The Juno Conjunction

"The Juno Conjunction" is included as prelude No. 3 in *The Juno Contingency (novel)* and is set in the Juno universe.

## Teaser

Earth struggles to cope with Jupiter igniting into a second sun called Juno, which threatens to boil all life under the heat of 24-hour days.

## Continuity

This is a sequel to The Juno Contingency.

## Plot

### Prologue

Leslie is waiting for an Uber outside of the UN with a box of her things, having been fired after only two weeks into her czarship. Her post is gone and the entire UN is dissolving since poor countries have realized the rich countries will be spending all their resources on saving themselves and that there will be no help for them. The world is collapsing into regionalism and war while the G20 pursue Balkanized survival strategies

Ret suddenly pulls up in an illegal Lamborghini Diablo Strosek. Leslie asks why he's not hiding in his Finnish bunker, and Ret explains that it wouldn't do for the world's first trillionaire to be in hiding—which is him thanks to the valuations of JunoFund's companies skyrocketing after Ignition. Ret explains he's already met with the President and been given carte blanche with the North American economy. Leslie rants that he set her up to fail just so he could swoop in and take over himself, but Ret says he told her what was going to happen; she just didn't listen. He invites her to join him for another ride as "Frodo and Gandalf. Only this time I've become Gandalf the White. And you're still Frodo." Leslie chagrins but agrees.

### 1. Cry Havoc

Ret now runs the plenipotentiary Juno Agency under direct presidential authority. At headquarters his staff presents their new white paper on "The Juno Conjunction," about how to survive the deadly "conjunction" when Juno and Sol will be on opposite sides of the Earth, resulting in 24-hour days. Heat stroke resulting from Ignition has already killed hundreds of thousands and projections show there will be tens of millions of deaths by then. Leslie objects that he's actually talking about astronomical "opposition," since "conjunction" will be the least dangerous time when Juno is eclipsed by the sun. Ret says he knows, but "The Juno Opposition" sounds more like a legal defense and would brand poorly, which is why he chose "The Juno Conjunction."

The Agency's plan is to have all urban centers commence underground construction to shelter the population for the months of "conjunction." Meanwhile they will mass-produce personal coolsuits for farmers and essential service workers to keep the power on, the water running, and the food growing. Stratospheric aerosol injection is ramping up dramatically using modified Boeing aircraft to create a translucent "thiosphere" embalming the Earth. Food and water will be stockpiled, and small modular reactors will power desalination plants to feed their farmland and cities.

Meanwhile, the endgame is to complete the sunshade, which has only launched 103 shades so far but needs to reach 108 to become effective. Ret plans to scale out production 10x every 9 months so as to complete the sunshade within 3 "conjunctions." Optimistic estimates suggest perhaps 50–75% of the North America population will survive the transition.

Leslie asks about the rest of the world, but Ret replies that global shipping has collapsed and nations are hoarding their natural resources. China and the EU are implementing their own survival strategies but are being severely hampered by the collapse in Middle Eastern oil. The US can only guarantee the security of the continental economy, so that's all they can use. Leslie objects that there's no chance North America can build 100 million sunshades in just three years, and that they need some moonshot developments from their allies in order to make it work. Ret thinks the effort will be wasted but authorizes Leslie to explore.

### 2. Guns and Butter

With martial law omnipresent and the global financial system moot, the world regresses to a miniscule barter economy. Leslie goes on a trade mission to the western Pacific, arriving first in Japan, where the country is rationing gas for industrial uses only, extending its underground infrastructure, and dynamiting into mountains. Due to the country's lack of natural resources, they are  cannibalizing stadiums and office buildings for steel to construct seaborne habitats and access the ocean as a limitless heat sink. Leslie negotiates with the government for the US to export them food and fuel in exchange for a crash program to devote their space industry into developing ion thrusters that will cut fuel requirements for the sunshades.

Next she travels to South Korea where the country is taking similar strides, including flooding low-lying plains to develop their own heatsink network. Leslie negotiates a deal where South Korea will develop advanced robotics fabs to launch into space. Then she attempts to travel to China, but the country has closed its borders, severed its internet links, and gone dark. The Chinese Communist Party is mobilizing the population for its Move North Campaign as it develops Siberia for its arctic climate and oil resources.

After her failed entry, Leslie is secretly contacted by the head of the China National Space Administration, Liu Ting. Liu says Beijing has publicly declared that the American sunshade effort cannot possibly succeed, and so has dedicated all the country's resources to its policy of self-reliance. But secretly they don't want their space industry to lie fallow and seek ways to collaborate. Against Ret's wishes, Leslie shares specifications for an EM catapult NASA had prototyped, which could accelerate the sunshades out to L1 and massively reduce fuel and launch costs. The US didn't have spare industrial bandwidth to develop this technology, but Leslie urges Liu to pitch it to Beijing.

