The Morning After

The Morning After

Kristiana awoke with a startle - feeling strange sheets as a strange alarm went off.  No partner in the bed - and then she realized where she was - who she was - and what she had done last night.

"Well, it has started".  Will last night be a tipping point in the history of humanity ? Possibly - but in all probability the answer will be long after I am gone.

Well, what now ? Her role is supposed to be primarily ceremonial, but also moral and acting in the greater national - and now human - interest. Her time as Minister of Energy, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister will give her tools to manipulate behind the scenes.

One goal is to influence Antarctica. It has been almost a century since the President made a personal trip to Antarctica - perhaps now is the time to help reunite the two cultures again.  Towards the end of her time as Prime Minister she had set in motion a new Grand Convoy to Antarctica just as the last one returned - but with two new ships.

Her housekeeper had asked before her inauguration her food and morning preferences, so she left her bedchambers and found a note on the table saying "Skyr and fruit are in the refrigerator" with an arrow pointing in that direction.  She ate that while scanning the morning paper "Late Night Festivities at the Presidential Inauguration" was mentioned in a sidebar. The rest of the front page was largely about the inauguration.

She quickly showered and dressed and then left her personal chambers.  Promptly at 8:30 AM, as she had earlier requested, the staff arrived. It all seemed so surreal - a new life had begun.

"Today's schedule is relatively light, Madame President. The Norge champion football team will arrive at 1:30 PM and the Union Prime Minister will arrive for his weekly consultation at 6 PM. We will be glad to show you around the Presidential Palace at your convenience."

She toured her new residence, meet the team - a fine group of young women - and was sitting in her private reception room when the Prime Minister with his personal secretary arrived. Once her Minster of War when she was Prime Minister, she knew him well.  She almost rose to greet him, then she remembered protocol.  Once upon a time, she had been the one going to the Presidential Palace to brief the President.

He briefly bowed, expressed his congratulations and then sat down. "Madame President, first let us cover the other issues before we discuss the decisions of last night". So they covered the upcoming opening of the Union Althingi, and her opening speech, the outlines of the budget (with more detail to follow), the diplomatic situation, and the upcoming election in Svei.

"And that leaves Antarctica. How are we to notify them that they need to make a decision ?"

"Perhaps I can help do that in person".

The PM gasped. "No President has visited Antarctica in almost a century !"

"Then it is well past time to do so."

"Due to the risk, we must keep this secret".

"All Grand Convoys sail in secret.  And we need to tell the radio and newspapers to not mention the decisions of last night under the State Secrets Act.  Several of the Caliphates have ambassadors here, plus merchants. Scandinavia has already made their decision with a plebiscite- there is no further need for public discussion here. And Antarctica has no Islamic embassies or visiting merchants."

"Delta Pavonis is deep in the Southern sky. It is always in the Antarctic sky, and never in ours. If your government will agree, I would like to sail with the equipment needed for another interstellar communications station. Antarctica can fabricate the antennas and wire, but not the computers or the rest. I think that such a project could fire their imagination".

"Yes.  We will discuss this at the next Cabinet meeting".

"Till next week ?".

"Yes, Madame President".





  

Reviving Technology

Twelve days after the inauguration came a day Kristiana was looking forward to. Perhaps the most substantial direct power of the President of the Union of Scandinavia & Antarctica is Chairing the Technology Committee.

The President is the only elected politician on the Committee, the rest are professors and engineers. The Technology Committee is charged with deciding which technologies to revive or abandon.

In the past, the Committee did triage on technology, deciding what to give up and what to struggle to keep in those stressful years.  Today, the more pleasant task is deciding what technologies to revive. Unfortunately, technologies useful in violence against humans too often got priority.

Once she declared her candidacy for the Presidency, she and three other candidates were invited as observers.  After observing four meetings, and reading the minutes for several years back, she was not quite so lost with the issues, the criteria and the logic used in making decisions.

After the initial opening remarks and congratulations, Kristiana went to the item she has placed first on the agenda - Technology in Antarctica.

"As you all know, Antarctica does not have a representative on this committee, they do not have a university with research capabilities and only agricultural and forestry research stations. The only manufacturing that they have that requires technology beyond mid-20th Century is to produce medicine for local consumption - and even in that area we ship them the more difficult to fabricate medicines.  And they do not even have that much mid-20th Century technology.

In the last census, they had 1.9 million people to Scandinavia's 7.1 million.  The Antarctic culture is evolving away from Scandinavia as they move away from learning and education.  The frontier mentality there needs, in my opinion, to evolve.

It is the role of this committee to select technologies to revive, and new technologies to pursue - and that includes technology for Antarctica. What should we do ? And how to do it, given the disconnection between this committee and Down Under ?

I should also mention that I plan to visit Antarctica with the next Grand Convoy - and I can bring some people with me.

Arni said - "Yes, we need to bring Antarctica into the development of technology, and more than just duplicating what we do up here in the North. Antarctica needs to do their own original work. And that will require a spark that they do not yet seem to have."

"Intellectuals will likely always be a minority in Antarctica, but they need to become a visible, and important minority".

Gudmunder responded "We must be careful not to disrupt the mutually beneficial North-South trade. We ship technological products south and get a variety of critical metals back. Plus wheat in bad years."

Bridgette broke in with "When, not if, Antarctica recreates some technology we do not yet have, we can trade for that as well. It is MUCH better to get it from Antarctica than not at all".

"Antarctica is *US* - not some foreign power ! We on this committee, despite the lack of a Southern representative - do represent both the North and the South" declared Kristiana. "We need to think of Antarctica as an integral part of our entire Union".

She then shifted the discussion to an issue that was quite important to her.

"As you know, Antarctica has yet to respond "Yes" or "No" to the Alien Invitation. As most of you also know, Delta Pavonis is high in the Southern sky and cannot be seen directly from Scandinavia. Apparently we can communicate with the aliens of Delta Pavonis on long wave, just as we received their message. But it should be better to do so with direct line of sight communications."

"The small community of Star's Reach  appears not to be able to agree to say "Yes". So if we are to say "Yes" and not involve them, we need to use radio signals that do not reach Stars Reach. A higher frequency line-of-sight radio link from Antarctica is the obvious solution to joining the Alien Conversation without involving Stars Reach - or any of our primary rivals that may develop the required technology to listen in."

"In addition, from a geopolitical perspective, if may be better to keep our communication with "jinns and sorcerers" away from Islamic powers. So may I suggest that we bring the radio gear necessary for an interstellar communication post with us on the next Grand Convoy. This should fire the imagination of more than one bright, young Antarctic student. We should bring copies of our entire Cetan archives as well as the movie theater version of the Alien Invitation to provide the basis of an Antarctic Alien Contact Research Institution - unless someone can come up with better acronym."

A bit of laughter at the end of that dramatic proposal.  And they quickly agreed to ship the necessary equipment and data south on the next Grand Convoy.

They also quickly agreed to go ahead with field tests of four different types of Old World solar photovoltaics - being developed primarily for export. Ascension and Base Islands were the logical long term test locations but they added Antarctica for "social reasons" as well.

The committee agreed to approve and recommend funding experimentation with an oxygen atmosphere adaptation of the photovoltaic device Tau Ceti had transmitted.

The committee tabled a request for production of a more sophisticated integrated circuit chip.  The resources required, the risk and the marginal benefits from a one generation better logic chip and larger memory chips - "Does not compute" as Gudmunder quipped. Arni added "Besides, we still have 14% of the batches of durable chips that Denmark and Sweden ordered for long term cold storage at the end of the Old World".

A research professor at the University of Nye Aarhus wanted permission to repeat and expand Old World research to use X-rays to stimulate metastable Silver 108 (Ag108). A physicist on the committee had to spend 20 minutes just explaining this one.

When nuclear reactors split uranium or thorium into two atoms, about 4% of the atoms were Ag108. Most Ag108 atoms had round nucleus and were stable. 48% of the silver in the world was stable Ag108. But a good percent of the Ag108 formed by fission had oblong shaped nucleus.  These were metastable atoms.

With a half-life of 418 years, these metastable Ag108 atoms would spontaneously rearrange themselves into round nucleus and emit a gamma ray to get rid of the now excess energy.

The Union had reprocessed tens of thousands of tons of used nuclear fuel to extract the platinum group metals (palladium, rhodium and ruthenium). Over 16,000 tons has been processed further to extract the silver, zirconium and some other metals. These tons of silver were slightly radioactive due to metastable Ag108, which restricted their use.  It would be thousands of years more before the radioactivity would fade away naturally.

Some Old World researchers found that certain X-rays would stimulate metastable atoms to decay immediately - instead of waiting for several half-lives. This researcher wanted to pick up where the Old World left off. The used nuclear fuel held by the Union, reprocessed and not, had almost 16,500 tonnes of slightly radioactive silver in it. This researcher MIGHT find a way to make that silver generally useful, instead of being restricted to applications where people had very little exposure.

He needed only modest resources to pursue this research, so the proposal was quickly accepted once it was understood.

A previously tabled proposal to develop zeppelins decades before was brought up again by Kristiana. She talked about the benefits in accessing vast sections of East Antarctica, far from any rail line.  She also pointed out that the winds in interior Antarctica should not excessively disrupt zeppelin use.

