Defiant (an Ell Donsaii story #9) (9 page)

“It’s a scientific experiment. It’s incredibly important that the experiment be undisturbed. A mine shaft is quiet, with stable temperatures. With it being abandoned, we’re hoping there won’t even be any visitors. That’s why we’re willing to pay so much for your help.”

“OK,” he waved up the road, “Drive up that way.”

Since it was off the standard GPS maps, she manually drove the truck up the narrow mine road. Joe walked the woman down into the mine and showed her the small branch tunnel he’d prepared for her per her directions. The walls had been covered with waterproof shotcrete. Once that had set, they’d been sealed with a spray-on waterproof plastic to make
sure
water didn’t get in, then finished with even more shotcrete. The woman spent a lot more time than Joe had expected inspecting it, after which she proclaimed it satisfactory. She drove him back down to his pickup, then said she was just going park her truck up at the mine entrance overnight. She’d sleep in the truck and start in the morning if he didn’t mind.

The next morning at eight, Spall arrived back in the mine to find the woman already out in the tunnel hard at work. She’d built a concrete block wall that blocked off the deeper part of the tunnel and set up the experiment just in front of it. Her device seemed to consist solely of a large box with a few lights in it. There were glassy windows through which the woman said measurements would be taken using lasers and cameras. By the time Joe arrived she’d already laid a first course of concrete block across the opening that joined the little side tunnel to the main shaft. She was starting on the second course. Instead of mortar, she was gluing them together with caulking guns full of some quick setting epoxy. By the time she got to the end of the course, the beginning was already solid.

Joe carried a few blocks over to her. They were a lot lighter than standard concrete block, but seemed strong and hard. “I’ve never seen this method for putting up block.”

“Yeah, it isn’t popular because it’s very expensive. But it’s fast, and time is money in my business. I’d like to see you put the shotcrete over it before I leave. Do you mind getting set up for it?”

Shaking his head, Joe headed out to bring in his shotcrete setup. When he got back, she’d finished the main courses of blocks and was breaking pieces off and gluing them in the gaps where the blocks hadn’t fit well to the rough, rounded walls of the tunnel.

No wires came out. “How are you going to power your experiment and get your results out?”

“The experimental setup has some of those new ports in it. They supply power and send us the results.”

She packed up her stuff while he sprayed the shotcrete over her wall. This left the tunnel looking like it had never even had a little side tunnel there. When he was done she said, “One more thing. I’d like to set up another instrument back down the main tunnel a ways.” She pulled another big box out of the back of the truck. It also had lights and lenses just like the one hidden in the side tunnel. It was surprisingly light and though he carried one side, she could obviously have carried the whole thing herself—like she must have carried the one into the side tunnel. They took it pretty far down the main tunnel where she used some more of the caulking gun glue to stick it to the floor at a wide spot where it would be out of the way.

As she got back in her truck she said, “Hey, Mr. Spall?”

He lifted his chin to indicate she should continue.

“If anyone comes out here asking what we installed?”

He nodded.

“We don’t mind you telling them about this instrument in the main tunnel, but we’d sure appreciate it if you didn’t tell them about the one in the blocked off side tunnel? There’ll be another payment, same as the first one, if no one finds about that side tunnel instrument for at least five years.”

She put out her hand and Joe shook on it with her. The payment to keep his mouth shut reminded him a little of the deal he’d made with that Ell Donsaii woman about the tunnels under her farm. The odd little woman drove away while he pondered it, but eventually he forgot all about the similarity.

Joe never thought to wonder if there might be something behind that
first
block wall. The wall she’d built on the far side of the instrument before he arrived that morning. There was a quite a bit of space back there. If he’d dug his way back there to look, he’d have found a brand new rack containing a supercomputer. He’d also have found a waldo in that space, ready to retrieve any of a very large number of items found on shelves in the tunnel. Items that could be put through ports. There were other ports in the tunnel where the waldo could take deliveries of additional products. Deliveries that could then be sent out through a certain set of ports. One port connected to the port hidden behind a certain young woman’s umbilicus. That port could be rotated on a ring so that it would fit under a number of other devices and ports so that other materials could be dispensed through it. For instance, a large funnel full of small gold balls could send its contents through that port. Or the waldo could put things through the port, including larger ports, already rolled up and ready to be inserted.

