My goal in the 2021 A2Z Challenge is to complete a novel I started a few years ago but which has languished for lack of love (writing!). Each Post, daily in April (Sundays excepted), will consist of some aspect of the novel plus a chapter from it. I hope that the Alphabetical items will give a bit of extra background, muse on the writing process, but most of all, help me develop certain ideas to improve the novel. Some 12 chapters are already written so I have a bit of a head start…

Please comment with any opinions good or bad – you have no idea how much I need feedback at this stage…

We are living in an age of Data – the fruit of the 20th Century’s revolution in Information Technology. Computers can do things undreamed of even in my childhood and the proliferation of information, or data proceeds at an exponential way. In addition to commercial “in-house” server farms proliferate to store all this data “in the cloud”. Huge unprocessed collections of data are known as “Data Lakes” and whilst lakes and clouds evoke lovely images of the natural world – the truth is that data storage is a growing threat to the environment. A friend who worked for the storage division of a famous computer firm explained it thus, at a party. “You have just taken a video of the party on your smartphone and will later post it to the group and various members will decide to download it to their computers or perhaps they will store a copy in their piece of the cloud. So what started off as 1% of a gigabyte on your phone might have grown 20 fold in a couple of hours…” 

By 2025, the amount of data generated each day is expected to reach 463 exabytes globally. If you are a real nerd or a serious environmentalist, you will go and check out that link and find out what an exabyte is – but my point is it’s a shit load of trouble for the environment. Just to give one more example, Bitcoin – the much touted new form of currency, is created by solving complex mathematical puzzles which make each coin something impossible to forge. To do these calculations takes so much computing power that the amount of electricity being consumed by the process, is equivalent to the consumption of a not insignificant nation-state! You couldn’t make it up! 

My book is a work of Science or Speculative, Fiction, but the premise in it, that our original Earth was destroyed by environmental catastrophe, caused not least by the exponential growth of data, is not a complete fiction. Cat videos, porn, unnecessary social media – Just Say No! That is a nod to one of the slogans of the so-called War on Drugs. And is it not worth considering our addiction to data as being dangerous to our health in the same way that criminally sourced drugs are? The war on drugs will never succeed and we should instead substitute a medical treatment approach – but that’s a post for another time. However, the following chapter does touch on the use of drugs on Hawaii 2 and beyond…

Chapter 9
Underbelly 

Jack stood outside a front door in the least salubrious part of New Orleans. It being Hawaii 2 that was not saying a great deal – denizens of the least salubrious parts of the other human colonies would have thought they had died and gone to heaven to find themselves in this particular suburb. Nevertheless, by the standards of Hawaii 2, Lowtown, situated along the river banks downstream of the port of New Orleans lived up to its name. Originally named for a marshy area, one of the last to be reclaimed and built, the soubriquet described the nature of the suburb well and it was a favourite argument of intellectuals as to whether the name created the character of Lowtown or whether it was the geography. Either way, Lowtown was the focus of what passed for rebellious youth, home to the alternative lifestyle of the alternative planet. Jack recalled his first conversation with Stig at the treehouse when Stig was posing as the Investigator and, presumably to add verisimilitude to his role, was talking about how people on the other colonies imagined life on Hawaii 2 to consist of lying around doing nothing, because nobody was forced to work. Lowtown, thought Jack, was the only place on Hawaii 2 where life in any way resembled that imagining, and even then, it differed in so many ways.

Residents of Lowtown were not enthused by civic duty so the periodic communal clean-ups ubiquitous to other communities, when people would get together to pick up litter and repaint the playground equipment in the parks, did not happen in Lowtown. Not that there was much litter except of the natural variety such as leaves – even in Lowtown, the civic duty not to litter, inculcated from an early age still held sway over Hawaii 2’s rebels.

