Deception Point Page 72

The President checked out the space for Tench. He had not seen her since before his question and answer session, and she was not here at this point. Odd, he thought. This is her festival as much as it is mine. The news report on TV was wrapping up, laying out once more the White House's quantum political jump forward and Senator Sexton's appalling slide. What a distinction daily makes, the President thought. In legislative issues, your reality can change in a moment. Before breakfast he would acknowledge exactly how obvious those words could be. 85 Pickering could be an issue, Tench had said. Director Ekstrom was excessively engrossed with this new data to see that the tempest outside the habisphere was seething more diligently now. The crying links had expanded in pitch, and the NASA staff was apprehensively processing and talking as opposed to resting. Ekstrom's contemplations were lost in an alternate tempest a touchy whirlwind fermenting back in Washington. The most recent couple of hours had brought numerous issues, all of which Ekstrom was attempting to manage. But one issue currently increasingly posed a threat than all the others joined. Pickering could be an issue. Ekstrom could think about nobody on earth against whom he'd less preferably coordinate brains over William Pickering. Pickering had ridden Ekstrom and NASA throughout recent years, attempting to control security strategy, campaigning for various crucial, and railing against NASA's heightening disappointment proportion. Pickering's repugnance with NASA, Ekstrom knew, went far more profound than the ongoing loss of his billion-dollar NRO SIGINT satellite in a NASA launchpad blast, or the NASA security spills, or the fight over enrolling key aviation staff. Pickering's complaints against NASA were a progressing dramatization of disappointment and disdain. NASA's X-33 space plane, which should be the van substitution, had run five years late, which means many NRO satellite support and dispatch programs were rejected or required to be postponed. As of late, Pickering's fierceness over the X-33 arrived at a fever pitch when he found NASA had dropped the undertaking completely, gulping an expected $900 million misfortune. Ekstrom showed up at his office, pulled the window ornament aside, and entered. Taking a seat at his work area he put his head in his grasp. He had a few choices to make. What had begun as an awesome day was turning into a bad dream unwinding around him. He attempted to place himself in the attitude of William Pickering. What might the man do straightaway? Somebody as clever as Pickering needed to see the significance of this NASA disclosure. He needed to excuse certain decisions made in franticness. He needed to see the irreversible harm that would be finished by dirtying this snapshot of triumph. What might Pickering do with the data he had? Would he let it ride, or would he make NASA pay for their inadequacies? Ekstrom glowered, having little uncertainty which it would be. All things considered, William Pickering had further issues with NASA†¦ an old individual harshness that went far more profound than legislative issues. 86 Rachel hushed up now, gazing vacantly at the lodge of the G4 as the plane traveled south along the Canadian coastline of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Tolland sat close by, conversing with Corky. Regardless of most of proof recommending the shooting star was true, Corky's affirmation that the nickel content was â€Å"outside the preestablished midrange values† had served to revive Rachel's underlying doubt. Covertly planting a shooting star underneath the ice just appeared well and good as a feature of a splendidly imagined misrepresentation. In any case, the staying logical proof highlighted the shooting star's legitimacy. Rachel abandoned the window, looking down at the circle molded shooting star test in her grasp. The minuscule chondrules gleamed. Tolland and Corky had been examining these metallic chondrules for quite a while, talking in logical terms well over Rachel's head-equilibrated olivine levels, metastable glass networks, and transformative rehomogenation. In any case, the consequence was clear: Corky and Tolland were in understanding that the chondrules were unequivocally fleeting. No fudging of that information. Rachel turned the plate molded example in her grasp, running a finger over the edge where part of the combination outside layer was noticeable. The singing looked generally new unquestionably not 300 years of age albeit Corky had clarified that the shooting star had been hermetically fixed in ice and kept away from climatic disintegration. This appeared to be sensible. Rachel had seen programs on TV where human remains were burrowed from the ice following 4,000 years and the individual's skin looked practically great. As she considered the combination outside layer, an odd idea happened to her-an undeniable bit of information had been precluded. Rachel thought about whether it had just been an oversight in all the information that was tossed at her or did somebody basically neglect to make reference to it. She went out of nowhere to Corky. â€Å"Did anybody date the combination crust?† Corky looked over, looking befuddled. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Did anybody date the consume. That is, do we know beyond all doubt that the consume on the stone happened at precisely the hour of the Jungersol Fall?† â€Å"Sorry,† Corky stated, â€Å"that's difficult to date. Oxidation resets all the essential isotopic markers. Furthermore, radioisotope rot rates are too delayed to even consider measuring anything under 500 years.† Rachel looked at that as a second, seeing now why the consume date was not part of the information. â€Å"So, supposedly, this stone could have been singed in the Middle Ages or a weekend ago, right?† Tolland laughed. â€Å"Nobody said science had all the answers.† Rachel let her brain meander out loud. â€Å"A combination outside is basically only an extreme consume. Actually, the consume on this stone could have occurred whenever in the past 50 years, in any number of various ways.† â€Å"Wrong,† Corky said. â€Å"Burned in any number of various ways? No. Consumed in one manner. Falling through the atmosphere.† â€Å"There's no other chance? What about in a furnace?† â€Å"A furnace?† Corky said. â€Å"These tests were analyzed under an electron magnifying instrument. Indeed, even the cleanest heater on earth would have left fuel buildup everywhere throughout the stone-atomic, synthetic, non-renewable energy source. Disregard it. Also, what about the striations from streaking through the environment? You wouldn't get those in a furnace.† Rachel had disregarded the direction striations on the shooting star. It did in fact seem to have fallen through the air. â€Å"How about a volcano?† she wandered. â€Å"Ejecta tossed fiercely from an eruption?† Corky shook his head. â€Å"The consume is extremely clean.† Rachel looked at Tolland. The oceanographer gestured. â€Å"Sorry, I've had some involvement in volcanoes, both above and underneath water. Corky's correct. Volcanic ejecta is infiltrated by many poisons carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrochloric corrosive all of which would have been identified in our electronic outputs. That combination outside, regardless, is the aftereffect of a clean climatic grating burn.† Rachel moaned, thinking pull out the window. A perfect consume. The expression stayed with her. She turned around to Tolland. â€Å"What do you mean by a clean burn?† He shrugged. â€Å"Simply that under an electron magnifying instrument, we see no remainders of fuel components, so we realize warming was brought about by dynamic vitality and rubbing, as opposed to substance or atomic ingredients.† â€Å"If you didn't locate any outside fuel components, what did you find? In particular, what was the organization of the combination crust?† â€Å"We found,† Corky stated, â€Å"exactly what we expected to discover. Unadulterated barometrical components. Nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen. No petroleums. No sulfurs. No volcanic acids. Not much. All the stuff we see when shooting stars fall through the atmosphere.† Rachel reclined in her seat, her musings centering now.