the bottleneck years
illconsidered | January 16, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 73
Table of Contents
Chapter 75
Chapter 74
Waiting, September 18, 2059
I went back to the university and sat in my office. Luckily I didn't have any more classes that day. I tried to work, but it was no use. I ended up scanning half a dozen news channels looking for information about the sunshield and the rockets.
Finally I felt so useless, I headed back home. That meant I was offline for 35 or 40 minutes while I walked. I could have monitored the net with my padd, but I have always tried to pay attention to the real world around me: Be here…
illconsidered | January 14, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 72
Table of Contents
Chapter 74
Chapter 73
Sabotage, September 15, 2059
Anna was coming up on her fourth birthday when the rumblings of discontent from the Asian Union began to get louder. A mid-August snow in Japan had laid waste much of their fall crop. China was complaining about a loss of solar photovoltaic power.
Shortly after the Japanese snowstorm, Carillon admitted that there were some kinks in the system that needed to be worked out. The idea had been to keep the sunshields shading the northern hemisphere and have them switch…
illconsidered | January 10, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 71
Table of Contents
Chapter 73
Chapter 72
No Miracles, April 30, 2059
All that winter and spring, the sunshield count slowly increased. We passed 3,000, but nothing changed on Earth. Methane levels were still rising. Drought, flood and fire were constant. Grain reserves were less than a week, and some challenged those statistics, claiming they were just to make us feel good.
The demand went out for more sunshields. Brahmaputra got more money. That meant more factories and railguns to be built on the moon. Some 150 people in Hipparcus were…
illconsidered | December 19, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 70
Table of Contents
Chapter 72
Chapter 71
Decision Point, February 23, 2059
At UNGETF things were getting worse. Our Earthside measures were not working. Methane and carbon dioxide levels were still rising. There were a lot of grim faces around.
I put those concerns aside and turned my attention to Matt's sunbugs. Matt's multimedia files required an advanced and expensive Fraunhoeffer chemical synthesizer which the university did not have. A quick web check showed why. They cost over 5 million credits. I began to appreciate how Matt's money…
illconsidered | December 11, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 69
Table of Contents
Chapter 71
Chapter 70
Sunbugs, February 12, 2058
We adjusted slowly to the changes in our household. It felt funny sleeping in dad's old bed. Edie didn't say a word when I got rid of the old mattress and rearranged the room. I think she understood perfectly. The guest room became Anna's new bedroom. She was proud to have her own room, until it came to sleeping alone. It was not unusual to wake up and find her curled up beside us.
My sex life with Olivia had been boisterous and exuberant. With Edie, love making was quieter…
illconsidered | December 4, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 68
Table of Contents
Chapter 70
Chapter 69
Engagement, February 1, 2059
As I walked home from the station, it started to snow --- a wet, big-flaked snow which seemed entirely appropriate. By the time I got home, I was soaked to the skin and shivering uncontrollably.
Edie took one look at me and said, "Jump into a hot shower. I'll get dry clothes for you."
Half an hour later, I was sitting on the couch, bundled up in a comforter, drinking hot toddy and feeling foolish. I started apologizing. "I didn't plan properly. I should have worn warmer…
illconsidered | November 27, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 67
Table of Contents
Chapter 69
Chapter 68
Estrangement, February 1, 2059
I hadn't seen Jon in the flesh for almost three years. I was shocked by how much he had changed. He was harder and smoother somehow, as if he had an invisible barrier just above his skin. Nothing stuck to him. At first I thought it was shock over Matt's death, but there was more to it than that. Jon drifted through the funeral like an alien. He talked, he laughed, he shared old stories, but it was all surface. There was a distance and a calculation in him that made me…
illconsidered | November 22, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 66
Table of Contents
Chapter 68
Chapter 67
The Body, January 18, 2059
I put off planning the funeral because I had no idea when Matt's body was going to arrive. Relations between the North and South American continents are not exactly smooth. You could say that, except for diplomatic and scientific contacts, they are defined by the wall across the ithmus below Mexico. I had to work through ConSec, and that meant Carman.
This was a difficult period for me. It was xmas and I was far from seasonally happy. My thoughts seemed always to come back…
illconsidered | November 6, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 64
Table of Contents
Chapter 66
Chapter 65
Matthew Fontaine, December 11, 2058
Over the course of that summer and fall, the number of sunshades slowly increased. It became part of the weather report. "And today the sunshade count is ..." On clear days the sun was too bright, but on cloudy days the smudge on the side of the sun was easily discernible.
One morning in early December, I had the radio on during the usual rush to get ready and they mentioned a food riot in Brazil. As ususal I wondered if Matt were still in South America, but didn't…
illconsidered | October 31, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 63
Table of Contents
Chapter 65
Chapter 64
The Eclipse Machine, September 7, 2058
I woke up early from a bad dream. My father was talking about the animals of the north that were disappearing --- caribou, muskox and bears. Then I was a bearman breaking into a shack. Some guy was shooting at me. I woke up with a start, when a bullet hit me in the shoulder.
I lay in bed totally still --- listening. The house was quiet. The clock read 5:13 and there was no way I was going back to sleep. With a sigh I rolled out of bed and into the washroom.