Since everybody got paid their stipend regardless of whether they worked or not, there was little crime of the variety that usually funds the lifestyle of societies’ underclasses. Drugs were not illegal so another reason for crime was missing but since drug users like to group together for a shared experience, at least on the outward surface of things, Lowtown was the focus of young people experimenting with the doors of perception and many artists also made Lowtown their base. The legality of drugs made them cheap with no dealers ramping up the price and pushing their customers into crime or prostitution to fund their habits. In fact, serious long-term addiction was rare on Hawaii 2, even in Lowtown and mostly young people drifted into the area, sowed wild oats, dabbled in drugs and eventually moved away again when they were ready to take a more productive part in society again. Despite the many different aspects of society on Hawaii 2, teenage rebellion remained a fact of life, parents blamed hormones and waited for the phase to pass. It’s hard to sustain rebellion when there is nobody to kick against… 

The house Jack stood outside of, was an old friend of his from school who had accompanied Jack on his rite of passage trips to Lowtown in search of adventure and experience but unlike Jack, who had grown beyond that excitement, Clem had actually moved there and still remained, doing what? Well – Jack couldn’t really imagine. Stig had suggested a hotel for Jack to rest up in after their eventful day, it not being considered wise for him to return to the treehouse, but Jack had said he would rather stay with a friend, Stig suggested someone he wasn’t in regular contact with and Jack had come up with Clem in Lowtown which Stig had agreed to and an unmarked government car had spirited Jack away from the underground car park beneath the Parliament building.

Now, finally, the front door opened after a long wait, considering that Jack had rung Clem first to ask if he could come and stay for a few days and Clem was thus expecting Jack. Jack had not relished standing in the open for so long even though the car driver had assured him they were not being followed, the recent events had induced a healthy degree of paranoia in Jack. “Jack! How the Devil are you?” Jack, no slouch himself, was enveloped in a bear hug by a six-foot six-inch giant of a man dressed in a kaftan and with twelve inches of bushy untrimmed beard resting on his ample chest. “I’m good Clem, thanks for this.” “No problem mate, I’ve missed you!” Clem pulled Jack through the door and closed it behind him – series of dead-bolts clicking into place automatically. “Come through and make yourself at home.” Clem led the way through to a large living room furnished with large comfortable settees that begged Jack to sink down and relax. “I heard about the train wreck Jack, I am so sorry for Anna, I only met her at the wedding but she seemed perfect for you…” An awkward silence followed. Jack had been so wrapped up in Douglas since he got back from hospital that he had not seen many friends and had to experience the double-edged sword of condolences – the bitter-sweet of shared memory. “I hear you have a son though! Miracle eh?” Jack could have gone down the route of telling Clem about Douglas but he had realised that everyone on Hawaii 2, almost everyone, believed the story that the train wreck had been a gas explosion in the galley and he suddenly felt the need to tell the truth to another soul. “About the crash – it wasn’t an accident!” he blurted out. “What! What do you mean Jack, it was in all of the papers? You were the top subject of conversation for weeks after the explosion and again when you came round.”

“I mean it was a bomb, not a gas explosion.” “What the hell! Who would do such a thing?” “We don’t know, and this is just between you and me, right?”

“Sure Jack! Who is we?”

“People from the government”.

Jack had been warned by Stig not to discuss events with anyone but he and Clem went way back and besides, just by staying here he might be putting Clem in danger. It was only fair he knew what was going on although Jack stopped short of telling him about Stig and his background as a protector of Hawaii 2, for that was how Jack now thought of him. Clem fetched a couple of drinks and Jack unfolded the story of the last few days referring to Stig simply as an official investigator. Clem whistled when Jack described the intruders at his mother’s house and again, when Jack described the meeting with the President. Not that the President was so elevated from the ordinary citizen of Hawaii 2, nor hidden behind a wall of security, there was no need, but nevertheless, it was unusual for someone you knew to be having official meetings with him.

