Read Online The Lowest Heaven by Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Sophia McDougall, Kaaron Warren, E.J. Swift, Kameron Hurley - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Alastair Reynolds, Adam Roberts, Sophia McDougall, Kaaron Warren, E.J. Swift, Kameron Hurley
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“So they just keep all their cash in their houses,” Griffith continued. “And I know one where it’s just a rich old man living by himself. Richest old man in the area, apparently. So we get ourselves an alibi – I already got one cooked up – and we zip over. Grab the cash, get back to Helios, and take the very next transport out.”
That morning, over their pancakes, the two went over the plan for the last time.
“New Tahiti by tomorrow?” Sloane asked.
“New Tahiti by tomorrow,” he said. “Only, baby, no witnesses.”
Sloane shrugged.
Jen and Hershel made their separate ways home that night. Jen spent the afternoon studying for a calculus final with a friend in the school library, and Hershel hitched a ride home with a teammate on the school’s varsity baseball team. Jen finished late, and her friend tried to talk her into staying in Riccioli for the evening, but Jen’s father had called earlier to say a promisingly large envelope had come for her from another college, and Jen wanted to get home and open it. Her friend, who had known Jen since the fifth grade, would never forgive herself for not insisting that Jen spend the night. But Jen insisted, and took the bus back to Hartmann where she was given a lift home by Mychael Ticoe, a family acquaintance who happened to be passing by when Jen stepped off the bus. He drove them slowly along the darkened avenue of plane trees, wary of hitting rabbits or deer, and dropped Jen off in front of the house – waiting until she opened the door and waved at him before putting his car into reverse and driving away. He recalled nothing unusual about the house. It was ten thirty.
At about 2.30 am, the small hours of Friday, November ninth, Alvin Go got up to use the bathroom. Go lived in a cabin approximately two kilometers to the east from Blackacre, down a long, tree–lined drive. He remembered well that the dark living room of his cabin was lit with a soft greenish light, that he looked out the window at the pale glow coming from the west and wondered at it. “There were no clouds in the sky,” he said later. “But I didn’t think too hard about that. I was glad I was awake to see it. I just thought it was the ashen light.”
II
That Friday, the ninth of November, 2519, was another gloriously bright day on the high plains of Ishtar Terra. Before the activation of the dynamo in 2392, Venus had the slowest rotation period of any planet in the solar system. A Venusian day lasted two hundred and forty–three Earth days, nearly twenty days longer than the time it took to complete an orbit around the sun. Activating Venus’ dynamo required solidifying some portion of the entirely liquid core of the planet, and restarting the convection of liquid iron from the core to the surface – the geodynamo – and the creation of an artificial atmosphere – the Overdome. Activation, it was proposed, would speed up the planet’s rotation, creating not just shorter days but, eventually, a self–sustaining atmosphere. Twenty–five years after activation, Venus’ rotation period was a quarter of what it had been: approximately sixty Earth days. The Overdome was programmed to simulate a conventional Earth sidereal day of about twenty–four hours, but some concession to Venus’ unique rotational properties, it was felt, must be maintained. Venus is the only planet in the solar system to rotate in a clockwise direction, so that, to a person standing on the planet’s surface, the sun appears to rise in the west and set in the east. The Overdome was, therefore, set to mimic the same pattern; on Venus, now as then, the sun appears to rise in the west and sets in the east.
The Keck children were not standing outside waiting when the Goyas pulled up to the family farm at 6.50 am, on Friday the ninth of November. It was early, and the shadows the farmhouse cast were long, stretching east across the gold and brown fields. Alia hopped out and rang the doorbell several times,
That morning, over their pancakes, the two went over the plan for the last time.
“New Tahiti by tomorrow?” Sloane asked.
“New Tahiti by tomorrow,” he said. “Only, baby, no witnesses.”
Sloane shrugged.
Jen and Hershel made their separate ways home that night. Jen spent the afternoon studying for a calculus final with a friend in the school library, and Hershel hitched a ride home with a teammate on the school’s varsity baseball team. Jen finished late, and her friend tried to talk her into staying in Riccioli for the evening, but Jen’s father had called earlier to say a promisingly large envelope had come for her from another college, and Jen wanted to get home and open it. Her friend, who had known Jen since the fifth grade, would never forgive herself for not insisting that Jen spend the night. But Jen insisted, and took the bus back to Hartmann where she was given a lift home by Mychael Ticoe, a family acquaintance who happened to be passing by when Jen stepped off the bus. He drove them slowly along the darkened avenue of plane trees, wary of hitting rabbits or deer, and dropped Jen off in front of the house – waiting until she opened the door and waved at him before putting his car into reverse and driving away. He recalled nothing unusual about the house. It was ten thirty.
At about 2.30 am, the small hours of Friday, November ninth, Alvin Go got up to use the bathroom. Go lived in a cabin approximately two kilometers to the east from Blackacre, down a long, tree–lined drive. He remembered well that the dark living room of his cabin was lit with a soft greenish light, that he looked out the window at the pale glow coming from the west and wondered at it. “There were no clouds in the sky,” he said later. “But I didn’t think too hard about that. I was glad I was awake to see it. I just thought it was the ashen light.”
II
That Friday, the ninth of November, 2519, was another gloriously bright day on the high plains of Ishtar Terra. Before the activation of the dynamo in 2392, Venus had the slowest rotation period of any planet in the solar system. A Venusian day lasted two hundred and forty–three Earth days, nearly twenty days longer than the time it took to complete an orbit around the sun. Activating Venus’ dynamo required solidifying some portion of the entirely liquid core of the planet, and restarting the convection of liquid iron from the core to the surface – the geodynamo – and the creation of an artificial atmosphere – the Overdome. Activation, it was proposed, would speed up the planet’s rotation, creating not just shorter days but, eventually, a self–sustaining atmosphere. Twenty–five years after activation, Venus’ rotation period was a quarter of what it had been: approximately sixty Earth days. The Overdome was programmed to simulate a conventional Earth sidereal day of about twenty–four hours, but some concession to Venus’ unique rotational properties, it was felt, must be maintained. Venus is the only planet in the solar system to rotate in a clockwise direction, so that, to a person standing on the planet’s surface, the sun appears to rise in the west and set in the east. The Overdome was, therefore, set to mimic the same pattern; on Venus, now as then, the sun appears to rise in the west and sets in the east.
The Keck children were not standing outside waiting when the Goyas pulled up to the family farm at 6.50 am, on Friday the ninth of November. It was early, and the shadows the farmhouse cast were long, stretching east across the gold and brown fields. Alia hopped out and rang the doorbell several times,
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