Gudmunder suggested several potential military applications of zeppelins.

Anna pointed out that Zeppelins would mostly use available technology, unless they wanted to use a better gas bag envelope than gold beater's skin. The Old World had several good candidates for gas bag membranes, but none were made today.

Further discussion lead to deciding to charge Antarctica with developing Zeppelins if they would fund the research & development. Several technical experts would be encouraged to immigrate South to help in the development. Later, they could export Zeppelins to the North, perhaps flying South to North.

There was a lengthy discussion in trying to recreate an Old World anti-viral drug which was never produced in Scandinavia - and hence there was no detailed production information in the archives. It was estimated to be able to reduce about 450 deaths per year in those under age 72 and another 110 in older people. This antiviral was also effective against the genetically engineered "Blue Tongue" virus. This virus had apparently died out, but a stockpile may still exist outside the Union or a remote population might still suffer from it.

After extended debate, they agreed to approve work on synthesizing the most difficult precursor chemical.  If researchers could successfully do that, then an effort could be made to do the rest.

And with that the meeting drew to a close. The committee members went to the adjacent Presidential Library for drinks and more discussion - while waiting for dinner to be served in another room of the Presidential Palace in Bergen.

The Technology Committee was an all day affair most months. The after meeting informal discussions were a vital part of the process. A most enjoyable and stimulating conclusion to an exhausting day.

Nobel Prize Awards

This years awards are as follows:

The Nobel Peace Prize goes to the Sultan of Turkey for shipping several shiploads of grain and edible oils to the Southern Rus after their second poor harvest. His gift at their time of great need meet the highest standards of charity and preserved the peace by preventing raids of desperation for food.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to Ivana Ivanovich of Muscovy for her innovative work on using pH and silver solutions to treat serious skin infections.

The Nobel Prize for Agriculture goes to Jin Wang of New China for developing the cherry hybrids "Red Dawn", "Red Sunset", "Yellow Sun", "Pillow" and others. These hybrids  extended the range of cherry cultivation as well as the cherry season.

The Nobel Prize for Chemistry goes to Zhou Dadi of New China and Lief Sorensen of Jutland for their work on the release of carbon dioxide from the oceans and the effects of this on ocean pH, ocean chemistry and stabilizing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The Nobel Prize for Physics and Engineering goes to Arni Benidktsson of Antarctica for his pioneering theoretical work on new zeppelins involving a hydrogen core and a hot air inert gas surrounding the hydrogen core.

The Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Erik Egilsson of Iceland for his epic "The Decline and Fall of the American Empire" where he traces the consistent refusal to make logical decisions in America's long term self interest. He explores the consequences of choosing short term gratification and making irrational, emotionally driven decisions time and again. His epic work is a resource for not only for historians but also a guide for decision makers and informed citizens today and tomorrow.

Expanded later into story form.

Preparing for the Weekend of Remembering

{sigh} Being a Philosopher Queen is not all it is cracked up to be.  But I did ask for the job.

She stared at the white piece of paper with a sharpened pencil in her hand.

OK, it is always good to start with a well known saying.

 Lessons learned from experience should not be relearned from new mistakes

No, that is not it, as she angrily drew a line through the sentence.

OK, what are my themes for this annual period of introspection ?

For over three centuries we have looked back at what we once had. The Old World that ended 349 years ago today. All of our electronics and much of the electricity we depended on for survival vanished with an invisible solar flare.  Yet, this was just the final death blow for a civilization that was already clearly dying.

Now, perhaps, it is at long last time to turn our eyes forward to the future. Mindful of the past - none-the-less the Old World is slipping into history to join the Vikings and the Roman Empire.

We set aside these three or four days, as winter arrives and the days shorten in the North, to think about what was, what is and what will be. What is worth doing - and what just destroys ourselves and the world around us. What is worth working for, worth living for and even what is worth dying for ?

Ok, not bad - but I am going down a well worn path. She laid down one pencil and picked up another.

One of our traditions is that politicians, and everyone else, can say the truth as they understand it on this weekend without it being held against them. I may have need of that tradition.

There is general agreement that the Old World doomed itself - driven by the verities of human nature. Humanity, including Scandinavia, destroyed the world we lived in while extracting, or just destroying, everything that could not be replaced in a truly mad rush to consume MORE! As all others rushed forward into our mutual doom, we Scandinavians pulled back just a bit from the rest in the plunge other the cliff.

We prepared and adapted while there was still time to do so - even though we were not clear about just what we were preparing for. We were far from perfect in our preparations, but we did make an effort towards sustainably, redundancy and reducing our use of fossil fuels. 

Nature placed us in a favorable place as Climate Chaos engulfed the globe. We settled Greonland as the glaciers retreated and used that experience to settle Antarctica in turn.

We found, and clung to, a different part of human nature - our rationality. And if we ever depart from this, we need only look elsewhere in the world to see the inevitable consequences.

Good :-) as she grabbed another pencil.

We are now slowly emerging into a different stage of our development. So far, for over three centuries, we have been walking like an exhausted person, putting one step in front of another, trying to just keep going. Just now, perhaps, it is time to raise our gaze to the horizon.

Where do we want to go ? There are many paths we can take from here, in every direction. Providence, and our own rationality, has given the Union of Scandinavia & Antarctica an opportunity that appears to be unique in the history of humanity.

{sigh} Is that enough ? Perhaps. Let me  eat supper and reflect.

After a fine dinner with the President of the University of Bergen, some Deans and selected students of excellent mixed vegetable soup, cod cheeks (Presidents do eat well), new potatoes, asparagus and rhubarb pie she returned to her task.

At dinner, they had discussed the Alien Invitation (all were strongly in favor of "Yes"), the academic balance between the three pillars - Technology, Social Sciences and Humanities at universities, the state of Antarctic education and the limited number of students that came North.

With her mind refreshed, and belly full, she picked up the pencil again.

There is something in human nature that wants MORE - and rationality can be used to rationalize this very basic human drive. Far too often rationality follows and does not lead this desire for more.

We settled Greonland and then Antarctica to replace the lost lands of Denmark - or so we told ourselves. It is impossible to recreate those moments in history, but I wonder if we would have still settled the new lands out of a lust for expansion if we did not have millions of Climate refugees looking desperately for a new home ?

OK, time to make that link. As she picked up a new pencil.

There is one path open to us that promises MORE - but more rationality. The Alien Invitation will expose us to novel ideas, concepts that will challenge us and unique ways of thinking. Millennium of experience and thought by dozens of civilizations are available to us. 

The limits imposed by nature will give us time to reflect and absorb these new worlds of thought.

She put down her pencil and went to get a cup of hot tea out of the insulated carafe used after dinner.
ANYTHING to escape from the difficult pain of writing !

Beyond the unique opportunity presented by the Alien Invitation, we live in a world where our Union is currently First among nations. The best technology, the largest population by a modest margin and the only mines not yet exhausted. But we are still fewer than 9 million people, our technology is a century behind the Old World peak and our few mines are finite.

We need to plan for the longer term, as our foremothers and fathers did.

For almost four centuries, our civilization has been like an exhausted traveler, struggling to survive.  We struggled just to put one foot in front of another - to just keep going !

Now, after almost four centuries, perhaps it is time to left our gaze from the road, and the obstacles,  immediately ahead and look to the horizons.

The Old World, like the Vikings and Roman Empire before them, is slipping into history as the centuries pass by, one by one. Ahead are a number of possible New Worlds, still shrouded in the mist of the future.

We have an opportunity, perhaps unique in human history, to shape our own destiny. But before we ask "What do we want", let us ask "Why do we want it ?"

This could use some editing - I used the Vikings & Romans twice - and that weary step by step analogy twice.

But that is the truth! For centuries we have been struggling just to get by. Now we finally have time and energy - and enough dominance - to look at our longer term options.

A world wide empire ? That would last a few centuries, and what would that gain us ? The "us" of humanity as well as the "us" of the Union.

Perhaps a benign assimilation, much like the Roman Republic assimilated the rest of Italy ? Some peoples, yes, maybe. From all reports Zealand might fit in. Maybe Nuwinga, Ganda - perhaps even Meriga. Although that Gaia nonsense would be an issue. Even our friends the Rus and New China would likely not become very good Scandinavians.

The world is much much more than just a few selected peoples. Assimilation of all is not the path - even if it was possible.

Rationality and valuing the long term social good are our hallmarks - traits not easily taught to others. {sigh}

Perhaps a good nights sleep will give me the answer to the best path for humanity for the next few millennium. Or perhaps the Aliens will just tell us. {chuckle}

She laid down her worn pencil and prepared for bed.

Future Chapters - Bits & Pieces

 I have not the discipline or skill of Michael Greer.  But here are some bits & pieces of future chapters.
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Madame President, we are here to discuss your plans to visit Antarctica.

There are some rumors circulating that you will be on the next Grand Convoy. We are unsure if any of these rumors have reached any of the Islamic embassies - or their spies.

We always sail the Grand Convoy in secrecy. We do not think that the Spanish or Liberian Navy can successfully challenge the convoy, but we do not wish to test that assumption. And so-called "pirates" have taken ships that became separated from the Convoy in decades past. The technology we take has value, which is why we separate every critical technology into two or more ships. Capturing just one has limited value.

