Analog Science Fiction and Fact - December 2012
Author: WorldMags
Date: 2000-01-01 05:00:00+00:00

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Vol. CXXXII No. 12

Next Issue on Sale

December 2012

November 6, 2012

5

NOVELLA

THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE, Michael Alexander & K.C. Ball ________ 5

NOVELETTES

FROM AN ANTIQUE LAND, Shane Tourtellotte ___________________________ 40

SILENT MODE, Paul Carlson _________________________________________ 80

SHORT STORIES

HEARING IMPAIRMENT, Stephen L. Burns ______________________________ 51

THE PERFECT BOOK, Ken Liu _______________________________________ 62

GARDEN SPOT, Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff _______________________________ 64

CATS KNOW, Richard A. Lovett _______________________________________ 67

SCARY MONSTERS, Liz J. Andersen __________________________________ 74

SCIENCE FACT

THE SEEDS OF CANCER, Jim Kling___________________________________ 31

POETRY

’TWAS THE FLIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, Bill Gleason __________________ 38

READER’S DEPARTMENTS

THE EDITOR’S PAGE ________________________________________________ 2

IN TIMES TO COME________________________________________________ 37

THE ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer _______________________________ 58

BIOLOG: PAUL CARLSON, Richard A. Lovett ____________________________ 61

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Don Sakers______________________________ 101

BRASS TACKS ___________________________________________________ 105

UPCOMING EVENTS, Anthony Lewis _________________________________108

Stanley Schmidt Editor

Trevor Quachri Managing Editor

Cover design by Victoria Green

Cover Art by diversepixel/Shutterstock.com Indicia on Page 3

WorldMags.net

EDITORIAL Stanley Schmidt ENOUGH EVIDENCE
n late May of this year, a widely distributed take much more than that. It will require a Associated Press story ran under the tanta-fundamental change in their mode of think-lizing headline, “Richard Leakey predicts ing: from considering it virtuous to believe Iskepticism over evolution will soon be his- officiallypromulgated dogma regardless of tory.”

evidence or logical coherence, to seeing evi-

“That sounds like a neat trick,” I thought; dence and logical coherence as primary cri-but I found the claim intriguing enough, es-teria for deciding what deserves to be be-pecially given my great respect for Leakey’s lieved.

impressive contributions to understanding And I don’t see that happening any time human origins, that I read on.

soon—and certainly not within as little as The article asserted that, “Sometime in the thirty year s (though I would love to be next fifteen to thirty years, the Kenyan-born proved wrong).

paleoanthropologist expects scientific dis-An abundance of evidence is already on coveries will have accelerated to the point the table, and has been widely accepted by that ‘even the skeptics can accept it.’” It then those who do care about such things. If quoted Leakey himself as saying, “If you get we’re talking about controversy among them, to the stage where you can persuade people that’s already largely over. Researchers are on the evidence, that it’s solid, that we are all still trying to better understand, and some-African, that color is superficial, that stages times arguing about, the fine details of how of development of culture are all interactive, evolution has worked and continues to
then I think we have a chance of a world that work—but practically all of them accept the will respond better to global challenges.”

basic tenet that it does work. As Leakey says That sounds perfectly lovely, and if you ac-in that same article, “You can lay out all the cept his “if,” the “then” follows quite logical-fossils that have been collected and establish ly. But I see a big problem with the “if.”

lineages that even a fool could work up.” You The problem is that while scientists build can also see the process at work every day, as their lives around being persuaded, and per-microorganisms evolve so rapidly that new suading each other, “on the evidence,” most treatments must constantly be developed to people don’t. My own observations of peo-deal with them. That is, among other things, ple say loudly and clearly that many, if not why you need a new flu shot every year. It’s most, people neither understand nor care why I needed different anti-malaria medica-about evidence or logic. They will persist in tion when I traveled in Africa and when I believing what they want—and will see that traveled in Central America—and would
as a virtue (called “faith”)—no matter how probably need still others if I went back to much evidence is thrown at them. They will the same places today.

be strongly reinforced in that attitude by in-Yet despite all that, and Leakey’s assertion stitutions that encourage, if not demand, un-that “even a fool” can see these connections, questioning obedience.

there remain plenty of fools who can’t or Leakey’s prediction of an end to skepti-won’t. Or, even if they acknowledge similari-cism about evolution, as reported, rests on ties, they will find ways to ignore or shrug the assumption that enough evidence will them off. They don’t make logical connec-change all the skeptics’ minds. I think it will tions, or pursue the logical consequences of 2

STANLEY SCHMIDT

WorldMags.net

DECEMBER 2012
facts they’ve recognized in isolation.

sleep, cook . . .

I remember one very determined anti-evo-You get the idea.

lutionist, a few years ago, who grudgingly Now pursue the analogy: Babies are cute, conceded that new flu vaccines were needed but does that mean it would make sense to at frequent intervals because new strains de-keep adding them without limit, if we could?

veloped, but said, “Well, yes, that happens, They’re only babies for a little while; then but that’s just micro-evolution.” He seemed the y grow up and consume far more of
impervious to the fact that if that much everything than they did as infants. Then change happens every year for a billion years, they make more babies, typically in ever-in-the cumulative effect is a billion times that creasing numbers—and each of those grows much change—and that is macro-evolution, up to consume far more of everything than by anybody’s measure. It’s like saying that they did as infants. Continue that, and you moving an inch in a year amounts to standing get the human equivalent of flowers so ubiq-still—but if something moves an inch every uitous they make anything else impossible.

year, by the end of a billion years it will go al-Except you can’t really reach that point: be-most 16,000 miles.

fore it happens you start running out of And that is not standing still.

things. But that doesn’t happen all it once.

Nor is this kind of resistance to facts, and Since it’s gradual, it’s easy to accept a little failure to think things through, limited to less space, a little less food, a little less free-evolution. You’ll find it in many other fields dom as those sacrifices become progressive-

(not among their practitioners, but among ly more necessary.

the general public), from climate change to And before you know it you have one of genetic engineering to ecology and popula-those nightmare scenarios that are the stuff tion growth.

of too much bad science fiction.

Around the same time I saw the AP article How can you prevent that? The only real about Leakey I also saw a bumper sticker that way I see is for everybody—or at least almost said, “How can there be too many babies?

everybody—to learn to see the facts in front That’s like saying there are too many flow-of them, think about how they’re connected, ers!”

and pursue the implications. But many of And that’s a fine example of thinking en-them won’t. Not as long as so many of us tirely with the emotions, unencumbered (as swallow the lies that faith is better than rea-Click and Clack would say) by the thought son, that science is to be feared or snickered process. Yes, f lowers are pretty, but does at rather than understood, that it is better to that mean it would make sense to keep
feel than to think.

adding them without limit, if we could? Pur-For still more examples, consider the need sue the implications. Suppose we could cov-for doctors to tell their patients they’re or-er the whole world with flowers: every road; dering “magnetic resonance imaging” rather every farm field; everybody’s bed, f loors, than “nuclear magnetic resonance imaging”

kitchen sink, stove, toilet . . . Where (and because the word “nuclear” so often pro-how) would anybody travel, raise food, vokes an unreasoning fear based on no

Analog Science Fiction and Fact (Astounding), Vol. CXXXII, No. 12, December 2012. ISSN 1059-2113, USPS 488-910, GST#123054108. Published month-ly except for combined January/February and July/August double issues by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications. One-year subscription $55.90 in the United States and possessions, in all other countries $65.90 (GST included in Canada), payable in advance in U.S. funds. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within eight weeks of receipt of order. When reporting change of address allow 6 to 8 weeks and give new address as well as the old address as it appears on the last label. Periodical postage paid at Norwalk, CT and additional mailing offices. Canadian postage paid at Montreal, Quebec, Canada Post International Publications Mail, Product Sales Agreement No. 40012460. (c) 2012 by Dell Magazines, a division of Crosstown Publications, all rights reserved. Dell is a trademark registered in the U.S. Patent Office. Protection secured under the Universal Copyright Convention. Reproduction or use of editorial or pictorial content in any manner without express permission is prohibited. All stories in this magazine are fiction. No actual persons are designated by name or character. Any similarity is coincidental. All submissions must be accompanied by a stamped self-addressed envelope, the publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.

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ANALOG
knowledge whatsoever. Or the substantial and dangers of accelerated climate change numbers of people who swear they will nev-and uncontrolled population growth.

er eat irradiated food (because they think it’s But how much evidence would it take to radioactive [which it isn’t] and that’s Bad), or convince a substantial majority of people of genetically modified food because . . . well, these truths? We already have a great deal of just because. Never mind that irradiation is evidence—enough to convince almost every-actually a good way to make some foods body who has taken a hard, detailed, critical safer, and genetic engineering well done can look at it. But that’s still not enough to con-be an effective way to get rid of some of the vince a great many others who don’t—and weaknesses of “natural” food plants or ani-don’t want to—think that way. How much mals while keeping their strengths.

evidence would be enough?

Perhaps the most recent widely publicized That, I respectfully and regretfully submit, example of this sort of hysteria was the wide-is the wrong question. The amount of evi-spread outcry over “pink slime” in ground dence is not the critical variable. No amount beef, a reference to a perfectly reasonable of evidence will be enough to convince peo-chemical process for reducing the danger of ple of conclusions they don’t want to be-bacterial contamination in a type of food par-lieve, as long as they refuse to look at the ev-ticularly prone to it. Hardly anybody had any idence, call facts facts, and think through real idea of exactly what they were joining an their logical consequences. Until we find a outcr y against; they didn’t need to. The way to change widespread ways of thought, phrase “pink slime” had such powerful emo-we can expect no more than limited victories tional appeal that it just had to mean some-of the kind Leakey envisions. Fundamental thing horrible, so practically everybody came controversies over matters like evolution, out against Whatever It Was, and felt no need global warming, and overpopulation may to find out.

well disappear among people who actually The Richard Leakey story that caught my think about them; in fact, they already have, eye suggested that within a small number of for the most part. But the more pervasive decades everybody would cheerfully accept emotional controversies, among the vast the reality of evolution because so much sup-numbers who don’t do science but do vote, porting evidence will have accumulated that will, I fear, be with us much longer.

nobody will be able to ignore or deny it. Similar arguments could be made for the reality Copyright © 2012 Stanley Schmidt

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Illustrated by John Allemand

The Moon

Belongs to

Everyone

Michael Alexander & K.C. Ball

Deadlines help people focus—but not always on the same goals.

THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

5

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ANALOG

Mankind has always ventured into the un-But I had all the practice I could ever want known.

ahead of me, a twelve-month work contract at We take risks, accept surprises, and adapt Rockefeller Base, with an option to renew. In to new experiences. Such quests are worthless than six hours, I’d be on the Moon.

while in and of themselves. They represent All through the weeks of training, I’d looked one way in which we express the human forward to being on a different world, doing spirit.This country was built on that willing-different work. Beginning a new life. My past ness to take risks. America is a great nation refused to let me go, though.

and a great nation must remain an explor-

“Laura Kerrigan,” a man shouted, as I dis-ing nation if it wishes to maintain its great-embarked from the cislunar tug at Selene Sta-ness.

tion.

I say today that the sky is no longer the A big fellow arrowed toward me, swimming limit.

the station’s zero-gee as if he’d been born to it.

I pledge that our nation will venture out He reminded me of Thomas Mitchell, the ac-into the unknown.We will take the risks, actor who played Scarlett’s father in Gone with cept the surprises, and eagerly await what the Wind.

lies beyond the bounds of our world.What Wide and solid, graying. Just a bit past sixty, we start today with my words will lead to an maybe.

American walking on the surface of the

“How the hell’s your old man?” he called, as Moon before the end of the next decade.And he drew near.

before twenty years have passed, I expect to I didn’t know the man, but his face jarred see Americans venturing to Mars.

loose memories of training-document photos.

I want John Gillespie Magee’s hopeful I’d played job-related undercover games too words to become America’s reality.

long to flinch at his approach. I let him wrap With silent lifting mind I have trod the his arms around me in a friendly bear hug.

high untrespassed sanctity of space, put out

“I’m Tom Garver, Kerrigan,” he whispered my hand, and touched the face of God.

in my ear. “Call me Tom. Pretend I’m a friend of your father. Ask me for the tour I promised

—President Richard M. Nixon,
you.” The name produced more memories.

State of the Union address,

And so I called him Tom, we played our lit-11 January 1962.

tle scene and I gave up what sleep I might have managed, in the little time I’d have on Se-26 November 1979
lene Station, to ride pillion with Garver on an eased from the staging-shack airlock, just open-cockpit work sled across the f ive-mile at the edge of the mammoth cylindrical gap to Odyssey .

melting tank. Beyond the open lip of the The Mars ship.

Itank,a forty-feet-long hollow tube of ice “I’m construction manager,”Garver said,on waited, gleaming in the raw sunlight. I the low-power suit-to-suit link, during the couldn’t shake the notion it was a mammoth ride. “I got a situation that fits your old line of bullet ready to be loaded into the barrel of an work. I’d be grateful for your point of view.”

enormous gun.

I heard: You scratch my back, I’ll scratch Sixty miles below Odyssey’s selenocentric yours .

orbit, the Moon’s sterile surface looked pris-It couldn’t hurt to look. God knew I could tine, crater walls and mountain peaks casting use a friend in power. That was all I could ever crisp black shadows in the harsh sunlight.

do, though. Look. I no longer wore a badge, I moved toward the ice. Maneuvering in a couldn’t officially investigate anything.

pressure suit still felt cumbersome despite That bastard, Liam Childs, had seen to that.

eight weeks’ recent training. The resistance of the sandwiched layers of the suit. A steady I reached the melting tank’s shadow-line. A flow of chilled air. The constant hiss of com-thin f iberglass cable stretched into the dark-munications gear.

ness of the tank from the big eye bolt melted All that hadn’t become second nature. Not into the near end of the ice tube. Sixteen tons yet.

of reaction mass for the voyage to Mars, wait-6

MICHAEL ALEXANDER & K.C. BALL

WorldMags.net

DECEMBER 2012
ing to be melted, and another chunk of ice bonus, do what you’re told.”

would be on its way up from the surface in

“No argument from me, Boss,” the woman less than three days.

said.

“Odyssey, I’m ready.”

Nothing from the man.

“Roger.” Garver’s baritone rumbled in my

“You hear me, McAlvany?” Garver demand-headphones.

ed.