“So that’s it and here I am, a fugitive from – I don’t know what…”

“Well mate you’re safe here! But I can’t get over it – what possible motive could anyone have to do such a thing?” “The government think it could be something to do with Anna’s research. She went to Hawaii 1 to follow up some earlier stuff she saw which might mean an alternative way of accessing space from Hawaii 2 other than the space-lift and they think if the Trans-Planet Corporations got wind of it they would use it to open up the planet whether we liked it or not and our whole society would change.” “That could be true, I certainly know…” Clem suddenly shut up as if he had said too much. “You know what? Jack sat up as Clem twisted his hands looking uncomfortable. After a moment, Clem began. “Look, Jack, I don’t make a secret of what I do here although if I did it on any of the other colonies I would probably be locked up, albeit it might be in a research facility. You remember our first trips here to Lowtown?” “I do, though I am not sure I remember all the details!” said Jack with a laugh.

“Exactly, sex, drugs and rock and roll! And for me, it was the drugs that were foremost which is why I ended up moving here although by that time my interest in them was slightly different.”

“How do you mean?”

“Well, I got interested in the manufacture, the pharmacology, even the history of drugs. Lots of recreational drugs started out as medicinal back on Earth, cocaine – anaesthetic, ecstasy – couple counselling dis-inhibitor, poppers – muscle relaxant and so on. By the 21st century, the molecular chemistry was so well understood that things moved to synthetics – drugs with great purity, before they hit the street anyway, and with predictable effects, in the majority of users anyway. Now things went the other way – occasionally one of the synthetics was found to have application in the world of medicine, and that is what interests me, Jack. These days, the recreational side of things is secondary to me although I am always concerned with finding safer highs… Come and look at this.” Clem got up and led Jack through to the back of the house and then downstairs to a basement. To his amazement, Jack stepped into a gleaming white-tiled laboratory in contrast to the scruffy but comfortable décor upstairs.

“Yup this is me now – Doctor Clem!”

“Seriously Clem you are a Doctor?”

“Well, not a medical doctor though I do have a doctorate in Pharmacology” grinned Clem. They spent the next half hour looking around the lab with Clem explaining the function of various pieces of equipment and how he was directing his research more and more towards medical drugs and searching less for new, recreational highs. He even had a separate room housing animals for initial toxicity testing.

“Of course, anything I discover in this microscopic lab has to go on to be tested rigorously by the big boys off-world, we don’t have much of a pharmaceutical industry here on Hawaii 2 – probably because we are so much happier than the other colonies so we don’t need many of the drugs that are given out to treat depression, anxiety and stress. Many other physical illnesses that follow on from those conditions are also reduced and require shorter treatment when they do occur. Mental illnesses are also less frequent, which we put down to a happier social environment, and again, when they do occur, we treat them a lot more with talking therapies which means all-in-all, we use so few drugs it’s easier to buy in what we need, even though drugs come into the low-weight high-value export that we can send up the space lift.”

They were back upstairs in the living room now. “I’m glad you have found your niche Clem, I was starting to worry about you, especially when you moved to Lowtown – I thought you were becoming a professional addict!”

“No, I was almost through that phase when I moved here and starting to take a more useful interest in pharmacology. Actually, I am quite a rich man now albeit off world!”

“Really Clem – and you the man least likely to…!”

“I know, it’s mad isn’t it! Not that it makes much difference to me, I mean I still get my stipend like everybody else, and there’s not much I can or need to spend money on here. This house was paid for initially from the recreational drugs I developed but then I came up with a pain killer with fewer side effects than lots of existing ones and sold it to TransPharm. The upfront deal was derisory looking back, I was naïve but then the percentage on sales whilst small, has paid me a fortune because it took off like a rocket! Then TransPharm tried to make it up to me by offering me a position at their R. & D. on Hawaii 1, but I didn’t want to go there and be a wage slave. Then they offered to send in masses of equipment at great cost and pay for staff but again I turned them down and bought what I needed out of my own money and God knows I could afford it and so kept my independence. Whilst nothing I have developed since, has had the success of that first drug, I have made some significant discoveries and – I am my own man and I work on whatever I want, whatever interests me.”