We have three southern Greonlandic fjords where we assemble the Grand Convoy.  We randomly switch from one to another - and the planners do in fact roll dice to pick which one.

All three have sheltered anchorages that cannot be seen from the open ocean - or the coastal rail line.  From one of the three, the convoy will sail one evening at dusk.  This reduces the risk that an off-course Islamic fishing boat will sight the convoy sailing, and radio ahead.

There will be sixteen ships in this convoy. Four armored ships with 75, 88 or 105 mm cannon, plus the new USAS Kannon and the USAS Antarctica that you and your entourage will be traveling in. The other ten merchant ships include six steel hulled and four steel framed wooden hulled ships, but all are of the modified Cutty Sark class, so they sail much the same and can keep pace.

All ships have sails and auxiliary power - although the auxiliary power varies considerably. Besides the crew and 8,510 tons of freight, 623 passengers will be on this passage. 105 crew members will emigrate to Antarctica and be replaced in Antarctica with 105 crew wishing to settle or study in the North.

Previous Grand Convoys have taken from 49 to 119 days to travel North to South, and slightly longer South to North. They are timed to pass through the North Atlantic just before the hurricane season starts in earnest.

There are no hurricanes possible within 9 degrees of the equator. The cold water currents of the South Atlantic and geography prevent truly dangerous hurricanes from forming there.

We need to create a cover story that will cover your disappearance till you are well at sea. hopefully south of the Azores.  We are currently at peace - but so called pirates have often attacked at such times.

Please consider what might work as a cover story. Talk with your staff, but keep this plan from becoming known outside a small group.

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As she took the special rail spur in tunnel towards the waiting Grand Convoy, her escort proceeded to tell her much of what she already knew, but she kept quiet. As Prime Minister she had approved building these two ships more than a decade before.

"The USAS Antarctica is the prototype of a new class of armed merchantmen that need not sail in convoy, although traveling in pairs or threes may be advisable once the USAS Ascension is completed.

We hope that this class of ships will create a constant flow of people and goods between North and South, instead of Grand Convoys every few years.

She is capable of sailing without sail, if you pardon the term, from Greonland to Ascension Island and possibly even to Antarctica at the slowest speed.  She burns a special bio-diesel methanol mix in a slow speed diesel engine to generate electricity, which then powers the electric motors driving the screws. Much of the fuel loaded in the North comes from tree sap, distilled to remove water and then dissolved in methanol, thereby reducing the problem of burning food for fuel. Once we refuel in Ascension, we will switch to a conventional bio-diesel shipped from Antarctica.

Her sails will save fuel and often increase her speed. Yet to keep pace with the Cutty Sark class ships also in the convoy, she will to use her auxiliary motors most of the time to supplement her sails.

She has three swivel turrets, mounting twin 105 mm cannon towards the bow and two 88 mm cannon towards the stern, to discourage a stern chase. And a single rapid fire 57 mm Bofors gun just forward of the main mast. The rifling of the barrels is opposite in each pair, so they do not create torque when fired in volley. {That she did not know). The forward and aft turrets have almost a 300 degree traverse, a bit more for the mid-ship 57 mm. The masts are mounted between the two main turrets, except for the mast most forward. That mast can be tilted down over the bow and the bowspirit.

We have been sailing the USAS Antarctica between various ports without Islamic presence for almost two years now, and she appears to be quite seaworthy. Rumors have circulated, and we are sure that something is known of her in the Azores. Hopefully enough to discourage any "unauthorized" pirate attacks.

She has a unique titanium hull, alloyed with 0.28% ruthenium for improved corrosion resistance. The ruthenium comes from processing used nuclear reactor fuel. The framing was also titanium, but with a less ruthenium alloy. Much of the remainder of the interior was built with plywood and recycled plastics from the Old World. 

This light weight structure increased the cargo and fuel she can carry, and should give her hull and framing a working life of much more than a century. The interior, engines and masts will likely need to be rebuilt in a few decades.

She has a crew of 43, cabins for 80 to 102 passengers and 1,914 tonnes of cargo.  All capable passengers are trained to help repel boarders, just in case.

"How much ruthenium did she require ?"

This surprised the aide, who stammered, "Three and a half tons from our nuclear fuel reprocessing. It makes the titanium almost totally resistant to corrosion. The hull, frame and plates should last for centuries."

He then continued on his rather obviously memorized speech.

The USAS Kannon is built around a single German 380 mm cannon. The Germans originally designed the gun for shipboard use but installed it in Denmark as a coastal gun. It was left behind in Denmark after the long ago World War II.  Four comparable 408 mm cannons were left in Norway and all five were transferred inland from museums as the waters rose.

Nowhere in the world is there artillery comparable to the 88 mm and 105 mm cannons deployed by our Union forces except a very few left over from the Old World. The existence of these historic very large artillery pieces is, as far as can be determined, completely unknown outside the USA. With a light weight shell, this unique gun has a range of 40 km, well over the horizon. A single shell can sink any ship afloat or devaste any fortress.
 .
.. more ...

They pulled out of Jamestown Harbor with the early morning sun on auxiliary power and then quickly set sail tacking southeast. For the next 27 days they sailed south, passing Tristan du Cunha in the night. Just before the Grand Convoy entered the Southern Ocean, at 39 degrees S latitude, the USAS Kannon turned back with the military escorts to Ascension - her new base when not escorting the Grand Convoy. This was far south of any known pirate sighting.

The Kannon would be docked inside a covered dock in a secondary inlet on Ascension. It should remain secret, beyond some rumors, from the Islamic powers for quite some time.  Several other rumors were being deliberately circulated as well - to hide the truth amongst the false. Based at Ascension, she would be close to West and South Africa, and close enough to the Azores and Europe if needed there, or Antarctica if needed there.

The Grand Convoy entered the Southern Ocean ! Wild winds and waves that traveled around the world, without a speck of land to absorb the energy.  A wild ocean for eons.

The USAS Antarctica, as planned, furled her sails and separated from the rest of the convoy with her electric motors driven by the biodiesel generators. Hard shocks rocked the ship as her bow bit into towering waves for three days till she entered the lee of the Palmer Peninsula. There the seas were still rough, but nothing compared to the wild sea she just left.

Sails were set, and she quickly headed for the capital of Antarctica, Nye Copenhagen. Named after the lost city that so many settlers left behind.  Nestled on the Ronne Sea, not far from the base of the Palmer Peninsula, Nye Copenhagen was midway between Palmer and West Antarctica. An ideal location for trade as well as governance at 79 degrees latitude, nestled in the shadow on the Ellsworth Mountains on the northern bank of the Minnesota fjord - the only pass through the 4,500 meter Ellsworth Mountains.

The rain

 shadow of the Ellsworth Mountains, the highest in Antarctica, also made the coast around Nye Copenhagen the sunniest place - and one of the least windy - in Antarctica. Places further north may have more sun on the top of the clouds, but not as much reached the ground.

Four major rail lines radiated out from Nye Copenhagen - the Palmer Line, the East Antarctica Line that lead through the TransAntarctic Mountains between the Theil and Whitmore Mountains and two rail lines that went deep in a loop through the hinterlands of West Antarctica around deep Vostok Lake. A rail line ran along the coast north towards Palmer, the other two tracks went up the Montana fjord to East Antarctica, with one turning towards the highlands of West Antarctica. All 1.1 meter gauge like her native Iceland and Spitsbergen.

Since they arrived in late Spring, the days were already long.

Nye Copenhagen had been told of her coming, first from Greonland and then from Ascension. The AM radio of the USAS Antarctica reached a station on Palmer 31 hours before their arrival in Nye Copenhagen. The town was well prepared for the first sitting Union President to arrive in 89 years !

Not just the citizens of the capital but tens of thousands from the hinterlands had traveled by packed trains for this historic moment.

She had requested a day or two to recuperate from a rough crossing before launching on her Grand Tour - but that did not dampen her reception :-)

The President and Prime Minister, with her cabinet and several members of the Opposition, were waiting for her unsteady walk down the gangway. At her request, the Captain took the ship in slowly once in calm waters to give her more time to prepare - physically and mentally.

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On the train towards Western Antarctica, she passed through arboreal forests, several times catching glimpses of Zubrons here and there. The only ungulate suitable for the challenging environment of new forests on old glacier fields in Groenland and in Antarctic.

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The day after her landing had been left open for her rest and recuperation. It was a Saturday, so she asked if she might attend one of the five synagogues in Antarctica, but without public notice. Crowds were waiting outside her guest house, so ....

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On the third day since landing, the President, Prime Minister and the Security Ministers gave her a briefing on external affairs.

We do not allow any foreign vessels to enter our waters, and we have not found any evidence of an unauthorized landing. But we would likely not find evan a small settlement for many years if they put it up a random fjord or a few kilometers inland.

The only powers with sufficient technology to possibly reach Antarctica in the South are the various states of Argent and Brazil, Southern Africa and further north in East & West Africa and maybe, just possibly, the Kiwis.

As you know, the Australians set up two settlements - at Davis on Pryoz Bay and Casey in Wilkes Land in the 2060s. We long ago incorporated Davis into our society as the port for the major river of West Australia.. The other former Australian settlement, Casey, has remained isolated. We do not have a rail line there and trading vessels only call there five or six times per year. They vote and send a representative to our Althingi, but they are a people apart, with their own language.

