Davies rolled his eyes. “Oh, hah hah. No, shit-for-brains. When I’m in space, I miss the hell out of Roger and the kids. I don’t have a choice, er, well, didn’t. I guess I took it out on people. Especially Ivan, since it looked like he was making the same mistake.”

“He sacrificed himself for them.” Kemp looked down at the ground for a moment. “We had a talk, when I was up there in the Getting Ahead. It’s all he really cared about.”

Davies nodded. “Not surprised.”

* * *

A week after the funeral, Kemp felt as if he could finally put the whole adventure behind him. He had his feet up on the coffee table, Maddie snuggled against his shoulder, a multi-million-dollar view out the picture window—and even the news was looking good.

The nanites that arrived on Luna had immediately started extracting gases and water from the rock and soil of the moon. A detectable atmosphere was already starting to form. At the current rate, according to some estimates, Luna would be a shirt-sleeve environment within two years. There was even a rising magnetic field, which had stirred a hornet’s nest of debate in the scientific community. The consensus seemed to be that the moon would have to be spun up in order to maintain the inner dynamo. The big question was, was that even possible? What were the nanites’ limits?

Meanwhile, the Terran nanites seemed to be engaged in ecological cleanup. Oceanic acidity had already dropped, albeit barely perceptibly, and there was speculation that greenhouse gases would be showing a drop in concentration soon. In addition, orbital observation facilities were reporting a slight rise in albedo of the few remaining patches of ice at the poles, which was expected to reduce the rate of melting, and an increase in overall cloud cover, which should reduce net heat intake from the sun.

Simple strategies, far-reaching effects. They would halt and even reverse the damage done to the planet, which would give humanity time to perhaps mature a little.

Ivan had released full and comprehensive plans for what was being called the Casimir Power Source. This and other periodic releases of technology would give the human race less reason to fight for scarce resources, and bring humanity closer to the ability to create their own Upload technology, thus avoiding the Singularity.

Not surprisingly, the SSE was denouncing the whole thing as a Western plot, while at the same time bemoaning the West’s presumed intention to cut the SSE out of the loop. There was no mention at all of the face-off between UENN and SSE forces, or of the three-way agreement that had been hammered out. Kemp did an eye roll. Did they ever listen to themselves?