Moving Mars (41 page)

I raised my eyebrows and smiled, then quickly decided to preempt what the young woman must have thought was a terrific bit of research. Mr. Crown Niger once represented Freechild Dauble, and presided over the incarceration of a group of students at University of Mars Sinai. I suppose thats what youre referring to?

The reporter nodded, eyes intent on the prey.

That was a long time ago. Mars has changed, Ive changed

But do you believe Crown Niger has changed? the second reporter chimed in. He leaned forward. I felt like a mouse circled by hawks.

Hes certainly moved up in the world, I said. Advancement changes people.

And you think your government can work with him, bring him into the fold before the elections? the first reporter asked. The third seemed content to listen and bide his time.

We aim for complete participation. Wed hate to have Mars divided any longer than necessary.

But Cailetet says that the interim government supports projects that may endanger stability in the Triple, said the second reporter.

I havent heard that.

Its a general release to the LitVids, dated for spread on the ex net and broadband Squinfo at twenty-two Triple Standard. He gave me a second slate with the message. I read it quickly.

Have you made contact with the Olympians? the first reporter asked.

Thats not for me to say one way or another.

How could they endanger the Triple?

I laughed. I dont know.

Weve actually dug into this a bit, the first reporter continued, and weve discovered that Cailetet funded these scientists for a while before cutting. The scientists went elsewheresupposedly to UMS. Theyve actually come to you now, havent they?

Cailetet seems to know more about this than I do, I said. Have you spoken with Crown Niger?

We have, the third reporter said. Off the record. He believes the interim government is behaving very foolishly and inviting a lot of pressure from Earth. He sounds frightened.

If Mr. Crown Niger wishes to express his views seriously, on whatever matter real or imagined, he should talk to us directly, not through the ex net.

The first reporter blinked and nodded. Crown Niger isnt stupid. What is he trying to do?

I cant begin to guess, I said. I glanced at the info officer and he efficiently ended the meeting.

There were no special perks in small stations like Mispec Moor. In a rickety cab traveling through the ancient tunnels, air thick everywhere with the yeasty smell of active nano, the info officer glanced at me cautiously and said, What can we expect?

I shook my head grimly. Crown Niger is trying to sink the elections.

Is there anything more the RIO should know? he asked.

Not for the moment, I said. I leaned back in the stiff seat and felt the enhancements tickle. Memories of the briefings from the Olympians mixed with my new sophistication. New questions tangled in my head. I visualized certain equations in the papers Charles had transferred to my slate. The symbols flared out in red, green, and purple, sorting themselves in the enhancement and being presented to conscious awareness. I did not savor the feeling yetit was unsettling, having this powerful expert attached directly to both conscious and subconscious thinking.

The equationswhich I still only vaguely understood, the enhancements assets not yet having penetrated deeplykept pointing to vague discrepancies. I shut my eyes, trying to clear these distractions and think about Crown Niger. But the equations would not clear.

There is more.

I shook my head and swore under my breath.

Are you all right? the officer asked.

Im thinking, I said, the best answer I could give at the moment.

Diane Johara had gained a couple of kilos in the years since I had seen her last, and her face had taken on a gentler, more knowing expression, but she was still Diane, and we hugged each other as if we were students and roommates again. Joseph and Ilya stood awkwardly beside each other, shaking hands, fresh male acquaintances sizing each other up. The apartment had three rooms and a sanitation alcove, spare even by Mispec Moor standards, but it was neat and comfortable and immaculately decorated with quilts from Dianes family and colorful, fanciful paintings from Josephs.

Diane wore a long black velvet dress and a tiny yarmulke on the crown of her head. In New Reform Judaism, men and women equally had to hide their heads from Gods gaze. Her hair had been coiled into a dove-shaped bun on one side, and I found the style at once very dignified and very attractive. She had found her true beauty.