Leslie makes her final stop in Australia, which is constructing massive domes over its cities to defend against desertification. With Australia's wealth of natural resources but extreme distance from America, Leslie negotiates to begin building SpinLaunch farms across the country to push more resources up into space for robotic construction.

Flying back, Leslie witnesses many refugee ships fleeing the equatorial regions for polar latitudes. Leslie wants to negotiate deals with more countries, but Ret overrules that they can't afford "any more mouths to feed." Leslie objects to his callousness, but Ret explains that their priority is to save the world's industrial plant. Individual humans will always find ways to survive hiding in small pockets, but if they lose their industrial capacity then they'll never be able to finish the sunshade. Then humanity will be scraping by for however many thousands or millions of years it takes for Juno to run its course.

### 3. ~~Conjunction~~ Opposition

Juno recedes behind Sol in astronomical conjunction, which is still branded as "opposition" by Ret's Agency (retconning it as the Earth and Juno being on "opposite" sides of Sol). Temperatures plummet thanks to the new thiosphere, and the northern hemisphere—which was already facing a Solar winter—enters a micro ice age. Many people who preemptively traveled to high northern latitudes are either forced back south or freeze to death.

The Juno Agency celebrates the launch of the 104th sunshade, though this still produces no visible dimming and they are already well behind their aggressive schedule to scale out. Ret's political power starts to crack as multiple Washington hearings suggest he is squandering the country's resources on "a literal pie in the sky," while arguing that the country has already adapted to the new normal. Ret counters that the momentary Junoclipse—and the raging blizzards—have already made people complacent, but the coming "conjunction" will bring temperatures close to boiling across the world. He doubles-down on the sunshade as the only real endgame.

Back at the Agency, Ret interrogates the progress of Leslie's research projects, and teams of Japanese, South Korean, and later European scientists show key results but have not yet productionized anything. Australia has finished its first SpinLaunch farm and starts launching resources into orbit, but there are difficulties integrating this heterogenous supply chain into their orbital fabs. Ret objects that their progress is far too slow, but Leslie counters that he never wanted this plan to begin with, so he should be happy with what he's got.

Leslie is secretly contacted by someone claiming to be a CNSA scientist who tells her that Director Liu has been purged. Leslie asks if they ever made any progress on the catapult, but the scientist stonewalls. They just ask for updated technical specifications on the sunshades plus a detailed launch timeline, which Leslie provides, hoping the data will be used to influence key decisions.

### 4. Eastern Quadrature

Juno emerges from behind Sol and begins to draw closer, and the world braces with only 50 days left until astronomical opposition (branded "conjunction"). Temperatures quickly surpass modeled limits and the urban populations are moved underground. Rolling blackouts and water rationing commence, and coolsuits become increasingly essential to survive outside. Domestic chaos begins to disrupt supply chains, and Ret fears that if their efforts stall they may never come back online.

None of Leslie's research projects have produced working prototypes, yet they continue to bleed the US of food and fuel. Ret accuses her of running an aid program for people who are already dead instead of saving humanity. He also catches Leslie transmitting technical information to her CNSA contact, and he threatens to throw her in jail for treason. Instead he exiles her to do menial work monitoring their Arizona SpinLaunch farms.

On the way Leslie's plane encounters a superthermal vortex and is forced to land in the desert. Before rescue arrives, a band of migrants wearing blackmarket coolsuits and driving apocalyptically modified custom vehicles appears and kidnaps her. Their leader says there are many fleeing bands fighting for survival across the American Southwest, which he says has gone "full Mad Max." In exchange for Leslie's release he wants her to negotiate resettlement for his people to Canada. Leslie is surprised to find many women and children struggling to survive in the convoy, and she hears their stories of how they escaped South America and made many perilous journeys north in hopes of survival.

Leslie contacts Ret, who offers the migrants resettlement in exchange for Leslie's safe return. But temperatures are so high that all aircraft will be grounded throughout "conjunction," so they will have to reach an Army base in west Texas themselves. The migrants load all their supplies into an armored fuel truck and battle their way through competing desert migrants and pirate bands. The leader has Leslie hide with the other women and children since she is their ticket to freedom.

The band's leader is killed in a clash with a superior tribe that surrounds their caravan. As everyone braces for death, Leslie throws off her coolsuit hood and walks into the open so that the attackers can recognize her. She convinces their leader to cease fighting and to join them in their trek, as she is the only one who can convey them to safety. They encounter more migrant bands on their way, whom Leslie also convinces to join them. Ultimately she leads a large, peaceful refugee convoy into Texas.

*Read the conclusion "5. ~~Opposition~~ Conjunction" on Amazon.*