Part 4

Four weeks after New Year’s, which I spent at the beach house, I began 2019 with a televised speech. I spoke from Cape Canaveral, with a backdrop of a live view of Earth and Mars hanging in space behind me.

“Life is the most amazing thing in the universe. Many of you have by now seen the current terraforming plan posted on YouTube. The date set is real. The capabilities and plan are real. But all of it still depends on one factor, does Mars have native life?

“We have a countdown, 11 years to determine if life currently exists on Mars. If we can find no evidence, the terraforming process will allow us to dig deep into the planet’s history to see if life has ever existed there. Probes are already searching the other bodies of our solar system looking for life. A probe is at our next door neighbor star, looking for planets on which we can search for life.

“So far none have found life anywhere but here on our perfect little world. Until such life is found, we need to assume, WE ARE IT. If we are it, we are the most unique and important thing in the universe. “Why? Because we can spread life. We can move worlds, we can bring the blossom of life to the desert of the universe. Many will be asking if we should do such a thing. The answer to me is obvious. Of course we should! We​ have a moral obligation to preserve life in a lifeless universe, to spread it so far and wide that it is never is lost to the cosmos.

“It is time to put our hates and prejudices aside. It is time for nationalism to take a back seat to cooperation. It is time for the people of Earth to take up one singular great cause.

“Join me in searching for the answer to the great question, are we alone. Join me in sowing life across the sky.”

The speech was followed by a much more detailed animated terraforming presentation, taking about 25 minutes to show ten years of activities, and blossoming life.

The speech was well received. Anne thought it was over the top, and Ted just joked that I had his vote. The biggest surprise was that NASA started to receive lots of donations. We had added a donate button on the NASA website after I took it over as a non profit. Donations were coming in from both online and by mail.

Disney got in on the action, setting up a matching donation program and donation locations at the Mars Tour attraction which included a fancy certificate of donation, at all 5 parks. It made me happy to see so many people respond to the shared love for space exploration.

I dropped out of sight for a few weeks, staying at the beach house. I was working with European leaders to redevelop the North Sea oil fields from oil to electric production using gates and hydroelectric generators. At full conversion the 600 platforms with a remaining lifespan to make the project economical could produce up to 900 million megawatts of power. 4 million would be enough to match the current electric power production capacity of the entire EU.

As part of the discussion representatives from Japan were there. They were displaying a newly designed system that would be built and towed to sea much like an oil rig, but provide electrical power, fish habitats, and boost ocean diversity. It would also improve fishing and sea farming production.

The first unit was on its way to Japan, being towed from a Singaporean shipyard that had just completed it. They had stopped producing oil rigs completely, and had partnered Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and GE to start a massive building campaign to meet expected platform production. The Singaporean shipyard expected to complete 26 of them this year, a new record for the company. Each one was to house 20, 500 MW generators.

All 26 were going to Japan, where they would be anchored in deep water, safe from earthquakes and tsunami, and use gates to transmit their power to the country. Another 10 were being built in South Korea, and 6 more in China. The total capacity by year’s end would be 460 GW. They had also set a goal of converting every vehicle in the country to electricity by 2025. They were setting up conversion factories across the country, instead of replacing the existing vehicles with electric cars.

The savings of being able to stop importing gas, coal, and oil for power production was going to be huge. While it sounded like they were more than doubling their electricity generation capacity, the public sentiment in Japan was for the end of nuclear power. The government was also pressing for zero carbon power and to end all energy imports.

They had purchased 36” gates the previous year, but didn’t explain what they were doing with them. I asked the representative what had been done with the 10 gates, as there had been no mention of them in the news. He explained that Japan has several hydroelectric storage plants, where they drain the lake during the day when more power is needed​, and refill it at night when there is extra power. The system had used a reversible turbine that acted as a pump during the night. Now they used gates to continuously refill the upper lake, and ran them all the time.

I was fascinated, I had suspected that they had been used to deliver gas and oil supplies to reduce import costs, I had never imagined that the plan was complete Energy Independence. I mentioned that I was working with Elon for a combination solar hydro power generation and distribution system. He patiently explained to me that Japan was putting it’s own 36” gate in orbit of the sun in a few months, and would deploying a similar power satellite system to provide baseline grid power for the country.

I asked him how long it would be before Japan became an exporter of energy. He simply smiled and said, two years. I then asked him how long he thought it would be until Europe became an exporter of energy. He shook his head sadly, and told me that they were likely only to produce enough power to meet needs, and pay for the decommissioning of their 750 oil platforms, at a cost of about 3 billion Euro each.

