An eventful year

Ray and Lin, of course, watched the panel work. There were projects and missions that were quite amazing. Immensely effective filters have been designed and installed for the large, industrial CO2 slingshots. Even in China. Governments in Ecuador and Chile were converting thirteen major fishing fleets that were tirelessly hauling plastic out of the Pacific on a large scale. The Brazilian government has partnered with the US on a similar project to fish plastic out of the Atlantic. The states on the Mediterranean also tried to get such a project off the ground. The 14 spacefaring nations joined forces and developed a system for capturing space debris and allowing it to burn up in the atmosphere in a controlled manner or dumping the larger pieces in the ocean.

All the techniques required for these projects had been known for a long time and just got moldy in drawers. But now there were younger ones at the helm, who thoroughly understood that these things stood in the way of progress. They left the stubborn, greedy old people behind. Just how foolish it was to ditch the self-destruct mechanism for space rockets, for example, became obvious when it became almost impossible to launch new rockets. There were so many failures, collisions and accidents that the scientists refused to work more than once and the rockets remained on the ground. Something had to be done, now, immediately. First aisles had to be cut in the space debris before a rocket could start. It would be decades before most of the space debris was cleared. It was more economical to build the self-destruct mechanism into all new rockets. China only took part after international pressure.

Research on plastic-eating bacteria received a large grant from the panel. There were good ideas such as applying the inactive bacteria during production, the bacteria became active after a certain time and decomposed the plastic. Of course, the conventional method of only applying the bacteria to the plastic waste after use was also tested.

Finally, the conviction prevailed that it paid off to further develop hydrogen fuel cell technology. The hydrogen could be obtained in a climate-friendly manner, transported via pipelines and brought into the existing filling station infrastructure. The costs were high but manageable. For large installations such as ships, trucks or factories, hydrogen was cheaper than fossil fuels. There was still a lot of research and development to be done in passenger cars, but Ray was confident that there would be a breakthrough in this sector as well. All well-known car manufacturers produced electric vehicles and those with alternative drives. There was still a long way to go in the aviation sector. So a lot of good research that pushed the panel.

But there were also projects and missions that were not successful, that could not be successful with money alone. Racism, anti-Semitism or hatred, hate speech and malicious manipulation on the Internet were examples of this. Democratic forms of government rapidly declined and authoritarian systems and cults prospered more than ever. Even the appearance and work of Zeus gave the wrong signal. Snotty some populists pointed to Zeus, look what a strong leader could do! This was a topic that Ray kept arguing with Lin. The Jareel's decision to activate Ray/Zeus was central to these discussions. As hard as Ray tried to understand, in retrospect he often had doubts as to whether Zeus was right to act. Lin was absolutely certain that the Jareel had made the right decision.

His mother's voice on the phone was all panic, his father was dying. He looked at Lin but she shook her head, his lifetime was over. They immediately teleported to Marbella and, as a cover, took the bus one stop. The mother picked them up from the bus station and they sat at her father's bedside for three days. There was nothing more to say, but they whispered softly to him. He fell asleep peacefully. Ray suggested bringing the father to Vienna and burying him. The mother shook her head, he should be buried in Marbella and she wanted to stay here forever. Almost 100 of the new friends came to the funeral and bid farewell to Ray's father. Ray did the paperwork and had her make a new will, he would inherit the house in Vienna where he was born. They stayed with the mother for three weeks until she was over the worst of it. They left her in the care of her longtime lover Leonardo and teleported home. Ray had already checked out the widower Leonardo, who was 20 years her junior, and the divorced husband was perfectly fine. And he gave her sexual pleasures she had missed since the Magician.

They went back to work. In the evenings, Lin lay down on the couch next to him, rested her head on his lap, and he talked about his youth. How he discovered and developed his talent, how he asked his father and mother about their sexual escapades and how his mother showed and taught him everything sexual. Lin listened in silence, for it was all implanted in her creation and she remembered every detail of his sexual awakening better than he did. He didn't say it himself that she had taught him how to make love, but Lin saw it clearly in his memories. Gradually the sadness faded and he remembered his parents with sincere gratitude, they had always loved, supported and encouraged him.

