Yuen-Mong's Revenge (44 page)

     
At the exact synchronized time, corrected for space distortion, they
established contact. She did not even bother with self-hypnoses. The picture had only marginally lost in quality. Nevertheless it suggested that,
for very large distances, instantcom would at least initially have to be
done in relays over a network, similar to HST.

     
Four days later Atun picked her up on the moon and they landed on
Palo, not in one of its major urban areas, but at the small Cherni space
port in its spectacular alpine chain of snow-covered mountains. Atun and
Anouk just stayed long enough for her to disembark with the equipment
and then took off again. She signed into a hotel under the name of Rona
Tomaka. As she was shown to her room, the sound system played the
song of the dawn bird. Was there no place in the galaxy where she would
escape this persecution? She watched the entertainment channels. To her
great relief her face never appeared. At least she would be spared that
aspect.

     
Watching the local tourist guide, a notice caught her eyes about the
rare partial lunar eclipse in the five hours prior to the Palo midnight six
days hence. She queried the hotel ICE comunit for the exact timing and
discovered that this translated to the evening hours of March 25 standard
time. This would fall right into the middle of the UniCom Conference.
If the timing was right, what a more spectacular event would she be able
to find for proving that instantcom meant really instant? She and Atun
had brainstormed on several occasions for a possible live event that
would be convincing enough not to be immediately put down as a fake
and returned time and again to using an official, like the mayor of a city,
superimposed on a life broadcast that showed the time and could some
12 hours later be verified as genuine. However, seeing part of a lunar
eclipse that had occurred the last time 68 Palo years ago would be an
event the timing of which could be checked on the spot during the
presentation.

     
She spent the next five Palo days on various excursions around the
resort, including her first snow boarding experience — zooming down a
slope at fifty kilometers an hour was exhilarating — but she found the
32-standard-hour Palo day rather tiring. She also slept a lot.

     
On the eighth standard day in the resort she waited impatiently in her
room for the appointed time. She was hooked up to the equipment fifteen
minutes early, counting the seconds. Half a minute before the time, she
tuned in. A few seconds later she felt Anouk’s touch and then saw Atun
on her screen. She suddenly realized how much she longed for him.

     
"I miss you, Atun."

 
     
"Not as much as I miss you, Yuen-mong. Let me see you."

 
     
She moved in front of the mirror, so that she could see herself. "Here
I am, although only a mirror image."

 
     
"I like you either way. You haven’t lost your humor. Anything
exciting happened?"

 
     
"Yes, I have learned several winter sports. Have you ever done any
snow boarding?"

 
     
"Yes, I did it regularly when I was in my teens."

 
     
"I will race you the next time we come back here. Any news from
Androma?"

 
     
"Yes, the mayor of Androma has been indicted for corruption. It’s
also said that he’s involved in insider trading and child prostitution. So
his face has replaced yours on the news channels."

 
     
"I don’t mind… What is insider trading?"

 
     
"I’ll tell you another time —"

 
     
"I have another piece of exciting news. There will be a partial lunar
eclipse here between 19:18 and 23:57 hours on March 25 standard time.
When are you scheduled to give your presentation?"

 
     
"I’m on the second day as the last of three papers of the first afternoon
session which starts at … 23:10 standard time on March 25, but I’ll only
be on about a standard hour later and that’s unfortunately too late to catch
the end of the eclipse."

 
     
"Then see to it that you are the first of the three papers. Bribe the
other two with a few thousand credits. I don’t care how much you spend.
It’s essential."

 
     
He broke into a smile. "Oh Yuen-mong, will there ever be an obstacle
that’s too big for you to shift?"

 
     
"Atun, every man has his price. Find it and pay ahead of time."

 
     
"I will, I promise."

 
     
"So I will be ready at 23:10. When do you plan to land?"

 
     
"On the morning of the presentation, to reduce the risk of being
kidnaped again."

 
     
"Syd Twan has cleared me from the takeoff violation. Contact him
and ask him to have secure transport available for you to bring you
directly to the conference center."

 
     
"Do you trust him?"

 
     
She pondered that for a moment. "Yes, at least for this. I will send
him a message too. I don’t think he would want to risk losing my favor.
How is Anouk?"

 
     
"She’s nervous, but holding up."

 
     
"Give her my love and courage now.
We are
almost there, Atun. My
thoughts are with you."

 
     
"Bye, love."

 
     
She cut the contact. Later that day, she would get in touch with the
mayor of the resort and ask him to cooperate with an experiment that
would help promote his resort as a tourist destination for rich Andromatians.

