Far-out Show (9781465735829) (44 page)

The techs all brought up the information on
that location on their monitors and pondered what signals were
directed where. The producers continued to have to wait for an
update on the situation, all of them edgy now.

“
Goolimansions!
Those sneaky
dunkipfeck prisdinks
!” Eroder could hardly speak he was so
surprised and angry. “It’s good you caught that, Icetop.”

“What did you
fidgemits
almost do to
us?” Feedle asked.

“There’s a really sneaky feedback loop that
would send home the details of our second patch around their remote
override controls,” Eroder. “They get the advantage of knowing all
we did while we’re still digging out the details of the systems as
they set them up before they gave us use of
Whizybeam
.”

“What difference does that make?” Lacrat
asked.

“They know how to try to undo what we did
while we’re still maybe in the dark about what we’re stuck with,”
Hasley said since he followed the implications of what was
said.

“
Frinxbedunk grumpkers
we’ve installed
the second patch but we haven’t activated the changes yet,” Eroder
explained. “Icetop recognized that the sub-routine that would send
that message home might also, intentionally or not, activate the
ship’s self-destruct unit. It’s not clear that it would detonate
that but it would at least make it more unstable. All without us
knowing about it since the sub-routine is designed to block any
report on that activation.”

“What options does that leave us?” Hasley
asked.

“At this point I can’t say with certainty and
Feedle only wants guarantees so what can I tell you?” Eroder
said.

“Can’t we go back to the starting defaults?”
Lacrat asked.

“We can’t tell whether there are more hidden
knots that’ll prevent that to maybe punish us for being bad guys
and not submitting without a fuss,” Biccup said as he walked over
to look over the big console over Eroder’s shoulder.

“Since we know this one gimmick is there, we
can patch around it even if that’ll make parts of the life-support
systems less efficient,” Icetop called.

Yelpam called, “Icetop and I see a general
pattern for how to fix that to make things more reliable. That
should let us do more than limp home with minimal life support as
seems will be the case with things as they are right now. No, no
guarantees, if Feedle wants to insist on those. And it’s not an
instant fix. We won’t risk changing anything more until we’ve
checked all the design plans for other illogical
complications.”

“We’re confident enough in the temporary
third patch around the problem caused by the second patch to
recommend it though,” Icetop said. “It’s your call, Captain.”

Eroder pondered that for a moment. He
thought,
That means we give those two less-monitored although
not totally free access to some systems but at least for now
they’re our best bet. They’re unhappy with the producers but
there’s no reason to think they’re suicidal or terminally
stupid.

Hasley was thinking,
Do we dare let those
two poke around out of sight in the innards of the ship’s systems?
Bips fump, what choice do we have since the other techs don’t show
any enthusiasm for solving the problems?

Feedle was thinking,
This is dismilquam. I
don’t trust those two pipsid smigmollions but what choice do we
have?

Lacrat thought,
What did I do to deserve
this? Flinflup! I don’t want to neprist oglimp vinx crupsmimp. I’m
a user but I can be reasonable and considerate.

At a wave from Molten and a tap on the
shoulder from Biccup, both of whom had been reviewing the proposed
third patch on the monitors, Eroder said, “Let’s do it. Objections
in writing in triplicate in my suggestion box.”

He tapped some control buttons, the ship
shuddered . Everyone held his or her breath. Then the lights came
on and everything returned to normal functional conditions.

Each exhaled with a small
beechens
.

Hasley and Feedle paced the long dimension of
the program edit room in opposite directions while Lacrat paced the
short dimension, their big feet flapping noisily on the floor. They
neatly avoided collisions with almost unconscious speeding ups and
slowing downs along their intersecting paths.

“When things get touchy, smart producers get
thinking. Do we need a reality check?” Hasley asked.

“We know the reality,” Feedle said. “Bottom
line, we'll do almost anything to get the biggest payoff for our
shows, too bad about the consequences to the contestants or the
politicians.”