As the existing platforms became too old, they were likely only to build replacements for what they had using a model similar to the Japanese design. I could see where he was likely correct. He then asked if I would support Japan joining the ASEAN group.

I told him that I thought the larger any cooperative group became the better it was for everyone, but I didn’t think that I had much influence. He disagreed, and so I promised that if it came up I would support the addition of Japan to the ASEAN group, but thought it might need a new name if that happened. He didn’t think so, as Japanese controlled islands extended far enough South to be part of the region.

He asked me then if they joined could they get 25 gates like each of the other members. I told him that they had paid for it by turning over ownership of the South China Sea. I asked him what did Japan have that was worth 25 gates? He handed me a list, with values next to each item. His professional​ preparation made me grin.

I told him I’d review the list, but it would have to be contingent on their joining the group, just as it had been for China. He nodded, shook my hand, bowed formally, and wandered off to join the rest of the group.

My assistant Paul was stunned by the conversation. I ordered him a drink, and told him that nothing really surprised me anymore, except that there had not been more attempts to kill me. He seemed a little calmer after a shot of very nice whiskey.

Two days later a delegation of ASEAN representatives invited me to the Asian hub for a brief meeting. I was free so I came immediately. They wanted to know what I thought of adding South Korea and Japan to the group. I explained that I was very much a supporter of both joining the group. They asked what I thought of Australia joining.

I was less positive of Australia. I explained that the ASEAN group was likely to eventually enact laws similar to the EU allowing free movements of people over the borders, and workers able to work in any country in the group. Australia for all is niceness, still tended to be bigoted toward Asians, and were not likely to ever allow large numbers of immigrants. They were also firmly in the US/British sphere of influence.

I suggested that they create an associated country list, that would allow the country to place a gate at their hub, in the section reserved for non members and perhaps other benefits, but reserve membership to those that would allow the eventual economic ties that would bond the group. They nodded finding my advice something they had already considered. I also mentioned that Australia already had access to the British hub, plus private gates to Hong Kong and Tokyo, they didn’t really need to be members to benefit from membership.

To assist growth in the region, I told them that I would donate 1 additional gate for each new member, and arrange for up to 24 more gates for each new member to purchase at reduced rates if they fell under the same local use only rules that the current 300 gates came under. I also told them that any future members would be required to have complete nuclear disarmament to receive this offer.

I also told them that should they adopt a single group wide currency, I would provide 2 additional gates to each country that adopted it, with no local use restriction. That set the council into a rapid fire discussion. They paused for a moment, thanked me for coming, and went back to excitedly discussing all the implications.

Since I was here, I had security take me out in a Runabout Six that was here to tour the area from the air. Construction was progressing well along, and the Asian hub was seeing fifty thousand passengers a day. With all the extra gates in the system, a number of direct routes had been set up throughout the region, reducing the number of people thru the hub.

The first resort was scheduled to open in May, just 2 weeks away. My China Sea House had not even started construction. Security had decided that the island I wanted would work just fine, but the island needed to be cleared of existing structures first. The most interesting thing I found was that nearly any island of any size with buildings also had a basketball court.

I asked Paul to send a message to the group members asking when the Asian basketball playoffs would be. It was a touch of nationalism, but it would help with the transition to a new identity as a member of the group, if teams were restricted to cities in the group.

I sent a message to the architect to see about building a basketball stadium at the Asian hub. I noted that if there wasn’t room, something that floated, and could be towed around the region so different countries could host it would be very cool.

Russia contacted me to request a gate hub. With the drop in oil demand their economy was hurting. Even by raising prices in concert with OPEC they were severely pushed. I was blunt, I told them that they were welcome to continue in exploration of space in concert with ESA and NASA, but they had little of what I wanted. I also explained that their nationalism, belligerent attitude to neighbors, and human rights abuses made me unwilling to do them personal favors.

The Russian ambassador simply sighed in acknowledgement of these things. I explained to him that Russia was still trapped in the serfdom of the past, where oligarchs ruled, and the common people toiled unendingly, their anger muted by copious vodka.

He asked me what solutions were there? Their people were held under the grip of entrenched power. Favors and cronyism were more valuable than justice and truth. I didn’t have any ready solutions. I expressed my sorrow, but reminded him that the Russian population continued to fall. They might have once been a superpower, but population and economic activity declines meant that they simply could not regain whatever former glory that had really had, even then much of it was empty propaganda.

