The Hundred Gram Mission (28 page)

The other trucks stopped, their riders ran and crouched behind them for cover.

"What's going on over there?" Kareem asked on the radio. "Faisal?"

Striding abreast down the road, came the drones.

Jansen Henrikson, V

"You know how you always expect us to conduct ourselves at the highest level of ethics?" Evrim Uzun walked into Henrikson's office, and closed the door.

"Yes," Henrikson looked up, eyebrows escalating.

"I have failed you, good Sir," Evrim handed him a file.

"What's this?" Henrikson began leafing through it.

"Some Romanian coders owed me favor. They helped me hack into HR's records."

"You did
what?
"

"You're very welcome."

Hendrickson began reading.

"What am I looking at?"

"That on top, is Pat Schulte's application for Lowell City Program Director."

It's almost completely blank."

"I know, right? He didn't even bother. Also, look at where he went to graduate school, and when."

"Yale Law School, '31. So?"

"Doesn't that remind you of anyone?"

"No. Wait,
Snyder?
"

"They were Rowing Team buddies."

"Snyder got HR to hire a personal crony?"

"A career crony, at that. Even the budget for the position, comes from Legal."

Wow. A cut-and-dry scandal."

"Scandal? Ha! I haven't even told you the scandal."

"There's more?"

"Look at the other resumes."

Henrikson's eyes raced to each period.

"These are the other candidates?"

"There are more PhDs in those pages than in some universities. Also, look at their salary requirements."

"
More
people getting paid better than me."

"A third to half of what Schulte gets. Jansen, this is it. The smoking gun. Lowell City has never been a serious idea."

The two men were silent for a moment. Unwelcome choices started piling on Henrikson's back.

"I found something myself today," he said at last. "Nothing like this, but it helps show what all this is about."

"What did you learn?

"A third of Lowell City's scientist ASCANs
[lix]
, are biologists."

"Biologists? You mean, like microbiologists?"

"I mean botanists, virologists,
marine biologists
. Who sends a marine biologist to Mars?"

"Stupid people? They have a lawyer in charge."

"We do ourselves no favors by discounting him. They know exactly what they're doing. You'd only send such varied biologists if you didn't know what to expect. That's not Mars, Evrim."

"They're using Lowell City to train for Alpha Centauri!"

"They're using
Canada
to train for Alpha Centauri. Spektorov was never sending them to Mars. They'll give it their all, and he'll copy their brain engrams. Once he has what he needs, he'll cancel the program, making it look like someone else's fault."

Evrim eyes became dinner plates. "Such balls! Do you really think he's that audacious? That crooked?"

"I know he never pays for anything if he can help it. Why not use donations from the public and the Mars Pioneers Society, to train his colonists? Even the engram recording team from Boston University, are on an NIH grant.  He's getting it all,
for free
."

Life vented from Evrim's eyes.

"So, what are you going to do?" he asked at last. "Are you going to confront them?"

"Yes."

"They'll just fire you."

"Then I'll go to the Press."

"Jansen, are you sure you want to do that?"

"What do you mean?"

If you blow the whistle, what happens to Pathfinder? The public will never forgive Spektorov for lying like this. Not for this, not for Mars. It'll hurt Pathfinder. It could
wreck
it."

"We need to do what's right."

"You really think it's still that simple?"

Von Neumann Machines

Daryl Spektorov, Lakshmi Rao, IV

Pathfinder Institute, Alexander Graham Bell Orbital

"You know," Spektorov forked ice into the lunar quartz glasses, "I always thought the FBI would come through that door someday to grill me about something. You know, taxes; large overseas transactions; links to the wrong people. I never thought they'd come in here and accuse me of making weapons of mass destruction."

"They didn't accuse you of anything," Daryl accepted the whiskey. 

"No, but we know what that was all about. How does the UN even have pull with the FBI?"

"I don't think pull had anything to do with it. If Shetty told them everything, they have grounds to start investigating."

"But we're not developing Von Neumann technology, period."

"No," he sat on the couch, "but we are very much ready to
start
."

"I was perfectly honest about that."

"Which was a good move, they weren't expecting that."

"So we should let them inspect everything?"

"Yes, we have nothing to hide. We should act like any other good, law-abiding, organization, because we are one."

"It's going to make a lot of people nervous."

"Let them be nervous.  As long as we're not breaking any laws, there's nothing anyone can do about it. If anyone tries, I'll tear them apart. That's what you pay me for."

Spektorov nodded. "Alright, I'm not going to worry about the FBI then. Let's just focus on Plan B."

"We did ask nicely," Snyder shrugged. 

