Blue Mars. Kim Stanley Robinson

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СКАЧАТЬ said, ‘Isn’t the biosphere likely to grow on its own at this point?’

      ‘It’s not clear,’ Tiu said. ‘But if you stopped the industrial pumping, any further growth would certainly be very slow. It might even lose ground, as with this ice age that’s starting.’

      ‘Isn’t that what some people call ecopoesis?’

      ‘No. The ecopoets just use biological methods, but they’re very intensive with them. We think they all should stop, ecopoets or industrialists or whatever.’

      ‘But especially the heavy industrial methods,’ Marion said. ‘And most especially the inundation of the north. That’s simply criminal. We’ll blow up those stations no matter what happens here, if they don’t stop.’

      Art gestured out at the huge, stony caldera. ‘The higher elevations look pretty much the same, right?’

      They weren’t willing to admit that. Irishka said, ‘Even the high ground shows ice deposition and plant life. The atmosphere lofts high here, remember. No place escapes when the winds are strong.’

      ‘What if we tented the four big calderas?’ Art said. ‘Kept them sterile underneath, with the original atmospheric pressure and mix? Those would be huge wilderness parks, preserved in the true primal state.’

      ‘Parks are just what they would be.’

      ‘I know. But we have to work with what we have now, right? We can’t go back to M-l and rerun the whole thing. And given the current situation, it might be good to preserve three or four big places in the original state, or close to it.’

      ‘It would be nice to have some canyons protected as well,’ Tiu said tentatively. Clearly they had not considered this kind of possibility before; and it was not really satisfactory to them, Art could see. But the current situation could not be wished away, they had to start from there.

      ‘Or Argyre Basin.’

      ‘At the very least, keep Argyre dry.’

      Art nodded encouragingly. ‘Combine that kind of preservation with the atmosphere limits set in the Dorsa Brevia document. That’s a five kilometre breathable ceiling, and there’s a hell of a lot of land above five kilometres. It won’t take the northern ocean away, but nothing’s going to do that now. Some form of slow ecopoesis is about the best you can hope for at this point, right?’

      Perhaps that was putting it too baldly. The Reds stared down into Pavonis caldera unhappily, thinking their own thoughts.

      * * *

      ‘Say the Reds come on board,’ Art said to Nadia. ‘What do you think the next worst problem is?’

      ‘What?’ She had been nearly asleep, listening to some tinny old jazz from her AI. ‘Ah. Art.’ Her voice was low and quiet, the Russian accent light but distinct. She sat slumped on the couch. A pile of paper balls lay around her feet, like pieces of some structure she was putting together. The Martian way of life. Her face was oval under a cap of straight white hair, the wrinkles of her skin somehow wearing away, as if she were a pebble in the stream of years. She opened her flecked eyes, luminous and arresting under their Cossack eyelids. A beautiful face, looking now at Art perfectly relaxed. ‘The next worst problem.’

      ‘Yes.’

      She smiled. Where did that calmness come from, that relaxed smile? She wasn’t worried about anything these days. Art found it surprising, given the political highwire act they were performing. But then again it was politics, not war. And just as Nadia had been terribly frightened during the revolution, always tense, always expecting disaster, she was now always relatively calm. As if to say, Nothing that happens here matters all that much – tinker with the details all you want – my friends are safe, the war is over, this that remains is a kind of game, or work like construction work, full of pleasures.

      Art moved around to the back of the couch, massaged her shoulders. ‘Ah,’ she said. ‘Problems. Well, there are a lot of problems that are about equally sticky.’

      ‘Like what?’

      ‘Like, I wonder if the Mahjaris will be able to adapt to democracy. I wonder if everyone will accept Vlad and Marina’s eco-economics. I wonder if we can make a decent police. I wonder if Jackie will try to create a system with a strong president, and use the natives’ numerical superiority to become queen.’ She looked over her shoulder, laughed at Art’s expression. ‘I wonder about a lot of things. Should I go on?’

      ‘Maybe not.’

      She laughed. ‘You go on. That feels good. These problems – they aren’t so hard. We’ll just keep going to the table and pounding away at them. Maybe you could talk to Zeyk.’

      ‘Okay.’

      ‘But now do my neck.’

      Art went to talk to Zeyk and Nazik that very night, after Nadia had fallen asleep. ‘So what’s the Mahjari view of all this?’ he asked.

      Zeyk growled. ‘Please don’t ask stupid questions,’ he said. ‘Sunnis are fighting Shiites – Lebanon is devastated – the oil-rich states are hated by the oil-poor states – the North African countries are a metanat – Syria and Iraq hate each other – Iraq and Egypt hate each other – we all hate the Iranians, except for the Shiites – and we all hate Israel of course, and the Palestinians too – and even though I am from Egypt I am actually Bedouin, and we despise the Nile Egyptians, and in fact we don’t get along well with the Bedouin from Jordan. And everyone hates the Saudis, who are as corrupt as you can get. So when you ask me what is the Arab view, what can I say to you?’ He shook his head darkly.

      ‘I guess you say it’s a stupid question,’ Art said. ‘Sorry. Thinking in constituencies, it’s a bad habit. How about this – what do you think of it?’

      Nazik laughed. ‘You could ask him what the rest of the Qahiran Mahjaris think. He knows them only too well.’

      ‘Too well,’ Zeyk repeated.

      ‘Do you think the human rights section will go with them?’

      Zeyk frowned. ‘No doubt we will sign the constitution.’

      ‘But these rights … I thought there were no Arab democracies still?’

      ‘What do you mean? There’s Palestine, Egypt … Anyway it’s Mars we are concerned with. And here every caravan has been its own state since the very beginning.’

      ‘Strong leaders, hereditary leaders?’

      ‘Not hereditary. Strong leaders, yes. We don’t think the new constitution will end that, not anywhere. Why should it? You are a strong leader yourself, yes?’

      Art laughed uncomfortably. ‘I’m just a messenger.’

      Zeyk shook his head. ‘Tell that to Antar. Now there is where you should go, if you want to know what the Qahirans think. He is our king now.’

      He looked as if he had bitten into something sour, and Art said, ‘So what does he want, do you think?’

      ‘He is Jackie’s creature,’ Zeyk muttered, СКАЧАТЬ