Kristiana asked "How many are there ?"

About 5,600 in the last census, but we believe that several hundred more are in the remote forests. So 6,000, give or take,  Plus several thousand more that have moved into our cities and settled areas and their immediate descendants. Their homeland has descended into barbarism and savagery, so that tie is gone forever.

Australia itself, as you know, fell very hard to Climate Chaos and over population in the 2060s. They were already on food rationing when the Great Hunger hit and that set off famine and civil unrest, with the strong eating well.  This, in turn, set off a quick spiral downward with their two Antarctic settlements being populated by desperate refugees from the chaos. Most starved, but a few survived.

Based on our coastal exploration and a few inland expeditions, Australia may have only 100,000 to 200,000 people left.  Mostly hunter gatherers, and some irrigated agriculture in the formerly Snowy and Blue Mountains.  Except for a few remaining mineral deposits that they did not ship to China, there is little left to attract anyone there.

Tasmania is somewhat more interesting. They are still a green land and maintained a minimal industrial civilization, based on their hydropower till 2250 or so.  But that collapsed as well in a civil war.  And after that, their population crashed. There may be just 10,000 Tasmanians left, maybe 15,000 or even 20,000. Like Australia, their most fearsome weapon is a crossbow made from salvaged materials.

Our expeditions have found several hydroelectric power plants that we can rebuild. The land is fertile enough, and wet enough, to establish a successful colony - either ours or someone else's.  One question is what to do with the remaining Tasmanian savages.

The Kiwis are better off. The North Island has several strong sheriffs that owe nominal fealty to their King. The South Island is split into two Republics and a Kingdom. We have helped all four keep their small hydroelectric plants going and supplied semi-finished goods for domestic manufacturing. Cloth and sewing machines for example. Horseshoes and anvils and so forth. And we help them keep their rail lines running. We quite deliberately keep them dependent on us. And no weapons !

But they have little to export to us except speciality foods. Apples, butter and cheese and so forth. We have wool enough, and wheat and meat. They want more than they have value to trade for. We have considered whether to rehabilitate their largest hydroelectric dam and build an aluminum smelter and other power intensive industry there. This could forge a deeper and more permanent bond.  However, the lack of unity may make that investment "complicated" with future intra-island conflicts.

The Kiwis build small ships for coastal trading and to go between North and South Island.  As far as we know, not one has crossed the Southern Ocean and only a few have gone to Australia or New Guinea.

Africa is the largest potential problem, East and West Africa. ...

For the last two decades, both Argent and Brazil have been broken up into small kingdoms and republics. As such, their industrial potential and technology have been stifled. Again, both we and the North have provided assistance to keep their hydroelectric dams and railroads operating at a minimal level.

We have friendly relations with the largest coastal power, the Republic of Bahia. Since they are a limited franchise democracy, we share some values. Bahia has extensive coastal trade along the Atlantic and considerable trade across the Atlantic to Benin. Our Base Island is along that route and frequently sights sails.  A few times an apparently Bahia ship, with light round shot cannon, has anchored off base Island. A warning shot or two and they pulled up anchor.
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At aptly named Zubron, she was taken on a tour of their breeding operations (thankfully, she was spared the slaughterhouse !). Her tour guide explained "Our system was first developed in Groenland, but they have since moved to more intensive methods."

We let the heifers and steers wander the forest on their own, but we keep all the bulls here in these pens.  When a heifer comes into heat, she will come towards the pens and often bellow for a bull. We let those in that we chose not to cull immediately and let them breed. After the heifer is breed, we keep her is this larger fenced ranch.

After she calves, if the calf is a heifer, we mark the calf and let them back into the forest almost immediately. If the calf is a bull, we keep them until he is old enough to castrate (She winced just a bit at this) and release them to the forest or to slaughter for veal.

A very few bull calves are allowed to develop into young bulls if they and their mothers exhibit desirable traits.

Harvest teams go from a variety of rail heads into the forest and slaughter the steers and older heifers. Unless they are very close to our packing plants, we field dress them and bring back just the meat and hides.

"And what traits do you find desirable for your bulls ?" she asked.

......

The Voyage South - Midway

The Captain mentioned at dinner two days before they arrived at Ascension Island. "In the Old World, Ascension Island was once called St. Helena - and what we now call "Base Island" was once called Ascension".

The early Union knew that word of their midway replenishing base would inevitably leak out and old maps would show precisely where St. Helena was.  However, if we called the island Ascension, then any adversaries maps would lead them over 1,000 km away.

We do have a small fortified base on Base Island, with it's own set of Alexanderson repeaters and a platoon of personnel - about all that the water there will support.  But there is no harbor there at all. Landing supplies on the open beach there requires co-operative weather.

This was a simple strategic deception that lasted for almost a century.  The permanent residents of Ascension Island still call themselves "Saints", the last residue of their historic name.
--------------
The convoy sited the island by the rising sun and sailed towards the southern coast. One by one, each ship went into Jamestown Bay to a quay, until all six quays were full. The first group disembarked all the passengers and most of their crew. They then pulled out and anchored in the road off the coast, while the second group of ships, with the cargo to be offloaded, pulled in.

The President's Ship pulled into the quay directly underneath Jacob's Ladder. Once 699 steps, a rising sea level shortened the climb to 389 steps while turning the former capital into the best bay on the island.

Kristiana meet the welcoming group of local dignitaries, but declined to take the waiting train (carved in a tunnel with a curving spur to each quay).  Instead she took Jacob's Ladder to the top of the mountain, Even 389 steps were still an exhausting climb up as Kristina soon found out. She  blamed the weeks on board a cramped ship.

On the way up, as she paused to catch her breath, she saw the one of the two disassembled 88's that they had brought being unloaded. Two more cannons added to the stockpile already in place.  One was a rail mounted gun - the other one towed by a tractor or a mule team. Both could move to whichever coast a fleet threatened.

Most of Africa was also Islamic and they had reports that Europe and Africa were growing closer with more trade and more embassies. Benin and that other nation had united by marriage and could become a major African power with a few conquests. As the Union's technology improved so did that of Islam. And then there were the Brazelian and Argent states to worry about.

Without Ascension Island (both of them. she chuckled to herself), radio communication would be spotty and trade would be more difficult. And if they should be turned into pirate bases - that would be a problem !

Yes, it is best to keep these islands in our hands.
--------------
The six day lay-over allowed the small longshore crew on Ascension to refuel the bio-diesel & methanol, offload the cargo for Ascension Island, load water and fresh food (so many tropical fruits she had never tasted before !) for the Grand Convoy. She toured all over this hot little island, spoke at local schools and citizen meetings. She threw the switch "starting" the experimental solar photovoltaic panels they brought with them. The politician in her soul reveled at all of this !

The Saints, as the people called themselves, were different, but still the same - and they were her people.  They spoke an odd form of Danish, much more than an Antarctic accent. Quite friendly and just a bit too enthusiastic.

A couple of hundred to a thousand or so Union troops, more and less, had been stationed on Ascension for almost three centuries. They kept busy building things. Fortifications and gun emplacements, railroads and tunnels, buildings and reclaiming wastelands devastated by goats eight centuries before. They even finished the useless air strip that the long gone British had started almost four centuries before - and then placed large rocks all over it.  Just in case the Union ever revived long distance aircraft - and it kept the men and women stationed there busy. Everywhere she turned, there was yet another man-made construction.

At first she thought the elaborate carvings in her quarters were special - but she soon found comparable furniture and doors throughout out the island.  Imported from Antarctica, this is what many Southerners did during the long winter nights.

Wind turbines, pumped storage and several tinnes of silver zinc batteries supplied the modest energy needs of the island.  The all important radio transmission, fans, LED lights (another megalumen in their cargo for Ascension), some refrigeration and motors for pumps to move water and the 1.1 meter gauge railroad were the primary needs for power.  No heating required - for reasons that were quite self evident.

She took up the offer to go up in the observation ballon, tethered to a mast on Diana's Peak - the tallest point of the island. A mottled camouflage of whitish blue, light sky blue and very light grey, it typically went up at dawn and down at dusk.  If a foreign sail was seen, a motor boat went out to warm it. No foreign ships were allowed into Jamestown harbor - or any Antarctic harbor.

This was only her second time up in a balloon, and this was a breath taking, incrediable vista !  The balloon bobbed and dipped in the winds, and soon she began to regret eating breakfast.  Her pilot smiled and said "It always takes new recruits a while to get their air legs".

During the Collapse, before a Union convoy stopped and traded supplies with the stranded and struggling natives, Napoleon's house of exile had been allowed to collapse. A replica had been erected on the site, using what materials they could salvage plus new local wood. She looked though the window that the once legendary Napoleon had looked through, at the same garden he had created.

She regained some of her stamina climbing the innumerable hills and gullies, marveling at the endemic cabbage trees and other tropical trees.  She came to like that exotic drink she knew only from history - coffee. Supposedly the  coffee grown on Ascension is the mildest and smoothest in the world. "Well - why not start with the best ?" she asked herself.

A truly unique and exotic place in the world - she was glad she would see it again on her return voyage.

