John Varley by Rolling Thunder

Author:Rolling Thunder
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

PODKAYNE, THE LOST DECADE: YEAR ONE TOP STORY: Grumpy erupts. Like I had guessed, Grumpy didn't just jump, didn't just pop up and then fall back down. That big red bastard had leaped from the ice of Europa and into space. It took up an elliptical orbit around Jupiter, dipping right into the atmosphere three times, where many astronomers ended up with egg on their faces after predicting it would burn up and be swallowed like a strawberry gumdrop in a whale's belly. Instead, it seemed to thrive on the heat and friction, accelerating and finally leaving the area altogether, followed by a whole fleet of Martian Navy vessels.

Taliesen was a shambles. Forward Base and the NEMO station vanished, crushed by the waves of broken ice. Main Base sank. Only the crew at the ELF Base managed to escape with their lives. I watched some satellite video taken of the event, then had to pause it while I cried. All those people. Captain Scott, Dr. Land, Captain Stone...

Could they be alive? For now, they were simply listed as "overdue," like the NEMO sub October.

When I started the video again I was startled to see Bus 54, a shiny steel bug, crawling over the ice. Resolution was not quite good enough to see faces in the windows, but it gave me a bad turn, let me tell you. I saw the ice wave hurl us into the sky, watched us flip over and over until the camera lost us.

Clarke Centre had had time to batten down a bit, but still suffered damage. Twenty-seven people died and about a hundred were injured.

Normally I would have googled a casualty list, but this was oldfashioned TV, noninteractive. I thought of all my friends there. Stupidly, I thought of Kahlua, the cat who had adopted me. Were they okay? I'd find out later, in carefully measured doses. All nonessential personnel were evacuated from Europa to Ganymede and Callisto, leaving only combat troops and scientific observers.

POLITICAL NEWS: Not worth mentioning. Some new leaders on Earth, same as the old ones. Same old hatreds brewing, some of them centuries old. Nobody got nuked, which made it a good year for the Earth.

CULTURAL NEWS: The usual celebrity divorces and custody squabbles.

Blah, blah, blah. A lot of blockbuster movies I wouldn't want to see.

Some people won Oscars, and most people probably had already forgotten who they were.

Oddly, there was no news of the top downloads. I called Maimuna, and she said I'd just have to trust her. She recommended I listen to oldies, which I could call up on my room memory. So I did a little of that, and drifted off to sleep.

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