“Wow! That’s fantastic Clem, good for you. It even proves that the ethos of Hawaii 2 works better in R. & D., small scale, intellectual freedom, personal motivation other than money, incredible!”

“Exactly! But TransPharm still doesn’t get it – they keep on asking me when I am going to come and enjoy all the money I’ve earned and can’t understand that I have everything I need and want here – chiefly my work.” 

The two of them sat sipping the drinks Clem had poured them in the companionable silence only possible between the kind of old friends who can pick up where they left off after a long time apart. Eventually Jack broke the silence. “Do you believe in God?”

“You’re kidding me, Jack, no I might have found my profession since I saw you last but I haven’t found God! Why do you ask?”

“It’s just an expression you used ‘God knows I could afford it’. I mean you and I and probably most of the population of Hawaii are Atheist apart from the small groups who came to achieve religious freedom and they don’t make much headway gaining followers and yet we still use expressions like ‘God knows’ all the time!”

“Ha! True enough. I suppose we could say ‘goodness knows’ but that posits goodness as a thing and I am as sure there is no more such a thing than there is God. Goodness is what we do, by choice, the very idea of goodness, or God come to that, only exist in the minds of human beings because we are able to make that choice.”

“My thoughts too. Even after learning that the train wreck was really caused by a bomb, and not knowing who or why someone did such an awful thing, I still don’t think that evil exists any more than good or God, not as concrete things. And if anything were going to make one change one’s mind it might be something like that. I mean we don’t have much crime here, bad things done by people don’t happen and the bad things that are natural, well we seem to cope well enough with them without turning to religion for comfort.”

“Yeah, well, even those religious groups that did come here with the initial colonisation are withering away, young people drifting away. Maybe it’s because society isn’t so bad that religious leaders have to contain their flocks against a world of sin. Sin! What even is sin?”

“I think you’re right Clem.” And they lapsed into silence again. This time it was Clem that broke it.

“Talking of bad people, I’ve just been thinking about something, I don’t know if it’s connected to the train wreck but it happened about the same time.”

“Really Clem, what was it?”

“Well about two years ago there was a guy, a drug user, one of the ones who used to test out my new highs and distribute them to other selected users and get them to report back on any side-effects. I am lucky, or good at what I do, don’t know which, but so far there have never been any serious side effects to anything I have produced. Anyway, this guy, Gervald, he hung around a lot and was interested in what I was doing, so much so I was urging him to study too which eventually he did. Then he was able to be useful doing some of the routine work and it was good for his course work. During that time, I came up with a recreational drug that whilst not the greatest high in the world, was exceedingly cheap and easy to produce. I don’t tell TransPharm about my recreational drugs, there are enough drugs on the other worlds and because politicians are not brave enough to deal properly with the issue, there is still a separation between legal and illegal drugs. The criminals lobby politicians not to change the status quo otherwise they would stop making money and so the users have to pay prices that are well above legal drugs like alcohol. So how do they pay for their hit – they steal, so more criminality. The freedoms we have here on Hawaii 2 do away with all that criminality and as you know, most users drift away from drugs in the end. It’s an experiment that was tried on Earth in a country called Holland and whilst it had some success, it was skewed because all the other countries around didn’t join in, so Holland became a destination for addicts from everywhere else. At least that can’t happen here with our restricted access but I wonder about what Gervald might have been up to, something always nagged away about him at the back of my mind.”

“How do you mean Clem?”

