TBY
illconsidered | February 13, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 78
Table of Contents
Chapter 80
Chapter 79
The Military Industrial Prison Complex, November 14, 2055
What do you do when your brother is locked up for an unconscionable crime and you have good reason to believe he is guilty? You see that he has a good lawyer. I spoke to a friend in the law faculty and got the number of a lawyer in Ottawa who came highly recommended.
Then I tried to contact Jon. The Ottawa police were unhelpful. They didn't have him, they didn't want him and they didn't know where he was. The ecocops, or more properly the…
illconsidered | February 5, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 77
Table of Contents
Chapter 79
Chapter 78
EcoCops, November 13, 2059
The next day the ecocops arrived. Edie and I were having breakfast, when they pulled up in the lane right below our window. Anna, as she liked to say, was "doing lady things" in the bathroom. There were three of them. They were polite. They apologized to Edie, but they wanted to talk to me -- alone.
For the interview they took me downtown to the MacDonald building. We entered through an underground parking lot I hadn't even known existed. They took me up to a seventh floor…
illconsidered | February 1, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 76
Table of Contents
Chapter 78
Chapter 77
Unburdening, November 12, 2059
I was in a state by the time I arrived at Centre City. I half expected the eco-cops to tap me on the shoulder at any moment.
Edie met me at the door. "I didn't expect you until tomorrow," she said with a big smile. "I just happened to see you walk past the front window."
Then she caught my mood. "What's the matter?"
"Do you know how to upload to FabNet?"
"Yeah... I used to do that for Matt every once in a while."
"Good. I have something I want you to distribute." I…
illconsidered | January 30, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 75
Table of Contents
Chapter 77
Chapter 76
A Better World, November 12, 2059
We settled in the back of a small electric cab. The driver slid open a slot in the plasteel barrier partitioning the passenger area. Peter gave him the UN offices as a destination and then turned to me.
"Right then. Why don't you tell me all about it?"
"Have you looked at the sunbug proposal?"
"Yeah, I glanced at it. It's too bad it's only theoretical."
"I have a practical implementation."
"What! Are you sure?"
"I didn't do the work. My brother Matt did. But here's…
illconsidered | January 22, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 74
Table of Contents
Chapter 76
Chapter 75
Ottawa, November 7, 2059
Over the next month I watched and waited from my vantage point in UNGETF for some Solar Radiation Management [SRM] scheme to take the place of the sunshield. None was forthcoming. There was talk about restarting the Japanese Group 2 effort, even funding Baumgarten, but there was also opposition. The long and short of it was... no other SRM technique was forthcoming.
Finally I felt compelled to act. I was still worried about the unknown actors involved in Matt's death, so I…
illconsidered | January 16, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 73
Table of Contents
Chapter 75
Chapter 74
Waiting, September 18, 2059
I went back to the university and sat in my office. Luckily I didn't have any more classes that day. I tried to work, but it was no use. I ended up scanning half a dozen news channels looking for information about the sunshield and the rockets.
Finally I felt so useless, I headed back home. That meant I was offline for 35 or 40 minutes while I walked. I could have monitored the net with my padd, but I have always tried to pay attention to the real world around me: Be here…
illconsidered | January 14, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 72
Table of Contents
Chapter 74
Chapter 73
Sabotage, September 15, 2059
Anna was coming up on her fourth birthday when the rumblings of discontent from the Asian Union began to get louder. A mid-August snow in Japan had laid waste much of their fall crop. China was complaining about a loss of solar photovoltaic power.
Shortly after the Japanese snowstorm, Carillon admitted that there were some kinks in the system that needed to be worked out. The idea had been to keep the sunshields shading the northern hemisphere and have them switch…
illconsidered | January 10, 2014The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 71
Table of Contents
Chapter 73
Chapter 72
No Miracles, April 30, 2059
All that winter and spring, the sunshield count slowly increased. We passed 3,000, but nothing changed on Earth. Methane levels were still rising. Drought, flood and fire were constant. Grain reserves were less than a week, and some challenged those statistics, claiming they were just to make us feel good.
The demand went out for more sunshields. Brahmaputra got more money. That meant more factories and railguns to be built on the moon. Some 150 people in Hipparcus were…
illconsidered | December 19, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 70
Table of Contents
Chapter 72
Chapter 71
Decision Point, February 23, 2059
At UNGETF things were getting worse. Our Earthside measures were not working. Methane and carbon dioxide levels were still rising. There were a lot of grim faces around.
I put those concerns aside and turned my attention to Matt's sunbugs. Matt's multimedia files required an advanced and expensive Fraunhoeffer chemical synthesizer which the university did not have. A quick web check showed why. They cost over 5 million credits. I began to appreciate how Matt's money…
illconsidered | December 11, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 69
Table of Contents
Chapter 71
Chapter 70
Sunbugs, February 12, 2058
We adjusted slowly to the changes in our household. It felt funny sleeping in dad's old bed. Edie didn't say a word when I got rid of the old mattress and rearranged the room. I think she understood perfectly. The guest room became Anna's new bedroom. She was proud to have her own room, until it came to sleeping alone. It was not unusual to wake up and find her curled up beside us.