Grand Tour of Antarctica - Day 7 - Sinai Synagogue

Today should be interesting.

Religion was fading in the North, and observant Jews were fading a bit faster then Lutherans or any of the others. But the South had had a series of religious revivals and just growing interest in religion - and little drop-off in between the periods of religious fervor.

Conversions to Judaism had continued, growing their numbers. The briefing summary said almost 11% of the adult population of Antarctica elected to pay a "Voluntary Religon Tax" to the United Jewish Council, compared to 47% to a variety of Christian churches and 5% to other faiths.  All of these numbers were significantly higher than in the North.

So attending services on her first Saturday since landing seemed appropriate - and potentially interesting.

She set off on her Presidential bicycle - ridiculously gold plated in her honor - with her guide, an assistant rabbi, and two of her assistants (one Jewish, the other curious). The rest of her entourage took the day off to explore or just rest. The rabbi talked all the way there.

Rebecca said "Sinai Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in Antarctica. It was also a church on Sunday and a school on weekdays - housing was scarce back then.  This building was shipped from the North for assembly here in 2098.  It became a Jewish Community Center in 2184.

We have adapted floors 2, 3 and 4 for housing - mainly the elderly but also for others in need.

It has a Slowpoke reactor for heating - it is still running, but slowly. It has a geodesic dome on top that we uncover a month after First Light, when temperatures begin to warm. She then went on about the yeshiva and the mixed traditions of Judaism in Antarctica.

"We decided it was better to be Jewish, and just survive, in the early days, than argue over every detail. So our congregation has men on one side, women on the other and mixed in the middle. Do you know where you would like to sit ?

Would it offend anyone if I chose to sit in the mixed area ?

No, of course not.

How does a woman rabbi work out in such a congregation ?

We have a women's service just after the beginning of Shabbat. Ten men come and sit in one corner - I carry the Torah then. But in the other services I am the cantor.

She asked how they determined Shabbat on the days when there was either no sunrise or sunset - Friday noon to Saturday noon was the answer.

They arrived and she pointed towards a wooden shed to park the bicycles in. Just then she thought she felt a small temblor as the road seemed to wobble a bit. But as soon as she stopped and put a leg down, it stopped. Oh Well.

The shed had an entrance, but she decided to take the grand entrance. An impressive stone facade (with a steel core for earthquake and tsunami resistance) had been added to the standard prefab building of the 21st Century.

Five stories tall, in a ring around a central courtyard with light streaming in from the geodesic dome over the courtyard. The south facing panels were reflective silver to capture more light.

The central courtyard had both wooden seats and temporary folding seats with some shrubbery. Every balcony was full of people looking down.

She quietly shuddered as she walked over the warmer earth that covered the Slowpoke reactor. The last Slowpoke had been retired in Greenland when she had been a child.

She ended up on the women's side. The service was longer and more elaborate than any she had attended in the North. And the religious fervor was clearly more palpable and alive.

more later

Grand Tour of Antarctica - Day 10 - Day Trip

INCOMPLETE 

Kristiana was trying to clear her head after watching exhibition nude wrestling matches in her honor - the mixed doubles, and some of the holds, took some getting used to. So Kristina looked at her itinerary for the next day just before turning in, just to refocus her mind.

Day 10 - Day Trip to National Service Camp and Food Security Depot - Nimitz River 

7:15 - Private Breakfast

8:15 - Leave Residence

8:25 to 8:30 - Presidential Train Departs on Minnesota Fjord Line

9:35 - Arrive at National Service Camp

          Tour & Lunch in Mess Hall 

16:30 - Depart National Service Camp

17:20 - Arrive Food Security Depot 

            Tour & Dinner with Staff

20:30 - Depart Food Security Depot

20:55 - Arrive Nye Copenhagen

21:05 - Arrive at Residence

"Ah, another busy day ! Better take a nightcap before turning in."

She sorted through the variety of previously unfamiliar liqueurs and drinks of Antarctica. "Nothing here from the North". So she took one at random and poured herself a stiff shot, then another.

-----------

She has a private breakfast with her staff. She missed her skyr - Antarctica had no dairy cows, hence no milk - and the total absence on any dairy products was beginning to bother her. Butter and cheese were luxuries from Zealand, as was some not very palatable powdered milk. But that was it for dairy.

After breakfast she opted to walk the four blocks to her train, shaking hands as she went. The rest of the Grand Convoy had arrived and that had distracted attention from her - and she welcomed that.

This was her first train ride in the promised Presidential Train.  It was supposed to have an observation car. This brought images on the beautiful domed observation cars in Norge and Svei that cruised though the mountains.

She quietly gasped as she saw "her" train car. 1.1 meter gauge limited the width to 2.7 meters as well as the length of railcars. Hers had the front two meters inclosed in panes of tempered glass. The same on the rear with an almost two meter "porch" with seats at the open rear.

Like almost all Antarctic rail cars, it was self propelled and could operate alone or in trains. Each axle was driven, which allowed climbing grades of 8%, many times what locomotive pulled trains of the North could use. Another self propelled rail car was in front of hers and it seemed to be a regular EMU.

Inside everything was ornate and seemed comfortable. She barely had time to find a seat before the loc pulled out for the Minnesota Fjord Line. For a couple of minutes, she looked out at the odd looking residential areas, and then another minute or so of greenhouses till the train rose on the edge of the mountains. Majestic cliffs on either side gave only glimpses of the mountains beyond. Wind turbines lined the valley floor between the cliffs. They passed through a herd of rose-grey alpacas, one of her favorite colors.

After she settled into the train, her tour guide, the Minister of National Service, began.

"Nye Copenhagen and the nearby lands are the sunniest in Antarctica, lying in the rain shadow of the Ellsworth Mountains. We get far fewer cloudy days. The mountains also shelter us from the periodic volcanic ash falls that afflicts our crops elsewhere. Thus any arable land here is valuable for food security - and we go to great efforts to expand it".

"But doesn't the Minnesota Fjord provide a pass through the Ellsworth Mountains ? I can see the wind turbines spinning here. Doesn't the ash fall follow the same path ?"

"The turbulence in the air flow drops most of the ash out near the western entrance to the fjord.  The fjord, and the pass, are only 8 km wide. So very little ash gets this far into the fjord. However, the ash does flow into the Minnesota River headwaters and then downriver."

Nye Copenhagen is in the fjord of the Minnesota River and we want to limit silting in our harbor.

We have built a stair step up several of the eastern rivers as the glaciers retreated into the higher altitudes, catching the sediment from the old ice. One filtering dam after another is built and creates small flat areas of arable land as you will see on our trip up".

"I am a bit confused. I read about this, but it somehow does not make sense to me.

Don't these lands flood every early summer when the winter ice melts? And the melting glaciers of Greenland did not have enough sediment in the ice to build up any land."

Her guide replied: "The new ice is often as pure as distilled water when it melts - unless there was a recent volcanic ash fall.  But the old ice has millennium of ash falls imbedded in it, plus the rock it pulverized digging these fjords. The melt water from old ice is usually grey with sediment.

It is true that the sediment settles more or less evenly behind the filtering dams - but the National Service workers will haul out sediment from the center and deposit it on the edges, above the lip of the filtering dam.  Hybrid willows are planted near the center, to help stabilize the water channel.  Usually edible crops are planted on the higher, drier ground. In more remote areas, we often plant a mixture of haskaps and saskatoons. In more accessible areas, usually potatoes or rye or orchards.

It is difficult to reach many of these created fields, and relatively few people live on the fjord, so we need crops that require little care.

The train approached one filtering dam, perhaps 4 meters tall, built at the first rise of the river.  The rock and concrete face went from one wall of the fjord to the other, 8 kilometers, and there were large expanses of cultivated land on either side of the Minnesota River. The train passed a few dozen meters from the spillway of the hydroelectric plant with hybrid cherry trees in bud on the other side.

"This is our largest, and one of the earliest, filtering dams built - and later enlarged several times. We now have 2,240 hectares I think in these fields."

"Please tell me about the hydroelectric plant".

"There is not much water storage here, the water that comes down the Minnesota River either produces power or spills over. All the turbines are 2.84 meter diameter - the largest that we can ship by rail. So with the 6 meter head here, each turbine produces only 2.8 MW.  I think there are 16 turbines here -  10 wound for 16.7 HZ and six for 50 Hz.

Why so many 16.7 Hz turbines ? Your railroads are not that busy.

Her guide laughed good naturedly.  "Actually, this is most of the 50 Hz power for the capital. We use 16.7 Hz for almost everything except some small motors in tools and so forth and equipment from the North.  Like the North, we use 16.7 for our electric locomotives - but 16.7 holds it's sine curve wave form better for longer distances. So we use 16.7 to drive our railroads, lighting, resistance heating and large motors - the big loads. Most powerplants produce only 16.7 Hz power."

"We have a national grid for 16.7 Hz, connected by our electrified rail lines - but each city has their own 50 Hz generation. In smaller settlements, 16.7 motors drive 50 Hz generators to create the small amounts of 50 Hz required.  Although 16.7 Hz hydro-generators require more complex wiring, three times as many poles as 50 Hz."