A thin line ran from a tie-off on the shack

“Copy,” the man said, at last.

bulkhead to an anchor point halfway along the The woman pulled herself into position and ice. Two suited f igures waited for me there.

helped the man brace the tip of the cutter One of them held a heat-cutter.

against the glistening surface of the ice.

I focused on memorized procedure. Hook a

“Clear,” the man called.

suit safety line to the cable. Squeeze a quick He keyed the unit. The resistance coil inside burp from the maneuvering unit. Don’t use the thin shaft heated fast. The cutter eased your hands on the line to stop unless you have into the ice. Vapor streamed off into space.

to . I slid along the line, burped the other way With the surety of a butcher opening a car-at what I f igured to be halfway, and stopped cass, the man ran the cutter in a smooth circle just short of the suited figures.

two feet in diameter.

Just like I knew what I was doing.

Finally, he backed away. He and the woman The glare visors hid their faces from me.

braced against their tethers, pushing at the

“Who’s in charge?” I asked.

disk with their booted feet. They muscled it

“I am.” A woman’s voice. She lifted her arm, into the cylinder.

showed a red supervisor’s band ringing the bi-I got no argument from either one when I cep of her white EVA suit.

waved them to the side. I pulled myself into Should have spotted that.

place and peered into the hole.

I turned to the second f igure, the suit The top of a suit helmet showed itself. Its marked by a blue band. “You the one who side had been badly dented, but it remained found it?”

intact. I reached through, still awkward in the

“Yeah. ” A man’s voice. He tapped the
suit, grabbed the locking ring and spun the frozen surface with a gloved finger. “Came to suit.

rig the lines to pull the ice inside. Saw that in

“Well?” Garver demanded.

there.”

I studied the cold, dead face within the helI moved close to examine the glittering sur-met. No sign of trauma. Then I rotated the hel-face, wiped my glove across the ice. “That met away, so I could examine the rest of the looks like a—”

suited figure. A ragged gash ran along the left The woman interrupted, sounding insis-suit leg.

tent. “It’s a foreign object in the ice.”

“It’s not an empty suit,” I said. “There is a

“Yeah,” the man said. “A foreign object . ” He body inside. Might be a suicide or unreported sounded as if he wanted to be somewhere accident, but I wouldn’t rule out murder.”

else.

A pause. “Copy that,” Garver said.

“How long will it take you to cut into that?”

I asked.

I had time to consider what I’d seen outside

“A few minutes. No more than f ive,” the on the lonely float along the ship’s central cor-woman said. “It’s warmed up quite a bit.”

ridor. With the minimal light and the quiet,

“Do it.”

the ship felt sterile, as if it were waiting to be

“I’m going back inside.” The man tugged at used. As well it should, it was brand new.

the safety line and pulled himself around to We’d read all about Odyssey in orientation face me.

classes. A two-year build. Eighty men and I blocked his way. “I want that opened. You women in orbit, sixty on the surface of the need to—”

Moon. Twelve months of work, three months

“I don’t need to do anything. This sort of rotated back to Earth to rest and recover.

stuff isn’t in my contract.”

That’s what the documentation said, any-The radio crackled. “Garver here. You two way.

want to finish out your contract and get your Construction had been completed three

THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

7

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ANALOG
weeks ago, three days behind schedule. Garv-ders in front of a shielded section containing er and his finish crew were racing to catch up.

the NERVA nuclear propulsion units, their Some of the orbital crew still waited on Selene heat exchangers looking like big ribbed wings.

Station for a berth back down to Earth.

The ship’s ancestry was evident. It had been Those who remained onboard were there
birthed from modified upper-stage sections of to f inish electrical tests, bring the NERVA re-the Saturn V rockets, as had Selene Station.

actors to full functionality and handle the last The place reeked of Captain Black tobacco.

of the water uploads.

I wondered how Garver kept a pipe lit in The schedule had no flex. The launch win-weightlessness, not to mention how he got dow for America’s first manned interplanetary away with smoking in the first place.

shot—on January 1, 1980—drew near, and all The man had to have serious clout.

Americans knew that if the ship didn’t launch,

“Thanks for going out there, Kerrigan,”

the Russians would win the race to Mars.

Garver said.

The remaining workers bunked in the stag-

“If I can call you Tom, you can call me Lau-ing shack, back by the melting cylinder. Garv-ra.”

er had set up quarters in the crew dormitory

“All right, Laura.” The construction manag-onboard Odyssey instead of staying in Selene er straddled a saddle at the work desk. He Station. I wasn’t sure I’d care to do that. Emp-wore his salt-and-pepper hair in a crew-cut, ty, the ship felt spooky, f illed with strange over a deeply seamed face. He looked over-echoes. It smelled funny, too, like the stink of tired, worn at the edges, and his clothing f it long-used, over-loaded electrical equipment.

him as if made for a larger man. I wondered if At least, I half-expected that.

he'd been ill.

“First time you go through an airlock, take Garver waved for me to join him before a off your suit,” an instructor had told me, at the compact television monitor. “Come look at tavern down the road from the Florida train-this,” he said.

ing site. “You’ll catch an acrid odor. The smell A color broadcast f lickered on the screen.

of ozone. We call it catching a whiff of vacu-Garver tapped it. “Sent a crewman with a um.”

hard-wired camera out so I can tape every-He had plied me with drinks and stories thing while they pull the body out of the ice.”

most of the night, hoping for the same poke I watched over Garver’s shoulder. Whoever and tickle Childs had been after.

handled the video camera knew enough to Neither had succeeded.

shoot with the Sun. The picture almost I grabbed the anchor bar mounted outside matched broadcast quality, caught all the de-Garver’s office, to brace against reaction, and tails.

knocked.

“Good camera work,” I said.

“Come on in,” Garver called.

“Good camera,” Garver said. “A Betacam.

I pushed the door open, pulled myself in-Great for location shooting. Networks haven’t side. The room was good-sized, designed as seen one yet. I got six. They’re for the mission, quarters for six crew members. Military tidy, all mine until the ship leaves.”

too, but full of Tom Garver. Books Velcroed to

“I don’t know that one.”

every open surface. Engineering plans and

“State-of-the-art from Sony.”

photographs taped to bulkheads.

“Japanese?”

A framed photo of Garver in dress Naval

“Yeah. The little bastards turn out good uniform—a full commander—hung on the
product.”

bulkhead above the built-in desk. A shot of The camera image zoomed in on the

Garver and President Reagan, shaking hands, crushed helmet. The crew finished sliding the shared the wall.

rigid body from the cylinder, a tight fit. They Scribbled notes stuck here and there. A weren’t being particularly careful.

floating ten-foot-long scale model of the ship,

“We’ve got to get that ice melted and in-tethered at four points to a work table, took tank,” Garver said. “Sorry if they’re screwing up the center of the room.

up your crime scene.”

Sections of the scale model had been pulled

“My crime scene?”

away to show compartments. Two long cylin-

“You’re the only cop I’ve got.”

8

MICHAEL ALEXANDER & K.C. BALL

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DECEMBER 2012

I shook my head. “I went out there as a fa-juries. Never murder, though.”

vor, Tom, gave you my professional opinion,

“Could it have been the Russians?” I asked.

but I’m not a marshal anymore.”

“Naw. The military types on Selene Station

“I know. I did my research,” Garver said, watch the Reds pretty close. Besides, they’re taking up his pipe. “You got laid off fourteen way too busy with their own Mars ship down months ago.”

in low Earth orbit.”

“I got fired.”

He glanced at me. “You see it?”

Childs had done a real smear job, made sure I knew what he wanted to hear. “Ugliest my name was deeply buried in the mud. I thing I ever saw.”

hadn’t even been able to get a private security Garver nodded. “It’s different design philos-job, at a time when companies were begging ophy. Brute-force but proven tech. They don’t for former cops.

have nuclear thermal engines, so it’s LOX-hy-That was why I’d taken the moon job with drogen for the trip out. Hypergolics for the LTC. They were so desperate they’d hire al-ride home, dump everything and land in a most anyone.

couple of Soyuz capsules.”

“Want to get back at Childs?” Garver’s hands He paused to try to light the pipe. The seemed to move on their own accord, as he match went out before it caught.

packed tobacco into the pipe.

“Why did we go with nuclear engines?” I

“How could—”

asked.

“I know people who owe me favors,” he

Garver shrugged. “Hell if I know, I’m not said.

that kind of engineer. The way I hear it, nukes

“But—”

increase specif ic impulse, so you use less He waved away my words. “I always do my fuel.”

research, I know what he did to you. You han-He struck another match without success.

dle this for me, you’ll be back on Earth. Full

“And building the ship here in low lunar or-benef its, your jacket cleared. If that’s what bit cuts even more reaction mass, compared you want.”

to LEO,” he said. “No cryogenics means simI felt as if I’d been pushed off safe footing pler tankage and so on. Mining metals and wa-into deep water. My father was a cop, his fater on the Moon’s cheaper than fifty, sixty Sat-ther before him, too. Working law enforce-urn launches to LEO. It’s all supposed to save ment had been the only thing I’d ever wanted, time and money.”

had ever done. Having to deal with the loss of

“How’s that worked out so far?” I asked.

my badge, not being able to land another law Garver grinned. “Who can say? Will Ameri-enforcement job, almost killed me.

can free enterprise beat the godless Commu-

“You okay?” Garver asked.

nists? Not my department. My job’s to make

“Yeah.”

sure this crate’s in shape to leave orbit New Suck it up, kid, my father used to say.

Year’s Day.”

“You want your job back?”

He paused and drew a breath. “What were

“Yeah.”

we talking about?”

Garver nodded. “Five deaths in two years in

“The miners,” I said.

orbit. All verif iable accidents. The surface

“Yeah. Old story. Work conditions suck.

rate’s been higher, but that’s mining for you.”

They don’t get paid enough, don’t get to go He tapped the screen with his pipe stem.

home enough. They want a union.”

“But this . . . this was no accident and the no-I remembered growing up in eastern Kention of murder pisses me off no end. I want to tucky coal country, watching my friends’ fa-catch whoever did it. Even more I want to get thers come home from work too tired to my hands on whoever thinks he can mess scrub the blackness from their skin before with my schedule.”

they fell into bed. Seeing retired miners, old

“Has there been other sabotage?”

men before their time, slumped on dilapidat-Garver frowned. “Four times I’m sure of.

ed porches next to green bottles of oxygen.

Others, maybe. I don’t run the show down Appalachian astronauts.

there, so I don’t see all the paperwork. There’s

“Will they get a union?”

been money lost, project down-time and in-Garver fiddled with his pipe, not looking at THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

9

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ANALOG
me. “Someday,” he said. “We can’t afford one like my old man. It’s sweet.”

now.”

“Make fun of an old man all you like, but I I didn’t say a word.

mean it. I’ve read your jacket, Laura, know He spread his hands. “Laura, I sympathize what you’ve done. I’ll bet you’re hell-on-with them. My old man was shop steward for wheels. But so was Leatherman, the other cop his ship f itter’s local at the Philly Navy Yard I sent.”

during the big war. He built the ships and I He glanced at the monitor. The camera rewas a swabbie sailing on one of them.”

mained focused on the stove-in helmet. I This time he looked me in the eye. “Pop tipped my chin toward the image. “That was could sing The Internationale as well as Debs, Leatherman?”

but he knew there was a war to be won. Just

“Yeah.”

like now, except the war’s cold.

He stuck another match and sucked on his

“I hate having to act like a company asshole, pipe. It wouldn’t catch. He tossed it at the but I’ve got a fast ship to build and I’m sending desk, where it bounced back. He grabbed it it in harm’s way. I’ve got to know if there’s without looking. “I don’t know why I bother more trouble coming at me from the Moon.”

with that thing. Keeping it lit in zero gee’s a

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

bitch.”

“Go down there. Poke around and stir the pot. Find out who’s screwing with me. I don’t I checked my harness one more time. The care what you have to do. Just f ix it. I’ve got soles of my feet tingled. My stomach fluttered.

thirty-six days until launch.”

Getting ready to take a no-frills ride.

Garver glanced at his wristwatch.

Another suited f igure stood opposite me,

“Speaking of time, let’s get you back. Drop’s focusing on the harness, too. Around us, six three hours and . . . twenty-seven minutes.

recovered ascent engines had been strapped

“A scheduled truckload. Six engines, you to the open platform of the landing truck, flar-and a guy named Anderson. I expect you ing expansion nozzles almost touching.

know him from the training classes. They’re No pressurized cabin, no flight couches. No expecting you, know you used to be a cop, one who’d done the drop before to hold our but they know you’ve been through training, hands and tell us not to worry. America’s Lu-too.”

nar Technologies Consortium didn’t spend a

“Understood.”

dollar when a penny was enough. I know He studied me for a moment. “Schedule’s Armstrong and Aldrin landed standing up, too.

tight, but I can give you a little time to think it They had walls, though, but LTC had studies over.”

that said walls were unnecessary mass.

I shook my head. “I don’t need to think Someone with a nasty sense of humor had about it, Tom. I’m in.”

named the truck, marked it in big, red letters Gar ver grinned. “I like a woman who
sprayed on its side. Thumper.

knows her mind.”

I closed my eyes and tried to think of other

“So let’s get going,” I said.

things.

He rubbed at his crew cut. “Just one

The ride up to Earth orbit came to mind. Six thing—”

men and women crammed into a stripped

“Go on. I don’t bite.”

Apollo capsule like stacked bodies in a Garver shook his head. “I don’t believe that morgue, going into space in a claustrophobic for a second.”

can. In low Earth orbit we had transferred to I raised my hand, palm out and fingers up.

the cislunar tug for another two days to lunar

“You don’t have to worry about me.”

orbit.

He shook his head. “Look, I’m old school.

As I waited, I wondered if I’d signed up on My pop taught me to take care of women, the wrong side once again. When I did acade-years ago before ERA became the law.”

my, it all looked black and white. You were ei-

“I said I’d be all right.”

ther a good guy or a bad guy.

“Don’t get your Irish up,” he said. “Just be These days, it seemed the only thing I’d ever careful.”

done, all those years as a cop, was keep the I laid my hand on his shoulder. “You sound folks who didn’t have a dime from taking one 10

MICHAEL ALEXANDER & K.C. BALL

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from those that did.

loved amusement parks. The roller coasters Got to pay the bills, kid, my father used to and rail slides. The free-fall drops. I figured to say. Maybe so, but I wasn’t sure anymore if I enjoy every second on the greatest thrill ride cared for the cost.

any engineer had ever imagined.

