The Great Symmetry (11 page)

It was so deeply ingrained
. Do something. It was always better than nothing. Evan tried once again to scrunch up his legs, so he could straighten his back. No dice.

Do something.

Evan knew why not. He had learned.

The expedition to Middlefork. The shuttle had entered the hangar with too much speed and at the wrong angle. Everyone could tell that something was horribly wrong. Suited researchers
had flung themselves desperately out of the way. All had escaped the impact, except for Jacob.

When all was still, they had emerged, feeling lucky to be alive. Then the screams had beg
un, transmitted directly into everyone’s suit audio system.

They had found Jacob, his hips and legs crushed between a side rail of the shuttle and what remained of the hangar wall.

There was air, of sorts, on Middlefork. Not much, and it was cold, so they all wore suits out of habit. Evan was sure that the air was going fast out of Jacob’s suit
. Still, that alone would not kill him, and they could provide a supplemental flow.

The crew had turned to Evan. He was the leader of the expedition. What should they do?

Evan would remember the moment forever. He was an exoarchaeologist, and was only
the leader because he had scraped together enough funding for the trip. But people always looked to the source of the money for leadership. The screaming continued.

He had to do something. Under Evan’s direction, the crew rigged a haul line and lifted the rail partly off Jacob, until they were able to pull him out. As gently as they could, they transported him into the main air-filled base, met along the way by the expedition’s only medic.

It had been the wrong call.

The lifting and tugging had pushed the sharp ends of shattered bones through his spinal cord. Before they started their rescue efforts, Jacob could move his legs, aflame with pain as they were. He never moved them again.

Evan had visited Jacob in the hospital
. Jacob had accepted Evan’s apology, for what that was worth.

Years passed, and Evan never saw Jacob, or heard from him, until Jacob had been hired onto the crew on Aurora, just over a year ago. Zero gravity was the best work environment for him
. Jacob was efficient and focused. He made valuable contributions to the research. His useless legs did not matter on Aurora.

Evan had taken the lesson, as dearly bought as it was. It was not always required to do something. He resolved to stay in the intake for as long as it took.

Four hours, twenty-one minutes, and forty seconds
after the start of his EVA, Evan felt the ship release from Top Station. A gentle thrust now provided some sense of up, to the opening of the intake, and down, to his feet.

He wondered if it was now time to do something. Almost, but not yet. Mira would tell him. “Suit,” he said, “Listen for voice transmittals from the ship, and play anything that comes in.”

“Will listen for transmittals and play them,” the suit said, although it was already set to do that.

Two minutes and twelve seconds later, Evan heard “Just a quick roll to check on our attitude controls.”
That was the signal. He slid out into the blessed vastness, then pulled his way around the small ship, climbing up the modest rotation, until he came to the airlock.

Coming through the inner lock door, he imagined life outside the damn EVA. Just a little while longer, and he would be without the suit
. He would even take being stuck in the tiny cockpit. That was a mansion by comparison.

Once inside Evan did not hesitate to start stripping off the suit. He pulled off his helmet, and reached for his right gauntlet.

Something was different.

“Evan,” Mira said, “I’d like you to meet someone. This is Rod Denison. He’s a newsman, and he’s going to write your story.”

Part 3: How Many Lives

The Marcom Team

“Let’s get started!” Elise was the leader of the Affirmatix Marcom team, just arrived on a shuttle that had come through the new glome from Aurora. Marcom – Marketing Communications – was a mainstay function of each of the major families, creating and maintaining the messaging that the family needed to grow and thrive.

“This one is going to be a great challenge, but I know we’re up for it!” She was a can-do kind of woman. Featuring stylish couture, clothes and makeup, she was also pretty, somewhere under there. “And it’s so important. Special assignment to Vice President Lobeck! Direct to the Senior Vice President!”

Was that perfume? Sonia became increasingly certain. On the confined space of
a ship, it was either an unwitting choice, or a studied disregard for others who might not prefer the same sensory experience.

“First, let’s welcome our economic experts,” Elise continued. “Drs. West, Ravi, Merriam,
it’s great to have you on the team. Our focus today is on filling the vacuum. We know the kind of false stories that we can’t have out there, and we know how to keep them tamped down. But that won’t work forever. We need to get the True Story out and promote it so it becomes the generally accepted reality
. Then all those other stories fade into being CT, and our work is done.”

Conspiracy Theory. CT.

“So let’s look at our candidate True Story,” she directed. “Merlin, run it down for us and we’ll see if we can poke holes in it.”

Merlin was Elise’s right-
hand man. “We need a simple story that explains one main thing,” he said. “That is the fact that so many ships passed through the new glome so quickly after the first ship did. If it was truly a new
glome, that couldn’t happen.”