* * *

Atun was waiting impatiently for the session chairman to finish with his
announcement. The man had already eaten five minutes into his time.
Anouk was sitting on a chair next to him, wearing the helmet and facing
the audience. He knew that she had established contact with Yuen-mong,
but he had not switched on the video projector that would show her on
the twenty-by-twenty foot screen to the packed audience in the hall. The
mood of the participants was boisterous, full of anticipation for a good
laugh.

     
Finally, he was given the go-ahead. He turned on the video projector,
and Yuen-mong’s face appeared, the top of her head covered by a strange
helmet. He was struck by her beauty.

     
"I guess, Yuen-mong Shen, even as a mirror image of herself, needs
no introduction," he started tentatively. When the applause of the
audience had died down, he continued: "She is my co-presenter. Yuen-mong, tell us where you are."

 
     
"I am in Cherni, the famous winter sports resort in the Alpine Chain
on Palo —"

 
     
Laughter and a shout "Good try!"

     
"— I promise you that I will have the last laugh. With me is Cherni’s
mayor, Ranco Pazzoli."

     
The screen image shifted, revealing that she had been facing a mirror,
and the smiling face of a chubby man appeared.

     
"Mr. Pazzoli, would you tell the audience in Androma which team
won the final of Palo’s ice hockey championship earlier this evening,
otherwise they will have to wait another eight or nine hours to know the
result."

 
     
The man beamed and said: "Greeting from Cherni, the acclaimed
winter sports resort on Palo that has no equal in the galaxy —"

 
     
More laughter and cheering.

     
"— The match was won by the Blue Sticks 5 to 3."

 
     
"Were they the favorites?"

 
     
"No, in fact the betting odds were 4 to 1 against them."

 
     
A lone voice from the audience shouted: "I won, I won." Followed by
more laughter.

     
"Mr. Pazzoli, in a few minutes a rare event will finish, an event that
last occurred how many years ago?"

 
     
"It is an almost complete lunar eclipse and the last one happened 68
Palo-years ago."

 
     
"That is about 112 standard years, correct?"

 
     
A shout from the audience: "She can count!"

 
     
"I bet better than you," came her immediate answer. "Let’s watch part
of the end of this spectacular event."

 
     
The picture shifted away from the mayor, past a few people in ski and
winter gear, up the dimly lit slopes of a mountain scene into the sky,
where the Palo moon was three quarters visible. While this happened,
they heard her voice: "Will somebody in the audience please verify that
this event is occurring right now?"

 
     
For the first time, there the participants responded with complete
silence as they watched for more than a minute how the obscuration of
the moon almost imperceptibly diminished.

     
"Very clever video work, congratulations," came a lone shout from
the audience, followed by a few reluctant laughs.

     
For a second or two, something similar to a tablet, held by a hand slid
into the screen, while the scene of the moon lost its sharpness, and then
the device slid off the screen, restoring the focus on the moon again.
Atun guessed that Yuen-mong had taken a quick look at the audience on
the flat screen connected to her helmet.

     
A few seconds later, the picture turned back on the mayor. "Mr.
Pazzoli, what date is it today on Palo?"

 
     
"The 13
^th
day of the 2
^nd
month of the Palo year 243."

 
     
"Can you prove that to the audience?"

 
     
"Yes, Cherni is one of the few places in the galaxy where a printed
newspaper is produced, like the ones on Old Earth. Here it is."

 
     
He held up the front page of a paper. The date he had stated was
clearly visible under the heading ‘Cherni Tourist Daily.’

     
"And that translates to what standard date?"

 
     
"March 25, 2427."

 
     
"How does that rate for clever work, you there in middle of row 4?"

 
     
The audience applauded.

     
"Could you also tell the audience what standard time it is right now?"

 
     
He beamed and they saw him consult his wristwatch: "The standard
time is now exactly 23:21."

 
     
"You are one minute behind," came a call from the floor.

     
Suddenly, the song of the dawn bird could be heard in the background. "Oh, please, shut off that song. I’m sick and tired of it," they
heard Yuen-mong’s exclamation. The audience roared. It took several
seconds before her voice came through the noise again. She seemed to be
talking to somebody near her.

     
"… I will give you ten thousand credits if you show mayor Pazzoli
and me as part of your lunar eclipse report. It will be the scoop of your
career, I guarantee it."

 
     
The screen showed a camera crew with a reporter. The camera seemed
directed at the audience, the mayor just visible on the side. Yuen-mong’s
voice returned: "I now suggest that those who still doubt that they have
seen the first instantcom demonstration to have the equipment that Atun
Caruna has on the stage carefully checked that it does not receive or send
any signals other than those from and to Anouk Olson’s helmet. In the
meantime, let us watch the last minutes of the Palo lunar eclipse. Good-bye. See some of you in ten standard days, the time it takes to get back
to Androma. Thank you again, Mr. Pazzoli, Mayor of famous Cherni on
Palo, for your participation in this demonstration."