national statement at three o'clock Pacific
Time today. The main input regarding what's to be expected will come from
here. Maybe we could get together at, say, around ten to compare notes and
check numbers? That would give us about four hours to get a final line
together."
John straightened up suddenly, his feelings now venting themselves as anger.
"What's the point?"
he demanded. "Do you think there's anything they can do that's going to make a
difference? Look, if they want to make speeches and play survival games,
that's okay by me but don't drag me into it. I might decide I wanna spend my
time getting drunk, getting high, or getting laid, but I'm not gonna pretend
anything." Charlie Hu looked at his shoes. He knew that John was out of line
but apparently couldn't argue.
"It's over," a girl sitting near Keene told him. "It's taken me all night to
face it, but it's real. Nobody's going to survive this, Doctor."
Keene turned away and paced across the room to a wall board covered in
scrawled diagrams and calculations rendered in assorted colors. Maybe she'd
had all night to get around to facing it, but he had not. There were people in
Washington still of a will to do what they could and who were depending on
him. He couldn't let this come apart now.
"No!" he said sharply, turning to confront them. "I won't accept that." His
tone surprised everyone. He looked around at them. "What is this? It's easy to
pretend things about yourselves when everything is going your way. It's when
things are at their worst that you find out who you really are. Did any of you
imagine that it was going to last forever? Life is the chance to show that
you're up to doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be, the best that
you can. That's still as true if the time you've got to do it in is weeks, or
thirty more years, or a thousand.
Everybody can be someone special tomorrow, when everything will be just right.
But it's what you can be today that matters, when it's not." He extended an
arm to point at the window, although it was still dark outside and he had no
idea whether it faced eastward or not. "That's what the
President and the First Lady of this country are doing. The last time I saw
them they hadn't slept
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n.txt for two days either. They're doing what needs to be done, as best they
can, because it's their job. . . . Well, I have a job too. And so do you."
He looked around. Some of the eyes met his for a moment, then shifted away.
Others remained staring back at him. He was getting through to them. He went
on, "I know what some of you are thinking. That might be fine when it's all
for a better future. But what's the use when there isn't any future? You all
heard it a moment ago: `Nobody's going to survive this.' Well, I don't buy
that either, and I'll tell you why. John said that a lot of you here believe
the Kronians were right about Venus. Very well, I do too. And that means it
happened before three and a half thousand years ago. And some of those people
back then did survive! And they didn't have what we've got today. They didn't
have underground shelters, nonperishable foods and medical supplies,
generators, water pumps, communications equipment, and transportation to get
away from the bad spots, or our knowledge and education. And they didn't have
the Kronians out there, able to preserve that knowledge and help with the
rebuilding when the time came. But some of them made it.
Maybe it was just a couple here and there, or the remnants of a tribe on a
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mountain, but some of them had what it took to rise to something more than
just getting drunk and waiting to go down in the mud. It was because of them
that we were here to have a second chance. And some are going to make it this
time too and because of them there will be another chance one day to get it
right."
He studied the faces searchingly for a second. "Who knows? Some of them could
be you."
Keene moved across to a table where he had placed the papers he had been given
and collected them together. "If anyone here is planning on going over the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]