I did tell him that I would turn the problem over to my economic council, and see what real solutions they could suggest. I had a few nebulous ideas, but nothing worth sharing with the ambassador. I promised that I wanted to help, and would spend more time and energy in finding ways to do so.

I scheduled a meeting with my economic council to discuss the Russia situation. There were a lot of ideas thrown around. I had them draw up a wishlist of things they would like Russia to do to promote peace. I was surprised to learn that they still had not signed a peace treaty with Japan.

Then I had them list assets that the country had that needed modernization, and a second list of assets going unutilized. The lists were huge. The most impossible suggestion came to simply offer Russia membership in the EU. Some of the council laughed, but when I reminded them no idea was too ridiculous to consider, they reconsidered.

They wondered if Russia joined the EU, would it be willing to give up Siberia and the Eastern district. The 2 federal districts had a population of only 25 million. The idea was that it could be spun off as a semi independent region, much like Greenland and Denmark. The remaining 120 million would still make Russia the most populous country in Europe. If we did an economic region deal with the EU, and gave all 750 gates to Russia to distribute as it saw fit to the members of the EU, it would get a new income other than oil, and be tied tighter to European Justice.

One of the problems with Russian Justice, is it is nearly impossible to be found innocent. Even if no evidence exists, and nothing can be demonstrated as actually breaking the law, even the Supreme Court will rule against you. Having the EU commission on human rights serve as a higher court of appeals would help to mitigate the country’s poor Justice system.

Adopting the Euro would also help normalize the country’s trade imbalance, and allow the dissident population to leave it as they wished. I was liking the idea, just not the idea where I give them 750 gates for all of North Eastern Russia.

I told them to write out the proposal, but keep working on other ideas to assist the Russian economy, and to get gate access across the region tying them tighter to Europe. The EU itself had never agreed on how or what to trade for their own gate system. So far it only had a few gates, all in private ownership, or under private lease.

Another idea soon made its way to the top of the discussion. Form some sort of Arctic cooperative group, where all the countries around the Arctic with territorial claims would give up this claims in exchange for gates to be used exclusively within the group.

I liked this one a lot. I wondered if an Arctic Treaty Organization would really work. It was only 5 countries, Russia, United States, Canada, Denmark (via Greenland), and Norway. I asked for an economic perspective for those 5 countries receiving 30 gates each. I asked the group what they thought of a 10 mile wide gate, filled with metal placed at the North Pole, and the other end placed somewhere in space where it would refreeze the melting Arctic sea ice.

They were stunned for a bit, but then decided they liked the idea, but that I would have to include the entire Arctic council, which includes Iceland, Sweden, and Finland. Those 8 countries, with 25 gates each, held to the same standard as the Asian hub. I asked them what waters would be mine for turning into an international wildlife sanctuary. They suggested everything inside the 75 degree circle. I asked about the land inside that area, and they suggested starting 25 miles out from any land.

I asked them to write the proposal up, and I would do research on how best to achieve the regrowth of the Arctic ice sheet. When we had it all together we would invite the eight countries to a conference to propose a deal. Meanwhile I would leak some info on the deal to Russia, and hint that I really wanted them to normalize relations with Japan, and Ukraine.

I spent a few days working out how to make a gate transmit heat. I finally got success by filling the gates with an aluminum alloy. It was able to melt at a low enough temperature to not damage the gates, but still properly seal them. I decided it needed to be done, so I ordered the construction of a 1/2 mile gate on the Moon.

It took a couple months to organize the meeting, and finally it was scheduled for July. During that time Russia formalized the end of World War 2 with Japan. It was a complicated treaty, but involved transferring disputed island territories to the local people, instead of Japan. Part of the treaty included a commitment of free transit thru the region by both parties. They also pulled troops off​ the Ukrainian border, but left them in Crimea. The conference was speculated on, but I wasn’t divulging the proposal to anyone prior to the meeting. I was hosting then in Iceland.

I was contacted by Ukraine asking about the reduction in Russian troops, and my involvement. I explained that I was interested in peace in Eastern Europe so that gates could be set up to provide transport thru the region and beyond. They asked if they had anything I wanted to trade for an 8 foot gate or two, I only answered that they needed to come to terms with Russia, and seek EU membership, beginning with EEA and the EFTA.

In June I delivered 22 8 foot gates to the 11 new users of the AMU (Asian Monetary Unit) the original ASEAN 10 plus ROC Taiwan. The ASEAN group now included Japan, South Korea, PRC, ROC, and the original 10. The acronym also now stood for the “Alliance of South and East Asian Nation’s.” PRC was considering switching to AMU, as were South Korea, and Japan.

