Forever Magazine Issue 65 by Harry Turtledove & E. J. Swift & An Owomoyela

Author:Harry Turtledove & E. J. Swift & An Owomoyela [Turtledove, Harry & Swift, E. J. & Owomoyela, An]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: magazine, novella, science fiction, Science Fiction - Short Stories, science fiction magazine
Publisher: Wyrm Publishing
Published: 2020-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, December 2005.

Weather Girl

E. J. Swift

Sometimes when she closed her eyes at night she saw spirals, wheeling slowly against the backs of her eyelids, each one its own perfect fractal. She had never told anyone about this phenomenon. It seemed fantastical—hardly worth mentioning, never mind bothering a professional about. But lately, in the moments of not-quite-consciousness before the alarm roused her, she had found that the spirals were still there. As though all through the night they had been present, waiting.

“Morning, Maxwell.”

The security guard glanced up, glanced away.

“Morning, sir.”

As Lia passed through the lobby she clocked other agency employees also averting their eyes. It was a standard reaction, and she was used to it. They called her the weather girl. She couldn’t remember how she had found that out, but the moniker, and her reputation, had evidently stuck.

She took the elevator to the basement and found her team assembled in the incident room. They were already busy with an array of models, and Lia sensed the anticipation amidst murmured exchanges. Something new had come up. She shrugged off her coat and accepted a cup of coffee that had just been brewed.

“All right, what have we got?”

“Early indications, sir.”

A marker on the map indicated the area of tropical disturbance. Lia scanned the nearby coastlines, geopolitical factors slotting into place as she mentally noted each city or port.

“No one else has got this?”

“We’re pretty sure it’s just us.”

“How far are you with the modelling?”

“Bringing it up now.”

She watched as the projected pathways emerged one by one on the map. Her team had outlined a number of potential hit points, the result of complicated equations of global and local weather systems. Each pathway would produce a different ripple effect of infrastructural damage, loss of life, refugee outflow and resultant pressure on the home government and neighbouring countries.

“I’ll be in my office. Send the files across.”

The unit’s strategy was ostensibly simple. A typhoon could not be contained. What could be contained was information about its approach. Data could be masked, or it could be leaked. The decision to mask was dependent upon the relationship with the destination sites, and that was where Lia came in. Was it more beneficial to national security for the typhoon to hit with maximum warning, or with minimal? Would the resulting devastation be advantageous, or damaging? Then there was the unpredictability factor. The complexities of typhoon tracking, and their sometimes unexpected detours. It always came down to a gamble.

Lia reviewed her team’s reports. Usually she found it easy to settle her mind, but today for some reason she felt restless. The facts, Lia, she reminded herself. Just the pertinent facts. At the time of her appointment, she’d had psychological profiling and counselling to ensure she wasn’t a psychopath, that she would not make decisions borne out of bloodlust. They’d felt that was important. She’d felt it was ironic.

So: vulnerability indices.

Population density.

National debt to the governments in question.

And crucially, the latest metrics in the materials war.

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