Part 12
I was restlessly turning in the night when Molly called.
*Helen, I’ve been doing some analysis of the changes that are in progress.*

*What changes Molly?* I sat up rubbing my face to get some circulation into it and wake me up properly. I glanced at the clock, 3.40am

*The personnel changes and the reforms in North Korea and physical disablement of the Nuclear devices and missiles.*
*What prognosis have you achieved Molly?*

*WWIII starts on Dec 21 2012.* Molly said flatly as if reading from a document.

“Shit!” I stared into the darkened room and my eyes visualized the scenario of plumes of deadly radiation…. “What have I done?”

*It was borderline before, but it’s a lot more certain now that the changes have been made.* Molly confirmed. I noticed that she had avoided blaming me. *I’ve done the calcs several times over the last 36 hours and it becomes more solid every time.*

*Any chance of averting it ?* I shook my head trying to believe what Molly was telling me.

*Oh yes, but it’s not going to be easy.* Molly sounded like she was bracing to give the answer.

*Come on then, put me out of my misery.*

*We must engineer a natural disaster. There’s a CME — that’s a coronal mass ejection due to occur soon, we must make sure that some of the satellites that are supposed to shut down to safeguard them- don’t. This will causethem to suffer catastrophic failure of their computers and electronics.*

*Isn’t that going to make matters worse?* I couldn’t help thinking that less communications would be a worse scenario.

*Military hardware in space not working is going to be a good thing. I could just make them fail, but that might reverse the solution and make it worse. It has to appear that they failed due to a natural disaster.*

*I can’t help thinking that rather than being the saviour of mankind, I shall be the reason for its demise.* I felt very depressed — nothing I’d done over the last year had improved anything except my ego. *I was supposed to be a good person and I’m failing badly at everything. My Midas touch had become a kiss of death.*

*You’re very young Helen, there’s no better learning tool than failure.*

*That’s all very well to say except when you’re talking millions of lives. I may have become the worst mass murderer in history. How many people have I already killed? How many more will die because of me?*

*Ultimately Helen, the question is how many will survive and live to see wonders beyond imagining that would have perished in a frozen cave? The answer is a millionfold.* I felt marginally better.

*How do we affect this extraordinary feat of stopping these satellites from shutting down?*

*It’s not complicated, I just detune their coms link a few seconds before the shutdown arrives and they’ll think it was something to do with the CME, an unexpected collateral effect*

*I’ll believe you, Molly, millions wouldn’t.* I smiled vaguely — it seemed too much like science fiction. *How is that going to stop WWIII?*

*It’ll stop the viruses being released.* Simply said.

*Molly, please tell me you’re kidding?*

*I can’t do that without lying Helen.*

*I’m presuming these viruses are a MAD thing (Mutually Assured Destruction)?* I was mentally shuddering and crying that the military were so stupid as to do something like that. Especially the West who were supposed to be so Geneva Conventional. What if there was an accident in space — mankind may have been obliterated overnight by a stupid error.

*Mostly; some are designed to weaken rather than kill — and some are no longer dangerous to the populations they are protecting — they’ve been inoculating the water supply for several years.* Molly had said this with such offhandedness that I was stunned. It wasn’t nuclear radiation that would have plumes, it would be Anthrax and TB.

*I shall disable all but the most feeble. I’m rather glad this came up in time, protocols make it difficult for me to warn you beforehand of all the dangers that could befall us.*

*Molly, please answer me this, are all nations doing this? Am I in fact stopping what might have meant the demise of humanity?*

*In many ways, the expectation of humanity surviving this period were quite low until a shepherd was discovered in you.* Molly sounded wry. As if I was Earth’s 11th hour reprieve.

*Anything else I need to know about organized destruction of Homo Sapiens?* I felt cheated and I felt like I was going to be, not a matriarch of clan Earth, but a skivvy destined to put out fires until mankind could really come of age.

*One or two things, but nothing immediate.* Molly said as if ticking off a clipboard form.

Andrew appeared at the door. “I couldn’t help observing you are awake ma’am would you like a cup of cocoa?” It seemed wholly inappropriate but it also felt like I was being grounded and brought back to present reality.
“Yes please.” I took the proffered cup and sipped gratefully at the luxurious silken beverage.