It's…
illconsidered | October 23, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 62
Table of Contents
Chapter 64
The Atlas, August 16, 2058
When I got home today, the Electronic Atlas was sitting on the kitchen table. The Atlas was one of six prototype devices for a project a business buddy of Matt's had abandoned. It was a thin display surface half a meter square in the centre of which was a slowly rotating image of the Earth.
If you touched any part of the planet, it would get larger. You could flip through different views: topographical, political, meteorological, agricultural and so on. More detailed statistics on…
illconsidered | October 16, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 61
Table of Contents
Chapter 63
Chapter 62
Baumgarten, July 2, 2058
I got another late night call from Rhamaposa. He looked terrible --- shaken and drawn out.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"I did a tour across the Sahel." He shook his head and shuddered.
"Oh."
He grimaced. "Starving cattle. Dead children. What a time to be in a dry country!"
"Where are you now?"
"Djibouti."
I looked at him in surprise. I wasn't aware that UNGETF had any official contact with the Caliphate.
"The Arab Democratic Union asked me to update them on our projects…
illconsidered | October 10, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 60
Table of Contents
Chapter 62
Chapter 61
Crystal Jellies, March 19, 2058
The first time I saw a telescopic view of the L1 sunshades, I remembered standing in an aquarium watching crystal jellyfish. These tiny, delicate creatures were so beautiful I could scarce believe such miracles existed. I was transported. For a second, I was back watching those fluttering pink mauve miracles, but I wasn't. It was a swarm of sunshades illuminated by brilliant sunlight. Here and there, the deep blue of an ion drive could be seen.
I thought of the…
illconsidered | October 2, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 59
Table of Contents
Chapter 61
Chapter 60
L1 Roustabouts, February 15, 2058
The L1 crew were not like the moon colonists. They were cowboys. We didn't get up-close and web-personal with them. The corporate imagery around them played up rugged individualism and avoided any mention of colonization. They were all young men, no women, no families. Anytime we saw them they were sparring, jousting and joking with each other in good natured bonhomie. Or acting like boy scouts. It was all completely phony.
Arguably what the L1 astronauts were doing…
illconsidered | September 26, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 58
Table of Contents
Chapter 60
Chapter 59
Asteroid Disaster January 27, 2058
Last week I got a late night call from Rhamaposa. He was stone cold sober and didn't waste time with preliminaries.
"We've lost contact with the Daedalus group."
"What happened?"
"We're not sure. We're waiting for the 24 hour summary."
Because of the distance and the danger involved, UNGETF had insisted on an automated video summary which would be transmitted by the computer every 24 hours. It was basically a compressed stop-frame video record. The algorithm tracked…
illconsidered | September 18, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 57
Table of Contents
Chapter 59
Chapter 58
Ecology 110 - Water Vapour, January 6, 2058
Occasionally I am caught flat-footed by questions from students. It is one of the hidden benefits of teaching --- being kept on your toes. Theories of education differ, but generally I aim for the broad middle band. I know there are some impatient, high percentile types who think my lectures slow and pedantic. Just as there is a segment of determined plodders who get through more by hard work than brainpower. Between them ranges the middle group who will…
illconsidered | September 13, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 56
Table of Contents
Chapter 58
Chapter 57
Moonchild, December 11, 2057
The moon consists primarily of iron, aluminum, silicon and manganese, with some calcium and oxygen. Some areas have concentrations of titanium. That was why the Hipparcus crater had been chosen.
Once the smelter was set up and they had full power, the mining began in earnest. It was all open pit. They used a large wheeled dragger to scoop up the material. They wanted aluminum and titanium. The lack of free oxygen on the moon made steel production problematic, but aluminum…
illconsidered | September 5, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 55
Table of Contents
Chapter 57
Chapter 56
Petrov, October 19, 2057
The Daedalus reached Petrov in late September. On the internet a coterie of space enthusiasts and the climate concerned had followed their reports religiously, but until then there was little coverage in the corporate media. For twenty-four hours they were media stars again. The trip had been uneventful, which in the tech-besotted, bloodless language of the space agencies and corporations meant there were no major accidents and nobody died.
The asteroid was less than a…
illconsidered | August 28, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 54
Table of Contents
Chapter 56
Chapter 55
Spacemen, September 11, 2057
From my vantage point in UNGETF, I was able to monitor the activities of the various groups. All year, I heard about rocket launches, mostly by the Swiss-German consortium Brahmaputra, but the odd one was by the L1 construction group Carillon. The Group 6 cloudmakers had their first batch of ships sailing for Antarctica. More of the old tankers were being refurbished weekly. The target number of vessels for north and south had been raised to 600. Sometimes when things don…
illconsidered | August 22, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 53
Table of Contents
Chapter 55
Chapter 54
Greenhouse, May 31, 2057
Things were not looking good. At UNGETF, we were all too aware of of the unfolding disasters. The storms and wildfires, the floods and droughts were bad enough, but food production was down again. The methane levels kept rising. Nothing we were doing seemed to have any effect.
I left the meeting with a heavy heart. As I headed for home, it was already hot. This was May. When spring starts in February, the season seems to go on forever. Calling April the cruellest month seemed…