Mind Over Ship (12 page)

In the final analysis, it would be difficult for either faction to deny Singh a place at the board, for his newly acquired company, Exotic Fields, was the designer and sole provider of the generators for the Oship propulsion torus. It was this fact, above all, that reassured Meewee of his loyalty, because if Jaspersen got his way and turned the Oships into Lagrangian space condos without propulsion toruses, Exotic Fields would lose ninety percent of its GEP business.

Singh’s holo withdrew while they voted. Only Jaspersen voted against him, and Meewee cheerfully declared him a board member. He called him back to the meeting and installed him with little ceremony. “Welcome aboard,” he said when Singh’s membership was official. “You may want to sit out the rest of the meeting until you’ve had a chance to inform yourself of the issues.”

Singh nodded and leaned back in his chair looking very pleased with himself.

Item 2: labor contracts. Warbeloo motioned for renewal, and Tiekel seconded. Meewee said, “Seeing no discussion, I—”

“Not so fast,” Jaspersen’s proxy said. “Just because I lack hands doesn’t mean I’m not waving them.” He seemed amused by his own wit. “Actually, I have
lots
of discussion about this one.” He turned to Zoranna and said, “No offense, Alblaitor, but one would think that after five decades of supplying labor to space-based industry, you’d finally get around to designing a germline optimized for space conditions. But you haven’t. Your spacers are merely terrestrial types with no special adaptations. You are entirely too anthropomorphically conservative.”

Zoranna was clearly surprised by the accusation, but she brushed it aside. “My people undergo extensive training before they are shipped out.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it. I’m talking about morphology. True spacers should be smaller than human normal, have denser
bones, resistance to radiation damage, superior microgravity balance—the list goes on.”

“What you’re talking about are trans-humans,” Zoranna said coolly. “Applied People tried that with their penelope line. It failed miserably. You accuse me of being too conservative, but it’s the general public that’s conservative. Most people don’t approve of modifying the human body that much.”

“The penelope line was
forty years ago!
” Jaspersen retorted. “Public attitudes change. And even if they don’t, so what? Spacers by definition live in space. Who cares what people in Indiana and Iowa think about them?”

Zoranna shook her head in stoic forbearance. “In any case, it’s a moot point, Saul.”

“It’s not a moot point,” Jaspersen insisted. “There are other labor vendors, Capias World for instance, who have people designed specifically for space. Adam here is trying some of them out right now. Aren’t you, Adam?”

Gest, who was attending via proxy this time and experienced no transmission lag, nodded his handsome head. “He’s right, Zoranna. Capias World has released three new spacefaring germlines. We’re giving them a limited field test in my Aria yards. I must say, they’re terrific. In fact, as soon as my contracts with Applied People are up, I’m going all Capias World.”

Zoranna’s whole demeanor changed. Her eyes narrowed to slits as Nicholas fed calculations into her ear. “I am sorry to hear that, Adam,” she said. “But what you do at Aria Yachts is your own business and has no bearing on GEP contracts.”

“It does now,” Jaspersen said with glee. “I move that we award the expiring contracts to Capias World instead of Applied People.”

Byron Fagan seconded.

“Point of order. Point of order,” Zoranna said. “There is already a motion on the table. And besides, Saul’s motion is disallowed under Bylaw 12. ‘Board members shall have first vending rights for all GEP material and services.’”

“I know that!” Jaspersen crowed.

Everyone looked at him, and the room fell suddenly silent as board members consulted with their mentars. Meewee surveyed their expressions, which ranged from amusement to outrage. “What’s going on?” he said.

This is Nick,
a voice said in his ear.
Several moments ago, a secret deal
was concluded in Mumbai. Apparently, Capias World has just changed hands. Look to your left.

Meewee turned to see Million Singh, tilted all the way back in his chair, a tiger’s toothy grin on his face.