“Audience interest is high, their
expectations even higher. They want excitement. How do we deliver
that?” Lacrat asked.

“For our audiences excitement means violence,
a commodity that is sort of forbidden in our and the contestants'
contracts,” Hasley said. “The wording allows for a lot of wiggling
and interpretation though since the official challenges were all
approved as okay.”

“Who could have guessed that making a new
concept, never-done-before-quite-like-this type show would have so
many unforeseen problems?” Feedle said.

“We're clever and devious. We can make this
work out to our benefit. We do need to play it sly and keep some
alternatives open though,” Hasley insisted.

Svenly entered, passing neatly through the
moving pattern of the others at the openings, and sat at the
control console. She said, “We've finished reconstructing the
latest messages from the different sources at home after removing
the interference. Do you want the news?”

“Yes, what's happening there?” Hasley
asked.

“The show was a big hit but its fame is
fading fast with so little quick follow-up,” Svenly reported.

“We already know that's a problem,” Feedle
said.

“The consequence of that concern is that
those who pledged any financial support for the program are getting
twitchy, wondering if they should back out of a potential
disaster,” Svenly added.

“Distressing but not surprising,” Lacrat
commented.

“Some loudmouths are questioning the
exploitation of an under-developed planet for mass amusement and
calling for a boycott of the show and its sponsors,” Svenly
reported.

“Also not surprising. Those loudmouths are
being paid by our competitors to cause us trouble. We've used the
same tactic in the past. What else?” Feedle asked.

“That's the capsule news report,” Svenly
said.

Hasley nodded his thanks to her. She nodded
back and focused on a message appearing on a small console
monitor.

“A one-contestant competition isn’t what we
wanted or planned for but we have too much invested in this show to
stop now,” Feedle muttered. “We have the zerpy's continuous
transmissions but I say it's to our advantage to hold back most of
that material to use when we get a better deal from another
distribution company.”

“At least the A.D.U. guys are likely to be
more willing to put the contestants in real danger to get exciting
stuff,” Hasley said.

Lacrat looked around nervously before he
spoke and then did so quietly, “Messing up A.D.U. has been part of
our plan from early on. That made full sense once it was clear they
were setting us up to take any blame but intended to cheat us any
and every way they could devise.”

“It's standard practice, use them more than
they're using you,” Feedle said with a shrug.

“That's the way guys do business on Ormelex.
It's not like it's a new, novel, or secret idea,” Hasley noted.

“Now I see how it adds a tang of satisfaction
when we can pull it off though,” Lacrat said with a smirk.

* * *

A short time later Hasley, Feedle, and Lacrat
sat in their chairs in their office swiveling idly from side to
side with the occasional full three-sixty spin. Recorded segments
of Nerber moving about on Earth were on sections of the
view-screens, the audio off.

In a central section was Wilburps's view of
Nerber hiding among the shrubs in the yard of the corner property
and addressing the zerpy and therefore those who would see this
recording. “The dominant species here, much like ourselves, favor a
‘kill it and then wonder what it wanted’ approach.”

Feedle freeze-framed that. “He started off
too happy to be good entertainment. Now he's looking scared and
worried enough to amuse the audience.”

“I humbly accept credit for the strategy of
only talking to him sporadically so he thinks we have technical
problems that could leave him stuck there,” Hasley said with a
grin.

Feedle tapped switches and the screen image
changed to Nerber talking later in that same transmission as he
said, “We underestimated the inhabitants. They are alert and have
more sophisticated technologies than we were told. They quickly
detected our ship and then the orbiting transmission zerpy beside
their moon. Those have the whole population on edge. They're all
alert to find and destroy any visitors whom, exactly as we on
Ormelex would do, they consider unwelcome invaders.”

