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Aerospace, arguments raged as to whether
the launch should be postponed by two, perhaps even three years.
The major concern lay in the possibility of Earth and its entire
back-up for the mission being destroyed. It was postulated that a
few humans, if safely ensconced in habitat on Mars, would simply
run out of the essentials of life. Oxygen, food, and of course
water. Typically, Volker Brandt curtailed the clamour to reach a
humane compromise.
    “Of all the
things I have achieved in my life, this signal achievement for
mankind to step on to another planet is proving to be the most
infuriating. We must decide, not procrastinate. It seems that we can’t, therefore I must.
The launch will go ahead in 2033, whether or not we can prevent
Chocolate Orange from destroying our world. We can’t be sure of
what we will find on Mars, so we must go there. One thing I’m
certain of, is that if we have to finally admit we cannot avoid an
impact of this monster with Earth, there will be no shortage of
volunteers to try their luck on the red planet. We can’t waste any
more time debating this conundrum. Now we must divide our expertise
to optimise the odds of succeeding with both tasks, instead of
acting like mice in a maze. Let’s do it.”
    Julien was
immensely relieved, but this was only a wakeup call. Since he took
up responsibility for plotting the course of Chocolate Orange, and
altering its trajectory, or even destruction, he’d met with abuse
from other project leaders. They claimed that his arrival was
responsible for re-allocation of resource which made their
objectives for the Mars mission untenable. They also baited him
with having achieved nothing with those resources. Intervention was
inevitable. Unlike the unwieldy committee-style anchor of NERO,
Brandt was a decisive leader. Apart from his edict to leave the
launch date at 2033, he fired two of the most senior managers
involved in the programme. That responsibility immediately fell
into Julien’s lap. He now had no excuse for underachievement in
either project.
    “I expect a
reaction from you and your new subordinates with respect to
progress. I want to hear more answers and consequently less
problems.”
    All of a
sudden, Guiana seemed like a very lonely place. And the stakes were
raised when the news broke of Sir Ian Waverly’s resignation.
Apparently, the very same video conference minutes which were on
the memory stick Julien had delivered to Brandt, had been leaked to
the media. There was no suspicion directed to VB Aerospace; it was
considered ludicrous that Julien Delacroix would wait seventeen
months to fuel some previous vendetta. Suspicion centred on current
employees of NERO. Julien wondered about Henry Fellowes, and
welcomed the announcement, he felt it vindicated his awkward
departure from the Osaka conference, but he didn’t rule out the
possibility that NERO had actually found more bad news regarding
Chocolate Orange. He used this uncertainty to request all trusted
observatories to join with him and compare the very latest
data.
    *
    Eugene sailed
through his graduation and was now a section leader at a respected
microbiology company. He kept in touch with his father frequently;
at least they always seemed to look at things through the same end
of the telescope. They debated stuff rather than get into an
argument. At last Julien had a successful father/son relationship,
and Eugene had his own calling. Unlike his sister, he shared his
father’s temperament.
    Sophie had
somehow allowed the impending cataclysm to dominate her life, and
her art took on a dark side which caused her reputation to suffer.
Changing her appearance to become ‘extreme gothic’ didn’t sit well
with those marketing her work or with influential art critics. She
was confident they would warm to her new persona and she couldn’t
have been more wrong. A subsequent spiral into drug addiction
required rehabilitation and enrolment in a therapy programme. This
put considerable