The diplomats came to Zeus every month and they discussed the results of the panel with him. Ray's interest in the nudity of diplomats steadily diminished, he was more interested in advancing developments and projects. He knew he was far too impatient, but the months rolled by, turning into years, and the planet was still gravely ill. Though he knew it would be another hundred years at least before any success could be seen, he was impatient. He wasn't a hundred years old. Lin had been able to stop his aging, but not the end, the Jareel could not or would not.

Ray often argued with Lin about hoaxing away the oil, natural gas, and maybe coal from humanity. That would spur the development of new energy sources, immediately reduce pollution on Earth, and smash the power of the oil barons. Lin cautioned that we are not ready yet, a worldwide collapse of the economy would destroy too much. She was convinced that this crisis would set the world economy back many decades. But the idea is good in itself, you just have to wait for the right time. Ray kept a close eye on developments in the energy sector, he didn't want to miss the moment. The energy crisis triggered by the war between Russia and Ukraine was a shot across the bow. But the main result was that the western states looked around for alternatives for the supply of fossil products, but did not push alternative energy production as a matter of priority. Everything went much too slowly for him.

One day Ray couldn't wait anymore. He discussed his plan with Lin and wanted to try it, on a small scale. If it went wrong and the global economy was in serious jeopardy, they could always back out. He asked her if the Jareel could the oil‐, natural gas‐ and cut coal production by a quarter. It should be done quietly and secretly, Zeus would not announce anything, the diplomats would not be informed in advance. Lin thought for a minute and nodded, it could be done. She passed on his request and the Jareel cut global production by 25% that same day. He and Lin watched the reactions with excitement.

The producers were angry. They couldn't explain why production was falling. The engineers were at a loss, they also could not explain why the total quantity did not increase even though they let production run at full capacity. It was an inexplicable physical paradox. Several weeks passed before it could no longer be kept secret. The governments ordered the iron reserves to be tapped. One could use no resentment in the electorate. For months, the shortage could be bridged until the major media outlets began reporting and the topic dominated talk shows and editorials. Finally, finally, the demands became louder to promote alternative energy production. Ray unobtrusively added a snuff every day until the total production was only 40%. He couldn't go any further, Lin and the Jareel figured that out for him.

During the diplomats' next visit, the dominant topic was the shortage of energy. Zeus admitted to having something to do with it and demanded that alternative energy production be promoted with great effort. The board should enforce that. The meeting was not very harmonious, the diplomats were not happy to be faced with a fait accompli. Ray didn't really care, he didn't have a hundred years.

The panel pumped huge amounts into innovative techniques. The wind farms in the North Sea have more than doubled in size, the successful and climate-friendly hydrogen project in Namibia has been copied by other African countries, it was money well invested. On the slopes of the Andes grew countless wind turbines up, Spain and France built several huge pipelines for the hydrogen from Africa. The oil barons and the Arab states tried to funnel their money into the new projects. The end of fossil fuels was getting closer every day. Ray breathed a sigh of relief.

Ray and Lin would sometimes teleport to his mother and stay overnight. He was very concerned if she was coping well with being a widow. She visited her father's grave several times a week and took good care of it. After a few weeks she was back in society and met old friends. Ray and Lin heard the couple's lust and his mother's happy sighs every night. When he once talked about it alone with his mother, she reassured him with a wink that Leonardo was the first man in decades with whom she could let go and had regular climaxes. She blushed violently: Leonardo took it for granted that she would do it herself when he needed a break. Leonardo was a reliable partner and loyal in everyday life. Of course, Ray knew from his research that he didn't have any love affairs on the side.

Ray and Lin started teleporting to different cities, going to cafes and chatting with the locals. The energy shortage affected everyone and was a welcome topic in every small talk. Everyone knew about the new research projects and were optimistic, but it was much too slow for most of them to get it all into everyday life. For Ray and Lin, these were important conversations and they soaked up as many impressions as they could.