I was facing in our direction of motion. As I checked the telltale on my oxygen. Like we came over the south pole I was watching the truck, the suits were simplif ied. No so-the approaching horizon over the edge of the phisticated adsorption canisters, no complex platform as the earth rose; bright, half full, dis-rebreathing circuit, just a six-hour tank of air.

tant, stunningly beautiful. I hummed the open-Four, now.

ing notes of “Thus Spake Zarathustra.”

“Thumper, Selene Station here.”

“What’s that?” Anderson asked over the suit Below, the lunar landscape slid by. I let the link.

other rider respond. A thirtyish fellow. AnderI didn’t bother to explain. “Music from a son. He’d proved during training he loved the movie,” I said.

sound of his own voice.

“Go ahead, Selene.” Anderson again.

An hour later and fifty thousand feet above

“You all ready for de-orbit burn?”

the surface, two hundred-thirty miles up-range

“Damned straight.”

from target, the engine f lared to life again, I answered in the affirmative, as well.

slowing us.

“Copy four, Thumper. Go for DOB. Ignition, At ten thousand feet, the landscape below thirty seconds.”

barely crawling by, the truck pitched over to a I closed my fingers around one of the grab near-vertical attitude. I saw our destination, a bars welded to the engine cowling and count-crater filled with darkness.

ed to myself. The truck’s engine fired when I At three thousand feet, I caught sight of the reach one-thousand-thirty-one.

lights outlining the bull’s-eye layout of the Not bad .

buried habitat. At seven hundred feet, I spot-My feet pressed against the grated f loor. I ted scattered equipment and the base’s junk set my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering pile in the lessening shadow near the east rim in time to the vibrations. I felt the roar of the wall.

engine in my bones. My stomach f luttered Suited figures moved about, here and there.

again at the return of gravity. I counted down A rover rolled toward the rim. Landing bea-on the thirty-second burn. The engine cut off cons flashed a rhythmic red, west of the habion the mark.

tat. All so familiar, so ingrained in my memory

“Thumper, Selene. Burn nominal. Powered from training films and countless photographs descent initiates in fifty-seven minutes at two-it seemed as if I had come home.

hundred-thirty nautical miles from Rockefeller But it felt as if we were coming in too fast.

Base.”

My hands itched for a steering wheel, the

“Copy, Selene.” Anderson again .

old passenger’s dilemma. There wasn’t any. Ei-I took in the view.

ther the computer did the job or it didn’t. If it We had just under another hour of standing didn’t, Anderson and I, the ascent engines, ahead of us, watching the moon roll beneath too, would become part of one more shat-as we fell toward the surface in a long com-tered monument to mankind’s reach for the puter-planned arc following the terminator planets.

around the Moon. At the end, the truck would The engines would be missed the most .

make its final powered descent into the dark-In the end, the truck slowed, hovered for a ness of the polar crater that sheltered Ameri-moment and sank to the lunar surface without ca’s Rockefeller Base.

incident, just as it had many times before. The I should be scared, I knew that. I stood on engine shut down. Two suited figures skipped an open, free-falling platform sixty miles up, to the truck, began to check the cargo. They loaded with heavy equipment. The LTC pre-ignored us.

ventable-accident record sucked vacuum, too.

“This is Rockefeller Base.” A woman’s voice.

It didn’t matter.

As opposed to, say, Detroit?

I had gotten used to the view by now, and I

“We hear you,” Anderson said.

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“You two can come on inside any time you ed f igure stepped out. The left leg and the like,” the woman said. “I’ll meet you at the right arm of the suit had been painted in an indoor.”

tricate, colorful pattern. A swirling band of I unhooked my harness, released the straps red, blue and green crossed the torso at an an-that held my duffel and the small equipment gle, intertwining flowers, just like a complex case Garver had provided me. I slid between tattoo inked upon a naked body.

the bells of two engines and stepped to the Within the blossoms, I made out a name.

ladder.

ZENDER.

Anderson arrived first. He began his climb

“Welcome to the Moon, folks.” The same down without even a glance at me. He paused woman who had called them at the truck.

at the last rung. “Watch this last step, Kerrig-

“I’m Posey Zender, LTC personnel liaison. You an,” he said. “It’s a lulu.”

can call me Posey. Wipe your feet before you He dropped his duffel, let go the ladder and come inside.”

fell slowly the last few feet to the surface.

I returned the greeting. Anderson waved

“Asshole,” I whispered.

and moved inside.

I forgot the common band was always on.

Anderson scooped up his duffel, turned Beyond the door, the airlock was a revolv-away from the truck. And as he skip-stepped ing drum, not too different from a darkroom toward the habitat, he showed a gloved mid-safe door, except with gasketed edges, and dle finger over his shoulder.

made of plate glass, like the front door to some New York City off ice building. AnderI hiked to the habitat, almost catching up son was already inside, moving like a man with Anderson, taking care with the low-grav-looking for the can.

ity gait they taught us in training. A skip-step

“This lock made me nervous, when I f irst that had looked strange in demonstration, in got here,” Posey said. “But it’s safe. Cheaper the films we’d seen. It worked well enough in and easier than a pressure lock. Fool-proof, practice. Weight isn’t mass, they endlessly re-too, with fewer complex parts. Cuts down on minded us in training. Take your time.

repair time overhead. LTC figured if you have The loose regolith in this area had been all the oxygen you need, conservation isn’t a sucked up long ago as aggregate for the sulfur necessity. It just takes a long, hard push.”

concrete used to build the habitat, so I didn’t I kept my mouth shut and marked the lock kick up any dust and left no footprints as I as a place not to spend much time near. It moved toward the rounded gray mounds that might be fool-resistant, but I’d seen too often were the dormitories and common spaces of that nothing ever was completely fool-proof.

the base. Poured tubes half-buried in the floor Beyond the lock, Anderson headed for a of the crater. No windows, no exterior lights, glass door to the habitats. He’d hung his plain-except twenty-four-inch tall, green-neon script white suit in one of the twenty-five glass-faced letters that blinked out WEST ENTRANCE above a lockers that f illed the ten-feet-wide habitat rectangle of light. It was a nice touch.

section. About half the lockers contained vac-Further to the west, I spotted the adit to uum suits. Most of them had been painted in one of the rim-wall mines, marked by a red some fashion.

neon arrow, pointing down. Someone had Not all were as colorful as Posey’s suit, but painted ABANDON ALL HOPE,YE WHO ENTER HERE
each carried some sort of statement from of its in man-high red letters on the wall above the owner. A full-body skeleton. The alien from arrow.

that Sigourney Weaver movie a couple years As I closed on the entry lock, I passed col-back. Flags of all sorts. Daffy Duck chased by lections of skeletal equipment. High chain-link Marvin the Martian.

fences, topped by razor-wire with access

“What’s with the suits?” I asked.

through a locked gate, surrounded some of

“It’s called freedom of expression,” Posey them. Pharmaceutical plants. The fences kept said. “Everybody gets free rein to paint their the riff-raff out.

suit anyway they like. There’s always a couple As we reached the habitat, the broad glass extras at each lock.”

door beneath the sign swung open and a suit-

“I’m not an artist.”

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Someone will help if you want. Any ideas?”

She waved me on. I moved with her, the

“I’ll think of something.”

low-gravity gait now familiar.

“Whatever. Find a locker, stash your suit,”

“Remember. Think through every move,”

Posey said. “This is only temporary. I’ll get you DuPree said, for the hundredth time. “If you a locker closer to your work assignment, once don’t know, don’t pretend you do. You can you’re settled in.”

kill yourself, if you have to, but for God’s sake I found a vacant locker, focused on remov-don’t take me with you.”

ing my suit and wiping off its surfaces. Posey

“Got it,” I said. “Measure twice and cut did the same. She turned out to be rail-thin, a once.”

forty-something, horse-faced woman with

“Right. Training’s over. We got to catch up close-cut russet hair. She wore a green jump-for those three days. Odyssey burns at mid-suit with a name patch over her heart.

night on New Year’s Eve and we’ve got to fin-Out of the suit, the tube felt chilly. It had a ish f illing her reaction-mass tanks before she grungy look to it, too. Not overtly dirty but leaves.”

edge-worn, as if someone had been working

“Why midnight?”

on it with a dull f ile. Sounds bouncing from She looked at me as if I were a child. “The the concrete walls. The expanded metal floor bad thing about leaving from low Moon orbit had a hollow echo. The lights burned dimmer is that delta-V change in orbital planes creates than in the trainer, half not even working. A a narrow window of opportunity. But it glass door closed off the tube at the far end. A doesn’t have to be midnight. That’s pure show second airlock would have been nice. A biz. They have to go at midnight because the scrolling, lighted sign above the door showed President says they do, the People say they do, time and date. 1320 26 NOVEMBER 1979.

corporate P.R. says they do. Paper puts up Posey headed toward the door. “C’mon.

with anything.”

Let’s get you settled in. You go to work tomor-Ahead were four large cylindrical tanks, two row.”

of them three times taller than the other two.

“Do I get on-the-job training?”

Ladders ran up opposite sides of each tank.

She laughed. “Yeah. Sure.”

Over them, a stringer crane ran on a track to the launch area. The engine assembly we had 29 November 1979
worked on last shift waited in a cradle there.

The dark closed in as I stepped out of the

“Casting tanks,” DuPree said, pointing to re-airlock onto the surface of the Moon. Sunlight mind me. “The short ones for the LOX, tall caught the tips of rim-wall peaks three thou-ones for the liquid hydrogen. They poured sand feet above me, but didn’t touch the one set yesterday after our shift and they’re al-crater floor. The only real illumination where most finished cooling. The two at the end are I stood came from a scatter of lights on the as-complete. They pulled the cope, froze the sembly line and my helmet lamps.

caps last shift. Time to build the stack.”

Edie DuPree, my shift partner, waited. She

“This whole thing still seems a bit nutty.”

had worked with me patiently for the past

“Yeah, but it works. Since we have to lift the three days, showing me the ropes. First day, I water to orbit anyway, why not save on raw asked about days off. DuPree smirked and materials and make the water the fuel tanks?

shook her head.

It’s f ifty degrees absolute down here in the

“Read your contract,” she said. “Twelve shadow. That ice is rock hard. We shoot it up hours on and twelve off. Seven days a week.”

to Odyssey where they melt it into the reac-With DuPree’s help, I learned to set up an tion tanks. Then they bring the engine assem-ascent engine assembly while getting used to bly back down for another run.”

working on the lunar surface. To inspect a re-I looked around. “Where are the winch con-cycled RL-10 engine and attach it to the circu-trols?”

lar support structure. To test the pump tanks DuPree held up her gauntlets. “Right here.

and fittings.

The motor they sent up cracked a bearing I felt confident I was ready to move on.

from the cold, f irst month. The second one DuPree agreed. “You got your moon legs, lasted sixty days. They’ve been promising a re-Kerrigan. Let’s build an icicle.”

designed one for eighteen months. Until they THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

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send one up, we use muscle.”

DuPree said. “The tank’s designed for that. It

“They didn’t mention that in training.”

contracts some as it chills down, enough to

“Lots of things they didn’t mention, trust give you windage.”

me.”

Three more pulls. I looked up to see the ice Trust you? Maybe someday .

peeking over the tank rim. “Looking good?” I DuPree grabbed the chain dangling from asked.

the gang pulley and dragged the winch over to

“Lookin’ sweet.”

a short tank. I skipped to the tank. DuPree ges-We continued pulling, a bit at a time, until tured toward a ladder. “Up you go.”

the ice cylinder cleared the tank. “Okay, let’s I hopped up the rungs. As I came over the slide this down to the engine mount.”

top I saw the circular disk of ice that would We took a step away and pulled. The winch become the top of the tank, looking like a raw resisted for a moment, then slid a few feet, ice glass casting for a big telescope mirror.

dangling below.

“Heads up,” DuPree said.

“There’s a clutch fitting that won’t let it run I grabbed the descending ring and guided it free, not that you should trust it,” DuPree said.

over the ice.

“Last thing you want’s for that sucker to take

“Let me know when it’s about four inches off on its own. Remember, weight isn’t mass.

below the upper edge.” I could hear the effort How you doing?”

in DuPree’s voice.

“Five by,” I said. “Actually having fun.”

“Down. Down. Down. Stop .” I said.

“That’s what the virgin said. By this time I’m I saw the chain swing, slap lightly against a hooker.”

the tank, and I expected to hear a clang. None I grinned. “In it for the money, huh?”

came.

A pause. “No, I see it as my own small con-Stay alert. No aural cues.

tribution to mankind’s leap for the stars. Of DuPree’s helmet appeared over the oppo-course , I’m in it for the money. It’s my job. Be-site side. “Good job, good job. Ice looks good.

sides, I’m not going anywhere.”

You steady the ring while I lock it.”

I remembered we were on an open circuit I leaned forward, stretched my arms to each and made no reply. We slowly walked the ice side, trying to get the ring at as even a height down the hundred yards to the engine cradle, as possible. I felt it snug up.

with not much more effort than pulling a

“Hands clear,” DuPree said, grunting.

child’s wagon.

The ring settled into place.

“Okay,” DuPree said. “When we’re done,

“Sure it won’t slip and break?” I asked.

that hunk’s gotta be centered, true and f lat.

“It—oh. Ice. Remember. That ice is fifty de-Let’s take our time.”

grees above absolute zero. It’s granite.”

“Copy that.”

“Copy that,” I said.

We moved the cylinder slowly over the flat

“Let’s get this baby out of the cradle.”

circle of ice on top of the engine platform.

We both climbed back down.

“Okay,” DuPree said. “I’m going to lower, I was surprised at how much effort some-you guide. Take your time. Get it right. Rething as simple as climbing a ladder at one member, that thing masses a lot more than it sixth gee took. Something one of the Florida weighs.”

trainers had said popped into my head.

The placement went uneventfully. I guided Half your work will be against the suit itself.

with one hand, the way I had steered sections Take your time. The biggest danger is over-of concrete sewer pipe, two summers on a heating, even if it’s cold outside. The Universe job during college. “We’re good, let it down.”

as a Thermos bottle.

DuPree lowered it the last quarter inch,

“Does the ice ever get stuck?” I asked.

walked over to inspect. “Good. I just got to go

“Once in a while. There’s heating coils in up top to check if it’s level. Sometimes the the tank wall just in case. Most of the time, it’s casting can be off a bit.”

no problem. Let’s give this a try.”