"In the early days, we had few high voltage transformers, so we generate at 9.5 kV or so and then transmit the power at 9.5 kV, minus voltage drop, to our locomotives and large motors.  Today we have a couple of higher voltage transmission lines, but many of the electrons still flow at 9.5 kV to the end user or are stepped down with a 230 V transformer".

And you said a 6 meter head - that dam does not look like it is 6 meters tall ?

"It is not. But it is built on a small rise in the valley and we dug out the channel below to create 6 meters of head - except during the summer melt peak.  Some water flows all winter long, under the ice, from the storage reservoirs upstream. But not that much water, just enough to run a couple of the 50 Hz turbines,"

I have been so busy since I arrived. I read all the briefing papers on the voyage down, but that is the view from the North. Tell me about the Food Storage depot we are going to see.

"The volcanoes in Antarctica are quite active, especially since the glaciers melted. The climate here varies from year to year. Too many years we have suffered from crop failures. Perhaps few actually died of hunger, but children were stunted and horse, zubron, llama and fish are not the best diet. So we have created stockpiles for not one, but several years of failed crops - coupled with a loss of transportation.

A horse drawn rail wagon can carry food downhill from this depot and a couple of other depots to Nye Copenhagen. Other depots serve other cities and regions - but all will share as needed.

Inside the city, we store wheat and rye, both as flour and seed. Plus some salted and smoked fish, horse, mutton and zubron and canola oil.  But other foodstuffs require refrigeration, and a tsunami could wreck the city storage. So we have refrigerated storage at the depot plus simply cool humidity controlled storage.

How long do you store this food ?

It depends upon the food. At minus 40 degrees, almost everything keeps for a long time.  And we rotate the food by feeding our National Service workers, or for those that need food assistance.

National Service is for three summers and two winters - correct ?

Yes, Ms. President. Although they can stay a third winter if they like. About half do since much of Antarctica shuts down for the winter.

I can understand the many National Service jobs that need doing during the summer, but what do they do during the winter ?

A number of things. One winter is used for basic military training for some, education for others for one or two of the three winters. Underground excavation is mostly done during the winter - railroad tunnels, hydropower plants, food depots, underground greenhouses for fresh food during the winter. And work in setting up summer greenhouses, - it is cold but not too cold inside.

Antarctica is lagging in technology, could there be a way to use National Service to steer more young people into that area, as well as providing support services ?

The Minister looked quite taken aback "But, but, technology requires highly skilled, educated and experienced people - and National Servicers were children a year before they join. What can they possibly do ?"

She smiled gently. "The most time consuming aspect of technology revival is reading old documents. They need only gain a reading knowledge of English, German, Japanese or Chinese. Something they can get in school beforehand".

"Beyond that, many prototypes require skilled hands as much as skilled minds. And young people can be quite intelligent".

"The Technology Council has assigned two specific projects for Antarctica if you are willing to pursue them. One is reviving, and improving, zeppelins"

"What !?! What are zuplens ?"

She gently laughed. "Hydrogen and other gas filled balloons inside a rigid frame that float in the air. Early 20th Century zeppelins crossed the Atlantic Ocean with passengers before airplanes did. Antarctica could use them for transportation to remore parts of this land, and possibly to visit other nations as well."

"We think that zeppelins could be improved with all that we know now. An important and worthy project for Antarctica".

"And the other project we need for Antarctica is responding to the Alien Invitation, and to further analyze the conversations with Tau Ceti. The star that the invitation came from is high in your sky - direct radio contact is possible from here. And their answers might be timed and focused so that only we hear them. It is, we think, technically possible for the Union to have a private conversation with the 38 Alien civilizations - but only from an Antarctic base."

"This is ... I don't know what to say !"

Think about it - and discuss it with others. There is more to the future of Antarctica, and humanity, than you plan for today".

The conversation turned to the spur rail line heading up to the Food Storage Depot as they passed it by. And then a few minutes later they took the branch line heading up the Nimitz River.

The cliffs around the Nimitz fjord were not as tall, and there were more random boulders scatted around the landscape. They passed a 3 meter or so dam and the river suddenly shrank in volume.  She asked about that and was told much of the water upstream had been diverted into a tunnel that ran underground to the dam they just passed. In this way they could get 44 meters of head, powering one of the larger hydroelectric plants in Antarctica.

There were almost no wind turbines in the valley of the Nimitz Fjord. The land was less cultivated, although there were many nut bearing Stone Pines - hybrids of the Swiss and Siberian Stone pines and Chilgoza Pine. She was told that the pines took 45 to 80 years after planting before they started bearing pine nuts. But so many had been planted that they supplied over 3% of the calories, and a higher percentage of the dietary fat and protein, in the Antarctic diet.

The train pulled into the siding for the National Service Camp.  Mainly wooden buildings with a few stout stone one story buildings half dug into the hillside. A fenced pasture on one end of the camp for Icelandic horses, and another for llamas on the other end. Fairly obviously a summer occupancy settlement. Several hundred bright and eager young faces waited for her under a variety of signs. She stepped onto the station platform and was handed a loaf of warm bread and salt.

She thanked them, in her best Danish (still did not have the Antarctic accent).  She talked loudly to reach everyone in the stiff breeze. She mentioned the heroism of the early Antarctic settlers, and the work they were doing today that would benefit many generations in the future. And the bonds formed in National Service - and the bonds between North and South in the Union.

It all went well enough. They then took her down to the Nimitz River, behind the filtering dam, where she saw horses drag up sediment behind the filtering dam. Then between a small electric conveyor belt and young muscles the muck was taken 700 or 800 meters inland, loaded on more horse drawn wagons and spread across the ground in fallow fields, then seeded with grass and lupine seeds. She then rose a pony up to fjord cliffs, where short rock walls were built on the slopes and then filled with slash (tree branches & bark from the charcoal factories) for a meter or two behind the rock walls.. The idea was that the slash and walls would catch silt and runoff, including some ash fall, behind the rock wall. The slash would decay and provide humus for first grass and then bushes and trees.

She thought "So much work for such small strips of fertile ground. But this helps build the nation."

By then it was time for a late lunch. Another speech and a surprisingly good meal.  Although hunger is an excellent spice - and she was hungry. After lunch, she toured the tree nursery, several orchards, berry patches and potato & canola fields. Then it was time to leave - another short speech of thanks and then off to the Strategic Food Storage Depot. She wished now that she had been scheduled to spend the whole day with those enthusiastic young people.

Oh well.

Less than an hour later she was at the Depot.  A much smaller and somewhat older crowd awaited her there. And here was a small permanent settlement around what had once been a mine, since much enlarged. She forced a smile and went out to get a small bouquet of blue lupines and other flowers.

A few remarks and then a quick tour of the freezers and cold storage. Then dinner. She was informed that the food was being rotated out of storage. The butter was 40 years (this killed her appetite) and she forgot the rest.

The most interesting part of the tour was after dinner, when she saw the emergency rail cars to get food to Nye Copenhagen, even if a disaster cut power. Built of titanium and aluminum, these rail cars were designed to be drawn by horses (four or six horse teams) with a path on either side of the railroad back, almost all downhill, to Nye Copenhagen. The harness had a large gap in the center to straddle the tracks,

"A six horse team can make two round trips in 16 hours with ten tonnes of food on each trip" the Depot manager boasted. "And these carts are designed to be hauled by people. In tests, ten young men back two trips down and one back in 12 hours, with 8 tonnes of food".

She opened up the liquor cabinet on the way back.

Day 14 - Premiere Showing

Kristiana fussed over her outfit and hair. The dress was one of her favorites, artfully draped rose-grey alpaca cloth with a matching shawl. The edges dyed a darker deep red. Natural colors from the animal had a subtle glow and variation that dyes could never recreate.

It went well with her official white and pale blue sash with red & white floret as President of the Union. And the cloth was from the same herd that Katrina's wedding gown had been from.

And then she added the family heirloom necklace from Katrina - five rubies surrounded by small diamonds in a platinum setting. She had looked so wonderful with it. I hope I look as well. According to family legend, her so many great grandfather had traded 40 kg of smoked fish, some antibiotics, two good quality paring knives and a dozen pairs of cheap eyeglasses for it on a trading trip to Nuwinga. Quite a bit of the world's jewelry had ended up in the Union.

Well, ready to go. The opening was an hour and a quarter after sunset on Saturday, which would allow observant Jews to attend. The theater was just 3 blocks away, but still a chilling walk without an overcoat. Taking the tram would still mean 3 blocks of walking. Using the pedestrian tunnels would have clogged the tunnel with her entourage and the endless delays shaking hands and saying Hello. So walk it will be in 7 or 8 C weather with a good wind.

As she walked along silently with her entourage,  her mind wandered to the history books about culture and how even the Danish women once wore uncomfortable and impractical shoes for display. Not as bad as Chinese foot binding, but the thought, with the wind, made her shudder.

As she rounded the corner, she saw the marquee - "The Alien Invitation". In the North, "The Alien Invitation" had been shown in all the theaters and had had a major impact on the public debate and consciousness. A debate that eventually lead to a decision for "Yes".  But the Alien Invitation arrived just after a Grand Convoy had sailed to Antarctica, and all that could be transmitted were a few still photos and descriptions. Which apparently had no effect on the South.