“Well, you’ve seen my setup here, I mean I have locks on my front door which I keep locked and that’s more than most people do here, and even then it’s not against theft, but in case some idiot comes in here stoned and causes mayhem. If this was any other planet there would be cameras and security and all sorts of regulations which would mean I probably wouldn’t even be allowed to operate in the suburbs like this. But with Gervald it reminded me of what I’ve read of those other places, a bit paranoid, edgy, as if we were doing something illegal which of course we were not, in fact as I moved into medical drugs more and more, it was even less questionable – were it on any planet! Yet he had this clandestine feel to him.” “You think he had something to hide?”

“Maybe but I could never figure it out. And then he disappeared under what you might call suspicious circumstances. In fact, it was about two days after your accident, well or not, as the case may be.”

“Oh, it was definitely a bomb and no accident, the authorities are sure of that, it’s just that they don’t have a clue who or why!”

“Well two days after the train wreck, Gervald’s house went up in flames, a really bad fire although not so bad that they couldn’t rule out the fact that no body turned up in the ruin and they couldn’t figure out how the fire started either. The door was locked which you know, is unusual but they couldn’t say whether accelerants were used to start it because it turned out he had been storing quite a lot of chemicals there. In fact, it looked as if he had his own lab there. And Gervald had disappeared. Completely!”

“How did you find out the details – I mean aren’t the police quite cagey about giving out information?” asked Jack.

“Well yes, usually they are, but firstly they were all busy with the train wreck and this didn’t rate high on their priorities, although at any other time it would probably have been their top case. But secondly, they questioned me as a known associate of Gervald and then asked for my help as a sort of expert witness.” “Expert on what?” “On drug-making – on the equipment in particular. After the fire, they found a lot of machines in the ruins but so badly burnt they didn’t know what to make of them – so they brought me in.”

“And could you tell what they were?”

“Oh yes, easily. I had expected to find equipment related to Gervald’s studies although I had no idea how he would be able to afford such things, so expensive to import we all used the university labs even though it meant working at silly o’clock sometimes to get your slot. But here’s the thing, it wasn’t a student setup at all, no, it was a manufacturing plant, small but capable of turning out quantities of a single line of drugs. So how the hell did he manage to import that lot? And what was he producing and who for? There are a couple of guys who make the drugs used here on Hawaii 2, medical and recreational and the latter are closely monitored by the authorities both as to quantities, usage trends and price. As even the recreational drugs are available over the counter in pharmacies, there is no clandestine world of dealers and no new producer would have a way to sell his product.”

“So, what do you think happened to Gervald, where did he disappear to?”

“Still more questions than answers, Jack. Bit like your case! I wasn’t officially on the investigation but you know how it goes here, things are a bit more relaxed than they are on other colonies and a bit more pragmatic. Hey! Have you ever thought about the fact that we get plenty of ideas about how it is on all the other worlds through the vids, all those crime dramas but they have no idea how things are here ‘cos we don’t really have a film industry and if we did, we’re so boring there’s no crime to film anyway!” Both men laughed at this old chestnut about life on Hawaii 2.

“Well that was the case anyway…” said Jack more soberly.

“True!” replied Clem and they lapsed into silence for a minute. “So, you’re a father now Jack!”

“Yes indeed!” A wave of longing for little Douglas overwhelmed Jack and he spent a few minutes telling Clem all about the strangeness and wonder of coming round from the coma to find himself a father and how great it was looking after this new little person except that the person who he had always imagined sharing the experience with was not there. With that Jack welled up and Clem went off to make a cup of tea for them both giving him space to let flow the tears. Putting the cup in his hand, Clem put a firm hand on Jack’s shoulder and Jack pulled himself together again. “If there’s anything I can do Jack… In any case I can’t wait to meet Douglas…”

“Thanks Clem and so you shall when all this mystery is settled…”

“I’ve been thinking about that and the more I think about it, the more I wonder if it was just coincidence that this thing with Gervald happened so close to the train wreck.”

