Runaway World

The Proposition

     "That's right. All the dysprosium from the Sellafield site is now deep inside Etna Mons, where we won't be seeing it again until the next time it erupts."

     "You could drop a bomb down there!" said David excitedly. "Trigger a premature eruption."

     "Believe it or not, we actually considered that," said Zhusi. "It turned out to be impractical for a number of technical reasons. Fortunately, we believe that there is another stockpile of dysprosium not too far away that you might be able to dig up for us."

     "Where?" asked Susan, leaning forward in her chair with a frown of concern.

     "LaSalle, in what used to be the USA," said Bear. "Alongside the nuclear power plant itself there was a facility that manufactured the control rods used to moderate the nuclear reactor. The particular type of control rod they made there used dysprosium, and we believe they kept a stockpile on site. More than enough for our needs. All you have to do is go over there and dig it up."

     "There are no life hutches that side of Atlantica Planitia," Andrew pointed out. "If fact, there are none on Atlantica Planitia at all. We'd be thousands of kilometres away from the nearest safe refuge if anything went wrong."

     "You wouldn't be going alone," Zhusi assured him. "We'd be sending four rovers, with enough equipment to create a permanent dig site, just like the one at Sellafield. Three other rovers to provide safe refuge. You'd be just as safe there as you were at Sellafield."

     "I imagine the remainers will try to sabotage the effort again," said Susan.

     "That's why we want you to go," said Bear. "There's no way to know who's a secret remainer, so we're manning the mission, as much as we can, with people we can trust. Your efforts while pursuing Reginald Fox proved to our satisfaction that you're not a remainer."

     "That's not what Cheval thinks," said Andrew. "He was suspicious of me the whole way."

     "Actually, it was Sergeant Cheval who recommended you," the Councilman replied. "It seems your final effort to stop the rover convinced him."

     "The reporters think I let the rover sink on purpose," said Andrew. "I could have closed the airlock door. Stopped the rover from filling up with lava. It would have floated and we could have pulled it back out."

     "Reginald Fox revealed under interrogation that he sabotaged the doors so they couldn't be closed."

     "I didn't know that. I could have tried to close them."

     "You were performing an extremely dangerous act, and you barely had time to get inside the rover before it reached the crater. No-one blames you for not thinking of it. Sergeant Cheval believes that you genuinely tried to stop the rover and so do I."

     "Damn right!" said David brightly. Jasmine and James nodded, smiling broadly.

     "David!" cried Susan sharply. "One does not use that kind of language in front of guests." She turned to the Councilmen. "I'm so sorry..."

     "Perfectly all right," said Bear, smiling in turn. "And if your husband is trustworthy, I think we can trust you and the rest of your family as well."

     "I'm sorry," said Andrew, though, "but I can't put my family in that kind of danger. Natural hazards are one thing, but people trying to sabotage the mission is something else. Windsor and Cheval were both shot. Kartoshka tried to blow up the cockpit."

     "All four rovers will be thoroughly searched to make sure nobody's smuggled any weapons aboard," said Zhusi. "And there would be no transfer of personnel between the four rovers, except in the direst emergency. There would be no opportunity for a remainer in one of the other rovers to sabotage your rover."