“Can I try it?”

We both pulled on the chain. The com-

I felt DuPree give me the once over from be-pound pulley above us rotated smoothly.

hind her visor. Finally, she pulled a bubble lev-

“The ice expands when the water freezes,”

el out of a suit leg pocket and handed it over.

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“I’ll hoist you up. Take cross measurements

“Just so you know,” I said. “I don’t faint in the middle and at three points along the from fear.” I swirled the liquid in the glass.

edge. Gotta be within a degree of vertical. The

“This stuff’s terrible. Got anything to dilute it bubble’s ethane, shouldn’t freeze if you’re with?”

quick about it.”

“No alcohol allowed on the base.”

DuPree hopped down past the cradle,

I looked at her. “And you call yourself a min-grabbed a chain hanging from another pulley.

er?”

Dragging it over, she handed a hook to me.

DuPree grinned. She walked to a desk and

“Hold on tight,” she said, and began hauling opened a drawer, pulled out a plastic contain-me up. A minute later I cleared the top of ice er and another glass. “Got a vacuum still out cylinder, let go of the chain and stepped onto behind the Ruzic cryostats,” she said.

the surface.

I held out my tumbler. DuPree cut the red

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s try this.”

liquid with the same amount of clear, then Bouncing to my knees, I put the level on poured herself an equal dose. We touched the ice and studied the bubble. Less than half a glasses and drank. It was a surprise.

degree. I inched sideways. Crosswise, dead

“I know it’s an old line,” I said, “But this is center.

smooth hooch. Real grade-A moonshine, and I As I crawled toward the edge something hit know my ‘shine.”

me in the back. It wasn’t much, a tap, but I I polished off the drink in two gulps.

wasn’t expecting it. I fell forward. My chest hit DuPree grinned. “If we ever get decent the edge as I slid off the top, helmet down, to-shipping costs, we could sell this stuff for ward the ground twenty feet below.

good money, Earthside. Beats Stoli hollow.”

She collected my empty tumbler. “Regs say I opened my eyes and tried to sit up. “What you rest for rest of shift.”

the f-”

“And let everyone think I’m a wuss and an DuPree pushed me back onto the cot.

incompetent?” I pushed up onto my elbows.

“You’re inside, safe.”

“Get the medic to look at my pupils and let’s The old line, Must be a def inition of the get back to work.”

word ‘safe’ I’m not familiar with, popped into

“I’m all you get, so we go by regs. There’s my head.

no medic, not since the last one did walka-

“What happened?” I asked.

bout three months ago. Never did f ind her

“Near as I can tell, when you let go the and they haven’t shipped in a new one yet.

chain you must have given it a push. It came Posey says it’s problematic finding tech staff. I around and it caught you in the back.”

figure the real reason is the Corporation’s too

“I must have hit my head in the fall. It cheap to pay for one, this close to launch.”

knocked me out.”

“Posey does seem harried, doesn’t she?”

“First fall up here’s scary. Maybe you faint-DuPree looked at her glass. She held the ed.” DuPree offered a glass of something.

bottle out to me. I shook my head.

I accepted it, took a sip. It tasted like straw-

“Posey’s like one of those thought experi-berry Kool-Aid. “The damned fall seemed to ments I read about in high school. A perfect, last forever.”

frictionless, rolling bitch.” She knocked the DuPree’s lips quirked. “Under three sec-drink back.

onds, but no worse than falling four feet, back Later, I lay in my bunk, staring at the ceiling on Earth. Gives you a jolt, but it won’t kill you.

and sorting things out. Item: nobody would Just don’t try it from the top of a fifty-foot hy-talk about Leatherman. Item: there was no ev-drogen tank. That will kill you.”

idence that what happened was anything but Was it an accident? Did you try to kill me, an accident. Item: It was remarkably easy to DuPree? Or try to scare me?

have an accident down here.

I took another sip, collecting my thoughts. I Posey could have done him in, or arranged wasn’t sure if I had pushed the hook and it, if she had something to hide in her han-chain away or not. Either way, I’d have to dling of the project and thought Leatherman watch my step with even more care from now was sniffing too hard. Her moonshadow-cold on.

exterior might be cover for a deep insecurity.

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Or she might just be frozen to the core.

“You ready to go home yet, Kerrigan?” he DuPree could have done it. She was hands-asked.

down the best roustabout on the surface;

“You can call me Laura, Jake.”

everyone I asked said so. Setting up an acci-

“You do what you like. I’ll stick with Kerrig-dent would be easy for her. The question was an. It’s less personal.” He turned his head to motive.

cough. “’Scuse me.”

For that matter, any of a half-dozen miners I heard home in Kadar’s voice. Eastern Ken-could have done it. Bumping shoulders was tucky or maybe just over the Tug River in West easy here. The almost total lack of privacy, the Virginia.

grinding schedule, the seeming indifference of I took a mouthful of chipped beef. It tasted the Corporation to legitimate complaints. I’d the way it looked. “Jake, you’re an old hand arrested more than one man who had mur-here. You’ve been up, what, two years now?”

dered because, “I didn’t like the way he

“Twenty-three months, nine days and—” he looked at me.” When the moon was waiting looked at the clock on the wall. “—four to kill you just because you were here, nerves hours.” He coughed again.

could get raw fast.

“Excuse me again.”

I had insuff icient data. I had a long list of

“You had a doctor listen to that?”

suspects with plenty of means, plenty of op-He shrugged. “The last medic told me I had portunity, even if motives were unclear. Shift sinus problems, just before she went walka-change in four hours. The people I was get-bout. I f igure I got Moon lung. The damned ting to know would be all over me, razzing me dust’s everywhere. Funny thing. I came up for all they were worth.

here to get away from the dust in the coal Secretly glad it hadn’t been them who’d tak-mines back home.”

en the fall.

Another thing they hadn’t talked about in training.

3 December 1979

“Can’t the company do anything about it?” I Sit-down meals were ser ved ever y six asked.

hours. I wandered into the dining room just af-

“They could. They’ve talked electrostatic ter the purely arbitrar y 12:00 noon GMT
precipitators for years. That’s all they do. Talk.

chimed over the public address system. An How long you sign up for?”

hour until my shift began. I paused at the I chewed, swallowed, decided maybe it was door, sniffed and wrinkled my nose. I knew time to lose a couple of pounds. “Year, option that smell.

for two.”

Chipped beef.

“It’ll be two, trust me. There’s never At the hot table I picked up a plate and enough return berths and the military up on spooned what looked like lumpy wheat paste Selene get priority. I’ve been on the wait list so onto toast. At least there was salad. I’d asked long the ink’s almost evaporated.” He swal-DuPree where the fresh greens came from.

lowed a mouthful of mashed potatoes and

“Little bootleg greenhouse, next to the pushed his tray away.

still,” she said. “I’ll show you when we get the

“You know, you sound like Leatherman,” he chance.”

said.

Last time the still had been in a side tunnel

“Who’s Leatherman?” I asked.

of the biggest mine. It seemed to move

“Who was Leatherman, you mean,” Kadar
around.

said. “Short-termer. Asked lots of questions, I added instant mashed potatoes that looked just like you.”

like they’d been scavenged from old stores in

“What happened to him?”

a fallout shelter. There were empty chairs at a

“Up and disappeared ten days ago. We all corner table with a fellow I had met a few marked it off to a walkabout. Sometimes it days before.

happens early like that. Scuttle now is they He looked up as I approached. “Hey.”

found him in an ice tank up in orbit. Hell of a I cocked my head. “You mind, Jake?”

way to go.” Kadar coughed again. “At least he He gestured acceptance. “Help yourself.”

got off this rock.”

I sat down.

I toyed with a forkful of lettuce. “Didn’t any-16

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one notice he was gone? I mean, there’s pro-pressure suit.

cedures. Hell, I memorized a bunch of them.”

I’d found an image in the base Britannica Kadar waved his fork. “Sure, there’s proce-that haunted me. An Ice Queen. A woman’s dures. There’s schedules, too. We ain’t met face, pale-white skin glistening, icy blue eyes one of those since this operation started. Sup-downcast, framed by a mass of silver hair. She posed to be three teams out working on the wore a crown formed of ice-crystal shards.

same rocket, round the clock. That’s what the DuPree helped me copy the life-size image to rules say. We’re lucky to get one full team the chest of my suit. We framed it in part with every shift.”

stark black lines.

I sat silent, hoping he’d say more. He did.

“Suits you,” DuPree said, when we were

“Leatherman probably slipped and fell in.

done. So far, no one else had said a word.

It’s dark out there. Whoever his partner was Three floodlights illuminated the glistening must’ve figured he went inside for something.

icicle in its cradle. More light on anything than Next shift put the cap on. Before you know it I’d seen since I arrived. The ice rocket stood he’s on his way to orbit.”

roughly the size of an old German V2. The

“No one looked?”

larger hydrogen tank sat atop the LOX tank,

“No one looked because no one thought to both on top of the engine assembly.

look,” Kadar said. “There ain’t no procedure Three thin spars ran up the sides with rings seventy-eight, paragraph fourteen. Look for a around the tanks, providing some additional body inside the tank before sealing.”

integrity to the stack. Feed lines melted into

“Who was his partner that day?” I asked.

the tanks connected them to the engine. The Kadar studied me. “You ask a lot of ques-clever idea was to make the payload—the tions, for someone who says she used to be a ice—double as the fuel tanks. No need for an cop.”

expensive and time-consuming development I didn’t blink. “A guy got killed. You know of a metallurgical facility to make metal tanks.

how old habits are.”

“Does this whole thing really work out Kadar leaned toward me. “Look, Kerrigan.

cheaper?” I asked.

This here’s a small place. But all that means, DuPree made a verbal shrugging noise. “We you got no room and no right to stick your haven’t tried both ways, so I guess we’ll never nose into other folk’s business.”

know, will we? I don’t worry about it. It’s just He coughed, long and hard, hacked up dirty a job.”

phlegm into his closed f ist. When he found Under a minute.

his voice it sounded rusty. “We looked every-

“It gave America a Moon colony,” I said.

where, didn’t find him. Like I said, short-termI heard the rancor in DuPree’s voice. “No, it ers don’t go walkabout that much, but it hap-didn’t. We got a mining operation and a sup-pens. And life goes on.”

ply base, with some corporate manufacturing.

I wiped up the last of my gravy with a bit of This isn’t a restaurant. It’s a fast-food joint.”

toast. “How many have gone walkabout?”

Thirty seconds.

“Ain’t answering no more questions.” Kadar

“And we got twenty-six days to serve up pushed back his chair.

one hundred and twelve tons of water.”

“You’d think that would free some return DuPree continued. “Seven more icicles. And berths,” I said.

LTC doesn’t care squat about anything else.

Kadar laughed, a thick, angry snorting Neither does that prick Garver.”

sound. He scooped up his tray. As he shuffled

“Everything goes well, we’ll be done by away, he hummed a tune I recognized.

Christmas,” I said.

“Sixteen Tons.”

The countdown hit zero. “Here we go,”

DuPree said.

5 December 1979

There was no swirling water vapor around Two days later, standing behind a berm un-the rocket, but I saw ripples of refraction at der a makeshift roof, I watched as the count-the base as the engine caught. The rocket be-down neared zero. It was the second launch gan to rise, slowly. Moving out of the f loodI’d worked on, the f irst I’d had a chance to lights it became hard to see, just the barely vis-watch, and the first time I’d worn my painted ible flame of the burning hydrogen.

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“I expected it to take off faster,” I said.

Posey was already seated behind her desk

“These things are right on the edge in terms by the time I got to her off ice/quarters. By of performance envelope. It’s got just enough moon standards, it was spacious.

oomph to make orbit and do the circulariza-

“Close the door,” she said, as I entered.

tion burn on the other side.”

I did as told and took the chair opposite her.

The rocket was climbing faster, beginning I didn’t ask permission first.

to arc over. At two thousand feet it emerged

“What’s between you and Garver?” Zender into the sun, a tiny sliver of light. A second lat-asked without any preamble. She was still er the sliver seemed to blossom into a snow wound-up from the icicle loss.

globe of twinkling points.

“What do you mean?”

“God damn it!” DuPree said. “You jinxed

“You stopped in on him before coming
that one, you and your ‘If everything goes down.”

well.’”

I saw no point in trying to deny it. “Garver

“Wha—”

and my father go back. I stopped by to pay re-

“It shattered. Christ, couldn’t you tell? God’s spects.”

pendulous nuts!”

“And I’m Marie of Romania. Everybody

I heard a click in my headset. “Selene Sta-knows you were a cop. I think you’re still a tion! Zender here. You in line of sight yet?”

cop. What does Garver have you sniff ing

“Copy, Rockefeller Base.”

around for?”

“We just blew a load.”

I rubbed my forehead. The skin was getting

“Say again.”

dry and itchy from the canned air. “I was a

“Your ice delivery will shortly be scattered cop. A federal marshal. Now I’m a LTC Opera-on the ground a few miles from here.”

tions Technician. A tinker in a space suit.”

Garver joined the conversation. “When can

“Once a cop . . .”

you send up the next one? Schedule’s getting

“Bullshit. Some people hang on to the past.

tight.” He sounded as if he’d stay calm through I don’t.”

the Second Coming.

“I tried to ship you out of here, after that ici-Posey took her time responding. “Will get cle blew up. Garver blocked it.”

back to you soonest on revised schedule.”

“Like I said, he’s a friend of my old man.

“Copy. Selene Station out.”

They go way back to the Navy during the Posey’s voice filled my headset. “Base meet-War.”

ing. In the mess hall. Now.”

Posey leaned forward. “Look. I know some-DuPree turned toward the lock. “Hope
thing and you know something, but you don’t you’re happy. Now you get to see Posey know everything.”

pissed.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“I know what they found in that icicle that

“We forget about celebrating Christmas.”

we delivered just before you came down.”

“Scuttlebutt says it was a body.”

7 December 1979

She stared at me for a time, then sighed and

“Kerrigan!”

gestured over her shoulder at a hand-drawn I looked up from the book I’d been reading.

Gantt chart on the wall. “All right, play it that Something by John MacDonald. Posey stood in way. The right side of that chart is One Janu-the open door of my quarters.

ary, Kerrigan. Two January doesn’t exist. Got

“What?”

it?”

“Talk. My office. Now.” She turned and hur-

“Works for me.”

ried down the corridor.

