"The Clouds Of Saturn" - читать интересную книгу автора (McCollum Michael)

THE CLOUDS OFSATURN

A Novel By

Michael McCollum


Sci Fi - Arizona, Inc.
Third Millennium Publishing
An Online Cooperative of Writers and Resources


Prologue

The sun is a variable star. Changes in solar output have sent glaciers marching
toward the equator every fifty thousand years or so. The last such episode took
place in late prehistoric times and coincided with the displacement of
Neanderthal Man by the Cro-Magnons. Nor has Modern Man been immune to the
effects of the sunТs variability. During the Little Ice Age of the Sixteenth
through Nineteenth Century, a minor reduction in solar output caused the harbors
of Iceland and Greenland to be blocked by ice for 6 months out of every year. At
least one Viking colony starved to death because of the climatic change.
It was not until the first decade of the Twenty Second Century, however, that
humanity realized the true extent of SolТs variability. Beginning in 2102, the
sun was wracked by a series of solar flares. As such, outbursts grew more
frequent and violent; astronomers began to reexamine their long held beliefs
about the nature of the sun. It was with understandable horror that they
realized Sol was about to enter a period of long term instability. Projections
called for the sunТs output to increase gradually for several hundred years.
While minor on the scale of the universe, the change would render Earth
uninhabitable within a century. If nothing were done to stop it, the Mother of
Men would become a twin to Venus -- a hothouse planet on which liquid water no
longer existed.
Faced with extinction, the human race directed its considerable resources toward
saving the home world. No possibility was overlooked. Many research efforts were
launched in a period that became known as the Golden Age of Pure Science.
Despite their best efforts, the scientists could find no practical method for
bringing the errant star to heel. After decades of study, EarthТs leaders
reluctantly concluded that humankind would have to abandon its ancestral home.
They began to search the Solar System for a place of refuge.
The haven they chose was not one many would have guessed.






Chapter 1: The Battle of New Philadelphia

Larson Sands lay in his acceleration couch and watched the dawn asSparrowHawk