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nuclear propulsion system in Nevada. If they are using atomic engines, then I bet that they are planning to send people along with the reactors.”

ACT V: JUNE 2017

    THE ROUNDABOUT IN front of Fuchinobe Station was overflowing with water from the rain and gusting wind. Aki considered taking a taxi but decided to walk after remembering how prohibitively expensive taxis had become. Her umbrella proved useless. She covered her head with the hood of her raincoat as best she could and walked. The overflowing water ran across the sidewalk, carrying pink petals in its wake. The cherry trees had bloomed over two months late because of the darkness and pollution.
    The wind blowing on Aki’s face was warm and moist, like the vanguard of a typhoon. Swept by the whistling gust, the streets were as empty as the morning of New Year’s Day. The shuttered windows of the shops had nothing to do with the weather. The world was in turmoil. Though she was too focused to spend much time worrying, Aki could not help but pause and admit that the last few years looked like the beginning of the end of the world.
    Economies that had seemed too big to topple had toppled. Food and basic necessities were either strictly rationed or too expensive for regular use. In less than a decade, global weather patterns had changed irrevocably. Average temperatures had dropped. The resultant “global cooling” created environmental chaos. Indonesia was suffering a devastating drought, and over a million people had drowned or been washed away in floods in northern China. Glaciers had crushed entire populations around the globe, and Japan was trapped in sweltering heat. Locusts swarmed just north of Tokyo, beetles infested Hokkaido, and southern Japan reported cases of malaria. Farmers had to grow crops inside retractable plastic greenhouses so growers could adjust the amount of sunlight and temperature. The farmers were barely producing enough food even though the world’s population was dwindling.
    Aki’s favorite professor was waiting for her when she entered the research lab. She was embarrassed that she looked like a drowned rat.
    “Shiraishi, I hear you’ve applied to join the Vulcan Mission.”
    “Oh, uh…Yes, I did.” Aki had forgotten that the names of those who passed the second round of the selection process were announced to the public.
    “I’m sorry that I didn’t talk to you about it first.”
    “Don’t worry about it. It’s not often that we have the honor of one of our students being chosen as a protector of the solar system.”
    “They’re only in the second round of selections,” Aki said. “Besides, I don’t think I have what it takes to be a...” she hesitated, the words surreal, “‘protector of the solar system,’ anyway.”
    “If you ask me, your nerves of steel would make you a perfect candidate for the job.”
    “I’m not sure I agree, but thanks for the encouragement,” replied Aki.
    “There’s, uh, just one thing, though,” her professor added hesitantly, looking for the right words. “You do know that the Vulcan Mission is going to be unlike any other manned mission ever launched, right?” Asano hesitated and looked away.
    Aki knew all about it. The Apollo Missions had sent astronauts to the moon and returned them safely, but the Vulcan Mission was a UNSDF military attack. Destroying the Ring was more important than the lives of the crew. For a ship and group of people to destroy an object with sixty thousand times more surface area than planet Earth’s sounded impossible. But sixty thousand was also the number of additional casualties dying every day from the encroaching darkness. It was not about research anymore. It was about survival of the species.
    The nuclear-powered warship needed so much power and propellant that safety and human comforts were not going to be priorities. One designer had quit the project because the solar radiation shields were not strong enough and she did not want to be