Ravi spoke up. “Don’t you think that the fact of the first ship being destroyed is kind of big news? Or the blockade we are now conducting?”

“Sure, the True Story has to cover those things too,” Merlin agreed. “But they are second order issues. Families fight, families
bluster and threaten. When it comes to that, people generally keep their heads down and let it blow over. What we can’t have hanging out is something entirely unexplainable. We definitely can’t have a mystery that has people speculating about any way to know where a glome goes in advance of the first time it is
entered.”

“So explain it.” Ravi was always right to the point.

“Here’s what we’ve got,” the story artist offered. “We start with the fact that the glome was already known. There’s no avoiding it. We don’t like that much, because we don’t want
people thinking about the idea of us, or anyone, knowing about glomes that aren’t published. But, there’s one exception. People accept that governments used to stash secret glome
locations so they could do a surprise attack in wartime. So, our starting point is that the glome was known by some government, and then the Affirmatix Family learned of it.
”

“It looks like there’s no choice,” observed Elise. “We need a good story that shows the glome was already known. So how do we fill in the backstory? When was the glome explored?”

“We’re going with 2245, fifty-nine years ago,” Merlin told her. “We found a report from an amateur insisting that he picked up a signal from
about that direction. Said he traced it for three days. Couldn’t get anyone interested because it didn’t match any known frequencies or patterns.”

“Is the report factually accurate?”

Merlin shrugged. “Does it matter? We’ve been talking with his son, and the guy does a great interview.
Loves to talk too. Proving his dad right after all these years.”

“And the unusual signal?”

Merlin gestured, and an animation began. “We’ve found an expert who can tell us all about how government military explorations around that time did something like this. Just a faint signal that listening posts would recognize, but nobody else would.”

Sonia thought it was the stupidest reel she had ever seen. A robot ship appearing out of nowhere against a star field. Colored waves illustrating the idea of a signal being sent. A satellite listening in the distance.
Somebody had gone to the trouble of making it, on the apparent assumption that the team members couldn’t understand two sentences.

Elise was pleased. “Sweet! So, do government explorations really do that?’

“Maybe they did,” Merlin replied, “but there are no government explorations anymore. It’s all the families. And everybody knows
that commercial ventures wouldn’t bother with all that subterfuge, because the moment they find a connection to a known system, they want to publish just as soon as possible, and stake a claim for the royalties.”

“I love it!” Elise bubbled. “Sneaky old things that governments did, before we got them under control for everybody’s benefit. So let’s connect
up the other events.”

Another inane animation. Sonia could barely make herself watch, but there was nowhere else she could look without being purposefully rude. The perfume was killing her.

Merlin narrated. “The first ship through was a terrorist planning to spread harm to Kelter, in the form of a new recipe for creation of a TDX virus.
The missiles were a successful effort to stop that ship. The blockade is a secondary measure, and it will be lifted in a few more days.” The animation showed warships with badges, signifying the good forces of law and order.

“But I expect that lots of people think the blockade is very heavy handed,” Ravi was taking on the skeptic role, as he typically did. “Even with that story, we may not be making any friends.”

Elise
waved it away. “Oh, we don’t need friends. People can have their opinions, including about us. Gives them something to do. As long as the things they have opinions on are based on the right facts. So, any other issues about believability?”

It appeared that there were not.

“Ok, then let’s move on to effectiveness.” Elise turned to Sonia. “Dr. West, I’d like you and your team to model the effects of this story. Assume that it becomes the generally accepted version of events, and give us an evaluation about whether it helps or hurts our chances of achieving the outcomes Mr. Lobeck desires.”

Sonia suddenly had the strong impression that desire had more than one meaning for Elise, when it came to Lobeck. The question arrived unbidden in her mind, as to whether Lobeck was partial to heavily decorated and strongly scented women.

“We’ll process it now,” Sonia said. “It will take about two hours.” She was willing to model anything that was asked, as long as she could escape the room to do it.

“Great
! Unless the economists come back with a frightening prediction, we’ll get this show on the road! Merlin, please queue up the interviews for our two subjects and start the buzz going, just as soon as we get the green light. We’ll pick up more experts and supporting testimonials as soon as the first few stories go big – you know how they
always come out of the woodwork to get their fifteen minutes of fame.”

“Do we need to go to the Story Board?” Merlin asked.

The Story Board had to be consulted any time a family planned a major revision to the True Story, which might have an impact on all of the Sisters.

Elise considered. “Not for this. It’s all specific to Affirmatix. There’s nothing here that would tear the fabric of the larger True Story that spans all of the families.”

Merlin nodded. “
What about suppressing the false stories? Keep active?”

“We need to stay with that, until the True Story takes root and grows. But this gives us a great positive direction instead of just reacting. Merlin,
you’ve been your brilliant self once again! This is a story we can really get behind.”