Three years later, when the next Grand Convoy south sailed, it carried several copies of the Grand Invitation movie. But they were stored in the Archives and no one apparently bothered to even look at them.  Well that was about to change as she entered the theater and handed off her overcoat.

She had purposefully arrived much too early, to thin crowds, in order to reduce the crush her presence could bring. She had discovered that the Antarcticans tended to be a bit more aggressive and pushy than the people of the North.

After an endless round of handshakes, greetings and introductions that she immediately forgot, she was seated in what had been quickly assembled as a "royal box" in the front center of the second level of seating. She was joined by the President of Antarctica, the Prime Minister and their spouses. A half hour passed with small talk - and a few more serious comments - as every seat filled up and the excitement mounted. She was told that everyone wanted a ticket to the premiere, even though the Alien Invitation movie would be shown again and again till everyone had a chance to see it.

Finally the curtain rose to the Seal of the Union on the screen and then Þröstur Eysteinsson appeared in the film. In less than perfect Danish, he identified himself as Head of both the Reyholt Radio Observatory and the Tau Ceti Conversation Group. He explained that humanity had been in contact with Tau Ceti ever since the Old World, over 300 years. But with 24 years between question and answer, most of that time had been spent just creating a common language to talk with.  He went on about the world of Tau Ceti, with some fantastic photos we had received and what we had learned - and hoped yet to learn. He emphasized that Tau Ceti knew of no other alien civilization but that of Earth.

Then he explained why the Alien Invitation was so remarkable. They had already learned our languages and had technology far advanced to either Old World Earth or Tau Ceti. And they had wisdom distilled from epochs, millions of years, that they were willing to share. And he mentioned that Questions and Answers to Delta Parvonis would take even longer, 40 years, instead of the 24 years in Tau Ceti conversations.

"Our old friends on Tau Ceti - and that what they have become - have decided to say "Yes" to this same invitation. And they said that they would just be talking to their new friends - and not us - unless we also joined the larger conversation."

And with that he introduced the Invitation as it appeared on a computer screen. For the film, they reran the invitation computer program and chose the Danish language when asked by the program.

She was surprised at the audience reaction as the Alien Invitation was shown in the theater - much unlike the North. Some nausea and people rushing out, a few curse words in the air, anger and fear seemed mixed with curiosity and awe in the audience.

As the Alien Invitation ended, Þröstur walked out on stage.  A lump formed in her throat.

Day 14 - Audience Reaction

As Þröstur started talking into the microphone, before he could finish his first sentence, screams of outrage came from the audience.  He paused for a moment and then bellowed "Are you civilized ? Do you have any manners at all ?"

Kristiana then rose from her seat and stood in silence. The President of Antarctica stood up beside her, then the Prime Minister (after a quick political calculation). Slowly, more and more people looked at the silent group. Meanwhile Þröstur struggled with a dozen people yelling at him, getting nowhere except higher blood pressure for all involved.  Finally he saw Kristiana and he stopped, stood straight and quietly looked up at her. This finally calmed the crowd.

She spoke. "We are all citizens of the Union. Our Union is unique in the world in many ways and proudly so. One of our proudest achievements is that for over 300 years we have been ruled by reason, developed from reasoned debate. Let us continue this tradition of ours. The loudest voices are rarely the wisest."

And with that she sat down.

After a moment, Þröstur stated "I will be pleased to answer any questions that you may have. Please line up at either the microphone on the left or the right. I will take a question from the right mike first." And with that over 100 questions were asked and the answers took almost 3 hours.

more later

Day 15 - Attending Simple Church Services

 breakfast, Kristina was more than a bit dismayed to see the Morgenblad headline ' "An Invitation from Monsters ?"  Well, at least it had a question mark. And below was an old photo she recognized from Tau Ceti that was supposed to somehow be related to the Alien Invitation.

She thought "Well, I guess all aliens look alike".

The story below was not widely inaccurate - but it was not very informative either. Some wild speculation and the wording focused on fear and, to her surprise, some loathing as well.

She then turned to the editorial page. Apparently only one columnist had stayed up to the early morning hours writing after the showing of the Alien Invitation.

"What is the North trying to shove down our throats" was the title. {sigh} It went on that, without advance notice or agreement, Throstur Eyesteinsson, head of Alien Talk, had come South. And this newspaper had learned that he brought with him all sorts of special radio equipment, taking up valuable space on the Grand Convoy. If we run short of medicines from the North before the next convoy - blame the North's interest in shoving the Aliens down our throats.

The column then went on about why do they want the South, after all these centuries, to start talking to this collection of monsters ? The North can handle one alien world, but they want to put the burden of 38 more alien worlds on the backs of the South. Given the time for a reply to a "Yes", it will be over 40 years till we hear a response. A majority of the readers of this column will be dead by then. What definitive good will come from this ? We can see the cost already !

All in all, she was depressed.

Well, let's get on with this day. She had read about a new denomination that had arisen in Antarctica - the Simple Church. It was unlike any of the churches she knew in the North. The Simple Church had, it claimed, a more basic and simple theology. And like all theologies, claimed to be the Truth.

They preached that God would bring believers prosperity if they made seed offerings to the Church. They believed in the inerrant Word of God, as interpreted by their Elder Brethren - their preachers. They had a very black & white - a very simple - view of the world.

They often preached about the wages of sin and the very many ways that one could sin. One could atone for sin with more fervent belief and giving as a sacrifice of redemption. That is a sacrifice on top of the 10% tithe.

The first two Sunday's she had attended Lutheran services of the Church of Antarctica.  She sat, a bit uncomfortably, in the front pew as the honored guest during rather formal and stiff services.

Today, she would go incognito. One of her aides had gone shopping and had a typical Antarctic Sunday outfit for her. Another aide, whose Danish could pass for Antarctic, would accompany her. Most people would take them as husband and wife.

She put her hair up and wore a scarf, as Simple Church women were encouraged to do. She added a little temporary dye to her eyebrows to darken them, She felt ridiculous doing this. But that would make her look less like she did in newspaper photos..

She decided against taking the tram - too many people and someone would likely recognize her. They had a couple of rental bicycles for her "husband" and her.

The set off so that they would arrive just a minute or two before services started. They would sit quietly in the back and watch a typical Simple Church service, unaffected by her presence. Or that was the plan,

They had just found their seats when a large man, in white robes with a white beard and long white hair strode on stage. "Hallelujah" he bellowed. The congregation responded with "Jesus is all I need" "Hallelujah" again with the response "Jesus is more than enough for me".  "Hallelujah" a third time and the memorized response was "Jesus is all that I will ever need".  With that the Preacher said "AMEEEN ! Let us Pray".

This lead to a long rambling prayer that was made longer with frequent "Amens" and "Yes, Lord". At the end it included a call for "Protect us from Monstors from the Stars and those that would lead us astray". Obviously a reaction from last night. Rather quickly too. And that phrase drew dismayingly loud approval.

A few songs later, the sermon stated. The "Elder Brother" said he had planned on speaking about the Path to Prosperity, but last night had opened his eyes to a new danger.

"Monsters that know not God or Jesus are tempting us to stray from the One True Way. Their first attempt ensnared the North, now they are trying again to trick the South as well."

She wondered if "they" meant her and her aides, as she shifted uncomfortably.

The Elder Brother went on and on, using inflammatory rhetoric, but remarkably little specific information, logic or analysis. Just fear and loathing and appeals to the rising emotions of the congregation.

Day 18 - Rats & Cats Ecology

Magnus Redin, despite his impressive resume, stammered a bit and was obviously uncomfortable in briefing Kristiana. Kristiana reacted by trying to put him at ease with the suggestion that they just have a conversation about Tasmania instead of a boring, formal briefing.

She started out with "I was told that you lead two of the three expeditions into the interior of Tasmania".

Yes. Two of the three in the last twenty years. There were several others in the last 200 years.

How many people did you have ?

Eight the first time, twelve the second time.

Did they all return safely ?

Erik Johansen broke a leg and had to be carried out in the second expedition. We all got scrapes and rat bites or cat scratches.  Those critters are pretty aggressive at times.

I know that you have no pets in the South, but did you visit cats and rats in the Antarctic zoo before you left. Were the ones in Tasmania any different ?

Very ! They are bigger and I guess you could say rougher.  No one feeds them like they do in the zoo.

Do you see any human Tasmanians ?

Only in the distance. They run when they see us coming. We looked around some of their old campsites - not much there.

Are there many trees in Tasmania ? (Knowing the answer).

No Kristiana. We were told that they cut most of them down to sell for money when they ran out of coal and metals to sell. Australia could not feed itself even before the Great Hunger so they sold stuff to get stuff - and that included buying food.

Then, the historians told us, during the Great Hunger, many Australians came to Tasmania and tried to raise more food - and cut down more trees. And they killed and ate every cow, sheep and dog. Everything bigger than a cat was eaten. And lots of birds too.

The insects got out of control - and so did the rats.  New trees could not grow, the seeds and shoots were eaten. And without enough trees, the rats ate the young birds. And without enough birds, the insects ate everything, including the crops. The Ozies kept chopping down trees though for fires and weapons. They all pretty much killed and ate each other. Not the only land to do so.