Posey’s eyes f licked from side to side. She I hesitated, then followed. As far as Rocke-looked over my shoulder. “Look, I’m sorry if I feller Base went, Posey was the Corporation.

came down hard just now. I’m under the gun Management, personnel, records, everything.

here.”

She was loud, overbearing, remote and

I kept my face neutral. “I know that.”

twitchy enough make anyone uneasy. Since She nodded and leaned back in her chair.

we lost the icicle two days ago, she had gotten

“The Corporation promises me six drills. I worse.

get three. They promise four loaders, I get 18

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two. I have to melt that water before I can

“A certain f ifteen-term Congressional bac-pour it. That takes power. A lot of power. And terium,” Garver said. “The Representative I have to crack some of that water for fuel and thought it would be wonderful to celebrate breathing air. That takes more power.”

the New Year and Odyssey’s departure with a Posey was on a rant. I held on for the ride.

fireworks festival on the Moon.”

“They promised me f ive SNAP reactors. I If I could have slapped my forehead I would got three. They promised a megawatt of solar have. “Do the corporate big shots think it’ll be arrays. I got two hundred kilowatts and I visible from Earth? Will it even work ? ”

didn’t want them. A reactor’s easier, more reli-

“They’ll work; oxidizer is self-contained.

able, but some senator’s got a friend who The plan’s to set them off just as Odyssey makes photovoltaics. That’s why half the breaks orbit and to televise it from Selene Sta-lights are never turned on.”

tion. A royal sendoff.”

She drew a ragged breath, close to the edge.

Garver paused, continued. “Keep your eyes

“They promised a crew of sixty. I can barely open, Laura.”

hold on to thirty. They projected a launch fail-

“And my suit closed.”

ure rate of three percent. It turns out to be

“Anything new?”

more like ten percent. I’m running low on en-

“Posey’s calmed down, but some of the oth-gine assemblies and there’s no time to get ers are getting nervous. DuPree asked me yes-more. I have to have Odyssey fueled to go by terday why I keep walking off behind the habi-January f irst. I have a crew on the edge of tat.”

mutiny. I’m accused of sabotage—”

“And?”

I interrupted. “You?”

“I told her I like to take a leak in private.”

“I’m in charge, I get the crap thrown in my A static growl. “Keep an eye on her. The face. Garver would just love to have a scape-other newbie, too. I haven’t been able to find goat to hang a failure on now, wouldn’t he?”

out much about Mr. Anderson and when I

“Why would he do that?”

don’t know something it bothers me.”

Posey paused to cough. “Listen good, Kerri-I saw an ellipse of light on the ground in gan. A place like this, you don’t keep secrets front of the airlock and drew back a bit. “Tom, long. You snoop around anymore, I’ll find out.

someone just came out, probably DuPree.

I don’t trust you, so don’t get in my way.”

We’re scheduled to do the f inal checkout on

“Or what?”

the icicle before they tank it up.”

She stared at me, maybe realizing she’d said

“Anything on her?” Garver asked.

too much. She waved her hand in dismissal.

“Y’know, she seems all right. But they said

“Get back to work.”

that about Ted Bundy, didn’t they? He seemed I walked out and closed the door. Posey had like such a nice guy.”

been on the Moon since the base was com-The station was moving across the sky.

pleted. Three years plus. She coughed a lot, al-

“Laura, I know I told you to get to the bottom most as much as Jake Kadar. It was a wonder of the Leatherman thing, but f irst priority is she hadn’t gone walkabout.

Odyssey. Check that; it’s the only thing. The rest of that water has to get up here, period.”

15 December 1979

“We’ll get it done, straw boss. There are

“Fireworks?”

some real beefs down here, but most of the I stood outside the habitat, out of sight of crew know the score.”

others. I had the small transmitter Garver had

“You sound almost happy. Getting moon-
given me jacked into my suit comm plug. It struck?”

worked on a frequency only Garver would re-

“The place grows on you. You know, like ceive. When I spotted the point of light that athlete’s foot.”

was Selene Station rise in the south I called him. The signal was weak but clear.

18 December 1979

“They’re being loaded on the truck now,”

There are advantages to being in a small he said. “Be down in four hours with a sup-place, having good hearing and going through port technician.”

police training.

“Whose brilliant idea was this ?”

I was in the small galley adjacent to the THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

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mess hall on my turn at KP, scraping dishes f igure loomed over me, some sort of bar and loading them in the industrial dishwasher.

grasped in a raised gauntlet.

All the comforts of home .

What to do?

The mess room was empty save for two

Lying on my back in the suit, I wasn’t even men sipping coffee at a corner table. Ander-sure I could stand up unassisted. The f igure son and Kadar. Sound didn’t carry well in the swung the bar down in a full arc.

habitat’s low pressure and they spoke in near-Block it.

whispers.

I let it land, taking the blow on one arm.

But as I said, there are advantages. I heard Grab the bar.

most of what they said.

I grabbed the bar with my free hand. I

“Timing’s everything.”

pulled as hard as I could, rising a few inches as

“. . . a statement. When you brace . . . before my attacker lost footing and toppled onto me.

ship is overhead . . .”

My breath was coming hard and fast. I could

“. . . a dummy. Only one shot . . . go off with feel the rush of adrenaline pushing me to act. I a . . .”

kept my grip on the bar and shoved my attack-

“For maximum effect make sure . . .”

er up and to the side.

“. . . yeah, box is marked . . .”

Roll over.

I heard chairs slide, then footsteps.

I pulled the bar free and jabbed it down,

“Later,” Anderson said.

levering myself onto my chest. One deep And they were gone.

breath and I pushed down as hard as I could, One shot. Maximum effect. Box is marked.

rose to a precarious angle and almost fell back Time to take a walk in the dark.

again before I got the bar in place, using it like I suited up for my next shift two hours early a cane.

and turned through the north lock, out on the The figure on the ground struggled to stand surface nearest the supply dump for those ma-up. Whoever it was, they’d donned an un-terials that could stand the cold and vacuum.

marked suit, so I had no idea who had at-Where are the fireworks?

tacked me.

If you wanted to smuggle up some sort of See how the bastard deals with a cracked explosives, where better than in a shipment of faceplate.

explosives?

I heard a thin whistling and suddenly felt I skip-walked the hundred yards to the cold and light-headed. I raised my arm and saw dump, regretting the need for my helmet the cracked gauntlet ring, vapor streaming lamp. Once there, I faced five hundred square out.

feet of identical shipping containers with no Damn it! Get inside.

discernible order.

I reached down, increased my oxygen flow I f licked off the lamp before I turned to maximum and turned, skip-walking as fast around, looking for any signs of movement or as I could to the airlock. My attacker would light behind me. Nothing. So I turned back to have to wait. Staying alive came first.

the scattered crates, flicking on the lamp, and stood in the limp-armed stance I’d learned to 19 December 1979
minimize effort, as I began to examine the I blamed the suit failure on embrittlement nearest crates.

from the cold. No one questioned me; metal Paranoid me. Thirty seconds later, I cut the can react strangely at those low temperatures.

lamp, turned to see if anyone was there. Still Only my attacker and I knew the truth, unless nothing, so I returned to my study of the someone had given orders to the attacker. I crates.

tried to ignore that thought. I was getting as A minute later, some sixth sense made me paranoid as Posey.

turn again, just in time to be hit hard in the The bright point rose above the horizon.

shoulder. If I hadn’t turned it would have been

“Tom?”

my helmet. I took two staggering steps back

“Here, Laura. Talk to me.”

and fell, landing on my hip.

“Right. No questions until I’m finished.”

I raised my arms and hit the chin switch that I stood behind a boulder slightly taller than I turned my headlamp to full intensity. A suited was with my back to a wall of rock. Nobody 20

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would sneak up on me again. I laid out the was already there, sitting at a table by herself.

events of the previous day quickly.

Kadar and Anderson were at a corner table,

“The f ireworks were in the pressurized conversing quietly over coffee. They were storeroom. I chatted up the tech. Turns out it now a work team, but they seemed to be wouldn’t be too good to keep them cold and everywhere together recently.

in vacuum for very long.”

I could feel the tension and excitement

“So.”

within the space, shared it without reserve.

“So this morning I snuck in to give the stuff Another icicle was scheduled to go into orbit a quick look-over.”

today, our fifth since the accident. Just three

“And?”

more to go.

“I know a bit about weapons but I don’t Four weeks on the Moon had changed more know zip about f ireworks. Most of the stuff than my attitude. My gait was steadier, more looks like stubby mortars. There’s racks of sure-footed. And the dark beyond the walls them, some singles, what I guess are leveling didn’t bother me as much as when I f irst ar-gadgets.”

rived. I ambled to the buffet and picked up a

“Maybe there’s nothing there,” Garver said.

tray. Meatloaf, instant potatoes, what ap-

“No. Nothing screams ‘wrong’ that I can peared to be green beans. They looked wilted.

tell, but there’s something here. Whatever it SSDD.

is, I f igure there was time to hide it some-I was even getting tired of DuPree’s garden where else.”

goods.

“Anything more?”

I loaded my tray, turned and nodded at

“Anderson and Kadar volunteered to assist Kadar, then settled in across from DuPree, the technician in the setup. Posey announced who had her nose buried in a book. As I sat she’s having an emergency bubble put up so down, Kadar said something to Anderson I the crew can watch from the surface. That couldn’t make out, then he got up and left, was news to most of us. A bubble?”

leaving his cup on the table.

“I heard about it,” Garver said. “Another Anderson stood, took both cups to the dirt-brilliant idea from the corporate PR people.

ies tray and then drew a fresh cup of coffee.

Show miners walking around in shirtsleeves He walked to our table. “Hey, mind if I sit on the surface. Arthur Clarke and all that. The down?”

Future.”

DuPree looked up long enough to grunt. I

“Right. Maybe helmet off, but no one here gestured at an empty chair. He sat and sipped is stupid enough to actually shuck their suit his coffee.

and trust a plastic bag.”

I tipped my head to the door Kadar had just

“Careful, Laura. You’re going native.”

exited. “You two get off shift early?”

I ignored him. “How high will fireworks go

“Naw,” Anderson said. “Posey moved us to on the Moon?”

your shift. I got to suit up in a few minutes. Ici-

“Why do you—oh. I see where your head-
cle launch at 0630, you know, I’m helping ed. I’ll find out.”

with the final plumbing checkout.”

“Okay. Anything new on Posey?” I asked.

It was the most he’d said to me in four

“Just what I told you. She volunteered for weeks.

the Moon. Before this, her career path was

“You settled in okay?”

flat. She’s got a hefty bonus coming once we

“Yeah. Amazing how quick being tired all launch.”

the time takes away the wonder of walking on

“I suspect that you do, too.”

the Moon.” He sipped his coffee. “Imagine Garver didn’t answer right away. “You’re how Jake feels.”

right, I do. But then you’ve got a lot riding on DuPree set her book aside. “He counts the it, too.”

hours he’s been here.”

“Yeah,” I said.

21 December 1979

Anderson sat back and took another sip.

I walked into the mess hall just after mid-

“Poor guy don’t talk about anything except night, hungry even though the main course getting off this rock. I’m amazed he hasn’t smelled like microwaved cardboard. DuPree gone walkabout by now.”

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“Kadar’s tough,” DuPree said.

He changed the subject. “I’ve heard from I nodded. “I grew up around anthracite min-Earth. Plans for the second Mars f light have ers. They bitch and moan and talk the ear off been f inalized. Construction will begin in their union rep, but there’s a pride in those ninety days. Launch in twenty-six months.”

guys. They ride on their backs into a hole a He was getting excited. “It’s supposed to be mile inside a mountain and know damned few faster, cut two months off the trip. The out-could take it.”

bound leg will use hydrogen as a working fluI forced down another mouthful of string id, bump engine eff iciency to allow a bigger beans, waiting.

payload, including a lander this time. They’re

“Uh-huh,” Anderson said. “He jabbers our going to hold a contest to name it.”

shift away, going on about how we need to As long as it isn’t Thumper.

form a union, show solidarity.”

“Will you build it?”

I pushed at the potatoes with my fork, de-Garver cleared his throat. “They want a cided against it; there were limits.

younger man next time.”

“Yeah, we could just down our tools and

“What will you do?”

strike, but what good would that do?” DuPree

“I’m thinking about that.” He cleared his said. “If we make the ship miss its tick we’d throat again. “You see the pickup from the lose the goodwill of the whole damned coun-telephoto camera we mounted for the
try. You’d have to be really desperate to try launch?”

something like that.”

“I did.”

Anderson glanced at her. “What’s the line in Selene Station was five miles from Odyssey

‘Bobby McGee’? You know. ‘Freedom’s just an-in a following orbit. At a magnification of sixty other word for nothing left to lose.’”

the spacecraft appeared to be less than f ive

“Nuthin’, not nothing.”

hundred feet away. The orbital burn would be He drained his cup and stood up. “Whatev-relayed live to Earth.

er. I got to take a leak and get out there or

“It looks good,” I said. “But I’ll be with most Posey will be down my throat so far she’ll see of the crew in the bubble, watching naked-daylight out my butt.”

eye. Watching the crew as well.”

“No need.”

25 December 1979

“The ship hasn’t launched yet, Tom. What

“Merry Christmas, Tom.”

did you f ind out about a rocket launch from The bright dot rose over the rim wall, far-down here?”

ther to the east after the f inal adjustment to

“There’s no danger.”

the orbital plane.

“Are you sure?”

“Copy that, Laura. Have any presents for

“Damn it, there’s no danger! This conversa-me?”

tion’s over.”

Garver was in a good mood. Six more days I stood, listening to static. He’d hung up on to launch and only one more icicle to be sent me.

up. He would make his schedule.

“Work on the f inal piece of ice is under-31 December 1979
way,” I said. “And there’s time to do another if Posey entered the west entrance locker there’s a failure.”

room just as I lifted my helmet into place.

“Music to my ears,” Garver said. “You’ve

“Need some help?” she asked.

more than earned your prize. I’ll have you up

“Sure,” I said. “They claimed in training the here the day after launch and on your way to suits are designed so a single person can dress Earth shortly after that.”

herself, but I always struggle. It’s easier when

“Uh huh.”

you have a second pair of hands.”

“You don’t sound excited,” he said.

Posey shrugged. “Everything’s easier if you

“I am. It’s just—”

don’t have to do it by yourself. That’s the man-

“You haven’t caught your man.”

ager’s motto.”

“Yes. That’s it.”

