Devray said, plainly unwilling to let the investigation ride
"It could be any of them," Kresh said. "It could be anyone who doesn't want a comet dropped on them. And I must say I can hardly blame anyone for being opposed to that."
Governor Alvar Kresh looked over the ruins of the landing pad once more, and glanced down toward the wreckage in the plaza below. "I don't have the slightest doubt that someone will try disrupting the situation again. They will do everything they can to stop any move toward redirecting the comet."
"What comet?" Devray asked. "What are you talking about? What does this have to do with a comet?"
"Our own Dr. Lentrall here wants to crash a comet into the planet to enhance the reterraforming project," said Kresh. "And someone wanted him out of the way so it wouldn't happen."
"A comet!" Devray repeated. "Crash a comet into the planet?"
"That's right," Kresh said. "There's good reason to believe it would revitalize the entire ecosystem."
"But you're talking as if you've made up your mind!" Fredda protested. "You can't have! Not just like that! Not so quickly!"
"I haven't made up my mind," Kresh said, his voice suddenly very tired. "I won't be able to do so until I have talked with you for more than the half a minute we had before"-he gestured toward the wreckage-"before all this. Until I can consult the Terraforming Control Centers on Purgatory. But I will have to decide, and soon. I am sure of that."
"But, but, a matter like this-something this big-you have no right to decide it on your own," Fredda said. "There has to be a referendum, or a special Council session, or, or something."
"No," said Kresh. "That can't be."
"You're going to play God with the whole planet, with all our lives, all by yourself? You can't do that!"
"In a perfect world," said Kresh, "what I'd do is discuss it with everyone, and have a nice, thorough debate of all the issues at hand, with a nice, fair, majority-rule vote at the end. Because you're right. I have no right to decide all by myself. But I have no choice but to decide all by myself. Because I also have no time. No time at all."
"Why not?"
Davlo Lentrall nodded absently to himself and looked toward Fredda. "That's right," he said. "I don't think I explained that part of it to you this morning, did I?"
"What part?" she demanded.
But Lentrall seemed, somehow, reluctant to say anything more, and simply looked toward the governor.
"Alvar?" Fredda said, prompting him.
"The part about time," said Kresh. But he seemed as unwilling as Lentrall to say more.
"Go on," she said. "One of you at least, please go on. What about time?"
Kresh nodded toward Lentrall. "The comet was rather close when he discovered it," he said. "And, of course, it is getting even closer with every passing moment. Even for a comet, it's moving at extremely high speed, relative to the planet. It will be here very soon."
"Just how soon is soon?" Fredda asked.
"If we leave it alone, it will make its closest approach to Inferno in about eight weeks. Fifty-five days from now. If we divert it, it will hit the planet at that time."
"Fifty-five days!" Fredda cried out. "But that's too soon! Even if we did decide to do this...this mad thing-we couldn't get ready in that little time."
"We have no choice in the matter," said Davlo, his voice wooden and emotionless. "We can't delay it. We can't wait until it comes back around, centuries from now. It will be too late, by then. The planet will be dead. But he hasn't told you the worst part yet."
"What?" Fredda demanded. "What could be worse than only having eight weeks."
"Only having five," Kresh said. "If we are to divert the comet, we have to do it within the next thirty-six days. After that, it will be moving too fast, and be too close for us to deflect it enough."
Justen Devray shook his head in wonderment. "It can't be done," he said. "And even if it could-how can you crash a comet into the planet without killing us all?"
Governor Alvar Kresh laughed, a harsh, angry sound that had nothing of joy or happiness about it. "That's not the question," he said as he looked out over the wreckage that surrounded them all. "The planet's recovery is on a knife edge. It's incredibly fragile. Any of a hundred things could destabilize it, wreck it, send it into an ice age we'd never get