine coincide, and match a location, then I think we can be very sure. Albert, you're in charge of getting all the relevant people together, A.S.A.P.”
“Yes, Father.” He left the meeting.
The king continued. “Gentlemen, Ladies, we will keep you briefed. For the moment, I suggest that we broaden the scope of my earlier orders. Let's find all suitable sites, and postpone all works that cannot wait. Get the builders to train up in rapid building techniques instead. If it hits, we'll need a lot of houses for people, if it doesn't, then we don't, and that many temporary houses would be a major problem unless we can ship them to some other disaster area. So, I suggest either tents, or if we can get enough shipping containers then people can live in them for a while, I presume. But we'll want to be able to rebuild quickly, very quickly. Camping in February isn't fun. That means very innovative building techniques, maybe someone's got a crazy scheme using sticky paper and forcefields, or something, get them tested and work out if they can do instead of tents, or at least instead of prefabricated buildings. And if we're considering prefabricated designs, then I want something that will fit at least ten on a lorry, have at least two bedrooms a kitchen and a bathroom, and be possible to put together a by a few strong men in a day or two. And we desperately hope that infrastructure like drains and water will survive the devastation. The meeting is over, unless there are any questions?”
The minister for religions affairs plucked up his courage and asked: “May we pray, sir?”
Standing up, the King said, “You may stay and pray, minister, and any others of you feeling the need for that sort of support. I will not be joining you.” With that, he left. About half of the others present followed his lead.
“His majesty would not value your prayers, my friends,” the queen said as the last closed the door, “but I would value your prayers for my husband.”