She stepped to a locker that held one of her

“It doesn’t matter, Laura,” Garver said.

four matching flower-power-painted suits. She

“Yes, it does!”

kept one at each airlock, along with a few 22

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DECEMBER 2012
plain white spares.

2240.

“Help me get into my suit first,” she said.

“We’ll take one of the loaders. One of the For a time we worked in silence, checking perks of being boss, traveling in comfort.”

each other’s suit.

“This can’t be right?” I said. “My heads-up

“Going out to watch the show?” I asked, as I says I’ve only got a quarter-tank of oxygen. I slipped my head up into the helmet Zender know I topped the tank when I came back in held.

last work shift.”

“Yes.”

Posey examined the gauges on the back of The big fireworks display laid out at North my life support pack. “I’ve got the same read-Rim would be set off in less than two hours to ing here. Everything looks okay. You must mark the midnight launch of Odyssey. The have forgotten.”

first second of the first day of a new decade,

“No. That’s not possible. I’ve got to charge to be forever celebrated as the moment Amer-it.”

icans took their next step to the stars. Except

“No time,” Posey said. “Do it at the bubble.

for those nerds who insisted the decade There’s spare tanks there and it’s only a f if-would begin at 1981.

teen-minute ride.”

At least, that was the corporate line all the

“I don’t like doing that,” I said.

network news services pushed.

She set her own helmet into place. “Up to For the men and women at Rockefeller Base you, but if you want a ride—”

it marked a day more personal and important.

“Can I catch a ride, too?”

Twenty-four hours away from work and a I turned toward the corridor entrance. The chance to party. Posey made a big deal out of noises of the suits, the sounds of our voices it when she made the announcement at a and the worry over the low oxygen, had mandatory meeting three days before.

masked DuPree’s entrance.

“This is happening because of us,” she had

“I don’t think—” Posey said.

said.

DuPree already stood at her locker. She

“Sure,” DuPree had hissed in my ear. “And pulled her suit out and held it out to me.

next day we’ll all be back to work, good little

“Help me with this, will you?” she asked.

drones pickin’ that cotton.”

“There may not be room,” Posey said.

“Did you hear me?” Posey asked. Her voice I glanced at Posey. She looked like she had had taken on the hollow, mechanical sound of sucked on a lemon. “Come on, Posey, ”

the suit radios.

DuPree said, as she scrambled into her pres-

“Sorry,” I said. “Interference. What did you sure suit. “Don’t be a bitch. I won’t take up say?”

that much room. We’ll be fine.”

“I said, I wouldn’t miss it. How about you?

At last, Posey nodded. She scooped up her Why aren’t you already out there? Miss the gear bag. “All right,” she said. “Hurry. I don’t trolley?”

want to be late.”

“No. I figured to watch it on the television in the lounge, but the reception’s not very We rolled along the crater floor at six miles good.”

per hour, following the twin circles of light It was a lie.

from the headlamps. Not exactly racing I had planned all along to be close to the speeds, but twice as fast as they would have fireworks site but wanted to stop by the spot managed, walking in the bulky pressure suits, where I had hidden the case Garver gave to and the rover’s electric motors could keep up me. If I had to stop a last-minute assault, I’d that speed for hours.

need a weapon and there was a gun in the DuPree drove, at Posey’s suggestion. I sat case.

next to her and Posey stood behind us, grip-

“There’s still plenty of time,” Posey said.

ping the seat backs. I couldn’t hear so much as

“How’s that?” I asked.

a whine from the vehicle, but felt the steady Posey tipped her helmet toward the glow-vibrations from the big electric motors that ing clock above the door. I looked, despite drove each of the six drive wheels.

having a heads-up times display in my own

“I need to make a stop,” I said.

helmet.

“For what?” Posey’s voice sounded more au-THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

23

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ANALOG
thoritative on the suit’s radio. Deeper and rich-Time to change my plans. Whoever took
er.

the f lechette gun had to be the one who

“Something for the party. It’s around to the planned to strike at Odyssey before the Mars left.”

ship moved out of range. And he would be

“Hope it’s something good.” I heard the waiting for me somewhere, with four plastic amusement and disdain in Posey’s voice.

flechette shells filled with dozens of tiny steel She probably thinks we’re going to the still.

darts.

“Over at the far end,” I said, pointing. “Back The rover bounced across a rough stretch of by the west corner. I’ll tell you when we get f loor, a set of rills. I glanced up, uncertain close.”

where we were, and saw none of the land-DuPree turned the vehicle and accelerated.

marks I’d learned over the last five weeks.

On foot, the cache lay eight minutes from

“I thought we were headed for the bubble,”

the west lock. We covered the distance in just I said.

under four.

“I am,” Posey said. “You’re not.”

“Stop here,” I said.

I turned as much as the pressure suit would I clambered from the rover when it
allow, trying to look behind me.

stopped. I’d done a good job on the cache, set

“Sit still,” Posey snapped. “DuPree’s doing it near a concrete piling, so it looked as if it what I told her to do. You need to do that, were a piece of the superstructure.

too. I’ve got that fancy gun of yours pressed The tricky part was kneeling in the pressure against your friend’s left shoulder.”

suit. I eased into place, went to one knee and

“What’s going on, Posey?” I asked.

tapped in the four-digit locking code. When I There was a teasing tone to the other
pulled the box open, the compressed-air pis-woman’s voice I’d never heard before.

tol and the four f lechette rounds it carried

“Maybe I’ll tell you,” she said. “Maybe I were gone.

won’t. Sit still for now and shut up.”

I glanced toward the loader. Posey and DuPree were deep in conversation, not paying When we stopped, my heads-up display
any attention to me or my empty junction read 2300. An hour left until the fireworks dis-box. I locked the lid and loped back to the play began. Odyssey was passing over the rover.

south pole, warming up the reactors for the I thought of growing up in Pikesville, run-engines. I worried more about the oxygen ning with my brother toward the family’s Ford gauges. I had less than ten minutes worth of Country Squire station wagon, racing for the air left. Something had to be done soon.

privilege of sitting up front with Dad.

“Get out, Kerrigan,” Posey ordered.

“Shotgun,” I muttered, sourly, as I climbed

“You can’t—”

back in next to DuPree.

“I said, ‘Get out!’”

DuPree engaged the rover’s six electric mo-I clambered from the Rover. I felt brief resis-tors, the vehicle rolled away from the array.

tance and heard a short, brittle snap. Before I Posey leaned close. “The pantry empty?”

could turn back to the vehicle I heard a scram-

“Yes.”

bling sound through the headphones that

“What happened?”

could only be two people struggling in pres-

“I don’t know,” I said.

sure suits.

“If you hid a bottle there it would have

“Jesus!” DuPree sounded panicked. “Jesus!

frozen and exploded. I thought you knew bet-You can’t do that!”

ter by now.”

I turned in time to see Posey clawing at

“Yeah, you nailed it,” I lied.

DuPree’s life support pack. A cloud of white I couldn’t figure it. No one knew about the vapor steamed around DuPree’s helmet, as if it cache. Had I said something I shouldn’t have?

were a cold day on Earth and she was breath-Had Jake Kadar or Mitchell Anderson twigged ing hard. She twisted and turned beneath to my investigation in some other way?

Posey, at a disadvantage because of her posi-Somehow, I’d miscalculated, revealed my in-tion. I stepped toward the rover.

tentions and led someone to my hiding place.

“God damn you,” Posey screamed, waving I thought I’d been so careful, though.

the compressed-air gun toward me. “Stay 24

MICHAEL ALEXANDER & K.C. BALL

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DECEMBER 2012
where you are.”

it seemed possible she could pull it off.

DuPree scrambled across the passenger seat

“And now you’re going to kill us.”

on her belly, wallowing in the heavy suit. She She began to roll away. “No. The two of you kicked at Zender’s hands, fell from the vehicle, just went walkabout. It happens a lot up catching herself with her gloved hands before here.”

her faceplate hit the regolith. She pushed, We watched her head off toward the obser-staggered onto her feet and stumbled toward vation bubble. DuPree turned to me before me, went to her knees an arm’s length away.

the vehicle disappeared.

“She opened my tanks!” DuPree’s voice

“How much air to you have left?” she asked.

sounded distant and hollow. “The bitch

“Five, maybe six minutes. You?”

opened my tanks! Shut it down, Laura, shut it

“Almost half an hour.”

down!”

“Swell. You might be able to make it back to I reached to the controls, fumbled my first base.”

attempt, but them managed to return the

“Not without you. You know how to do a valves to the proper position. I glanced at the two-person emergency air transfer?”

gauges. DuPree had just a bit more than fifty

“Yeah. But even if we split what we’ve got, minutes worth of air.

we don’t have enough air to make it to the

“DuPree to Rockefeller control. We’re low base in f ifteen minutes. And if Zender’s as on oxygen, about an hour out to the north-smart as I know she is, we can’t make it to the west. Send help. Stat. We need help now.”

bubble in that time, either.”

No response. I glanced at DuPree’s suit. The

“Let’s get started on the transfer,” DuPree radio antenna had been snapped in half. Zen-said. “We’re pushing the time needed, as it is.”

der’s handiwork.

I turned to allow DuPree access to her life

“They’re not going to hear you.”

support pack. “But what good—”

Posey stood on the passenger seat, the pis-DuPree interrupted. “You know that illegal tol pointed at DuPree and me. “There’s still you’re always asking me about?”

enough antenna left for up-close communica-

“Yeah?”

tion, but no one beyond a couple hundred

“It’s no more than ten minutes’ hike away yards can hear you.”

and I’ve got oxygen tanks there.”

“Did you kill Leatherman?” I asked.

“Back away,” Posey said. “Back away or you DuPree had underestimated the distance to die right now.”

the still, either that or I was hyperventilating.

I helped lever DuPree to her feet.

My suit’s oxygen level indicator had dropped

“Did you kill him?”

into the red by the time DuPree pointed to a

“I said, ‘back up.’”

small rounded mound. A buried sulfur con-The two of us shuff led backward until we crete dome.

were almost a hundred feet from the loader.

“There it is,” DuPree panted. “Told you we

“Come on, Posey,” I said. “Tell me. I want to could make it.

know before I die.”

There was no glass door, just the rotating Posey maneuvered into the driver’s seat. “I lock. DuPree pointed that I should go first and didn’t mean to, it was an accident, but no one it was no time to play Alfonse and Gaston. It will believe that now. Not after I stuffed him still seemed to take forever before we were into the ice.”

both inside.

“Why did you do it?”

We stood face to face, working each other’s

“The bastard was coming on to me. Christ, helmet rings. At last, my seal popped and I it had been over two years since I’d been with could breathe. I f inished removing DuPree’s a man. And then he used me. I caught him helmet and leaned against a rough wall, suck-snooping in my employee records. I thought ing in breath after breath of oxygen.

he was a union rep. We argued and I lost it. I The dome felt over-warm and the heady
pushed him back and he bashed his head on sour-mash scent of moonshine filled my nose.

the wall. Freaking newbie couldn’t handle the The dome wasn’t much larger than my quar-gravity. I got him into a suit and cut the leg to ters at the base habitat. Eight feet in diameter make it look like an accident.” In lunar gravity and f illed with DuPree’s distillation equip-THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

25

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ANALOG
ment, it offered barely enough room for the might say to my father when this was over, if I two of us to stand, much less move. The dim still was alive.

light added to the sense of claustrophobia.

And I wondered what he would say, if I told

“Tight quarters,” I said.

him I wasn’t going to take back the badge.

“Yeah,” DuPree said. “But we’re alive. Come

“I thought you killed him,” I said, after a on. There’s more room below.”

time.

“Below?”

“I f igured as much,” DuPree said. “My old DuPree tipped her head. I spotted a hole in man always said I had that sort of face.”

the floor near the far sloping wall. I jockeyed

“Your father?”

around, twisting so that DuPree could move

“Naw. My husband.

past me toward it. When DuPree started down

“You’re still married?”

the ladder, I followed. “Where did you get this

“Uh huh, but you couldn’t prove it by that place, Edie?”

asshole. He went out for milk one night and

“Lunar scrimshaw. I got off-hours work in didn’t even send back the change.”

return for a share of the ‘shine.”

I grunted once, almost a laugh. “It’s better A small storage room lay below, down an that everybody knows what’s what here.”

obviously homemade ladder. Despite the met-

“If you say so. I don’t f igure it’ll make any al shelves stacked full of supplies, the scav-difference.”

enged plastic barrels and the life-support DuPree f iddled with the f ittings again. I equipment, there was enough space here to glanced at my heads-up display. My tanks were turn around without touching each other.

full.

I pointed to the oxygen-charging port

“Help me with mine,” DuPree said. She
marked in vivid green. “Help me charge my turned her back to me.

suit, will you? I’m going after her.”

I began to set the lines. “When you get back DuPree didn’t move. She studied me for a to the base—”

moment, her mouth set in a hard, straight line.

DuPree interrupted. “Hell with that,” she

“You’re still law, aren’t you?”

said. “I’m coming with you. Wouldn’t miss No more lies.

this for a ride to Mars.”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t when I came down here five weeks ago. I lost my badge, back on Down on Earth a billion people were look-Earth. This job was the best I could line up.”

ing up at the full moon. Gliding up its face DuPree f iddled with the oxygen f ittings. I from south to north, Odyssey was visible only watched the dial as the marker began to move in the mind’s eye, approaching the moment away from the big letter E.

its nuclear engines would ignite over the

“And now?” DuPree asked.

moon’s north pole.

“They offered me my badge back, just be-The exhaust of the f irst f ireworks rocket fore I dropped from Selene Station, if I could limned a fiery trail across the black void above find out who killed Leatherman.”

North Rim. It exploded into an incandescent

“That’s all?”

ball of rich green light that faded into nothing-

“I was supposed to stop the sabotage, too.”

ness.

“And now?”

“A waste of time and money,” DuPree mut-

“Got the word this morning I had my badge tered. “No one on Earth will be able to see back, if I wanted it. I’m going to use it to arrest anything with the naked eye.”

Zender. Jake Kadar, too, if he’s still alive. And

“There’ll be a lot of people out with tele-I’m going to make sure there’s a trial, so every-scopes,” I said. “And the cameras on Selene body back on Earth sees what’s going on Station will pick it up. It’s all part of the cele-here.”

bration.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Part of the propaganda, don’t you mean.

