No one expected the oil to last forever. How right they were.

A geopolitical miscalculation tainted the world’s main oil fields with radioactivity and plunged the Middle East into chaos. Any essential oil that remains functional is more prized than ever. No-one can build solar farms, blowing wind farms, and electric cars quickly enough to deal. The few countries still in a position to export petroleum and organic gas-Russia key among them-have a stranglehold in the world economy.

Then, in the darkness of space, came about Energized Phoebe. Instead of deflect the onrushing asteroid, America coaxed it into Earth’s orbit. Solar power satellites-cheaply mass-produced in orbit with assets mined from the brand new moon to beam vast amounts of power to the ground-offer America its last, greatest hope of staying away from servitude and economic ruin.

As if building miles-wide buildings in space isn’t challenging more than enough, special passions, from technophobes to eco-extremists to radio astronomers, want to avoid the project. And the remaining petro powers can do anything to safeguard their newfound dominance of world affairs.NASA engineer Marcus Judson is set to make the powersat demonstration project successful. And he will-even though nothing in his job explanation mentions combating a global cabal or going into space to do it.