Stardust

* ACT I: Scene 1 *

“In the ten years leading up to 2095, Stardust Enterprises has mined over 500 tonnes of pure helium-3 from the Moon. This helium isotope is the fuel for our nuclear fusion reactors. It produces four million times more energy than fossil fuels of the same weight, and four times more than nuclear fission. It was of course what led to the end of the fossil emissions era, saving our planet.”

Harold was telling his company history to Raven, a new employee under his wing. Raven was an exceptional thirty-year-old PhD graduate who assumed the role of Vice Principal of Operations directly upon hiring. With his stellar test scores, Raven was tagged as the future leader of Stardust. Harold, in his mid-fifties, was the current General Manager.

The younger man added: “I studied early twenty-first century climate change denialism, and its vision of terraforming the Earth into a sub-tropical garden, like the archaic Garden of Eden. Had it prevailed, we would not have today’s advanced technology.”

“There is also the aesthetics -” added Harold, “ the ugliness of having one, monotonous climate everywhere. Gradients of climate produce the beauty of the changing seasons.”

”Yeah, back in the day they also liked sunshine and surf, while today, our more serene civilization prefers the snows and shadows of the polar circles, climes more conductive to contemplation.”

They strolled through a glass-domed bridge connecting two headquarters buildings. It gave a view of the Yukon 1 reactor disgorging a titanic white plume into the purple sub-polar twilight. Behind the watery volcano they saw already risen full Moon, its donut shape symbolising human progress.

“My dream was always to one day fly through the Heart of the Moon,” sighed Raven as he stopped to look.

“Humans almost disfigured the Moon too,” said Harold, “but thanks to our victory in the Cyber Blackmail Wars, we forced the Asians to have only one mine together with us. If not for that, our beautiful Luna would look like Swiss cheese!”

“The amount of humiliation from doxxing in that war was horrific on both sides, but at least the good guys won.”

* I.2 *

They walked into Harold’s office, where Harold introduced Raven to his first project:

“Our reactor produces four million times more heat than fossil-fuels, and four times more than nuclear fission. This translates to a lot more electricity, but also a lot more garbage heat, which we made a commitment to recycle as much as possible.

“Currently, we use the icy water from Mackenzie river to cool the reactor. After use, it is sent to the cooling tower, where it emits the great plume of vapour we just saw outside. The water cools to 30 to 40 degrees Celsius and is then released back into the river. We would like to re-route this warm water into a new heat plumbing for the City of Fort Providence. The water should heat the homes to about 15 to 20 degrees, and upon its discharge it should drop to as low as 10 to 5 degrees. This would represent a big reduction in thermal pollution of the river.”

Raven flipped through the document he was handed.

“This is exciting. It is exactly what I signed up for: making our planet a more comfortable place by reducing energy wastage!”

“I am sure you will do a great job,” Harold was reassuring. “You will work with the city mayor, Cyril Methodius.”

“Just one thing, though – if we channel the warm water to the city, the great white plume will be greatly reduced.”

“We thought of that. Don’t worry. We will install steam machines inside the tower to keep the plume going.”

* ACT II: Scene 1 *

Two weeks later Raven was driving through Fort Providence in the Edison 5 electric truck of Mayor Methodius. They first drove through the plush neighbourhoods, where every backyard had a thermal bath underneath the northern lights, each powered by Yukon 1 reactor, and where every driveway had several vehicles powered by lithium-sulphur batteries. Now, they were driving through the gritty part of town, the Fish Plains district.

“You know that the situation here is not ideal,” started Cyril, “Fish Plains residents don’t want to pay into the Stardust grid. They say, ‘We don’t want to finance Moon trips we don’t get to enjoy’.There is a big black market for gasoline fuel and generators. Also, there are many poachers who collect the dead fish that surfaces up in the warm discharge of the power plant. They cure the fish and sell it on the black market. They trade in lithium ingots they make from stolen batteries. Sometimes the ingots are laundered and sold back to the government, sometimes they make jewellery out of lithium alloys, and sometimes they simply burn lithium in bonfire parties.”