My sex life with Olivia had been boisterous and exuberant. With Edie, love making was quieter…
illconsidered | December 4, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 68
Table of Contents
Chapter 70
Chapter 69
Engagement, February 1, 2059
As I walked home from the station, it started to snow --- a wet, big-flaked snow which seemed entirely appropriate. By the time I got home, I was soaked to the skin and shivering uncontrollably.
Edie took one look at me and said, "Jump into a hot shower. I'll get dry clothes for you."
Half an hour later, I was sitting on the couch, bundled up in a comforter, drinking hot toddy and feeling foolish. I started apologizing. "I didn't plan properly. I should have worn warmer…
illconsidered | November 27, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 67
Table of Contents
Chapter 69
Chapter 68
Estrangement, February 1, 2059
I hadn't seen Jon in the flesh for almost three years. I was shocked by how much he had changed. He was harder and smoother somehow, as if he had an invisible barrier just above his skin. Nothing stuck to him. At first I thought it was shock over Matt's death, but there was more to it than that. Jon drifted through the funeral like an alien. He talked, he laughed, he shared old stories, but it was all surface. There was a distance and a calculation in him that made me…
illconsidered | November 22, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 66
Table of Contents
Chapter 68
Chapter 67
The Body, January 18, 2059
I put off planning the funeral because I had no idea when Matt's body was going to arrive. Relations between the North and South American continents are not exactly smooth. You could say that, except for diplomatic and scientific contacts, they are defined by the wall across the ithmus below Mexico. I had to work through ConSec, and that meant Carman.
This was a difficult period for me. It was xmas and I was far from seasonally happy. My thoughts seemed always to come back…
illconsidered | November 14, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 65
Table of Contents
Chapter 67
Chapter 66
Arrangements, December 11, 2058
Anna was mercifully asleep when I got home. When I told Edie about Matt, she was subdued. She put her hand to her mouth and sat down quickly. Then to my surprise, her attention shifted to me. She was concerned about me. I appreciated that, but I had another duty. To call Jon.
Matt's death hit Jon just as hard as it hit me. The braggadocio and oneupmanship were gone. We didn't talk long. I pointedly did not raise the issue of Matt's body and interment in order to give…
illconsidered | November 6, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 64
Table of Contents
Chapter 66
Chapter 65
Matthew Fontaine, December 11, 2058
Over the course of that summer and fall, the number of sunshades slowly increased. It became part of the weather report. "And today the sunshade count is ..." On clear days the sun was too bright, but on cloudy days the smudge on the side of the sun was easily discernible.
One morning in early December, I had the radio on during the usual rush to get ready and they mentioned a food riot in Brazil. As ususal I wondered if Matt were still in South America, but didn't…
illconsidered | October 31, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 63
Table of Contents
Chapter 65
Chapter 64
The Eclipse Machine, September 7, 2058
I woke up early from a bad dream. My father was talking about the animals of the north that were disappearing --- caribou, muskox and bears. Then I was a bearman breaking into a shack. Some guy was shooting at me. I woke up with a start, when a bullet hit me in the shoulder.
I lay in bed totally still --- listening. The house was quiet. The clock read 5:13 and there was no way I was going back to sleep. With a sigh I rolled out of bed and into the washroom.
It's…
illconsidered | October 23, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 62
Table of Contents
Chapter 64
The Atlas, August 16, 2058
When I got home today, the Electronic Atlas was sitting on the kitchen table. The Atlas was one of six prototype devices for a project a business buddy of Matt's had abandoned. It was a thin display surface half a meter square in the centre of which was a slowly rotating image of the Earth.
If you touched any part of the planet, it would get larger. You could flip through different views: topographical, political, meteorological, agricultural and so on. More detailed statistics on…
illconsidered | October 16, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 61
Table of Contents
Chapter 63
Chapter 62
Baumgarten, July 2, 2058
I got another late night call from Rhamaposa. He looked terrible --- shaken and drawn out.
"What happened to you?" I asked.
"I did a tour across the Sahel." He shook his head and shuddered.
"Oh."
He grimaced. "Starving cattle. Dead children. What a time to be in a dry country!"
"Where are you now?"
"Djibouti."
I looked at him in surprise. I wasn't aware that UNGETF had any official contact with the Caliphate.
"The Arab Democratic Union asked me to update them on our projects…
illconsidered | October 10, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 60
Table of Contents
Chapter 62
Chapter 61
Crystal Jellies, March 19, 2058
The first time I saw a telescopic view of the L1 sunshades, I remembered standing in an aquarium watching crystal jellyfish. These tiny, delicate creatures were so beautiful I could scarce believe such miracles existed. I was transported. For a second, I was back watching those fluttering pink mauve miracles, but I wasn't. It was a swarm of sunshades illuminated by brilliant sunlight. Here and there, the deep blue of an ion drive could be seen.
I thought of the…
illconsidered | October 2, 2013The Bottleneck Years
by H.E. Taylor
Chapter 59
Table of Contents
Chapter 61
Chapter 60
L1 Roustabouts, February 15, 2058
The L1 crew were not like the moon colonists. They were cowboys. We didn't get up-close and web-personal with them. The corporate imagery around them played up rugged individualism and avoided any mention of colonization. They were all young men, no women, no families. Anytime we saw them they were sparring, jousting and joking with each other in good natured bonhomie. Or acting like boy scouts. It was all completely phony.
Arguably what the L1 astronauts were doing…