***

Neeti Sandhu set down the basket full of her family’s laundry and began sorting the clothing into piles. As she tossed one of her husband’s shirts onto the pile of whites she noticed a spot of color. A round spot. With trembling hands Neeti picked the shirt back up and saw her fears confirmed.

It was one of those little dots she’d heard of. The ones that young women had taken to sticking to men’s backs. The ones that said, “I groped a woman today.” Like the dot on her finger said.

Sayed,
she thought with disgust,
you are
just
the animal I have always feared you might be. Yelling at me because you
imagine
I look at another man, but now I find out that you are
fondling
other women.

At first Neeti had been pleased with the marriage her family had arranged for her. Sayed had seemed solicitous and caring. She had even felt like she loved him. But then he had gradually become arrogant and demanding. Now they had a marriage of sullen association, which she kept to for the love of her two children.

Later that evening as they got into bed Sayed reached over and began tugging at her nightgown, his usual clumsy prelude to sex. Neeti rolled toward him and held up the finger with the accusatory dot on it. “No Sayed!
This
was on your shirt…” She rolled away from him, tugging her nightgown back down and curling in on herself.  “You
disgust
me.”

***

Shan woke in the middle of the night and heard voices in the other room. Quietly he got up and made his way out to find Ell sitting at their dining room table talking in a low voice to an AI’s artificial persona on a screen. He blinked, they were speaking Spanish!

“Hey, Raquel… I didn’t know you spoke Spanish?”

She put her hand over her mouth, looking embarrassed, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to wake you up! I didn’t think we were speaking that loudly.”

“You weren’t, I had to go to the bathroom and heard the voices so I came out to see what was happening.” He frowned, “Why are you speaking Spanish?”

“Oh. This is a training program. I’m learning Spanish, but I’ve got a long way to go.”

Shan frowned, “Why?”

“Um, in case I take a vacation in Latin America someday?”

“Really? Why do I get the feeling that you’re up to something?” He grinned, “Why not just use your AI to translate?”

Ell shrugged and grinned at him, “Maybe I just need something to keep me occupied while you’re dead to the world in the middle of the night.”

“Hah! There you go, putting me down for my mortal weaknesses. Not all of us can be invincible goddesses like you.”

Ell grinned crookedly at him, getting up and starting his way, “Maybe I should take advantage of this period of unusual wakefulness?” She arched an eyebrow. “You up to fulfilling your husbandly duty?”

“Hah, I thought you’d never ask…”

***

Allan spoke in Ell’s ear, “You have a call from Presidential Science advisor Fladwami.”

“Put him on… Dr. Fladwami, how can I help you?”

“Hmm, it’s more a matter of how we might help each other… I have learned, slowly I admit, that this job involves compromise. Last night I was thinking about your reluctance to allow Dr. Ementhal’s committee to control interstellar exploration for fear of how the committee might handle encounters with aliens.”

“Yes?”

“I got to thinking. What if you allowed other scientists to control some of the rockets that arrived in dead systems? Or even in the Alpha Centauri system, where the world is alive but where you don’t believe there is any multicellular life? Those with true scientific interests would jump at the opportunity to explore such systems and worlds.”

“Oh, that is a great idea! We’re not really doing much with the exploration of the dead systems that we already have rockets in. We really
should
let other scientists who have interest take over the study of those. There is probably a lot to be learned. I’ll want to look a little more carefully at Alpha Centauri to be completely confident that nothing bad could happen there, but then we could go ahead.” Ell paused a moment. “Would the President, or at least his office, like to make the announcement? It might provide some PR support for him in the election. While I don’t want to do an endorsement, I don’t want Senator Stockton to win. Not just because she supports the Blaustein bill, though that has some bearing. My main objection is that she seems to be a technophobe. Well that, and I just don’t think she’s a very nice person.”