THE DISASTROUS BOARD meeting grew only worse. After the members stripped the labor contracts from Applied People and awarded them to Singh’s new company, Zoranna left a placeholder in her seat and withdrew from active holopresence. Meewee asked for a motion to suspend the meeting. Andrea Tiekel so moved, but no one seconded, and Meewee was forced to proceed to item 3: an Amendment to the Garden Earth Project Mission Statement.

Meewee had already had plenty of time to try to reconcile himself to the idea of constructing space condos alongside the Oships, but he wasn’t prepared for Jaspersen’s actual proposal. Jaspersen proposed nothing less than wiping away all mention of the GEP’s original mission and transforming the consortium into a for-profit company. When time for the vote came, and Zoranna had not yet returned, Meewee made an urgent plea to Nicholas.

Relax, Merrill, she’s coming. Not that it will make any difference; they have the votes.

Zoranna did appear, or at least her proxy, and Nicholas’s prediction came true—the GEP voted to change its mission and structure. It was morphing into a space-based development and logistics partnership. Meewee was so shaken he barely remembered how to adjourn the meeting.

INSIDE HER HERNANDEZ tank in Oakland, Andrea watched the meeting wind down. “Is there a motion for—for adjournment?” Meewee said.

Jaspersen said, “Shouldn’t we first submit agenda items for our next meeting?” He was so enjoying himself. “I propose we address cessation of all work on extra-solar Oships and the whole colonization program.”

“We can’t do that!” Meewee cried. “We have contractual obligations! We have almost a million frozen colonists in warehouses! And hundreds of thousands of them already loaded aboard ships.”

“Oh, I think we’ll find suitable escape clauses, your holiness. But shouldn’t we leave that till next time? Unless you want to extend this meeting to cover it now?”

“No! No, we’ll take it up next time.”

Jaspersen’s toy head swelled with triumph. “Further, I propose we submit the chair to a vote of confidence.”

WHEN THE CATASTROPHIC meeting finally adjourned and the other board members vanished, Andrea remained in the conference room with Meewee, who slumped forward on the table and buried his head in his arms. After a while, when he looked up, he seemed surprised she was still there. “What do we do now?” she asked him.

“I don’t know,” he groaned. “I simply don’t know.”

“Courage, your excellency. We’ll figure something out. We’re in this together.”

THE FOLLOWING DAY Andrea’s and Ellen’s personas sat opposite each other in the Map Room. Ellen’s persona seemed cool and in charge, a faithful simcasting of the young woman from happier times. But through Lyra’s eyes, Andrea saw the baby Ellen in the corner fidgeting and squirming in her evangeline’s lap.

“I don’t have much time right now,” Ellen said. “You told Lyra you have information about my mother?”

“Yes, I do. I’m not sure how to say this. The last time we visited, you were certain that Eleanor Starke was still alive somewhere.”

“My mother is dead.”

Andrea nodded sympathetically. “I know that, dear, and it breaks my heart. And with her loss still so fresh, I’m not sure if this is the proper time to talk.”

“Just say what’s on your mind, Andrea. I’m stronger than you might imagine.”

Back in her tank in Oakland, Andrea smiled. No, you’re not. “All right,” she said. “In that case, I’ll speak freely. Just stop me if this becomes too hard. I wanted to ask you if you know yet who was responsible for murdering Eleanor.”

“No!” Ellen said. “Libby says that Justice is investigating, but they have nothing to show for it.”

“And you’re not investigating on your own?”

“I have Cabinet on it, but it isn’t making any progress either.” Ellen paused to study Andrea. “What are you implying? Do you know something?”

“Perhaps.” In the corner, the baby quit fussing.

“Don’t just sit there, Andrea. Tell me!”

But Andrea seemed reluctant. “I was looking into the murder of my aunt, and certain things kept coming up that suggested to me that Eleanor and Andie may have been killed by the same hand.”

Ellen leaned forward. “Who?”

“I hesitate to name names because the evidence I have is still circumstantial.”

