Weir, Andy - Project Hail Mary by Weir Andy
Author:Weir, Andy [Weir, Andy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC
Published: 2021-05-04T00:00:00+00:00
* * *
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For once, an aircraft carrier was the perfect place to be.
The Chinese Navy didnât even question Strattâs orders anymore. The higher-ups got sick of approving every action and finally just issued a general order to do whatever she said as long as it didnât involve firing weapons.
We anchored off the coast of western Antarctica in the dead of night. The coastline sat in the extreme distance, visible only by moonlight. The entire continent had been evacuated of humans. Probably an overreactionâthe AmundsenâScott South Pole Station was 1,500 kilometers away. The people there would have been just fine. Still, no reason to take chances.
It was the largest naval exclusion zone in history. So big, even the U.S. Navy had to stretch itself thin to make sure no commercial ships entered the area.
Stratt spoke into a walkie-talkie. âDestroyer One, confirm observation status.â
âReady,â came an American accent.
âDestroyer Two, confirm observation status.â
âReady,â came a different Americanâs voice.
The scientific team stood together on the carrierâs flight deck, staring toward land. Dimitri and Lokken hung back away from the edge. Redell was off in Africa running the blackpanel farm.
And of course Stratt stood slightly ahead of everyone else.
Leclerc looked for all the world like a man being led to the gallows. âWeâre almost ready,â he said with a sigh.
Stratt clicked on her walkie-talkie again. âSubmarine One, confirm observation status.â
âReady,â came the response.
Leclerc checked his tablet. âThree minutesâ¦mark.â
âAll ships: We are at Condition Yellow,â Stratt said into her radio. âRepeat: Condition Yellow. Submarine Two, confirm observation status.â
âReady.â
I stood next to Leclerc. âThis is unbelievable,â I said.
He shook his head. âI wish to God this wasnât on my shoulders.â He fiddled with his tablet. âYou know, Dr. Grace, I have spent my entire life as an unapologetic hippie. From my childhood in Lyon to my university days in Paris. I am a tree-hugging antiwar throwback to a bygone era of protest politics.â
I didnât say anything. He was having the worst day of his life. If I could help by just listening, Iâd do it.
âI became a climatologist to help save the world. To stop the nightmarish environmental catastrophe we were sinking ourselves into. And nowâ¦this. Itâs necessary, but horrible. As a scientist yourself, Iâm sure you understand.â
âNot really,â I said. âI spent my whole scientific career looking away from Earth, not toward it. Iâm embarrassingly weak on climate science.â
âMm,â he said. âWestern Antarctica is a roiling mass of ice and snow. This whole region is a giant glacier, slowly marching to the sea. There are hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of ice here.â
âAnd weâre going to melt it?â
âThe sea will melt it for us, but yes. Thing is, Antarctica used to be a jungle. For millions of years it was as lush as Africa. But continental drift and natural climate change froze it over. All those plants died and decomposed. The gases from that decompositionâmost notably methaneâgot trapped in the ice.â
âAnd methaneâs a pretty powerful greenhouse gas,â I said.
He nodded. âFar more powerful than carbon dioxide.
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