Today, the grass is short because the insects eat it. Lizards and other insects eat most of the insects and the rats eat some. The rats eat mainly insects and any edible vegetation left over plus some lizards. The cats eat the rats & lizards and the humans left eat the rats and the cats and lizards too if they are hungry.

Not many birds left. We hardly ever saw one fly by.

We found a nesting place on a cliff where rats and cats could not get to the birds, but we counted only 62 nests there. That was all that could fit.

What type of birds ?

Birds that ate rats, small cats and lizards. They seem to have also eaten the birds that eat insects - or just beat them out for the nesting places.

How did this compare to pictures of the Old World Tasmania ?

Night and Day !  A few times we were able to compare Old World pictures with what we saw on our expedition. The mountains and cliffs are still there - but little else. It must have been a Garden of Heaven before ! Today, I much prefer our forests of Antarctica. It is a rough and tough land in Tasmania today - insects crawling everywhere into everything - hard to survive.

What do we know about the Tasmanian aborigines ?

We have been visiting Tasmania for about 200 years. By all accounts there were more humans there when we first visited. They still had dugout canoes made from big trees back then and even villages that they would live in for a season. A station we had set up did some trading with them. Old doctors reports said that they suffered from vitamin deficiencies, particularly Vitamin C, even back then. The rats and insects seemed to get to the sources of Vitamin C before the aborigines did.

But even back then, nothing could be planted because the rats and insects would get it first.

So, are the humans dying out ?

We cannot be sure, there is simply not enough data to reach a conclusion. But yes, personally, I think that the Tasmanians are slowly dying out. Perhaps the last one in another hundred years - who knows ?

Could we settle Tasmania ?

I have thought about that quite a bit.

We could found a settlement if we imported all the food except fish - and cats and rats.  The key to growing food appears to be bringing back large numbers of insect eating birds.

There are more than enough insects for them to eat. They just need safe nesting areas and safety from the few meat eating birds on Tasmania.

I might set up a settlement around an old hydroelectric plant, rehabilitate it and use the energy for power intensive industry. Aluminum smelting or something. Put up an electric fence around the perimeter to limit the cats and rats that can get in. At the same time, set up platforms for insect eating birds to nest in and import some.

If meat eating birds bother them, then reduce their numbers near the settlement. Meat eating birds have enough cats and rats, so they may not bother insect eating birds.

Plant trees if we can feed the trees a poison that will keep insects from eating their leaves but not harm us or birds. I read about some such poisons in the Old World. Then grow trees for insect eating birds to live and nest in.

Slowly, over many years, perhaps half a century, we could create several hundred square kilometers where crops could be grown. The land is fertile enough in spots, and wet enough and mild enough for many types of Old World crops. But it will take a great sustained effort to do this.

Tasmania does not seem to have so many of the Old World poisons that cause birth defects and sterility in people. The Old World records we have show that no nuclear reactors were ever built on Tasmania. So the great effort may be worthwhile.

Some day in the future, Antarctica may start to freeze again. Tasmania could be our refuge. Tasmania also offers a base for trading in both the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean.

"So you think that it is worth making the effort to settle Tasmania ?"

"Worth" implies value, as well as costs. What are our values - what do we value ?

We have land and ecosystems enough for at least another million citizens in East Antarctica, and more in West Antarctica. So we do not hunger for land today and will not tomorrow.

Sometime, perhaps in the  next thousand years, all of the winter snows will not melt in a cool summer, and the glaciers will start returning. Then we shall need a new home. But Tasmania is too small for that unless we shrink our population significantly.

Tasmania would allow us to grow more Old World crops - but is that better than trading for them with the Zealanders ?

Tasmania would be a good base, just above the wild Southern Ocean, for trade into the Western Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

The citizens that migrate to Tasmania will, in time, become another people. Do we want, is it wise, to add a "T" to US&A ? And will they even chose to stay in our Union ?

She was surprised at the astuteness of Magnus's geo-political analysis. Which made his next question even more startlingly.

"Pardon me, Ms. President, but why would we want to talk to all of those. Alien Monsters ?"

 I mean, it will be half a lifetime between one question and one answer - and they are nothing like us AT ALL. I get shivers every time I think of them. And who knows what wired ideas they will force into our heads!

Day 22 - Prison Visit

She had had to insist on this trip. After all, over 1% of Antarcticans were in prison, almost 20 times the proportion in the North. How could she not see so many of her people ?

But the mere idea of a visit was shocking. They understandably wanted her to see only the best of their society, but that was not her role or purpose.

She wondered how this strong, vindictive attitude had developed in the South.

So she got out of bed and readied herself for breakfast with the Minister of Justice, her escort for the day. A handful of pine nuts to assuage her hunger before a quick shower and getting dressed.

She exited her bed chambers and was immediately greeted by the Minister and a mixture of her staff and his.

He was clearly cautious and on guard as they talked about the weather on their way to the breakfast tables. He and she shared a small table for four, with plenty of space around.

After discussing the details of the weather to expect, she asked "What type of people are in our prisons here ?"

"Over half of them are tobacco and nicotine addicts ! This is a particular problem amongst the Ozies."

You have so many tobacco dealers ?

"Many of them are in prison for tobacco possession."

You imprison people for their addictions ?

Well, if they are good citizens otherwise, they do to treatment centers and then back to contributing to society. But too many of these Ozies are shiftless, and a little hard work in prison will do them good.

more later

Day 49 - Casey Steel & Tool Works

Kristiana was excited about this day. She would see the one significant technology that did not have Scandinavian, or even Old World, roots today.

The Ozies had brought over a researcher, or at least his surviving ideas, on recreating an ancient Indian steel manufacturing technique called wootz.  It grew carbon nano-fibers in a complex steel matrix - and made the best steel in the world. Wootz had a distinctive and appealing pattern in the steel, it kept it's edge almost forever while bending if need be.

Not only were all surgeons blades made from wootz, but so were quality tools, knives, scissors and Army helmets and breastplates.  The Ozies had refined the techniques that were recreated in the late Old World. And they were secretive about their processes.

As visiting President, she was invited to tour the factory in Casey, but without any aides. None the less, she would make notes for the files.

The factory delegation arrived at her Casey residence and greeted her most cordially - speaking with that odd twang in their Danish that most Ozies had.

One factory representative mentioned that Alexander the Great had been given a gift of 14 kg of the finest wootz steel by an Indian king over 3,000 years ago. Today, the factory made that much steel in a good week, And the quality control was better today.

Upon arrival, she was shown how they mixed up the alloys, with variations depending upon the intended use. The batch she was shown would be used to make helmets and would have more phospherus on the exterior of the helmet which meant a concentration of phosphorus in the center of the 1.8 kg ingot.

The ingot was then packed in leaves dusted with more alloys and charcoal dust, and placed in a kiln.

"For helmets, we do not orientate the carbon fibers, but for cutting edges we do. We put an electrical coil around the kiln and this changes the way that the carbon fibers grow.

After several days of heating and then very slowly cooling, the ingot is taken out from the kiln. She saw another ingot that was placed in a press, still red hot, and a curved cone die pushed the steel out like a  fountain of dough. What had been in the center was now on the outside.

This oddly shaped ingot was then briefly reheated and placed in a second press which created a familiar looking, but very hot, helmet. "Size 3" her guide said.

Later holes would be drilled for a chin strap and interior webbing. The metal was rust resistant and the military left some helmets unpainted and painted others. But she could see why less than 200 Grade A helmets and another hundred slightly defective helmets were delivered to the Union Army each year.

She then toured the making of scissors, knives, scalpels, twizzers, springs, firing pins, artillery breeches, breastplates and more.

Day 50 - Oil Wells of Antarctica

Kristiana and her entourage were staying in winter quarters that had been specially renovated for her visit.  This eight sided building had been built to retain as much heat as possible. A few 12 cm square windows here and there, and otherwise windowless. A bit depressing despite the colorful pastel walls, mosaic floors. paintings, public sculptures and murals. All done by bored residents during the long winter.

Most of those that worked in East Antarctic camps during the summer would retreat to Davis for the winter, and spend over 4 months living here in winter quarters like this one. Most Antarcticans had a summer job and a winter job and Davis had many winter jobs. Tunnels lead in three directions to much of the rest of the city.

Today was all about oil, perhaps the last producing oil wells in the world. Drilled by the Australians, eight wells still produced a trickle of what once ran the world. It was hard to imagine the world that the history books, with their pictures, described. And how shortages of oil then lead to so much carnage. So she as secretly excited to see what was left of this magic liquid.

The tram brought them almost door to door to the "Oil Refinery". As she entered the building she saw a battered and faded old metal sign that read, after a bit of looking "Exxon-Chevron-BP Energy Company". Odd. I wonder what it means. She was staring at the sign as she was being introduced. She quickly brought her focus back to the standard welcome statements.

She was then brought into the production area where the crude oil was stored and then carefully distilled into hundreds of chemicals, each with a specific use. Many chemicals distilled from crude oil were used as is. Most, though, were transformed by a simple chemical process into a useful chemical, plastic or lubricant. more later

They then took the tram to the train station and her Presidential Train. They went over 100 km through wilderness to an opening in the forest. There a beam rocked back and forth, at a slow steady beat.

"This is our most productive well - over a thousand liters of oil per day !" exclaimed the guide.

more later