The seconds ticked past. I watched the oxy-Lot of good a trip to Mars is going to do us.

gen gauge climb toward full. The dome didn’t That senator from Massachusetts, the guy who feel so over-warm, anymore. I listened to the ran against Nixon, has it right.”

ticks and hisses of my suit, the creaking of the

“Kennedy?”

dome’s equipment, and imagined what I

“Yeah, that’s the guy. He says we ought to 26

MICHAEL ALEXANDER & K.C. BALL

WorldMags.net

DECEMBER 2012
be spending the money to do some good at within a plastic sleeve.

home.”

Its walls offered a clear view, as wave after

“I suppose.”

wave of rockets climbed into the void, leaving I hadn’t ever really thought much about it dissolving lines of colored f ire behind. Then while I wore a badge. I had left the politics to they blossomed, a fast-fading bouquet of multi-others and focused on my work. For all the colored globes of fiery light.

good that did me.

And as the sky turned charcoal black again, It had taken us the better part of twenty a brilliant star rose over the southeastern hori-minutes to hike from DuPree’s hidden still to zon as Odyssey reached for the zenith as it had North Rim. The fireworks began on the dot at so many times before.

2350, just as we crested a small ridge. The van-About ten degrees above the rim the point tage offered a spectacular view of the display of light appeared to grow much brighter. Five area, as well as the plain below where the minutes from the pole, Odyssey’s engines techs bustled about, overseeing the detona-fired, beginning the burn that would break it tions.

free from orbit and send it on its way to Mars.

Jake Kadar was down there somewhere.

Inside the clear bubble, the crowd of suited My inclination was to head down into the f igures went wild. They might all be cynics, bustle, figure out which one was Kadar when like DuPree, might think the Odyssey a work I got there. Whether or not Garver thought of hokum, but the sight of that star, that mas-much of the notion of a rocket launch aimed sive vehicle underway, a thing they’d helped at Odyssey, I was convinced that was what to make happen, stirred their souls.

Kadar planned.

The sounds of celebration f illed my suit’s Even so, Zender most likely waited in the headset; we were close enough now for re-portable bubble set up beyond the fireworks.

ception. I felt a shiver tiptoe up my spine.

She was an admitted murderer, premeditated Only five weeks on the job, but I felt the need or not. By all the rules, I had to go after Zender to cheer,
first.

“Go. Go. Go.”

DuPree had already started for the bubble.

I helped make that happen.

She stopped and turned, when she realized I

“There!” DuPree breathed, pointing. “There wasn’t with her.

she is.”

“You okay?” she asked.

Sure enough. I spotted Zender’s distinctive Even through the headset, I heard concern.

pressure suit near the center of the clear plas-DuPree didn’t know about the planned rocket tic dome. Like the others, she had her back to launch, though. Or maybe she did. Just be-us, to the pre-fab airlock, looking overhead.

cause she wasn’t responsible for Leatherman’s DuPree grabbed at my arm, but before she death, didn’t mean she wasn’t involved in a took a single step toward the lock I glanced conspiracy against the Mars ship.

down into the maze of metal frames that had

“Yeah,” I said. “Just fine.”

supported the launching tubes. The other DuPree waved a gloved hand. “Come on
workers were headed up the rim slope to the then. Let’s get that bitch.”

bubble, but a single suited figure remained be-The fireworks show continued as we hiked low.

across the plain, each shot more intense and A skull-and-crossbones pattern. Jake Kadar.

colorful, more crowded with launches than As I watched, he raised a massive tube to the one before.

his shoulder and pressed his helmet to a The finale launched just as we reached the mechanism set at an angle atop the tube. It bubble. The dome looked like half a giant had to be the aiming sights. The tip of the soap bubble anchored to a flat expanse of re-tube traced ahead of the path of Odyssey golith at the edge of the crater rim, f ifty feet across the heavens, then a gout of fire belched across and twenty feet high at center.

from the rear of the tube, and another rocket Two doubled sheets of sixty-gauge clear streaked into the sky.

polyvinyl chloride formed the structure, one

“Jesus, what was that?” DuPree said.

giant bubble within another and separated by There had been no cloud of dust, of course.

a six-inch air space. The airlock was sealed The crew had cleared the floor of North Rim THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

27

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ANALOG
down to bare rock, but there still was reac-the folks inside still watched Odyssey; some tion. Kadar rocked in place, buffeted by the were high-f iving and slapping each other on blast, pulled off his feet but he didn’t fall.

the back. A happy babble f illed my head-

“He anchored himself in place,” I said.

phones. But Posey Zender, her suit painting The man came prepared.

unmistakable, stood with her back to the oth-

“Is that Kadar?” DuPree asked.

ers, her attention riveted on me and DuPree.

The rocket trail stretched toward where

“Stay out here,” I said. “She’s got my gun.”

Odyssey would be in a few minutes.

“To hell with that. I want a piece of her.”

“Looks that way,” I said. “He’s shooting at And DuPree hurried after me toward the the ship. Let’s hope his aim was wrong.”

lock.

I wondered if Garver saw it, from his vantage point on Selene station, a dimmer star The crowd turned as I swept through the slowly separating from Odyssey. And I won-air lock. Thick interlocking rubber mats cov-dered if he still was unconcerned.

ered the floor. Electric heaters sat at the cardi-Finally, after what seemed eternity, though nal compass points. A head-high screen hid it couldn’t have been more than a couple of the sanitation units. Someone had stenciled a seconds, the exhaust trail snuffed out. I began crescent half-moon upon the screen.

to count. As I reached forty-two a massive ball A portable air generator, identical to the of white light appeared, more intense, more unit in DuPree’s distillery, sat near the airlock.

threatening than anything that had come be-Power for the lights and all the equipment fed fore.

from a cable leading back to a junction box

“Could he have gotten his hands on an atom below the solar arrays near the habitat. Noth-bomb?” I muttered.

ing fancy. Still it was cozy and the four heaters, DuPree sounded excited. “That wasn’t an a-along with all the people in the bubble, kept it bomb.”

comfortable.

“You knew about it?”

At first glance, the image of a herd of preg-

“No. It wasn’t nearly bright enough. You’d nant aliens popped into my head. The gath-have been blind now if it was.”

ered technicians and miners still wore pres-

“Jake wanted to destroy Odyssey.”

sure suits, but had removed their helmets and

“I don’t believe it. He helped build the clipped them to their suit fronts on quick-re-damned thing, why would he want to blow it lease rings.

up? Besides, that bit of pyrotechnics went off Behind me, the air lock whooshed and the at least thirty miles below the ship. Either dome’s plastic surface rippled, as DuPree someone miscalculated—”

came in. Posey took a step back and pulled

“—or it was a scare tactic.” I looked up the air pistol from a suit pouch at her hip.

again. Odyssey was almost directly overhead.

“She’s got a gun, ” someone shouted.

Normally it would begin to move down to-

“Posey’s got a gun.”

ward the northern horizon, blinking out as it The crowd pushed back even more, those moved into the moon’s shadow. But it was in the outer edges pressed against the flexible falling slower, and yet slower, as it moved out walls.

of orbit, picking up steam.

“Fancy seeing you two here,” Posey said. “I There was a voice on the radio, the ship’s didn’t think you would be by.”

commander. “All systems nominal.”

“Put down the gun, Posey,” someone sug-

“Damn,” I said. Too much was going on at gested.

once.

“Where did she get a gun?” someone else DuPree pointed. “Jake’s on his way up here asked.

now. Bet he wants to turn himself in. Bet he I eased toward Posey. “If you f ire that in wants to be arrested, get some attention.

here and miss, you’ll open up the bubble. A Somebody’s got to talk about conditions lot of people could die.”

here.”

“Everyone put on your helmets,” Posey

“I’m not worried about him,” I said. “Watch-said.

ing Kadar, I forgot about Posey.”

“She tried to kill us,” DuPree said.

DuPree turned toward the dome. Most of The crowd rumbled even louder. DuPree ig-28

MICHAEL ALEXANDER & K.C. BALL

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DECEMBER 2012
nored them, moved forward, too, but eased The point of light had passed to the north, away from me. I waved her on. If we made it but now instead of falling back down the sky diff icult for Posey to see both of us at once, it dropped more slowly. Soon it was almost we might stand a chance of disarming her.

stationary, receding on a line directly away

“Don’t listen to her,” Posey shouted. “They from the viewers on the lunar surface.

both want me dead.”

The dot went dim as the f irst engine burn Technicians and miners alike glanced back finished. Odyssey had embarked on its long eland forth between us. Some people had al-lipse to the fourth planet from the Sun.

ready slipped on and sealed their helmets, but Posey lay pinned to the f loor. I ducked to most stood waiting, helmets in hand.

pick up the gun, then turned and gave DuPree

“Who are you going to believe?” DuPree de-a thumbs-up.

manded. “Me or Posey Zender?”

“Hey!” Jake Kadar pulled off his helmet.

I shuff led to the left, adding distance be-

“What about me? Who’s going to arrest me?”

tween her and DuPree. Posey made a choice and turned with me. The crowd rotated with 1 January 1980
us, looking like a bunch of extras in some old I sat at the base radio when Selene Station Keystone comedy.

rose over the horizon. It had been six hours

“What’s going on?” someone asked.

since Odyssey pulled out of orbit. By now the

“Posey killed Leatherman,” I said.

crew would be busy mothballing the NERVA

“I thought that was an accident.”

reactors, getting the craft into cruise mode.

So everybody knew after all.

The Rockefeller staff was scattered about the

“It was Posey,” DuPree said. “And an hour base, in groups of one or two or more, cele-ago she tried to kill me and Kerrigan, drained brating the launch in the manner they pre-our tanks and left us to die afoot.”

ferred, including DuPree’s excellent distillate.

“I have it all on tape,” I said.

Except for two burly miners.

I didn’t, but Posey didn’t know that. Maybe They’d volunteered and I’d deputized them it would stir the pot.

to ride with the shackled Anderson, Zender It worked. She pointed the pistol straight up.

and Kadar on a truck ride up to Selene Station.

“Get your helmets on,” she shouted. “I’m Kadar had babbled before they left about how going to fire on the dome in ten seconds.”

Anderson had convinced him that trying to

“You’ll die without a helmet, Posey.”

shoot the ship down would get him charged

“What’s the difference? Dying here or rot-and sent back to Earth for trial.

ting in some jail on Earth. I think I’ll do it right Jake would get his wish.

now.”

For the moment I was alone. I f idgeted, The airlock whooshed. The bubble quiv-wishing I didn’t have to wait to talk to Garver.

ered as it gulped the bit of vacuum brought in I decided we’d need some sort of relay satel-by the lock.

lites. This waiting for line-of-sight stuff grew

“All right, I did it,” Kadar radioed. “I tried to old.

shoot down the Mars ship. Chain me up and There was a burp of static. “Rockefeller, Se-ship me back to Earth.”

lene Station.”

Everybody looked, even Posey, and DuPree

“Congratulations, Tom,” I said into the jumped. She soared across the bubble,
mike.

grabbed Posey’s upstretched arm and pushed

“Good job to you, too, Laura,” he replied.

it toward the floor. I barely heard the chuff of

“Yeah.” I looked at the wall, thinking about the pistol discharging. The f lechette dart bit the dark and the cold beyond. It didn’t bother into the rubber inches from my right boot. It me so much, anymore.

remained intact.

“Thought you’d like to know,” Garver said.

Posey and DuPree were buried in a mound

“Anderson’s spilling his guts. He’s a f ink for of squirming, pressure-suited people,

TLC. They sent him up here to stage an inci-wrestling for a chance to get at Posey and dent to make the base staff look bad, turn pub-none of them very happy at the moment. I lic opinion again the workers. Kadar’s a patsy, had never had so many impromptu enthusias-a desperate man, no more than that.”

tic deputies.

I nodded. I hoped Jake got off lightly.

THE MOON BELONGS TO EVERYONE

29

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ANALOG

“That little scheme backfired,” Garver said.

“Say again?”

“There are already calls for a Congressional in-

“Save a glass for me. I’ll see you in a couple vestigation.”

of hours.”

“You think it’ll do any good?”

“Say again?”

“I think so. Senator Goldwater from Arizona This time the chuckle was full-out loud.

said something about not binding the mouths

“If you’re not coming up, I’m coming down.

of the kine who tread the grain.”

I can just catch that next truck If I hurry.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Get things cleaned up down there soon as

“You might need a backup, someone older you can. I need some kind of report ASAP. I with some sense.”

don’t want to have today mucked up by a few

“Are you serious ?”

pencil-pushers crying for their paperwork.”

“I’m sixty-six years old, Laura. They’ve al-

“Everything’s under control. I’ll scribble ready told me I’ll never ramrod another job, something and have it up to you by 1400.”

let alone one like this. I can go home to sit and I heard him sigh. He had to be as tired as I rot. I’m not even sure I could get a consulting was, ready for an uninterrupted nap.

gig at some aerospace company. Like you said,

“Another truck will be down next time
there’s opportunity down there. Besides, if I around,” he said. “I can have you on a tug for don’t give it a shot my old man’s ghost will LEO in twelve hours. You’re priority, Laura, a never stop bugging me.”

small celebrity. The woman who saved the

“Well, hell, come on down.”

Mars mission and all that.”

Garver spoke again. “How does the old

I closed my eyes. In my mind I saw the shin-song go? You’ll get pie in the sky when you ing star pass overhead, rising up from the die. Bullshit. I’m in the sky and I’m not dead stark rim of this new world toward another yet. This could be a lot of fun.”

one and not falling down again. I smelled the

“You’re crazier than I am,” I said.

ever-present dust and hint of ozone, consid-

“Downright moonstruck. Need a shop stewered the place around me that would kill me ard?”

in a moment if I made a mistake. I thought of

“No.” I said. “We need a union president. If radiation and vacuum and the cold, the cold this is going to work we need someone with the most.

more clout than me. Someone just like you.”

And I recalled the way we all cheered

“What makes you think the crew would ac-Odyssey’s departure.

cept me?”

“Thanks,” I said. “I won’t need it.”

“Come on down and we’ll make your case,”

“What’s that?”

I said.

“I think I want to stay, be here when the

“Okay, I’ll give it a go. But then what about ship gets back. There’s a lot of work to be you?”

done in the meantime, lots of opportunity, I smiled to myself. “Every town needs a getting ready for the second launch.”

sheriff.”

“Someone else can do it.”

In my mind’s eye I saw Garver nodding.

“I suppose.”

“I like that notion,” he said. “For now, Se-

“But—”

lene Station out.”

