Further ahead, even more drastic changes were to come. Since its formation the planet had been steadily cooling, and the flow of heat from its interior had driven the mantle currents on which the continents rode. Now the Discontinuity had caused disturbances in the deep strange weather of Mirs liquid interior. Eventually a new pattern of currents would settle into placebut for now it was as if a vast lid had been clamped on a boiling pan.
Beneath the hearts of the continents the mantle material had begun to swell and rise. Earth had never been perfectly spherical anyhow. Now Mir was growing bulges, like lumps of mud stuck to the side of a spinning top. In time the crust and upper mantle would shear off the planets core, and the deformed planet would seek a new stability by shifting the lumps away from the axis of rotation. As the major continents slid to the equator, ocean currents would be altered again, sea levels raised or lowered by hundreds of meters, dramatic climate changes induced.
In Mirs long chthonic annealing there would be difficult times for the planets cargo of life. But people were mobile. The citizens of Chicago were already preparing for a vast migration south. Many humans would survive.
As would the man-apes.
Grasper was not as she had been before her inspection by the Eye. The probing of her body and mind had been meant only to record her capabilities, to note her place in the great spectrum of possibilities that was life on this blue world. But Grasper was very young, and the machinery that had studied her was very old, and no longer quite so perfect as it had once been. The probing had been clumsy. Graspers half-formed mind had been stirred.
This patched-together world would be dominated for a long time by the humans, there could be no doubt about that. But even they could not defy the ice. On a shifting, dangerous world there was plenty of empty space to explore. Plenty of room for a creature with potential. And there was no particular reason why that potential had to be realized exactly as it had been before. There was room on Mir for something different. Something better, perhaps.
Grasper hefted the heavy stone in her hand, and dimly imagined what might be done with it. She was quite without fear. Now she was master of the world, and she was not quite sure what to do next.
But she would think of something.
47. Return
Bisesa gasped, staggered. She was standing.
Music was playing.
She stared at a wall, which showed the magnified image of an impossibly beautiful young man crooning into an old-fashioned microphone. Impossible, yes; he was a synth star, a distillation of the inchoate longings of pre-teen girls. My God, he looks like Alexander the Great. Bisesa could barely take her eyes off the walls moving colors, its brightness. She had never realized how drab and dun-colored Mir had been.
The softwall said, Good morning, Bisesa. This is your regular alarm call. Breakfast is waiting downstairs. The news headlines today are
Shut up. Her voice was a dusty desert croak.
Of course. The synthetic boy sang on softly.
She glanced around. This was her bedroom, in her London apartment. It seemed small, cluttered. The bed was big, soft, not slept in.
She walked to the window. Her military-issue boots were heavy on the carpet, and left footprints of crimson dust. The sky was gray, on the cusp of sunrise, and the skyline of London was emerging from the flatness of silhouette.
Wall.
Bisesa?
Whats the date?
Tuesday.
The date.
Ah. The ninth of June, 2037.
The day after the chopper crash. I should be in Afghanistan.
The softwall coughed. Ive grown used to your sudden changes of plans, Bisesa. I remember once
Mum?
The voice was small, sleepy. Bisesa turned.
She was barefoot, her tummy stuck out, fist rubbing at one eye, hair tousled, a barely awake eight-year-old. She was wearing her favorite pajamas, the ones across which cartoon characters gamboled, even though they were now about two sizes too small for her. You didnt say you were coming home.
Something broke inside Bisesa. She reached out. Oh, Myra
Myra recoiled. You smell funny.
Shocked, Bisesa glanced down at herself. In her orange jumpsuit, scuffed and torn and coated with sweat-soaked sand, she was as out of place in this twenty-first-century flat as if she had been wearing a spacesuit.
She forced a smile. I guess I need a shower. Then well have breakfast, and Ill tell you all about it
The light changed, subtly. She turned to the window. There was an Eye over the city, floating like a barrage balloon. She couldnt tell how far away it was, or how big.
And over the rooftops of London, a baleful sun was rising.