“That’s terrible,” said Raven, “isn’t there a way to prevent all this contraband?”

“Our police force is vigilant, but we don’t have the funds to completely eliminate it. When we catch a criminal, we confiscate his illicit fuel or food and we send them to rehabilitation, but the rate of relapse is very high.”

Later in the night Cyril took Raven to a strip club in the Fish Plains. He was on friendly terms with the owner, and he got the two of them a VIP seat. They had a few drinks.

“You can say anything you want about cured salmon,” yelled Cyril through the music, “but it produces some lean bodies.”

Later in the night, drunk Cyril convinced drunk Raven to get a lap dance. Later still, Cyril opened up further:

“The truth is, Fish Plains is my favourite part of town. These people treat me like a king, and in return I look the other way. On top of all that, I get a cut from all the contraband.”

“Don’t you think that’s immoral?” slurred Raven.

 “Ah, shut up, you are loving it too.” Cyril laughed.

The night ended with Cyril inviting him to his downtown apartment with two of the dancers, but Raven resisted and went home alone.

* II.2 *

Several weeks later, Raven was managing the installation of the heat pipes in the city of Fort Providence. As a gesture of goodwill to the community, he hired as the main contractor a man named Roderick, a Fish Plains ex-convict who now ran a construction crew of over fifty men.

Roderick and Raven got on very well. Raven tried his best to show the best face of Stardust and clean energy. He managed to charm Roderick with tales of space exploration and inspire him with visions of a brilliant future. He reassured him that Stardust would compensate for a possible reduction in dead salmon with a permission to fish live ones. Roderick on his part told crime stories with unhappy endings; he appeared to be awakened to the damage his criminal past had wrought upon his own and lives of his loved ones.

Roderick employed so many Fish Plains youth on the piping project that the crime rate dropped drastically. Cyril’s police forces ended up with very little work to do. As a consequence, Cyril found himself losing leverage in the city and on the streets; as there was no one to arrest, Cyril could garner no favours in exchange for privilege. He decided to do something about his power seeping so unexpectedly through his fingers. He went to visit Harold in his Stardust office.

“Your protégé is getting on awfully well with that heretic Roderick,” said Cyril. “Looks like he enjoys drinking with his ex-convict buddy. You would be wise to keep it an eye out, because Roderick has been known to convert impressionable young men to his cause.”

“Raven is a nerd,” said Harold. “No way he would swerve from the energy orthodoxy.” 

“Well, I’ve even heard rumours he is eating cured fish. You might want to check on him. And even if he’s being a good boy, he’s making you and me look like the bad guys.”

* Act III: Scene 1 *

Harold went down to the bar where Raven and Roderick hang out. He found the partners on their second beer, after a hard day of work. Harold slid into the table and ordered a bottle of vodka. After a few shots, Harold said:

“I am truly happy that you two get along so well. Now that Roderick is reformed, there will be no more unclean behaviour in Port Providence.”

“Well, Mr. Harold,” started Roderick, “with all due respect, cured salmon is not unclean. It is one of the healthiest protein sources out there.” 

“In terms of the biology of it, maybe,” said Harold, “but when I say unclean, I mean it more in an aesthetic sense. It is primitive. The woolly mammoth that cavemen ate was also rich in protein, but once humans evolved to agriculture, the mammoth hunters began to look silly.” 

“Not nearly as silly as flying all the way to the moon to get fuel to heat the Earth because fuels from earth are not good because they heat the earth.“

“Look at that,” Harold smiled, “an ex-convict is now telling me about science. Verily, Raven, you have enlightened the lower classes.”

Roderick turned to Raven: “This is your boss? Am I supposed to eat these insults? There is no working with Stardust, after all.” He tossed a couple of lithium ingots on the table and walked out. 