“How do you mean? You didn’t finish saying what happened in the investigation?” “Yes, well, as they didn’t find a body, they tried to find him but it was then that I realised that he never really talked about where he came from, I mean he obviously wasn’t from around here. But you know a lot of people who wind up in Lowtown don’t really want to talk much about their past and you get used to not prying – when they want to talk, they will. So I couldn’t be much help to the police there, hell I didn’t even know the guy’s second name and that’s par for the course around here too. He had a camper van and that was missing too so the police put out an alert for that but by the time that happened, it was four or five days after the fire so if he took off in that he was long gone – assuming that’s what he did. It’s a mystery, who he was, where he got the equipment and what he was doing with it and if he disappeared voluntarily, then why he gave up a promising career, his college reports were good, or whether, as the police seemed to think, there was foul play.”

“It’s certainly strange. And you really don’t have any idea why he had a drug manufacturing set up – couldn’t you tell from the equipment? And why do you think it might be connected to the train wreck.” asked Jack.

“I don’t have any concrete thoughts, it’s just a hunch brought on by your describing your mystery and maybe I am just connecting them because they have superficial similarities, you know explosions and an absence of motive or hint of a perpetrator. But in answer to your first question, my best idea of what he might have been making was that drug I mentioned, I called it Sunset because of the way the high faded. I told you it was simple to make and cheap too and that’s because there were certain stages of manufacture that were unnecessary in making Sunset compared to other recreational drugs and the machines he had seemed to match the process. I told the police that, but it didn’t make any sense – there are much better drugs available here and indeed when Gervald was trialling it with the users, they didn’t dislike it, but there wasn’t a demand for it either, so I didn’t pursue it directly, only kept it in mind for ways of incorporating it into future medical applications. So why would Gervald set up to manufacture it with no market? Talking to you, I suddenly thought, what if he was sending it off world? Not only is it cheap and easy to make but Sunset is tiny in volume, like the original LSD which could be impregnated into a dot of paper – ideal for smuggling, especially given our unique access to space and its weight limitations. We were just thinking about it wrong looking for a local market.”

“So Gervald knew how to make Sunset?” “Well, I never specifically gave him the formula or the method but he was around enough, and he did have access to my computer files for the bits of work he did for me. I don’t have very elaborate security on the system, I never felt I needed it, and although the files were password-protected I suppose it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to hack them. That’s what I told the police anyway and they suggested I beef up security, which I have since done – even though it goes against the grain.”

“Well, if he was smuggling Sunset off-world, what would the advantage be, to the people at the other end that is?” asked Jack “And why destroy the lab and the train that takes you to the means of getting the product off-world – it doesn’t make sense!”

“Let’s face it none of this makes sense but thinking about your first question what would the advantage be?” Clem sat thinking for a minute head in hands. “Okay, so it’s a new source of product which the authorities wouldn’t be looking for, especially with that source being Hawaii 2 with its noticeable absence of exports. Secondly, if it is being smuggled, then the transport is not being paid for in the regular way, it could be impregnating the packaging of one of the other small, high-value exports we do send so it’s cheap that way as well as cheap to buy from the originator, let’s presume that’s Gervald. But then what’s the point for Gervald, he can’t spend the money here on Hawaii 2 because you don’t need lots of money, and conspicuous consumption is frowned on and, well, conspicuous!”

“But let’s say he wasn’t from here, or he was from here, but could get off-world eventually to spend his money?”

“I suppose that’s possible,” Clem said, “I mean people do come and go, hideously expensive as it is. I have been myself to meet with TransPharm and spend a bit of my own ‘drug money’ though to be honest, I couldn’t wait to get back!”

“Really. Why’s that, I’d love to go?”

“Oh I enjoyed the trip, especially going up in the space lift, it’s so slow – but it gives you time to enjoy the view of this beautiful planet of ours. Although apparently, some people can’t deal with it, it gives them vertigo and they have to travel in a windowless lift capsule – mad eh?”

