- Howe, Steven D.
Wrench and Claw.
Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2011.
ASIN B005JPZ74A.
-
In the conclusion of the author's
Honor Bound Honor Born (May 2014),
an explorer on the Moon discovers something that just
shouldn't be there, which calls into question the history
of the Earth and Moon and humanity's place in it. This short
novel (or novella—it's 81 pages in a print edition)
explores how that anomaly came to be and presents a
brilliantly sketched alternative history which reminds the
reader just how little we really know about the vast
expanses of time which preceded our own species' appearance
on the cosmic stage.
Vesquith is an Army lieutenant assigned to a base on the Moon.
The base is devoted to research, exploration, and development of
lunar resources to expand the presence on the Moon, but more
recently has become a key asset in Earth's defence, as its Lunar
Observation Post (LOP) allows monitoring the inner solar system. This
has become crucial since the Martian colony, founded with high
hopes, has come under the domination of self-proclaimed
“King” Rornak, whose religious fanatics infiltrated
the settlement and now threaten the Earth with an arsenal of
nuclear weapons they have somehow obtained and are using to
divert asteroids to exploit their resources for the
development of Mars.
Independently, Bob, a field paleontologist whose expedition is
running short of funds, is enduring a fundraising lecture
at a Denver museum by a Dr Dietlief, a crowd-pleasing science
populariser who regales his audiences with illustrations of
how little we really know about the Earth's past,
stretching for vast expanses of time compared to that since
the emergence of modern humans, and wild speculations about
what might have come and gone during those aeons, including
the rise and fall of advanced technological civilisations
whose works may have disappeared without a trace in a million
years or so after their demise due to corrosion, erosion, and
the incessant shifting of the continents and recycling of
the Earth's surface. How do we know that, somewhere beneath
our feet, yet to be discovered by paleontologists who probably
wouldn't understand what they'd found, lies “something
like a crescent wrench clutched in a claw?” Dietlief
suggests that even if paleontologists came across what
remained of such evidence after dozens of millions of
years they'd probably not recognise it because they weren't
looking for such a thing and didn't have the specialised
equipment needed to detect it.
On the Moon, Vesquith and his crew return to base to
find it has been attacked, presumably by an advance
party from Mars, wiping out a detachment of Amphibious
Marines sent to guard the LOP and disabling it, rendering
Earth blind to attack from Mars. The survivors must
improvise with the few resources remaining from the attack
to meet their needs, try to restore communications with
Earth to warn of a possible attack and request a
rescue mission, and defend against possible additional
assaults on their base. This is put to the test when
another contingent of invaders arrives to put the base
permanently out of commission and open the way for a
general attack on Earth.
Bob, meanwhile, thanks to funds raised by Dr Dietlief's
lecture, has been able to extend his fieldwork, add
some assistants, and equip his on-site lab with some
new analytic equipment….
This is a brilliant story which rewrites the history of the
Earth and sets the stage for the second volume in the Earth Rise
series, Honor Bound Honor Born. There is so much
going on and so many surprises that I can't really say much more
without venturing into spoiler territory, so I won't. The only
shortcoming is that, like many self-published works, it stumbles
over the humble apostrophe, and particularly its shock troops,
the “its/it's” brigade.
During the author's twenty year career at the Los Alamos
National Laboratory, he worked on a variety of technologies
including nuclear propulsion and applications of nuclear
power to space exploration and development. Since the
1980s he has been an advocate of a “power rich”
approach to space missions, in particular lunar and Mars
bases. The lunar base described in the story implements
this strategy, but it's not central to the story and doesn't
intrude upon the adventure.
This book is presently available only in a
Kindle edition, which is free for Kindle
Unlimited subscribers.
November 2019 