To the leader humanity chose

A sky survey caught starlight bending around nothing. Follow-up confirmed it: an isolated black hole of about ten solar masses, closing at 50 kilometres a second. In the year 12,000 it passes through the Solar System.

We cannot move it. We can move the Sun: a stellar engine, a mirror the size of a world, turning sunlight into thrust.

The council chose you, and your grandchildren after you. Build Earth’s industry first, then orbit, the Moon and the asteroids. Your heirs will raise the shipyard, quarry Mercury, close a swarm around the Sun and light the engine.

Ten thousand years is enough, if we start now.