Metafire

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"Yes, John. Although they are innocent. Talk to Erisa and Randy." George clicked off. He moved into the cavern area where everyone was now gathered. He began speaking, "The second bomb, as you all no doubt know, is aboard the Bluebird capsule. It is capable of going off, but we will extinguish it at the proper time. I have the code to disable it. Sporkin also has the code in case something happens to me. We don't want a repeat of the previous two times we tried to use bombs as threats. We are resolved that this bomb will not explode. We want no more deaths.

"Now, we will be too far from Earth in about four weeks for the FBI to get to us using any conceivable method. Before then, we need a solution to neutralizing the killer satellite the FBI has attached to us. Platon, Sporkin, this is your primary duty. Platon, I want you to head the team. Appoint anybody else you like. It's unlikely that the FBI will let us resume our work on the Internet. But I want to work toward building their trust.

"Right now, we estimate fourteen or sixteen months before we are likely to have our first survival problems. I would like to see that figure doubled or tripled. If we can last four years, we can see Mars and be much of our way to Jupiter. It is possible to see Saturn. There are thirteen of us, four capsules, a tug, and a cavern. A nuclear submarine packs ten times that number of people in a space a fifth the size. Andrei, will you head the group that looks at extending our lives?"


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