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.There was muted laughter as Mosovich shook his head."Ersin, dammit, I toldyou she'd be trouble!""Me? It was your idea!" the intel sergeant protested."Yeah, but I still told you she'd be trouble.""That's mah middle name, Sarn't Major.And speakin' a trouble, there's somePosleen headed this way right now." She bent over her scope."Another of themrat packs, about fifteen.""Okay, fall back to pickup.Trapp, take it slow and cautious.Martine, signalfor pickup two days from now, site A.""R-r-r.You know."14Habersham County, GA Sol III2025 December 24th, 2001 ADBy mutual agreement Mike and Sharon had decided not to move from their housein the Piedmont.The kids had gotten used to regular visits with his father upin Towns county and Sharon had her job as an engineer.Despite the recentcall-ups the majority of the conscription would not begin for another yearwhen the equipment construction really got on line.Mike was in a position topull a few strings and they had that to talk over.The drive home gave himtime to put his thoughts in order; it was going to be an odd week.Pulling into the driveway of the old farmhouse he stopped and looked acrossthe field at the sunset.One of the recent reports generated by some BeltwayBandit, one of the numerous consulting firms onPage 63ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlWashington's Beltway that provided specialized studies for the United Statesgovernment, dealt with climatological changes.Mike knew just enoughclimatology to doubt that anyone could accurately predict what theclimatological changes might be when the activities of the enemy were stillunknown, but the least that was sure to happen was some kinetic or nuclearbombardment.How much the weather changed depended on the severity of thebombardment.If there was a minimal spatial bombardment there would be a minimal drop inworldwide temperature.The converse was of course true.A minimal bombardment, sixty to seventyweapons scattered acrossEarth's surface, targeted solely on the projected Planetary Defense Centers,would have the approximate climatological effect of the Mount Pinatuboeruption.That had caused a global temperature drop of nearly a degree andsome spectacular sunsets, but otherwise weather was hardly changed.However, as the number of weapons increased so did the relative severity.Twohundred kinetic energy weapons in the five to ten kiloton range would have theequivalent effect of the Mount Krakatoa explosion, which had plunged the worldinto a mini-ice age, causing year round frosts in the late eighteen hundreds.At over four hundred weapons it was projected that a real ice age would ensue,especially as the rate of carbon dioxide emission was projected to drop tonearly nothing over the next twelve years.That particular datum called for the largest caveat in the entire report.Thereport tossed a bone to a theory that Earth was currently in the midst of anice age and that the only thing holding it off was the current rate ofCO2emission; in essence that the current scheduled ice age was held at bay by"greenhouse effect." If the theory were true, and some climatologists werewilling to admit it might be, ending the era of fossil fuels couldcoincidentally cause an ice age in and of itself.If an ice age ensued from the war, win or lose, some of the most civilizedregions of the world would become untenable.And the conditions projected forthe war itself? Mike had seen the raw reports, the ones that so far had notleaked to the press.That knowledge and calling in a few favors owed him hadcreated an awareness of a situation that no parent should ever have to face.With his mind on those thoughts he got out in the deepening twilight andwalked into the kitchen of the holiday-festive house.There was a scent of the cedar Christmas tree cut from the family farm, andSharon had been baking cookies."Hi, honey, I'm home!" The expression was trite, but the emotion behind it washeartfelt.Sharon came into the room leading the youngest.Mike's heart lurched when herealized Michelle was almost too large for her pink footie pajamas.For the past long months Mike had spent between sixty and eighty hours a weekat GalInf headquarters in Fort Benning or hopping from one military base toanother.As one of the few experts on the new infantry systems, every timethere was a snag he had to go troubleshoot.In most cases there were honestdifficulties with assimilating new technology but on several occasions he hadrun into the technophobia mentioned in regards to the new ACS commander.Eight months with almost no contact with his family and darn near no socialcontacts at all had left him drained.It was time, however short, for a break."Merry Christmas, sweetie," he said to his daughter, opening his arms for ahug."Do you have a hug forDaddy?""No!" She hugged her mother's leg and buried her face in its protectivewarmth."Why not?""Not Daddy.""Am too!"Page 64ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Not!""Meanie! Pooh!" He blew on her hair and she giggled." 'Top!""Meanie! Pooh!"Giggle." 'Top!""Meanie!.""Pooh!" Giggle."Aggh! Got me! Hug?"She wrapped her arms around him and, just for a moment, all was right with theworld."Do you have the holiday off?" asked Sharon.End of moment."Actually I have the week and a bit.But there's bad news to go with thegood.""What?" There was another surprise here and she was getting tired ofsurprises.Coping as a single mother for the last eight months had not helped."I'm getting attached to the ACS unit deploying to Diess with theexpeditionary force as an advisor," he said, standing up with the pink bundleof his daughter in his arms."You sure are getting heavy!""You're going off planet?" Sharon asked, stunned."And how." Mike nodded, dreading the coming argument."When?""Next week.This is the pre-deployment leave.""How come everyone else gets a couple of months' warning?" Sharon demanded."Probably because everyone else has a normal job," said Mike, reasonably."Well, dammit!""Honey," Mike gestured that he was still holding Michelle."Can we save thisfor a bit?""Sure.Since you're home you can give Cally a bath.""Okay.Did I miss supper?""Yes, and if you hadn't I'd have thrown it outside anyway.""Honey.""I know, but this is just a little bit hard to take, okay?" Sharon had tearsin her eyes."It's kind of hard being a single mom all the time, okay? Andit's kind of hard knowing what's coming.And I've just about had as much as Ican take.The projects are piling up and I feel like every time I take timeoff for the family I'm letting our side down!"Mike stood silent [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]