“I have just one question.” Ravi.

“Yes?” Elise gave him an expectant smile.

“Is this what you guys do for a living? All the time?”

“Oh Ravi, you are so
funny. We have the best job ever. We help people to be secure, and happy. And supportive of all the good things we do to protect them. We’re just so lucky.”

With that, Elise and her cloud of assistants swept out of the room.

The Governor

Theodore Rezar had been governor of Kelter for just over three years. In that time, he reflected, the only decisions he had made were on the topic of when and where to go pee. Sometimes not even that. He considered the unending parade of state events and public appearances.

He studied his script once again. Rezar was a gifted speaker, a talent he had inherited from his father. That, and being the son and grandson of long-serving governors, was what had gotten him elected. It had not even been a contest. There had to be at least one other candidate, and there had been
, but there also had been no doubt.

Had he felt sorry for his opponent? Alice Lamb, whose name just begged to be ridiculed, had fought well, even absent all hope of winning. She had proposed excellent and innovative ideas for how to improve the governance of Kelter, but he
r campaign had lacked polish and professionalism – no match for his team’s messaging. As everyone knew, the ability to run a successful campaign was the most important test of a candidate’s ability to govern – his opponent had failed that test.

Rezar decided that he didn’t feel sorry for her. The name recognition would serve Lamb well, whatever she chose to do. And if he ever tired of the office and decided not to run for re-election, she might have a real chance.

He went through hair and makeup without complaint.
It was important to look good.

Rezar began.

“Citizens, consumers, friends. I am here to provide some important updates on recent events. As you know, we have been engaged in an ongoing antiterrorism operation. The operation has been going well and will be proceeding to completion. Meanwhile, we will maintain our request that no ships leave the Kelter system until we provide clearance. Traffic from the surface to Top Station and to the moons continues to be permitted, with full flight plans submitted and cleared in advance.”

“These operations will have no effect at all on anyone’s lives on the surface. Please continue your regular work and recreational activities.”

Rezar continued through the script, projecting assurance and calm.

Finally, it was done.

The part of the speech about the blockade not affecting life on the surface was not quite true
. In addition to stopping all outbound travel, Affirmatix had placed ships in other systems to wave off anyone planning to travel to Kelter. Very few ships were coming in any more, and soon there would be none. The latest news, latest culture, and products were stranded elsewhere.

For instance, the Governor’s office had ordered a large shipment of fresh, wild-caught live lobster, all the way from Baffin Bay on Earth. The lobster were for a large banquet to be held
in two days. Already, the chefs were updating the menu with a replacement for the main course.

Rezar would miss the lobster. If he had to go to all those events, at least there could be lobster some of the time.

Re-Entry

Mira decided to just let events unfold. As long as Denison stayed quiet about his employer as he had agreed, things would be fine.

Denison put out his hand and offered, “Great to meet you, Mr. McElroy.
I’m Rodney.”

Evan sure wasn’t looking his best. Not that he had cared much for his appearance at any time. Why in the world didn’t he have his beard removed? It never looked remotely tidy and at this moment it was worse than usual. His hair and beard were called red by convention, but were closer to a kind of burnt orange.

He also looked totally aghast at there being another person on board. Mira had had no way to warn him of their new passenger before he came inside, but she had also decided it would be fun to let him twist a little.

She watched Evan consider Rodney’s hand as if it were some kind of alien invader, until social convention won out and he allowed his own hand to be shaken.

“Write my story? What’s that about?”

“Well, it’s totally epic! Did you really spacewalk for two million kilometers?”

Evan looked around for help. “Mira, this isn’t what I had in mind.”

“Oh, just go with it,” she told him. “We’re going to need someone to help get it out in style.”

“But we haven’t even made it to Kelter yet. Mira, why?”

“Full charter
. Rod offered me full charter for passage. I couldn’t refuse.”

“For money? Are you serious?”

“You’re not listening,” Mira told him. “I couldn’t refuse. When there’s a full charter request on the log, someone like me doesn’t fly away empty. You don’t exist, remember? I had to choose one of the charter requests, and I know Rod
. We can trust him. He’ll help us figure out the best way to blast the word out everywhere. In exchange, you can tell him tales of your epic voyage, and someday he’ll have a bestseller. If he doesn’t get zeroed for coming near us.”

“I’d like to do an interview,” Denison told him. “I can’t wait to hear what it was like cruising across the solar system in an EVA.”

“Epic, eh?
Well, I was scared out of my wits. Thought I was going to die. Had claustrophobia attacks. Spent the last two hours desperately needing to poop but not daring to, for fear of what it might do to the EVA or to the air supply. Trying not to think about the source of the water I was sipping. Counting down the minutes until my air
would run out. And the whole time, the suit kept telling me I should sleep, so that my air would last longer. How am I doing so far?”