Ben Bova - New Earth

“How do we know this whole story hasn’t been concocted by the scientists to squeeze more funding out of us?” asked the councilwoman from Pacifica.

Again the wait. Then Stavenger smiled and replied, “The answers to your questions are relatively simple. We send a new mission to Sirius C, a team of scientists and administrators who will check on the facts and advise the World Council of their validity.”

Before anyone could respond, he went on, “The people of habitat Goddard have already built the spacecraft for a new mission to Sirius. The people of Selene will fund its staffing.”

“You mean we won’t have to pay for any of it?”

Pancho jumped in. “That’s right. You people on Earth can devote your resources to alleviating the floods. The people off-Earth will handle the next mission to Sirius C. And that includes not only Selene and Goddard, but the rock rats out in the Asteroid Belt, as well. We’ve built the ship and we’ll pay for the team to crew it.”

The other Council members looked at each other in stunned silence. No one seemed to know what to say. Pancho, grinning inwardly, thought, We’ve made them an offer they can’t refuse.

At last Chairman Chiang wheezed, “A very generous offer. I propose that the Council accept it.”

Heads nodded up and down the table. Stavenger’s ghostly image sat down again.

“The only other agenda item is to nominate a new chairman,” said Chiang.

Immediately, Pancho said, “There’s only one person here who can fill your shoes, Mr. Chairman. And that person is Douglas Stavenger, of Selene.”

Again bedlam erupted.

“How can he be chairman when he can’t even visit Earth?”

Pancho slapped the palm of her right hand on the polished tabletop and their voices stilled.

“Now look, people,” she said. “Doug’s been a Council member for some years, without setting foot on Earth. Hell, I’m a Council member and George Ambrose, from the Belt, is too.”

Ambrose nodded his shaggy red-haired head and grinned boyishly.

Pancho continued, “You’ve made an effort to make this Council include all the people of the solar system. So why won’t you elect the best man for the chairman’s post, even if he lives on the Moon?”

They argued the issue back and forth, but the objections gradually petered out. When Chiang called for a vote, Stavenger was elected unanimously.

Pancho was smiling as she left the conference room. She chatted with a few of the Council members for a while, then made a beeline for the hotel where her husband was waiting for her.

“It’s done?” Jake Wanamaker asked the instant she came through the door of their suite. He really didn’t need to ask; he could tell from the huge grin on Pancho’s face.

“It’s done,” she said. “We’re goin’ to New Earth.”

Wanamaker puffed out a breath. “Eighty years, Panch. It takes eighty years to get there.”

“Yep. Trish’ll be a hundred and fourteen years old by the time we get there.”

“And how old will we be?”

“Don’t matter,” said Pancho. “Our lives are just beginning, Jake. Just beginning.”

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

NEW EARTH

Copyright © 2013 by Ben Bova

All rights reserved.

Cover art by John Harris

A Tor Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Bova, Ben, 1932–

New Earth / Ben Bova. — First edition.

p. cm.

“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

ISBN 978-0-7653-3018-5 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4299-4814-2 (e-book)

1. Life on other planets—Fiction. 2. Interplanetary voyages—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3552.O84N49 2013

813'.54—dc23

2013006324

e-ISBN 9781429948142

First Edition: July 2013