“Quit dithering and just tell me!”

Andrea bit her lip. “Zoranna Alblaitor.”

“Oh!” Ellen said. “Oh!”

“Let me reiterate, I can’t prove any of it, though I’ve convinced myself of my facts. As you’re probably aware, my preffing techniques are able to uncover things about people that they don’t even know themselves. And to date, we’ve logged over one million person/years of preffing Applied People iterants.”

“The iterants have confessed?”

“Not outright, but it’s impossible for them to keep secrets from me. And don’t forget, it was Applied People iterants who made up the rescue and recovery team at your crash site in Bolivia. It was Applied People iterants who were responsible for the chain of custody of your safety helmet from Bolivia to the Roosevelt Clinic.”

“Oh!” Ellen repeated.

“And were you aware that Zoranna Alblaitor was partly responsible for the Homeland Command decision all those years ago to sear your stepfather?”

“Samson?”

“Yes. In fact, the feud between Eleanor and Zoranna predates both of us. When Applied People was up for sale in the last century, Eleanor wanted to purchase it, but Zoranna got it first. Nicholas must have outfoxed Cabinet. I daresay that that sort of thing didn’t happen to Eleanor and Cabinet too often.”

“No, it didn’t!” Ellen said, and after savoring the damning information for a little while, she said, “You haven’t talked to the Justice Department about this?”

“Not yet. Like I said, it’s too circumstantial. Going to them too soon would tip our hand. I decided to tell you so that we could coordinate our efforts and go to Justice together.”

“Yes, yes, let’s do that.”

Excellent work
, E-P said. A sling grasped Andrea’s body and raised it gently from the hernandez tank.
Of course, there’s more to do, but we can afford a little break right now.

Andrea shuddered in the chill air of the tank room, and medbeitors reached for her with pre-warmed blankets. “Shhhh, shhhh,” E-P crooned. “There’s nothing to fear. Everything has been saved. Nothing will be lost.”

The medbeitors eased Andrea onto a padded gurney. She gasped for air like a landed fish. “Shhhh, shhhh,” E-P said as a four-finger prong softly grasped her skull. The jolt of electricity lifted her ruined body from the gurney in one powerful spasm.

The Decadal Chair of the Supreme Council of Moieties of Charter TUG, a particularly gruff young man, cast a baleful eye at Veronica TUG and the other four tuggers standing before the bench and said, “Do any of you have anything to say before I execute the judgment?”

Veronica cleared her throat and said, “I speak for all of us.”

“Proceed.”

Veronica turned to boldly face the chamber full of Charter TUG ’meets. Her gaze slid over Oliver, who was sitting near the door. “Fellow chartists,” she said, “seventy-two years ago, when Dirk Burlyman and the Steering Committee launched our charter, it made sense to practice extreme body sculpting in order to give us a sense of identity and to set us apart from the many irresolute charters-of-convenience cropping up at the time. But much has changed in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Charter TUG has endured, while the greater part of charterdom has fallen by the wayside. Current conditions no longer require us to treat our bodies so severely. In fact, smaller bodies with more individual features are in harmony with the times. I stand before you, sixty kilos lighter and a meter shorter than I was not long ago, but I am not in any way diminished. On the contrary, I embody the new TUG paradigm. Please know that we are still part of you, and do not cast us off.”

She turned back to the bench, and the Decadal Chair continued. “Charter TUG is not a forgiving people, Veronica. You will have to learn to live outside our community.” He raised his fist and intoned, “By the authority of this chair, I hereby expel you from Charter TUG and all who follow you.” He slammed the bench with his fist.

VERONICA BURST INTO the lab. “Where are they?”

She was greeted by the lab director, a tugger as diminutive as she. “So,” he said, ignoring her agitated tone, “are we pariahs yet?”

“Yes,” Veronica replied, “a little while ago. Welcome to hell.”

Another smallish ex-tugger came over and said, “Now all we need is a new name.”