Feedle freeze-framed Nerber looking
concerned. She tapped switches and an earth telescope view of the
moon for a TV news with this ship circled at one spot and a small
object that was one of their zerpies circled at a different spot.
She said, “This is the image that has all the occupants fascinated
but wary. Our ship and zerpy, both clearly visible to them. They
added those rings around us to help their inferior minds recognize
there’s something to be seen in this view”

“Nerber is correct, we did underestimate them
– but based on the information supplied by A.D.U. and the
governors,” Hasley said.

“But they don't know what those things in the
image are,” Lacrat reminded them.

“Svenly's monitoring their messages among
themselves. The fact that those two things aren't in free orbits
has focused attention on them,” Hasley said. “The inhabitants are
sophisticated enough to realize that that means the objects must be
using power to stay in place so they’re not space junk.”

Feedle tapped some controls and a poor
quality image of reporter Beth Regards speaking on a TV set
appeared on a section of the screen saying, “The claims of some
NASA officials that the latest lunar orbiter mapping mission,
announced months ago for this date, was rushed into readiness to
seek answers today have been dismissed as confusion caused by the
current level of sunspots. It's hoped the cameras on the unmanned
satellite to be launched in the next few minutes will provide some
answers.”

Feedle touched controls and that screen
blanked. “We dismissed Nerber as a worry wart but it turns out he
was giving us an early warning that things were getting complicated
fast.”

“His report did have a nice tinge of
controlled panic to it. That's why we want him worried about
surviving,” Hasley reminded them somewhat defensively.

“But we don't want him captured and dissected
by inhabitants,” Lacrat cautioned. “That'd make a good show episode
if we could record it but the governors would make us pay a heavy
price for not protecting him better as we promised.”

“Plus there's another inhabitant spy device
coming our way to deal with,” Feedle reminded him.

* * *

In the program edit room Svenly said to
Icetop and Yelpam, “This came in but I don’t know whether it’s
important. It seems like a technical zerpy matter so you guys are
the obvious ones to ask about it.”

“Wilburps told you he’s detecting signals
from a source he can’t identify?” Yelpam asked.

“He told Nerber about it in a conversation
that was part of the continuous feed they don’t know about that
isn’t always coming in,” Svenly answered. “There’s no sign of any
strange signals in anything I can get Wilburps to release. It seems
the unknown signals only register in the part that’s under Nerber’s
direct control.”

“How did Wilburps describe the signals?”
Icetop asked.

“He said he’s being bombarded with orders to
process signals and send them on to be piggy-backed on signals
being sent to Ormelex by us on the ship. But without
Whizybeam
’s systems realizing that’s happening, being able
to prevent it, or even being able to read the messages,” Svenly
said.

“Interesting. We would expect signals like
that to conflict with Wilburps’s programming and confuse it if they
reached it. We’ll check and see what we can make of it. This could
mean there is some serious flaw in Wilburps,” Icetop said.

“Should I tell the captain or the producers
about it?”

“That seems premature. Do what you’re
supposed to but it’s most likely only stray signals of no
importance,” Yelpam said.

“Halsey’s on his way here about something
else. I’ll see how tense he is and decide whether to mention it,”
Svenly said.

“Sounds like a good way to handle it,” Yelpam
agreed and turned to follow Icetop out the door. Svenly probably
wouldn’t have described them as in a hurry to leave but they
were.

The two stiffened when someone opened the
door from outside but relaxed when it was Venrik. He entered and
they left – and hurried down the hall once the door closed behind
them.

* * *

A short time later Hasley entered. Feedle was
behind him but Svenly and Venrik noticed that she stayed outside
looking up and down the hall for an extra moment before coming
in.

Feedle stared at the communications techs and
asked in a harsh accusing tone, “Were some mechanical techs just in
here?”

Venrik started to say something but stopped
when Svenly replied calmly, “Nobody else was in here unless you’re
defining
just
as a longer interval than I think of.”

Feedle made a little dismissive snort sound.
Since the techs were in the only chairs Hasley stood behind them as
he asked, “What do you have to tell or show us?”