"That's right, it does," Chase said. "The Linde double-fractioning process extracts oxygen from the atmosphere and compresses it to ninety-eight percent purity. But there isn't much point in taking oxygen from the depleted atmosphere only to put it back again. Splitting seawater is a totally different technical proposition. You've got to keep the gases separated so that they don't mingle and form an explosive vapor inside the cell. You've got to watch for corrosion and the buildup of hydrogen film on the anode, which can give off poisonous fumes. Don't forget, Pro, that this is an experimental plant. Output isn't significant. If Hanamura can overcome these problems we can scale up to a hundred times the size with a thousand times the tonnage for every plant we build."
"How many plants will be needed?" Ruth asked. It was the first time she'd shown any interest.
"We estimate between fifty and sixty thousand spread around the world, but with a greater number in the equatorial regions. Computer studies have shown that the oxygen shortfall in the atmosphere is currently running at about five hundred trillion tons. That's going to take a lot of making up."
"How many's a trillion?" Prothero asked.
"A million million."
Prothero's lined pouchy face looked glum.
Ruth said, "Surely sixty thousand plants that size will take years to build. Decades." She sounded skeptical, yet prepared, even desperate, to be convinced.
"Five years," Chase said. He saw the look of disbelief in her eyes and went on. "We could do it, Ruth. Once we have the basic proved design there's no technical reason why we couldn't meet that deadline, given the resources."
"You mean the money."
"Yes."
"Will you get it?"
Chase tugged at his beard. "We have to get it. Five years from now, by 2018--2021 at the latest--we're going to be running out of time. If we haven't achieved at least seventy percent of our construction program by then we might as well crawl away and curl up and count the seconds till our final breath."
Ruth was watching him intently. "If you get the money and you build enough of these oxygen plants by the deadline, will it be enough? What I'm asking is, can it actually be done? Will it
She reminded Chase of a shipwrecked sailor clinging to a piece of driftwood who, having given himself up for dead, sights a desert island and can't accept the evidence of his own eyes.
"I believe it will. If we can replenish the atmosphere with oxygen instead of depleting it, we can restore the balance. That's what we've spent the past five years at Desert Range trying to achieve. If Hanamura is successful, then it's possible and it can be done." Chase smiled, seeing the faint gleam of renewed hope in her eyes. After the foul, miasmic canyons she had left behind, this must have seemed like a breath of fresh air.
There was a knock at the door and a messenger came in with a yellow flimsy from the communications shack. Another message from the
Part of Chase's mind registered their incomprehension. "That's one of the Earth Foundation settlements in Oregon where Cheryl and Dan are living," he told them. "Cheryl is ill. They think she's dying. They want me to go right away."
Drew had provisioned the jeep for a trip lasting five days, which was three more than Chase planned to take. The most direct route to Goose Lake--due west across Nevada and cutting through a corner of California--was about eight hundred miles, and that was assuming that the roads over mountains, through forests, and across deserts were passable, without the need for detours.
He was reluctant to ask Ruth to accompany him. Yet with her years of experience in treating anoxia and pollution victims, her knowledge might prove crucial. When asked, she readily agreed. From New York she had brought with her a quantity of drugs used to treat anoxia patients, though as she was at pains to point out, "I can't promise anything, Gavin. A lot depends on how long she's been suffering from oxygen deficiency--if that's what it is."
"I understand that. What I don't understand is how this could have happened to Cheryl when for the past five years she's been in Oregon.
Dammit, there's hardly any pollution there and the oxygen level is only a fraction below normal. It doesn't make sense!"
"It doesn't make sense that people who've smoked for forty years don't get lung cancer, while some who've never smoked a cigarette in their life do. Some people are more susceptible to certain diseases, that's all we can say."
"Is anoxia always fatal?"