ASEAN had established a high court for internal disputes, and solidified the territory borders of all the members. Any change in territory or border locations by any member would require approval by the ASEAN high court. It was an odd Alliance. It consisted of democracies, republics, communist, dictators, and capitalistic tax havens.

I had authorized each member the authority to place up to 5 hydropower sea platforms in my territory for domestic electric production. I would determine the ideal placement location for each platform when it was ready to be installed.

The determination was actually made by a board of directors made up of ocean scientists from the various member states. They were reviewing the ecological benefits of my four sea based hydropower platforms, and determining how to best use those benefits in the region.

Another four would come online in a few months, combined with Elon’s satellite system NoC Power was scheduled to be producing 1.5 TW of power by July, and adding double that amount each following year. The US capacity was 1080 TW, so we had a ways to go to eliminate carbon fuels as a power source. Reaching ⅓ of that amount would be enough to eliminate the coal fired plants in the country.

I shared my ‘Ice the Arctic’ plan with Elon, and he was excited to see if it would be possible. He also quickly saw the benefits to Russia having 25 gates that could be used to ship goods to and from the China/Russian border to Europe, and the United States. I had cut the Asian hub tariffs to 10%, as 20% was producing much more than the required income to support operations there.

The Arctic hub and Arctic Council would get the same 10% rate to support the establishment and maintenance of the Great Arctic Preserve. Extra funds would go to fishery monitoring and support in the northern hemisphere.

The one mile gate took 2 months to construct, and a month to move into Jupiter L2. It took another month for it to chill down sufficiently to superconducting temperatures. A small push moved it out into a polar orbit. It was a highly eccentric orbit with it’s perigee only a few miles above the atmosphere of the Jupiter North Pole. As it crossed, the gate was activated by a thruster with an activator attached.

Video showed the massive event horizon dig deeply into Jupiter. Cameras and telescope were positioned all around to film deep into the interior of the planet between when the event​ horizon collapsed, and the atmosphere rushed back in to replace the vacuum left behind.

The resulting rush of gas actually caused the atmosphere to bulge outward at the pole, much as a drop of water leaps out of a puddle, before the pull of gravity pulls it back in. The atmospheric disruption also caused the great red spot on Jupiter to falter and collapse. As the rings completed their orbit they were caught by thrusters and positioned for a long slow transfer back to the Moon. At the Moon they would be filled with the aluminum alloy to the full depth of each 32 foot deep ring, for a total of just under 1.5 billion cubic feet. It came to about 222 billion dollars at $0.88 USD per pound. I was glad that most of that was coming from asteroid sources.

That was one project that was proving very useful. The US steel production figures were higher than they had been in decades because I was practically giving the iron away to US factories. It was part of the way I was appeasing the President in exchange for a tax break. The other minerals were coming in through the Asian hub, and the profits were staggering.

The ingredients for superconducting gates were being processed in Asia, and then sold to my company in the US, it was a way to inflate the cost of each gate, thus reducing taxable profit, and keep more of the funds out of the US tax bracket. As it was, my tax records showed I paid more tax than any ten other individuals or corporations combined in the United States.

I had made a deal with South Korea to base my business in Asia there. Because they didn’t have anything worth giving for the 24 extra regional gates, I agreed to a tax free status for all company profits​, plus the 10% cut on all gate transit fees.

As this deal made great economic sense for us both, South Korea became my import location for all space derived resources. They had the factories for processing the incoming minerals, and I could use my own gates to transport the iron to the US from South Korea for sale at pennies a ton.

Part of my deal with South Korea also included selling to South Korean companies all my imported minerals at an exclusive auction. Typically they got minerals for around 10% less than market price. My deal also allowed other members of the ASEAN group to purchase any minerals in a second auction that did not meet the reserve price of 15% below market spot price. The second auction had no reserve.

A control team and space mineral extraction company was now based in South Korea. They ran the asteroid collection, refining, and processing program. They really wanted the 1 mile gate, for bringing refined ore back to Earth. The process now included a series of airlocks on Earth, and robotic equipment that operated thru gates to disassemble each asteroid as it completed its sunward tumble.

My out of pocket funding for NASA, not including loaned gates, was at 20 billion a year. The Mars tourism program provided 10% of the funding just for the Mars exploration program. I also partnered with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to provide 2 inch gates for a third world water and power program.

They were working on building a water treatment plant that would flash steam seawater, using a sun orbiting gate, and condense it using a super cold gate similar to my ice the Arctic gate, just much smaller. The system would then feed the water into tanks, for distribution to villages that needed clean water.

