Energized

A geopolitical miscalculation tainted the world’s major oil fields with radioactivity and plunged the Middle East into chaos. No one can build solar farms, wind farms, and electric cars quickly enough to cope. The few countries still able to export petroleum and natural gas—chiefly Russia—have a stranglehold on the world economy. Then, from the darkness of space, came Phoebe. Rather than deflect the onrushing asteroid, America coaxed it into Earth orbit. Solar power satellites—cheaply mass-produced in orbit with resources mined from the new moon—offer America its last hope of avoiding servitude and economic ruin. As though building massive structures in space isn’t challenging enough, special-interest groups want to stop the project. And the remaining petro powers will do anything to protect their newfound dominance of world affairs. NASA engineer Marcus Judson is determined to make the project a success. And he will—though his job description says nothing about combating an international cabal or going into space to do it.