*Nothing serious enough that can’t wait til morning then?*

*No Helen.*

I settled back down to sleep and I fell quickly into oblivion as military people the world over sweated over their red buttons. Never realizing that no matter what they did, they would never work.
While I slept, Molly sorted and stripped all the viruses from space transferring them into the fires of the sun. There would never again be a question of whether man was going to annihilate itself by default. That night humanity was saved from itself. I still had work to do, but it would be on a less dramatic level.

*Mummy!!* Ruth shouted into my head, *time to get up.*
I glanced at the clock and sure enough it was 6.15. I looked at my watch to confirm it and it said 4.12.
I shook it and held it to my ear — knowing in reality that I would never hear it tick anyway.
“This is fun, control over everything and not even my watch works.”

The kids floated in through the open door at around 6 inches off the ground.
I supposed they were flying solo….

*We’d thought it better to float below window level.* Paul answered my unasked query.
*I can’t wait to learn to walk* Ruth said with a weary mental sigh. The irony didn’t escape me.

*Don’t try to walk too early, your bones haven’t set.* I warned.
*We’d support ourselves so that it looked like we were walking — it’s just very difficult to control our legs so far.” Paul offered.

I looked at my watch to remind me what time it was — it was still 4.15.
*Molly can I have a watch that works please?* I switched to upcom!

*I have placed it on your dresser Helen* the immediate reply came.
Looked over at the dressing table and there lay a Patek Philipe. Classy but not overdone.

*Neat, thanks*

*Pleasure, enjoy.*

The morning continued a little better.

I was listening to the early morning news and it was full of a bushfire down South in Melbourne. It got me to thinking.

I sat down and nutted out a few logistics.
It was mind boggling.
The best I could come up with was less than minimal but it was a start.

For every person there needs to be a tree to make the oxygen for us to breathe, and the fire down south was consuming one every few seconds. Slash and burn in Indonesia and Brazil was cutting a further chunk of our atmosphere out and changing it to carbon dioxide — this was further warming the atmosphere and drying out areas that used to be able to support trees. We needed to change this in a hurry. Climate change apparently was inevitable, but it didn’t need to be so drastic as we were making it.

So two things needed to happen quickly — trees to grow and a drop in atmospheric temperature f2 degrees over the next 20 years. Could we manage to achieve this ??

After consultation with Molly we discovered tree planting could easily be achieved by a small group of people in each community — if there was water available. That was the sticking point- water was less available as fresh — it was more available as salt.

Molly didn’t have the energy resources to initiate a reversal of heat build up. I had some financial resources. Enough to make a start.

I spent a few days sorting out with local government a place I could start to plant trees as a carbon positive scheme — local government was only too happy to let me sink my capital into the local soil. After looking over the area, I sorted out a personnel manager and a manager for my tree planting game — I was determined to stop using heavy forces to initiate change — I wanted to do it locally with manpower — not star power.

I was a week into the setup when Molly contacted me with news that Piran was eager to contact me so I adjourned for a few hours to Luna and left the children with Andy who had quickly become their mentor and friend as well as their babysitter.

*Greetings Helen,* Piran bowed and placed her hand over her chest (I presumed where her heart was)
I smiled and repeated her gesture then sat in the comfortable seating area in the conference room. She smiled and also sat, though it was only a hologram.
*It is a pleasure to meet with you again Piran, how may I be of assistance to you?* I began.

*It is not a formal meeting Helen, I only came to congratulate you on your change of direction in dealing with the failings of Earth’s people. Your style of management will not be so sensitive to foibles of the cultures on your Earth* She smiled with her fine lips and nodded sagely.

*Thank you Piran, I was worried about my approach to some problems — I was getting too involved with the micromanagement. I hope this will bring about a more gentle change and allow a more reasoned approach to order.* I tried to sound humble, I don’t think I was very good at it.

*New leaders seldom grasp the concept so quickly, it is a good thing — circumstance may have harmed your progress for some centuries had things gotten out of control* Piran nodded sagely again.