The steam production process also ran a small power generator that generated electricity which was distributed through the sides of the gate opposite each other. It also included WiFi internet access. I gave matching funds for the project, and donated a used oil platform as the base of operations for it.

Each gate was capable of providing water and electricity for a village of up to 2000 people at 50 gallons per person, per day. The village was required to provide armed guards for the water source. It was not just to provide security for the water, but the men would also provide security for the village, protecting them from becoming refugees because of violence outside the village. They were also trained as police so they could provide security among the villagers.

A special training program had been set up so that local villagers could be trained to serve in this role, instead of importing unknown soldiers from the local government. It was being hailed as a massive humanitarian project, and the primary focus was on Sub Saharan Africa.

The hot gate had taken some experimenting, but eventually we simply wrapped it in long fiber asbestos, and then filled it with a high temperature steel plug. Then the whole gate was put in sun orbit, with a slight rotation so that both sides of the gate were evenly heated. Then the Earth side was simply dropped in a concrete holder, that was lowered into the water inside a massive pipe. The pipe helped pull water from deeper in the ocean, as surface water is extra salty from evaporation.

The cold gate was placed at Neptunian L2. There it sat in perpetual shadow at the far edge of the solar system. It was plugged as well, but I used the aluminum alloy I had developed. The Earth side of the gate was placed at the exhaust end of the steam turbine, where it was made to spin. As it spun, the collected ice was scraped off both sides, where ambient temperature returned it into fresh water.

I contacted the keepers of a nuclear plant that had been cancelled in the 1980s prior to being started for the first time in Washington, and offered the heat technology to them to reopen and finish the plant. If it was successful, it might be a way to convert all the existing coal fired plants in the world relatively cheaply, as they would only need the heat source gate.

The response from them was the plant was too far deteriorated for it to be finished and used, but they had been given permission to build a second 650 MW natural gas fired generating plant and would be willing to redesign it to run on solar orbital steam instead, incorporating the existing cooling towers into the design. I sent the project to my management team for them to work out the details.

When news of the project spread, I had lots more contacts, so spun the idea off as a new company to manage and design solar orbit steam generating technology. I made sure that they understood that I wanted conversion of existing coal and natural gas fired steam generating plants to be the primary focus.

The project was a major success, and they ended up building conversion kits for coal plants all over the world, with production facilities in South Korea, the United States, and Ireland. The conversion kits used 36 inch gates, so we ended up putting a 5 foot gate in solar orbit for launching them.

July 7th finally rolled around and I held a meeting in Iceland with the Arctic Council. I was nervous, I didn’t want to be demanding, or dictatorial, but really did want to do something about global warming. I knew that for the United States government I couldn’t call it human caused global warming, but that they had finally accepted that global warming was happening regardless of the cause.

I began by handing out the proposal. It outlined the basic treaty, a free trade agreement, relinquishment of all ocean territory claims beyond 25 miles of the sea coast inside the 75 degree line of latitude. That territory would be declared an international conservation and nature preserve. This time it would not be going to me as owner. In exchange all members who participated in the treaty would confirm each other’s borders, agree to a free trade program, and receive 25 8 foot gates. The gates would be restricted to use only among treaty members. There would be a 10% gate transit tax that would go to the treaty organization for managing the Arctic, and managing fisheries in the northern hemisphere.

The United States was not keen to adopt a free trade agreement with Russia, considering they still were under sanctions. They asked to leave the free trade part out, and I agreed. They argued a bit over where the hub should go. I thought it should be Iceland.

The countries in the council all seemed eager for the deal. When I explained my role in building and placing a gate to help refreeze the Arctic, and thereby help stabilize the weather effects of global warming in the northern hemisphere, they were even more eager for the project, especially when they realized that it meant the end of a climate change derived Northwest passage.

Canada finally offered to donate an island to build a hub on. Having a treaty organization hub, and headquarters at the same location was a point that I was insisting on. No one else had an empty island they were willing to donate, and it would not benefit Canadian tourism any more than any other country, as the Canada gate would connect to the island too.

There was some scepticism about an ice gate actually having an effect. I demonstrated an 8 foot gate that had been produced as a miniature version. With thrusters mounted all along the outside it was kept hovering over the Solheimajokull glacier. It lay parallel to the ground, with a slow spin off 6 rpm. It created an ice tornado, moving up and down over the glacier, refreezing it solid. The demonstration was impressive. The wind generated was fierce, and the area cooled significantly was several miles wide.