Chapter 14

Summary

• A staff meeting takes place, led by a woman named Stratt, with the science team expressing boredom at the routine nature of saving the world.
• Stratt introduces Dr. François Leclerc, a renowned climatologist from Paris, tasked with managing climate effects related to "Astrophage."
• Leclerc predicts catastrophic climate impacts due to reduced solar energy, including mass extinctions and biomes' upheaval.
• Stratt is mainly concerned with how these changes will affect humans and demands tangible predictions.
• Leclerc estimates that within nineteen years, half of the current human population will have perished.
• Leclerc explains abnormal weather patterns already happening, such as tornadoes in Europe.
• Stratt orders Leclerc to find a way to prolong human survival to at least twenty-seven years, mentioning intentional greenhouse gas emissions as a potential solution.
• The narrative shifts to a character learning about Rocky, an extraterrestrial, and the fact that Rocky's species is highly susceptible to radiation due to their home planet's protective conditions.
• Rocky's species, Eridians, are revealed to have powerful magnetic fields and thick atmospheres, granting them complete protection from radiation on their world, called "Erid."
• Rocky and his crew's susceptibility to radiation is explained by their lack of exposure outside of Erid's protective environment, and Astrophage fuel turns out to have been protecting Rocky inadvertently.
• The chapter hints at panspermia—the possibility that life on Earth and Erid originated from the same ancient extraterrestrial source.
• The scene moves to an aircraft carrier, where Stratt and others prepare for a controversial operation involving nuclear weapons to release methane trapped in Antarctic ice, as a temporary measure against global cooling.
• Stratt and Leclerc carry the heavy burden of making decisions with enormous environmental impact, with the risk of potential imprisonment for their actions.
• Rocky and the main character discuss their respective biologies, uncovering the fact that Eridians have an intricate steam-powered physiology with extraordinary energy storage and processing capabilities.
• Eridians use a combination of inorganic and organic materials in their bodies and physiology that is very efficient, but which also renders them immobile and unconscious during their sleep for maintenance purposes.
• Human sensory perception, particularly vision, and its dependence on light astonishes Rocky, as his species perceives the world primarily through sound.
• Rocky constructs a device and a special room that will allow him to visit the human's ship, revealing Eridian curiosity about human technology.