I was so happy seeing her and being distracted from my almost painful welter of thoughts that I felt like crying with relief. I did cry a little, the allowed tears of renewed friendship. Joseph led us into the middle room, a circular dig about seven meters wide with banded red and black rock walls over insulation. Ilya recognized the mineral immediately and he and Joseph had something to talk aboutdeposition of oxidized iron during Marss early history, the fluctuation of oxygen-producing organisms in the ancient Glass Sea and the chemical binding of their wastes.

I was glad that Ilya and Joseph had found topics of interest to keep them occupied. Diane and I had a lot of catching up to do. The evening progressed pleasantly into dinner, and this was the surpriseafter a day of yeasty smells and reduced expectations, the food Diane and Joseph prepared and served was wonderful. Fresh vegetables, the finest salad I had tasted in months, premium protein cakes wonderfully spiced with curry and laced with fresh chutneys. We ate until we could hold no more, reconsidered, and tamped the excess down with a few more bites.

We keep our own farm vats here, Joseph explained. Whenever he looked at Diane, Josephs face beamed rapture. I dont think I had ever seen a couple so much in love.

Josephs family has had theirs for thirty years now, Diane said, smiling at her husband.

Watching them and listening, I felt an odd pang. My feelings for Ilya were strong, and we were comfortable together. Of necessity, we had found ways to be apart without being devastated. I doubted that Diane and Joseph had been apart for more than a few hours in all the years of their marriage.

They were beautiful.

After dinner, Joseph and I cleared dishes while Ilya and Diane talked. Simplicity and self-reliance kept servant arbeiters out of their apartment. Joseph asked a few polite questions about the new governmentquestions I had long since grown used to, and answered easily. Then he frowned, put down the last plate, and turned to face me. Id like to mention something. Diane didnt think it worth bothering with, but I have different instincts, he said.

Oh?

There have been requests from several sources to use Steinburg-Leschke territories for mineral exploration, to set up remote analyzers.

Is that unusual? I asked.

No But the requests dont make sense.

How?

All the requests are for land mapped in the General Resource Survey twenty years ago. New surveys dont seem necessary.

All of Mars was ready to find burglars under the bed. The Presidents office received more than a hundred warnings a week. If a little worry about the Republic was Josephs worst flaw, I could accept that. I politely encouraged him. And?

Ive traced the requests. They all come from former extensions of Cailetet, and contractors beholden to Cailetet.

Former BMs?

All signatory to the Republic. None from Cailetet directly but all, indirectly.

Thats interesting, I said, though it seemed normal enough. Cailetet might not wish to draw attention from a government it did not supportand it might not wish to be denied permissions by testy district governors.

Ive asked around, Joseph said, sealing the kitchen washer and starting a cycle. Nine out of ten of the districts Steinburg-Leschke deals with have gotten requests. That would cover half of Mars. Thousands of sites.

My attention sharpened. Why so many?

I presume they wish to discover resources and stake shared claims before the election. Theyre afraid the rules will change after. But Im puzzledthey couldnt possibly exploit so many sites.

Shotgun spread? I asked, alluding to the old technique of filing many claims in the hopes of getting one or two that were productive. Erzul itself had not been innocent of such tactics. Hardscrabble mining was a tough enterprise.

Why in so many empty or depleted areas? Do they know something about areology the government should know? Or maybe my family?

I smiled and shook my head. Ill look into it.

I apologize for talking business, Joseph said, but Ive always listened to my instincts.

Have they ever been wrong?

Oh, frequently. He laughed. I listen to them. I dont always act on them.

We joined Ilya and Diane in the small living room. The talk wandered from business to politicsnothing impolite or too probing, for which I was grateful. Truly I was getting sick of this public self, longing for some relief. Ilya saw this and quickly moved the discussion over to food and farming. Diane watched me as Joseph took the bait and described Mispec Moors plans for expansion.

I took a toilet break as an excuse to be alone for a while and think. There would come a time, I realized, when I would hate even more this role of public person, whose ear was always being whispered in, whose life was the subject of LitVid stare-ups, who could not spend enough time with her husband to fill out half a marriage.