*Might I suggest using a dimension portal to soak up some of the excess ocean heat? It will shorten the recovery period and may not be noticed if done subtly*

My mind boggled, I was being given technology that was beyond conception of our scientists like it was the new watch I got the other day.
I had to grin at that. *That would be most gratefully received.*

*That is settled then, I won’t keep you, I have much to do and would like to visit with some of our mutual friends, you must consider joining me sometime. It is good to meet with your peers in other parts of the Galaxy* With that, she waved and faded from view as I held up my hand in greeting. Short and sweet. I felt very small and yet I knew that in reality I was one of the most gifted individuals ever anywhere…. My God — anywhere in the galaxy. An hour later I was back on Earth playing with the kids. Life is becoming very strange yet surprisingly mundane.

It was hard to bounce the kids on my knee — they reacted to my jiggling leg by lowering their weight til they floated just above the maximum travel of my knee, negating the whole point of the exercise.

Our trips round the local area to buy things and our trips out in the car became more frequent and the children were quite sad that they didn’t meet any others like them.
They began to understand the reason for their existence and the goal that I pursued.

Though it was still in a childish way — concept without the depth — but it improved on a daily basis as did their amazing store of knowledge. They took the opportunity to visit Luna with me as often as they could where Molly spent time with them teaching the rudiments of knowledge that they would require in the next few years. I spent hours and hours with them when I wasn’t involved in starting up tree plantations across the country.

*Mummy? Would it be possible to fly over some of the tree places?* Paul asked as nicely as he could and smiled at me when I gave him my attention.

*Well we’d need to rent an airplane, we couldn’t just go flying around like superman you know.*

*Who’s superman and is he like us?* Ruth asked suddenly, *are there more like us?* more excited as she thought more positively about it.

*I don’t think so pet, we’re the first in many years to be chosen to be like this.* Ruth pouted a bit when she heard that. Then changed subjects.

*Watch this mummy, I can do up my own seatbelt,* she grabbed the end of it in her little hand and pushed it into the clip down the side of the cot without looking. Knowing where it was by feel — I was amazed — this was akin to a four year old and my little girl was only a few months old. Barely old enough to move from one place to another at best if she were ‘standard issue’

I did hire a plane — and a pilot of course. A little Cessna. And we flew over some of the plantations in the local area to see how they were progressing — they’d planted Paulonia and Spruce and hoop pine. All useful fast growing trees.
*Don’t they grow any faster mummy? They only look to be a foot or so high.*

*No dear, which is why we need to plant them now, because they take a long time to absorb the carbon from the air like we want them to.*

*I thought carbon was black?* Ruth chipped in.

*It’s a colourless gas when joined onto oxygen.* I lectured.

*Why do you need to use trees, why not just split the gas into oxygen and carbon?*

Having a conversation like this with three month old children was a bit hard on the head, but I was getting used to it.

*It takes heat to do that and that produces more CO2 than you get from the air.*

*Oh* and a puzzled frown was all I got from that.

“Mummy,” I nearly fell over because it wasn’t a thought, it was a sound. Paul was now 7 months old and had said his first word. Quickly followed by. “Can we go over to the plantations again soon. I want to see how much the trees have grown”

“Can we please?” Ruth joined in with the supplication.

“Yes of course we can but you have to promise me one thing,”

“What’s that mummy?” Paul asked smiling at me with a sort of self satisfied grin. Obviously the pair had been planning this for a while.

“That you communicate only with me and without using your new found voices — 7 month old children have a vocabulary of a very few words.” I smiled at them. “You’re very clever, the pair of you and I’m very proud of you both. And I love you very much, but we do have to be careful.” I admonished.

“We’ll be extraordinarily careful mummy” Boasted my little soldier. I felt a tear come to my eye. My child’s first words were from a vocabulary of a 12 year old.
We drove out to one of the plantations to the North of Brisbane and found the trees had put on a few centimeters — which was about their normal growth rate. The Paulonia had put on a lot more, but that was how they grew — quickly — they could be cropped in ten years and would regrow from the stump so didn’t need to be replanted — great trees!

Paul and Ruth sat side by side in their little stroller and plotted as I spoke to the farm manager about expected yields and time. “Well this plantation is growing at about 2 tons a week at the moment but in about three years will be growing at 10 tons a week. If we get sufficient rain. If it goes dry, we get almost no growth at all.”

“Haven’t you put in sufficient pipework to deliver water?

“We haven’t put in ANY, we thought you wouldn’t want it being green and pipes being plastic and all….” He looked at me like I had gone potty, like I’d said something totally unexpected. “Using water is subtracting from the overall green gain.”