Fladwami sighed, “Yes she’s certainly a technophobe. Unfortunately, many of our citizens are so apprehensive about the new technological changes that are rolling over us.  I’m afraid she may actually win the next election
because
of her anti-tech stance.”

Ell sighed, “Change is hard. Thank you for not blaming all the changes on me, but I know it’s a problem. Slowing the release has helped, but the reality is that businesses have gone under and people have lost jobs as a direct result of the technology we’ve released. The fact that new businesses and resultant jobs have been created isn’t much comfort to those who are struggling to find a new job.”

Fladwami said, “You are absolutely correct. There is good evidence that there’s been much more benefit than harm to the economy from your tech advances. I’ve been trying to get the President to beat that drum on the campaign trail. Unfortunately, his political advisors have been telling him to stay away from any suggestions he’s supporting the changes that have raised so much anxiety amongst the voters. They want him to focus on how he’s negotiated the slow release.”

Ell laughed, “It doesn’t sound to me like an endorsement from me would be the best thing for him anymore.”

“No, you’re right. The politicos would have loved an endorsement right after the Olympics when the public was ecstatic about your wins. Popular opinion is surprisingly fickle however. They’ve already forgotten your triumphs and gotten back to worrying about their jobs.”

Ell chuckled, “Well tell the politicos to milk this access to the other solar systems for all it’s worth then.”

“I must warn you that I don’t think this will deflect Ementhal. He’s in it for the glory of controlling contact with other intelligent species. But it may help a lot to assuage other scientists who actually do want the opportunity to learn what’s out there.”

“Oh, I agree, nothing will satisfy Ementhal. But I’m a big supporter of science and would love for others to make use of this resource. In fact, I can just pop through a number of rockets for different scientists to use to explore those systems. They won’t even have to share the ‘resource’ of the single rocket that’s currently in the system.”

Fladwami said, “Wait, I hope there isn’t any chance they could figure out the one ended ports while you’re sending the new rockets out there? I’ve actually come around to your viewpoint that such tech should be suppressed.”

“Oh, no. A one ended port sent the first rocket out there. Everything from there on out is all two ended ports. There’s still some danger though…”

“Really?” Fladwami asked with some concern.

“Well, for instance, take Alpha Centauri. Supposing one of the teams somehow ported some of the biota back here and it proved virulent or toxic. Or, it just took over like kudzu. I don’t think we’ll give the investigators control over the first rocket we put in the system, only new ones which we’ll send through the port on the first one. The new ones won’t have any ports except the ones that control their rockets and we’ll control those rocket fuel ports with our own AI. Our AI will fly the rocket wherever they ask to go, they just won’t be able to send or retrieve material through any of the ports. They’ll have to get all their data back by PGR.”

“Really? They can’t even get a few specimens back for analysis?”

“I don’t think it’s worth the risk. We know now that DNA seems to be an omnipresent molecule. Somewhere out there might be DNA that codes for a seriously destructive life form. If you’re a fan science fiction you’ve probably heard of ‘von Neumann machines?’ Robots that go to another world and disassemble it to make more copies of themselves?”

“Yes?”

“Well, I think of
DNA
as a von Neumann machine. It shows up in a system and starts harvesting molecules, building cellular machinery and making more copies of itself. I don’t want to take any chance that we might import some destructive DNA to remake our system in its own image. Since we’ve started sending probes to other stars, we’ve sterilized everything we send out to protect those systems from our own DNA, and we haven’t let
anything
return from those extra-solar systems. I don’t want to let other scientists bring anything back either.”

“Mmm,” Fladwami mused, “I agree, at least until we know more. Perhaps you would let them send analytical instruments through to those other systems to examine specimens and materials in their native systems?”