"It was a good deal, they should have taken it.  I called Sandra Pinto this morning and told her we'd fund her documentary."

"Was hers the one about the drowned Bangladeshi town? The one they could have saved for 1% the cost of the orbital, that they built them instead?"

"No, this is the one about visiting refugee camps and interviewing women, children, and old people."

"
That
one? She doesn't play up the stupidity enough, and she makes the UNHCR seem evil."

"They
are
evil. They take resources away from the solution, and block people who are actually trying to come up with one. For an NGO, does it get worse than that?"

"They're incompetent. There's a difference."

"Tell that to the people paying for it.  I also had a long and productive chat with Herrera, about E8."

Snyder frowned. "I can't see the Congressman going after the UNHCR."

"He's not, he's going after Mars.  E8 could be set up as an Aldrin Cycler
[lx]
, orbiting between Earth and Mars."

"We already have cyclers between Earth and Mars."

"Not ones that can house two thousand people. E8 would be more than easy Mars access; it would be a permanent outpost - the gateway to Mars. History will remember it, like Jericho, or Rome."

"Using E8 as a cycler isn't what we talked about. We should stick with our plan, Daryl." 

"Herrera brought it up, not me. But we should get behind it."

"Everything planned if the UN wouldn't play ball - and did you really think they would? - Is about getting policymakers to retask E8 as a permanent, Martian, space station. We invest in politicians, blogs, and news networks till we win.
Till we win
. The government retasks E8. We then make our money back on the contracts Sun Star will win, to work on that.  If the program somehow succeeds, we go on to buy most of Mars. If the program is cancelled - I suggest we hedge that it will - who cares? All we need is for the engram candidates to take their training seriously, and to make back whatever is spent on all this."

"It's not a huge deal to pitch E8 as a cycler. It requires very minor changes, still pushes for Martian settlement, and hurts none of our goals. A strong cycler program makes a lot of sense for a permanent return to Mars. It's a more compelling offer. It's what we would say if we were serious." 

"You
seem
serious."

"I am actually. What's wrong with that?"

"What's
wrong
with that? May I remind you," Snyder pointed at Spectorov, "That this is all just a means to an end? Frankly, one that isn't worth all this time!"

"Sam, we have to be true to ourselves."

"Daryl, getting a bunch of idiots to do what we want, for free, is keeping
very
true to ourselves.

'Plan B' has 950 million earmarked in campaign donations, alone. We're buying 19 senators!
[lxi]
Don't make this anymore complicated than it needs to be."

"I meant being true to ourselves, as Pathfinder. Pathfinder's mission is to go to settle another star. How is settling another world not something that resonates with that?"

"Breathing air, resonates with our mission. Look, training engrams really isn't worth all this. Once the ship leaves, we have Forty-plus years to solve this. By then, won't we have the data we need? Can't we just beam it to Alpha Centauri? And do settlement-ready engrams really matter?"

"What do you mean?"

"They'll be loaded into machine bodies. They can try and fail all they like over there, it doesn't matter. After a few years, they'll have learned everything they need to, in any case. On their own dime, as it were."

"You want to send colonists, unprepared?"

"No, I want to send engrams, who can learn as they go. That way we can focus better on actually
sending
them. Only once the mission starts printing out flesh-and-blood humans, do we have real stakes in the game. The engrams decide when that happens. After all, that's exactly what they'll do. Once the ship leaves we have no control over them."

Spektorov's reply was to stare out the window. On Earth's night side, cities lit up like a luminescent cancer culture.

"I think you've suddenly fallen in love with an idea," said Snyder slowly, "and will find whatever reason you can, so you can justify seeing it through. Now, you
already
have an idea you've fallen in love with. You've committed a lot of time and resources to it. You have to see it through, and you can't let side projects distract you. You need to do a cost benefit analysis. Once E8 costs more than it's worth - you must give up on "settlement-ready" engrams."

Finally, slowly, Spektorov nodded.

"You're right. Let's work out at what point we should walk away from Mars."

"And you need to commit to it."

"I will." he finished his drink, and sat down across from Snyder. "Thanks for helping me keep on track."

"You're welcome. But I know what you're like, we'll have this exact argument again this evening. Then again tomorrow. I find this takes about a week with you."

"No one else does this with me."

"No one else dares to." Snyder got up. "Another drink?"

Spektorov he handed him the glass.  In the low gravity the whiskey poured as slow as honey.

"I think I know why I'm so keen on Mars," said Spektorov.

"Because this is all a big game for you, and Mars is a toy you can live to reach?"

"Because it distracts us from what we
really
need to be doing."

"Oh great. What have you convinced yourself that is?"