“First and foremost, you’re supposed to be a farm manager not a tree hugger . If you want to fix carbon, you need to do it with live trees, and not dead ones. If you want to stop a fire, you need to do it with water and moist soil, not dry trees and arid soil.” I was more than annoyed and my little cohorts sat in the stroller strained to see the manager who was stood behind them. They stared at him round the edge of the stroller. Fixing him with stares. As if memorizing his face to fix him later.

“I want you to get some pipe laid 150 mm into the ground along each line of trees and allow each tree enough water to grow at optimum. Is that clear?”

“Well, I think we need to be a little more circumspect — I’m trying to do the right thing here and my instructions are to optimize the green value.” The manager tried to explain his position.

“Who told you this? Whose instructions are these?” I looked into his mind.
The Operations manager’s faces swam to the front of the plantations manager’s mind as he answered, “Mr Owen’s. He was very firm about not using capital and certainly not to buy water”

“Right, phone him and ask him again so I can hear him say it.”

“I can do better than that, I have the written instructions on an email.” He turned to move towards his office.

“No, just phone him, I want to hear his explanation.”

He dialed and spoke to Dave Owen briefly and handed the phone to me…..

“…. I want you to do this without any infrastructure, I can’t make a profit if you use so much water, is that clear Mr Anderson?”

“Very clear Mr Owen.” I said listening, expecting him to twig who was on the line.

“Who’s that? Where’s Anderson? I was talking to him.” Owen dug the hole a bit deeper.

“This is your boss, Owen, and you’re not following my directive are you?” I asked with a slightly supercilious smile.

“My Boss, no one’s my boss, I’m the boss.”

“Keep digging Mr Owen and while you’re digging, dig out your desk and the rest of your stuff. You’re off the payroll.” I spoke shortly and to the point.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you work for this company, you’re fired. Is that understood?” Owen spluttered. “What’s your name?”

“Look up from what was your desk and read what’s written above the Receptionist’s desk, it’ll give you a clue.” I smiled rather enjoying the joke.
I passed the phone back to Anderson. “Tell him who I am and then get onto the irrigation system. I’ll sort out the rest on the drive back to Brisbane.”

The twins were giggling and Andrew was trying not to smile in his usual robotic way.

We loaded the car back up and headed to Brisbane — I phoned personnel whilst en route and notified them of Dave Owen’s termination and for security to escort him from the premises after returning his keys. I thought about getting his house searched, but instead finished with, “Please make sure the accounts are scrupulously checked to ensure leakage of funds hasn’t occurred through his office. Inform me if that is the case. If you’re looking for good managers, I think Anderson might make the grade, if he’s a bit under experienced, get him up to speed and we’ll reconsider him later. ”

I hoped that was the end of it but it wasn’t to be; he tried to sue me for wrongful dismissal. I pointed out to his solicitor’s that nowhere in my instructions was making a profit mentioned; only the optimized growth of the trees, which he hadn’t complied with.
In the end I had to change his mind by getting him to admit to his solicitors that he’d been skimming and the solicitors then wouldn’t have a bar of him and left him to rot.
The solicitors had to admit to mine that he had divulged information that precluded them from supporting his case and I got a court order to have his accounts seized and his house checked — he’d only been working with us for a short while but he’d already stripped thousands from the company. I was amazed. I used the money to plant more trees — I didn’t press charges. He was finished professionally.

Somehow a little more rain fell in that area on a consistent basis than should have — I found out that all my plantations would get a little more rainfall than average — it was easy when you could cloud seed from the moon.
It was explained by the known science that trees carry an updraught and create their own rainfall. — what wasn’t normal was the rate of growth — more than 20% above normal — but it was put down to good husbandry by dedicated men and women on my staff.
I sold shares to finance more plantations and it soon became a self supporting industry and I was able to leave it well alone.

The dimension gate over the Pacific was farmed the same way and heat was bled to another planet that was suffering from a cold spell geologically — I didn’t understand the technology, but I did understand the effect and scientists were rapturous when they realised that things were stabilizing — though it didn’t help with some things and I had a lot of work still to do. One decent thing about the improved Pacific temperature was the effect it had on sardines — all of a sudden they were in much more plentiful supply. Chile was really pleased as it meant their exports went up.