By unspoken agreement, Ilya and I had postponed planning for children, and I realized children and a continuation of real life might not be possible for years if I joined Ti Sandra on a ticket, and we won

I thought of Joseph, polite and smooth-faced and sincere, and his worries about potholes all over Marsand of the thousands of warnings either dire or silly, the endless responsibilities focused impossibly on people who must delegate, and in delegating choose wisely and when some of those choices failas they willtrim mercilessly for a higher good, a good not always definable, certainly never agreed to by all the governed. I thought of the great grinding of the political wheels and felt very sorry for myself.

It passed. I returned to the living room after washing my face. Ilya, too aware of my hidden emotions, patted the cushions of the couch beside him and hugged me as I sat.

We have good men, dont we? Diane asked.

I put my arm around Ilya and smiled, and Joseph blushed.

I called a conference with the Olympians at Many Hills, two weeks after receiving my enhancement, and revealed my suspicions that not all had been told.

I had not seen Ilya in a week. Criss-crossing Mars, campaigning with and without Ti Sandra, shaking hands and listening earnestly to a thousand well-wishers, ignoring those who simply turned their eyes away and did not offer their hands, I wondered if real life would ever return again, and whether I would recognize it.

We met in the Vice Presidents office, just completed large but not richly furnished, befitting our style.

More than a little dazed, I stared at the full gathering of nine Olympians across a table laden with fresh fruit and grain breakfast goodies. For the first time I met Mitchell Maspero-Gambacorta, blocky and balding, dressed in black, who came from a small Martian BM in Hellas; Yueh Liu, tall and athletic, a mild transform, originally from Earth, who had joined the Olympians two years ago; Amy Vico-Persoff from Persoff BM in Amazonis, a solid-looking young woman with determined features and a quiet, steady voice; and Danny Pincher, a bland-faced man of middle years who seemed unconcerned about grooming or clothes. Charles sat at the opposite end, his expression calm and alert as I told them of reading the presentation papers over again.

Theres something missing, and its important, I concluded. You havent dropped the other boot.

Charles looked at me with the glimmer of a smile. What boot?

I struggled to find words for what my enhancement had encouraged me to think. Seven league boots, I said.

The room fell quiet. Nobody ventured to speak. I marched two stiff fingers across the desk in front of me. Your equations imply a lot more. That much Ive been able to puzzle through with the help of an enhancement. And if these things bother me, they surely must bother people on Earth.

Nobody on Earth has access to our data, Charles said.

How long can a discovery this important be kept secret? I asked. Weeks, months? Surely someone on Earth will understandthere are millions of people much brighter than I am

Maybe in a few years someone will stumble on what weve learned, Leander said, clearly uncomfortable. A lot of what were studying is speculative

I dont agree, said Yueh Liu, stretching his tight-muscled arms over his head. The implications are clear, as Vice President Majumdar says. We should not be too cautious. I know a lot of our colleagues on Earth, and the whole picture is going to be clear to them sooner than wed like.

The destiny tweak, I said.

Charles shook his head forcefully. Forget about that. If means nothing.

We should reveal all to everybody and put them on equal ground, Earth and Mars and the Belts, said Chinjia Park Amoy. I would feel so much better if we could do that.

Weve already decided on secrecy, Leander said with a worried frown. He sensed the, groups cohesion loosening. They all looked uneasy, even frightened. I felt as if I had stuck my hand into a nest of sleeping hornets, waking them all.

Seven league boots, Maspero-Gambacorta said. All the dreams.

Enough, Charles said quietly but firmly, his calm regained, at least on the surface. What do you think we have left unsaid, Casseia? He leaned forward, elbows on the table, and stared at me as if I were all that mattered on this world. You have your enhancement now. Tell us. What do you think?

I dont profess to genius, or to understand it all yet

All the better, Charles said. You give us some idea what others will think when they hear about the newest developments. And they will. In time. Tell us.

I resented Charless turnabout questioning. I felt as if I were a student up for an exam. If you have access to the Bell Continuumto everything that determines the nature of reality