"Von Neumann technology."

"What? You just had two
federal agents
in here."

"But it's what we need. Without it, there's no mission. Period. This will all be for nothing."

"Look, let's not think about it right now."

"I think I'm
only
going to think about it now."

The ballroom was packed.

Wait staff in penguin colors served foreign wine and locally sourced starters. Suited men greeted each other and laughed at weak jokes.  Women brought color through evening dresses, but not diversity.

Have you read his new paper yet?

She's running for Congress next year.

The share went up, which is better than I had hoped.

Those poor people in Florida.

"Our next speaker," the tuxedoed host's smile could be seen from space, "is on our board of advisors, and has been a generous supporter to the Mars Pioneers Society. He's been called the man who unlocked the treasure house of space. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the CEO of the Pathfinder Institute, Mr. Daryl Spektorov!"

He walked on stage. Camera flashes noted his smile, the hand shake, his stance at the podium. Against the podium was a logo - a blue Conestoga wagon on a rising red crescent.

"Thank you all for being here, it's great to see all of you. If this country's privileged elites can make time for space exploration, why can't everybody else?"

Polite laughter.

"No really, thank you for making the time, and the honor you do me by letting me speak.

"Members and friends, Mars was good to our country. It gave us pride in ourselves at a time when we were learning to be ashamed of our parents. The world looked back to us for leadership: something we lost when we forgot leadership is only by example, not by lecturing and threatening. The technology unlocked to leave footprints and take selfies, has improved life for millions.

"There are great benefits to a society that sets itself difficult engineering goals.
[lxii]
To one that chooses to invest in Science and exploration. We remember the Egyptian pyramid builders, but does anyone remember the Sea People? No, but the Egyptians mentioned them in a footnote. That's how we know about them.

"Today, we look more and more like the Sea People must have. We've lost our purpose in space, and it shows. We went to Mars because we had a clear mission. We then developed the hardware to make that happen. Then, we executed. It was the same formula we used to go to the Moon.
[lxiii]

"Now, what do we have? A cislunar space station that no one wants to go to. A superheavy lift rocket for high orbit traffic, which just takes elevators to low orbit, instead. AI probes that complain they're not being used intelligently."

More polite laughing.

"We're in the same doldrums we were, after Apollo. NASA's science programs are struggling, doing what they can with an ever-shrinking budget. Meanwhile the private sector is out there, mining, building, and settling in Earth orbit. But what is our government doing?

"Orbitals. It spends its resources making safe spaces for climate refugees. They cost hundreds of times more resources than camps here on Earth. They cost
thousands
of times more, in energy. Earth is the greatest place in the Universe to live, yet we send our desperate away. Most of them would rather stay down here, in the lands of their ancestors.  Can someone go over to Congress with a loudspeaker and yell this for me? 'Anything you do on Earth, is cheaper than doing it in space!'"

Applause.

"But Ronald Reagan shipyard is a military facility. It builds orbitals as an exercise in preventing the militarization of space. This is an important and honorable goal - but how has it worked? We have the Global Fire Support system. Russia, India, and China are developing their own. We use space to park and drop drones - soon, so will everyone else.

"The United Nations overinflates its achievements. It does this to get people to put assets towards its orbitals. Our government plays into that. Folks, the Big Five don't need huge shipyards to meet their objectives in space. They are also assets that were built without a clear purpose. The UN's costly orbitals give a justification for those shipyards. They give politicians big prestige projects that they can brag about. They're doing all this, rather than small, local solutions. Solutions to give people free solar energy, clean water, and turn their deserts back into fields."

Applause: more, and longer.

"Let's urge our government to use Ronald Reagan, for something else. It'll force the UN and its sponsors to get serious about helping people. None of whom they seem accountable to, by the way.  So, let us hold them accountable! We can start by taking away these orbital placebos, using them instead for something good.

"You all know what I mean. The E8 orbital we're building could be used as an Aldrin Cycler. We have two - which we don't use - but they're small, old, relics. They were built to support just three astronauts at a time. To go back to Mars, we're going to need much greater support. E8 can carry
two thousand
. We could have labs. A hospital.Workshops. A
park
. Every four years it can drop off new arrivals and cargo, and take some people back. It's designed to be settled, and we should it keep it that way. Revolving door politicians can cancel a program, but they don't dare cancel a city!"

More applause, some cheers. 

"That's a city we should build. A city of and for pioneers, American technology building a port between worlds. It won't be the only one, either. Other nations will follow - maybe the Russians, with E9. Cyclers work better if they're paired - two would mean Mars access every two years. Can you imagine what's possible if the Big Five, each built one?"