“Well. This is it, the last wind turbine we’ll ever build”

Jeff had been designing and building wind turbines since the early 20’s, and now, in this his fortieth year in the business, with his best and most efficient model ready to be switched on, he knew his career had come to an end.

“Why’s that Mr. Moore?” asked Laura, his new PA. Jeff openly admitted she was more for show than function, but he liked having her around. She struggled to keep her carefully coiffured hairstyle in place as the wind caught and moved stray hairs out of place.

“Well Laura, because there is nowhere left where it would be feasible to install another unit. Fortunately the FXF360 is my latest generation turbine and it’ll extract every ounce of wind energy available.”

Jeff had built his highly successful company on his flair for designing turbines and control gear that would allow individual units to work together and collaborate to capture wind energy. So successful had this been that every unit on the planet used his computerised control gear. Now his final and best model was due for unveiling and there was no more anyone could do with wind energy. He worried about this; the population’s capacity to soak up energy was rising exponentially. Since fossil fuels had finally run out, and the abolition of nuclear energy production by the Earth Council in 2028, wind and wave power had been the only available energy source for the rapidly expanding population. Solar energy had proven to be inefficient taking vast tracts of land for very little gain. All had therefore been replaced by versions of Jeff’s turbines.

Jeff beamed at the Earth Council members who had been flown in electric omnicopters here to the site on Mont Blanc.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Madam President, It is with the greatest of pleasure that I release the blades on this our greatest achievement, the FXF360 turbine.”

With this he pressed the large red button. A bottle of the very finest 2011 Bollinger sprang from its cradle and smashed against the turbine mast, signalling the release of the blade clamps.

Slowly the blades began to rotate, gathering speed until they caught up with turbines all around. With a satisfied smile, Jeff started to climb down the podium steps to join the animated crowd. As he reached the bottom step, he sensed rather than heard a change. Something was not quite right and he couldn’t yet recognise what it was.

Slowly Jeff, and the people around him, started to feel uncomfortable. The temperature and humidity seemed to be rising quite rapidly. Then the new turbine began to slow and then finally stop. Confident in his design, Jeff knew that pockets of still air always occurred and that his control gear would simply step up the power gathering from nearby turbines. He looked down over the valley. For miles around every turbine had stopped. He touched the wrist phone and hissed at the control centre.

“What the hell is happening folks? Who turned off the Goddamned interlink?”

Sweat was now pouring down his back. This was a very awkward time for this kind of mistake, and he promised himself that he’d have someone’s nads for this.

“All systems nominal! Is there an issue Sir?”
The guy in the control centre tried to be placating, but Jeff was in no mood.

“Yes there’s a goddamn issue! None of the turbines we can see are powered… now tell me how that could happen?”

“All systems check out Sir, Primary, Secondary and Tertiary systems are nominal. I can assure you that the system is not at fault. It MUST be natural.”

The man paused
“I can see however that there is NO power from any source being fed onto the grid.”

“What? That’s not possible! That would mean there was no wind anywhere on the planet!”

“That’s what we’re seeing here sir, I’ll check the….”

The link died and Jeff was left pondering the implications… with no wind, the wave collectors would soon be rendered useless. With no power, transport and communications would die. More importantly, heat distribution would become a major problem as there would be no wind to distribute it. Daytime temperatures would rise hugely, and nights would become very cold.

He looked around and spotted the President wipe a handkerchief across her brow, and blanched…. He had a much greater problem to occupy his mind

“How the fuck am I to get these suits down the mountain…..”