“Too right, I want to see it all when I go, – if I ever go! You know in the early days of space-flight, when they used rockets, you got into orbit in ten minutes or so but you couldn’t see anything because you were crushed into your seat looking at the inside of your capsule. Anna told me that…”

“I can’t imagine what you’ve gone through losing her Jack and though it can’t bring her back, I hope the bastards who did it get caught!”

“So! What didn’t you like about going off world?” said Jack to change the subject and move away from the subject that was still too raw to cope with in daylight and with company.

“It’s the people mainly, at least the one’s I had to deal with at TransPharm. They were so up themselves with their limousines and salaries and expense accounts. I think they were trying to show me a good time and boy did they pull out all the stops to impress me, but although I tried not to show it, they did just the opposite. When we were driving around in the city, you could catch glimpses of how the majority of people live and if you really looked hard you could see the really poor people in the alleyways, going through trash looking for food. But I never got to meet anyone outside of business – they said they were protecting me but I felt like an asset being guarded. I told them I wanted to spend some money going somewhere exotic so they arranged for me to go to this hotel somewhere in the tropics but it was just like being in the city except for the scenery – which was beautiful I grant you. But everyone was rich and you couldn’t even talk to the staff privately, they were all terrified of being seen fraternising with the guests. I actually ordered a prostitute, not for sex you understand, but because I thought at least it would be somebody I could talk to but she was so drugged up she couldn’t understand I only wanted to talk. Her one thought was that if I wasn’t satisfied by her then she would get into trouble. When I insisted I didn’t want sex and asked her to go, she burst into tears saying it was too quick and they would know she hadn’t pleased me so I let her sleep in the bed beside me till morning and then promised I would give good feedback if anyone asked – which they did in a thinly veiled way next morning. After that, I just wanted to get back here to normality. So I’m not likely to spend the money I earn, and I’m looking into some charities – medical aid for those who can’t afford it – it’s all charged for there you know!”

“So, going back to Gervald, let’s suppose he doesn’t have the same scruples about spending the money he’s earned and hopes to leave Hawaii 2 sometime, or maybe it’s a case of returning to wherever he’s from, what happened, why destroy the lab that’s making you money and why disappear?”

“Maybe he didn’t do the destroying, maybe it was the people he worked for.”

“But why? It doesn’t make sense.”

“Maybe they had got all they needed from him.” Said Clem thoughtfully.

“You mean enough product? Surely drug dealers never have enough…”

“No! I mean maybe they got the formula out of Gervald. After that they wouldn’t need him anymore, they could make it wherever, and without all the complication of smuggling. They are very hot on what you take up the space lift you know. It’s not that they are looking for contraband, I don’t think there is anything here worth smuggling, well until now perhaps, but it’s the weight, everything has to be calculated exactly for the lift system to work properly, worst case it could damage the cable if the loads were unbalanced. Sometimes you can’t go up immediately if there isn’t a balancing load coming down or sometimes the cargo sits in space waiting for upcoming traffic. It’s weird you know, when you get to the middle of the cable which is the geostationary point, there are all these freight containers just sitting in space not moving, I mean they do tether them but they are so still, while you are all over the place experiencing weightlessness for the first time. Eventually you manage to stop bouncing around and then there you are stock-still too – weird!”

“Well, there’s a whole lot of speculation around Gervald, including the idea of some connection to the train wreck but I suppose it’s worth putting it to Stig, he might get things moving, I mean it sounds like the investigation got a bit side-lined or de-prioritised or something.” said Jack.

“I think you’re right Jack, the train wreck took all the energies of the authorities and if Gervald took off in his camper van, well, it’s a big planet to search, plenty of wilderness to hide out in…”

“Well let’s hope he did take off and get away and that if he can be found he might shed some light on his mystery at least. I’ll talk to Stig tomorrow. Now, have you got anything to help a man sleep?”

“Is the Pope a Catholic?” laughed Clem as he took the lid off a massive carved wooden bowl to reveal a cornucopia of brightly coloured tablets. “Just like old times!” said Jack with a smile.