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 deplorable slide. What a distinction daily makes, the President thought. In legislative issues, your reality can change in a moment. Before sun-up he would acknowledge exactly how evident those words could be. 85 Pickering could be an issue, Tench had said. Executive Ekstrom was excessively distracted with this new data to see that the tempest outside the habisphere was seething more earnestly now. The wailing links had expanded in pitch, and the NASA staff was anxiously processing and talking instead of resting. Ekstrom's contemplations were lost in an alternate tempest a dangerous storm blending back in Washington. The most recent couple of hours had brought numerous issues, all of which Ekstrom was attempting to manage. But one issue presently 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 enlisting key aviation work force. Pickering's complaints against NASA were a progressing show of frustration and hatred. NASA's X-33 space plane, which should be the bus substitution, had run five years past due, which means many NRO satellite support and dispatch programs were rejected or required to be postponed. As of late, Pickering's fury over the X-33 arrived at a fever pitch when he found NASA had dropped the task totally, 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 a superb day was turning into a bad dream unwinding around him. He attempted to place himself in the mentality of William Pickering. What might the man do straightaway? Somebody as astute as Pickering needed to see the significance of this NASA disclosure. He needed to pardon certain decisions made in distress. He needed to see the irreversible harm that would be finished by contaminating 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 deficiencies? Ekstrom glared, having little uncertainty which it would be. All things considered, William Pickering had further issues with NASA†¦ an antiquated individual sharpness 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. In spite 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 major aspect of a splendidly imagined misrepresentation. Regardless, the staying logical proof highlighted the shooting star's legitimacy. Rachel abandoned the window, looking down at the plate formed shooting star test in her grasp. The minuscule chondrules sparkled. 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 grids, and transformative rehomogenation. In any case, the end result was clear: Corky and Tolland were in understanding that the chondrules were determinedly fleeting. No fudging of that information. Rachel pivoted the plate formed example in her grasp, running a finger over the edge where part of the combination hull was obvious. The roasting looked generally new positively not 300 years of age albeit Corky had clarified that the shooting star had been hermetically fixed in ice and stayed away from air disintegration. This appeared to be coherent. 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 contemplated the combination hull, an odd idea happened to her-a conspicuous bit of information had been discarded. Rachel thought about whether it had basically been an oversight in all the information that was tossed at her or did somebody just neglect to make reference to it. She went abruptly to Corky. â€Å"Did anybody date the combination crust?† Corky looked over, looking confounded. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Did anybody date the consume. That is, do we know beyond a shadow of a 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 important isotopic markers. In addition, radioisotope rot rates are too delayed to even think about 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, apparently, this stone could have been scorched 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 so anyone might hear. â€Å"A combination covering is basically only an extreme consume. In fact talking, 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, concoction, non-renewable energy source. Disregard it. What's more, 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 without a doubt seem to have fallen through the air. â€Å"How about a volcano?† she wandered. â€Å"Ejecta tossed viciously from an eruption?† Corky shook his head. â€Å"The consume is very clean.† Rachel looked at Tolland. The oceanographer gestured. â€Å"Sorry, I've had some involvement in volcanoes, both above and beneath 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 distinguished in our electronic sweeps. That combination hull, in any case, is the consequence of a clean environmental contact burn.† Rachel moaned, thinking retreat 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 leftovers of fuel components, so we realize warming was brought about by active vitality and grating, as opposed to substance or atomic ingredients.† â€Å"If you didn't locate any remote fuel components, what did you find? In particular, what was the sythesis of the combination crust?† â€Å"We found,† Corky stated, â€Å"exactly what we expected to discover. Unadulterated air components. Nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen. No petroleums. No sulfurs. No volcanic acids. Not all that much. All the stuff we see when shooting stars fall through the atmosphere.† Rachel reclined in her seat, her considerations centering now.