 Raven turned to Harold: “Why did you have to call him a criminal and all that?”

“How is that an insult? I only stated facts. The future has no room for emotions, Raven. You should know that.” 

Raven too walked out soon after, his faith in Stardust disturbed.  

* III.2 *

The next morning, Raven came to the construction site and found it wrapped with crime scene tape. Harold and Cyril told him that a group of masked men had trespassed overnight, spray-painted the security cameras, tied up the guards at gunpoint, and destroyed about a quarter mile of laid pipes and all the pipe inventory.

“I told you Roderick is a criminal.” said Harold, “He must have done this. The destruction was carried out by someone who knew exactly where to inflict maximum damage.” 

“He became a criminal after you called him a criminal!” said Raven.

“Look fellas, it doesn’t matter now,” said Cyril. “We will track Roderick and arrest him.”

Before he even completed that sentence a pair of cruisers rolled up. Roderick, in cuffs, was pulled out one of them by a pair of cops.

“I did not destroy your stupid pipes!” he yelled. “Cyril, you did this, you snake! Why are you framing me? I was going to quit the job anyways!”

“Take him away,” was Cyril’s only response. “We will talk about this in court.”

Harold then said to Raven: “You must take responsibility for hiring Roderick. I am afraid we must take you off the project and discipline you with a suspension. But don’t be too concerned about your career. This will vanish from your record before it is time for your next promotion.”

* ACT IV *

A few of months later, Roderick was in jail for sabotage of energy progress, and Raven was back to work. Taken off the Warm Pipes Project, upon his request he was transferred to the cooling tower control room. This was a routine job, but he learn a lot about the plant’s operations, because the room contained controls of the entire cooling system.

On this particular day, Raven had one of the large screens in the control room tuned in to watch the opening ceremony for the Warm Pipes, which had just been completed. Harold, as the final leader of the project, and Cyril, as the Mayor, would give speeches and cut the ribbon together. Stardust Banners fluttered around them in the fall breeze in at the Riverbank Park.

After the speeches and the ribbon cutting, Harold, Cyril and a couple of lead engineers together turned a two-meter wide valve that looked like an oversized bus wheel. They then stepped back and watched a big digital pressure gauge. The numbers jumped as expected, accompanied by deep rumbling of water inside the pipes. The crowd began clapping, but they stopped when the rumbling turned from deep to threatening. The pipes began to rattle, and suddenly, in lightning succession, the seven safety valves blew their tops straight into the sky, followed immediately by a steaming rush of seven wild streams of water, each supplying a flux of a powerful mountain stream.

Harold and Cyril and the engineers tried to get away, but the combined tsunami that rushed out the pipes easily swept them off their feet and washed them into Mackenzie river. The few locals that were also washed away managed to swim ashore downstream. Harold and Cyril, who did not know how to swim, drowned. Their bodies were found frozen and wobbling next to a dam thirty miles downstream.

* ACT V *

Three years after the incident, Raven was giving his inaugural speech as the new CEO of Stardust. He held his infant child Rod, son by his beloved wife, sister of his friend Roderick. He concluded with the following words:

“Not counting the final and fatal error that our former CEO, Harold Kumar, omitted, that technical error, and not a moral one, that resulted in the bursting of the pipes at Salmon Park and the untimely drowning of him and late Mayor Cyril Methodius, and five of our lead engineers – not counting that unfortunate and tiny blemish, Harold was a great man. And Mayor Roderick and I, Raven, shall honour the memory of Harold and Cyril by ensuring that every home in Fish Plains has access to free heating, and that no child is forced to resort to dirty fuel or primitive food sources. Thank you very much!”

After the applause from the thousand-strong crowd on the Fort Providence’s main square died down, Roderick, who was standing on Cyril’s side, stepped up to the microphone and proclaimed with a smile:

“Trust me people, Doctor Raven really knows how to keep the city clean!”