The Before Short Story Series. Part 1 - Иван Перепелятник

‘Thank you, officer,’ Igor thanked him, leaving the small office.

‘Now we wait,’ exhausted, Igor sat down on a chair in the restaurant staring blankly out the window. They took the same table as last night. Lunch time was just coming up. The restaurant was yet half empty.

‘Igor, mate, let’s make our orders. We’ve got two hours to wait until the services check everything. As Officer Roshan said, nothing more could be done now. To be more precise, all other actions would be meaningless. So? Igor? Are you here?’ Edward put his hand on his friend’s arm.’

‘Yes, sorry, guys. I’ve ruined your whole weekend with this performance of mine. You haven’t come here to participate in the investigation of the adventures of my negligent daughter got into.’

‘We are glad to see you, Igor. And we’ll be glad to see Robin soon. Let’s make an order.’

‘Well, damn lucky guy,’ said Ruslana, when Igor went out to call his office. ‘How many years ago was there a tragedy with his wife here?’

‘Catherine died in 2178. That is, it turns out that eleven years have already passed. She froze on this damned mountain too. It was that a blizzard started suddenly. The temperature was below minus fifty. Only one person survived—a seasoned guide. You could imagine how he feels right now. It’s worse than a nightmare.’

‘My God! I wish everything ends well!’

‘So, Igor, what about your promise?’ Edward tried to distract and occupy the mind of his friend.

‘Of course. Do you remember what it was all about?’

‘Well, of course,’ Edward confirmed. ‘We’ve stopped at … Rather, you finished up listing the steps that are being taken to combat cholera of the twenty-second century.’

‘The plague, Ed. But not the point. Oh well. So, actually, this is the question. We are working on the problem of the source of microplastics pollution with chemical enterprises and, at the same time, we are progressively solving the issue of cleaning the atmosphere from the relevant foreign inclusions. Extremely slow as it is, but the process is going on, gradually gaining momentum.

Here in the Himalayas, our laboratory has two main tasks to do—to develop and coordinate strategy and to monitor results. Here we take measurements, as is done in many other our branches around the world. So far, we lack a solution for only one component solution of the process—how to clean the ocean waters. We did manage the plastics garbage in the end. I mean plastic waste such as bottles, packaging, films and the like. The ocean has been cleared of this trash. But what to do with the microplastics that got into it, remains an open question. In this story it’s also surprising that this problem is more than a hundred and fifty years old. You can imagine the level of consciousness of our forefathers, who allowed the size of the plastic disaster to grow to such a state that, as they used to say, a whole continent of trash was formed with the waste thrown into the ocean. This is simply unthinkable! Imagine—a garbage continent!’

Edward has managed to get his way. Carried away by the discussion of the topic preoccupying him, his friend switched over his attention for a moment from the situation with Robin.

‘I see, mate. So maybe the problem in the ocean will be solved by itself when the content of the pollutant in the atmosphere gradually comes to naught?’

‘Your rating has been changed, Edward. Your potential makes me happy. You see into the root. One of the main working versions on the ocean currently is exactly this—do nothing. As if nothing. You’re absolutely right. Over time, in the absence of a source of new malicious injections into the ecosystem, the problem will be really resolved by itself. Based on the models, we worked out, it will take hundreds of years for this to happen. Which, of course, is frustrating. But at the moment, this is the main working and real program—to eliminate the source and wait. Allow the system to self-clean and recover.’

‘They say, Igor, you are working on another breakthrough project here.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘The Weather program,’ Eduard looked carefully at Igor, trying to get the expression of his face.

‘Something else is interesting. How do you know about this program?’

‘Hmm. I’m a member of the Big Scientific Council just like you are. Of course, I’m not in the upper bureau, like some, but still,’ Edward smiled a little.

‘Exactly. Sorry. I forgot completely. Yes, you’re right—we’re working. But the stage is still, I would say, an initial one. Our task is to develop a fundamental concept of a global weather management system. The task is superinteresting, but no less difficult, as one might assume.

‘At least so. And how far have you come with this work? Unless, of course, it’s another secret.’

‘I’ve already told you, Ed, we don’t have any special secrets. A global organization like ours can’t be enclosed in some kind of a secrecy perimeter. Anyway, sooner or later, usually sooner, things leak somewhere somehow. As I noted, the stage of work is initial. It all comes down to financing.

According to preliminary estimates, the cost of the infrastructure that needs to be deployed for the initial launch of the system is comparable with the construction of a lunar base,’ Ruslana whistled quietly.

‘Absolutely. That’s what I say. But the potential of the Weather, not in a shy way I may put it, is comparable to divine. You’ve probably heard that before, for example, on the occasion of big holidays, people could have dispersed the clouds. So, there you go—a clear example of the direct impact on the weather. People literally formed a local precipitation agenda with their own efforts and resources. Now imagine what we can achieve with the arsenal available to us. Judging by today’s understanding of the term humanity, we have almost