Earth was far away and long ago. “But the I slipped off the headset, thinking of how base staff voted to form a union. United Work-another old tune my mother used to sing got ers of Luna, Local 1. They invited me to be the message wrong. The best things in life president.”

aren’t always free, but if I had my way, the I heard a grunt, then a soft chuckle. “What Moon would belong to everyone.

are your plans, Madam President?”

DuPree settled in a chair and handed me a

“Hey.” DuPree stood at the open door, smil-glass. I could smell the hooch. We touched ing and holding two glasses of red liquid.

rims.

I sat up straight. “Tom, I plan to have a taste

“Here’s to the union,” DuPree said.

of genuine moonshine. After that I’ll play it by I nodded. “Solidarity forever.”

ear.”

Copyright © 2012

“Save some for me, will you?” he said.

Michael Alexander & K.C. Ball

30

MICHAEL ALEXANDER & K.C. BALL

WorldMags.net

Science Fact

The Seeds of

Cancer

Jim Kling
ancer is known in medical circles as
them both in research and to help guide treat-the “C” word. But the really scary
ment of tumors. In 2004, the biotechnology word, the one that should be uttered
company Veridex introduced its CellSearch inCin hushed whispers,is the “M”word: strument,which counts the number of CTCs Metastasis. That’s because primary tumors in a blood sample and has since been ap-rarely kill. A mass can grow and grow, but sur-proved by the Food and Drug Administration gical removal or targeted radiation therapy can for monitoring treatment of metastatic breast, keep it in check or excise it altogether.

colon, and prostate cancer.

But tumors disperse seeds that make their The instrument works on a simple premise: way away from the original site and into the A growing tumor is likely to shed more CTCs, bloodstream. Most are never heard from again, so the number of CTCs found in a blood sam-destroyed by the body’s immune system or ple suggests a prognosis. Fewer than f ive just unable to survive on their own. But a few CTCs per sample indicate that the cancer is may lodge in some other organ—the liver, per-stable or improving, while clinical studies haps, or the brain, or the lung, or bone mar-showed that more than five CTCs per sample row—and there they begin to form new
was associated with cancer progression.

masses.

Physicians may also monitor CTCs during The metastatic seeds, known as circulating treatment regimes. If CTCs rise, it might call tumor cells (CTCs), aren’t a new discovery. A for a switch to a different chemotherapy drug.

physician named Thomas Ashworth f irst no-That’s an important decision, because solid tu-ticed them through a microscope in the 1860s mors are notoriously difficult to treat. Patients while examining the blood of a man with often fail standard drug regimens, requiring metastatic cancer. Ashworth suspected that oncologists to switch to a new one. In princi-the cells implanted in remote sites to become ple, CellSearch can help the physician make metastases, but he lacked the tools to investi-that call more quickly, without waiting gate them further.

months or longer for imaging to confirm that Today, researchers have conf irmed that tumors are shrinking or growing.

CTCs can cause metastases, and are using But CTCs have more potential than that.

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They offer researchers a steady source of tu-dreds or even thousands of CTCs per sample.

mor cells that could help reveal the molecular Other companies developing CTC counting underpinnings of cancer.

instruments have dropped the requirement.

How it Works

Cancer:A Natural History

The CellSearch instrument faces a daunting To appreciate the potential of CTCs, you’ll task. A 7.5 milliliter blood sample contains mil-need to understand cancer’s origins and treat-lions of disease-fighting white blood cells and ment.

billions of oxygen-carrying red blood cells.

At its core, cancer arises from genetic mal-Out of all these candidates, it must identify a functions. The genetic code of DNA, codes for handful of aberrant cells that originate from a the production of proteins. Various command remote tumor.

and control mechanisms determine which The instrument first conducts a broad filter, subset of DNA blueprints should be followed selecting candidate cells that it can subject to in a specif ic cell, and cellular factories pro-further analysis. To the blood sample, the op-duce specific proteins accordingly.

erator adds a solution containing tiny magnet-When a cell reproduces, it produces two ic balls coated with an antibody. There are an progeny. Cell reproduction is therefore expo-estimated ten billion unique antibodies in the nential and must be very tightly controlled for human immune system, capable of binding an organism to maintain order. The vast ma-specific targets. In the past three decades, re-jority of cells in the human body are tightly researchers have learned to create artificial anti-stricted from reproducing themselves.

bodies for their own use, and the one

Cancer represents a cell’s escape from those employed in CellSearch binds to the epithelial bounds. Genetic pathways exist to blunt re-cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM).

production, so that only specific kinds of cells As its name suggests, EpCAM is found al-divide—for example, primitive cells in bone most universally on epithelial cells—that is, marrow that constantly repopulate cells of the cells that make up the lining of tissues and immune system.

cavities. It helps cells stick together, and rep-Some mutations subvert the cell’s own
resents a logical first step in identifying tumor mechanisms that restrict reproduction. But cells because an estimated 80-90% of adult tu-that is not suff icient to produce a tumor. A mors develop in epithelial tissues.1 Cancer critical mass of mutations must build up, un-cells arising from such tissues generally also dermining other controls that cause cells to bear the EpCAM protein on their surfaces.

commit suicide under certain conditions (of-Much like a fishing lure, the antibody-coat-ten, just the sort of damage that can lead to ed magnetic balls snare EpCAM-bearing cells.

cancer), and others that remove the limit on The instrument then applies a magnet to phys-how many times a cell can divide in its life-ically separate the coated spheres and accom-time, making it effectively immortal.

panying CTCs from the rest of the sample.

These mutational hits build up in generation Several other antibodies are also used to con-after generation of daughter cells, one at a firm the CTC’s cancerous identity.

time, until a new cell steps over a threshold.

The use of EpCAM is at the center of some The cell hears Dylan Thomas exhorting it, "Do controversy, however. New evidence suggests not go gently into that good night," as a malig-that not all CTCs express EpCAM. To metasta-nant tumor is born.

size, a cell must break away from other tumor That’s oversimplified. It may take a chain of cells, and one way to do that is to cease pro-many more mutations to reach a cancerous duction of the sticky EpCAM surface protein.

stage, in part because cellular machinery is of-In fact, some research suggests that losing Ep-ten redundant. Knock out one gene that enCAM expression is one of those key changes sures cellular senescence, and a backup that can lead to metastasis.

mechanism steps in. But the hits can add up That suggests that CellSearch, in relying on until cells break free from their restraints.

the EpCAM marker, could be missing hunThe need for all of these genetic hits helps 1 http://cancer.stanford.edu/information/cancerOverview.html 32

JIM KLING

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explains why cancer is generally a disease of success. Considered broadly, these drugs do aging. It takes time for enough mutations to one thing, and they do it exceedingly well: accumulate. It’s also why a few unlucky indi-they kill cells that are actively dividing and viduals who are born with inherited muta-growing. As noted above, most cells in the tions are more likely to develop cancer in their body aren’t in this stage. Cancer cells are, so lifetime. Women born with the breast cancer-the drugs have an exaggerated effect on them.

1 (BRCA-1) or breast cancer-2 (BRCA-2) muta-But there are other, healthy cells that prolifer-tions are at much higher risk of developing ate at a high rate, including hair follicles and breast, ovarian, and other cancers because cells that constantly replenish the immune sys-they begin life with one genetic ‘strike’ against tem’s white and red blood cells. These cells them already.

are thus also more likely to be affected by Many more mutations must accumulate in chemotherapy drugs, which explains the com-cells before a tumor forms, but one of the mon side effects of immune suppression and steps occurred at conception. Therefore it hair loss.

takes less time for additional mutations to ac-But biological mechanisms that drive can-cumulate, and the odds of developing cancer cer make them inherently different from norin that person’s lifetime are higher than aver-mal cells, and a drug that counters the effect age.

of a mutation may be more effective against In the past two decades, researchers have cancer and also spare normal cells.

discovered a myriad of genes and gene net-Some cells naturally produce the human works that play roles in various cancers. Some epidermal growth factor (Her-2) receptor on prevent cells from reproducing, others regu-their surface, which receives signals to grow late cellular suicide. In a sort of meta-muta-and divide. Identified by researchers at Genen-tion, some mutations disrupt the cell’s own tech in the 1980s,3 Her-2 responds to its sig-DNA fact-checking system, making it easier for naling molecule with a chain reaction that copy errors to slip through during cellular re-ultimately transmits a growth signal to the in-production.

terior of the cell. The signal isn’t cancerous in and of itself. Normal cells receive such signals, In the Clinic
but they are balanced by cell suicide signals Over the past 50 years, progress in cancer and other controls. Some cancers bear a ge-treatment has been mixed. There have been netic mutation that causes them to produce successes, especially among tumors of the an overabundance of Her-2 receptors, hungri-blood, such as lymphoma and leukemia. But ly reaching for more signals to grow and di-with a few exceptions, such as testicular can-vide and thus tipping the scales towards cer, solid tumors have proven far more in-proliferation.

tractable. Surgical removal is sometimes Her-2 is over-produced in about 25% of possible, but it can be difficult to tease apart breast cancers, and tends to make them more tumor cells from normal tissue that surrounds aggressive. That discovery prompted the de-it, and in some cases the mass has infiltrated a velopment of an antibody, called Herceptin, vital organ and cannot be safely excised.

that binds to Her-2 and inactivates it, dampen-Chemotherapy drugs can slow their growth, ing growth signals. The drug improves the but rarely eradicate them. About 75% of all odds of survival, but only among patients drug treatments for solid tumors turn out to whose tumor over-expresses Her-2 (known as be ineffective.2

Her-2-positive).4

Traditional chemotherapy drugs have been This is a field where circulating tumor cells brought to bear against tumors, with some could have an impact. Typically, physicians 2 http://www.on-q-ity.com/company/

3 Coussens L; Yang-Feng, TL; Liao, YC; Chen, E; Gray, A; McGrath, J; Seeburg, PH; Libermann, TA et al. (1985). “Tyrosine Kinase Receptor with Extensive Homology to EGF Receptor Shares Chromosomal Location with neu Oncogene”. Science 230 (4730): 1132–1139.

4 http://www.gene.com/gene/products/education/oncology/herpathway.html THE SEEDS OF CANCER

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ANALOG
determine Her-2 status from a surgical biopsy, sensible approach because chemotherapy can but in August 2011, two biotech companies, be debilitating and even dangerous, not to Biocept and Clarient, introduced OncoCEE-BR
mention acutely uncomfortable.

test. The analysis doesn’t just count CTCs, it But in some cases, for reasons not well un-also analyzes them to determine if they over-derstood, an early stage cancer returns years produce Her-2.

later in the form of remote metastases. At that In principle, a physician could use a biopsy point, a physician could return to the original to determine the Her-2 status of a tumor, and biopsied sample to decide on a treatment if a patient is newly diagnosed, that’s the likely plan. But tumors evolve, and the metastatic approach. But what if a patient is suffering a cancer cells may have different vulnerabilities relapse from a cancer that was first diagnosed than the original tumor. A surgeon could per-ten years ago, or twenty? The original tumor form a biopsy of a liver metastasis, perhaps, sample wouldn’t have been tested for Her-2
but it’s an invasive procedure with its own because no one knew about the receptor yet, risks, and sometimes it’s not possible. Though or understood its importance. The sample it-this isn’t available yet, CTCs have the potential self has likely been long since discarded, so to be useful in such a scenario -- the patient there is no opportunity to test it again.

could provide a blood sample, and a quick In other cases, a patient may be presenting analysis might reveal its molecular characteris-with a new diagnosis of cancer, but a biopsy tics and help the oncologist select a treatment.

isn’t practical. Even if a biopsy is possible, a CTCs could have other applications in the blood draw is far less invasive than a surgical clinical trials that are conducted to determine procedure.

the eff icacy and safety of new drugs. One The test has another application, one with study, being conducted by Eisai Pharmaceuti-implications for how cancer evolves. A prima-cals and Apocell, is looking at patients being ry tumor that initially doesn’t overexpress Her-treated with a drug that targets a specific ge-2 may actually change over time. Some studies netic mechanism that underlies some cancers, suggest about 10% of breast cancers switch called the RAS/RAF/MEK pathway.

Her-2 when they recur as later metastases—ei-Like other cellular signaling pathways, ther the original tumor overproduced Her-2

RAS/RAF/MEK begins with a receptor on the and the metastasis did not, or the original tu-cell’s surface, which responds when a signal-mor did not overproduce Her-2 and the metas-ing molecule binds to it. The receptor is a long tasis did.5 In either case, the patient would protein with one end sticking out of the sur-likely be prescribed Herceptin or removed face, and the other stretching through the from it as appropriate.

cell’s outer membrane and into the interior of A company called ApoCell has compared
the cell. When the correct signaling molecule molecular profiles of CTCs to biopsies of the interacts with the receptor, it rearranges itself archival primary tumor and metastases in the slightly in such a way that a cascade of events same patient, and found that CTCs correlate begin in the interior of the cell.

more strongly to cells from metastases than In the case of the RAS/RAF/MEK pathway, cells from the primary tumor.

that cascade of events results in the activation That could be meaningful for patients
of genes called transcription factors. These whose cancer has recurred long after the ini-genes act as a sort of master control switches tial diagnosis. For example, in the age of mam-that regulate the activity of other genes, and mograms, breast cancer is often discovered can cause profound changes in cell behavior.

before it has a chance to spread. A lumpecto-Overstimulation of the RAS/RAF/MEK path-my or mastectomy can be curative, and the pa-way, often due to the effect of a mutation, oc-tient often receives no chemotherapy if the curs in a number of cancers and can prevent disease is caught at this early stage. That’s a cell suicide in tumors.6

5 Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2011 Jan;125(2):553-61. HER2 status in a population-derived breast cancer cohort: discordances during tumor progression. Wilking U, Karlsson E, Skoog L, Hatschek T, Lidbrink E, Elmberger G, Johansson H, Lindström L, Bergh J.

6 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12835716

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Eisai Pharmaceuticals has developed an in-weeks. As early as four weeks, CTC counts of hibitor of the RAS/RAF/MEK pathway in an effive or fewer suggested a better prognosis.7
fort to restore normal function and induce cell death in tumors. ApoCell researchers, who Tumor Evolution
have developed a CTC instrument called CTCs have potential applications beyond ApoStream, are trying to determine the opti-the clinic. Many researchers are using them to mal dose of the drug—one that will inhibit tu-try to gain a better understanding of how can-mor growth but minimize side effects.

cer cells originate and evolve. EpCAM, the cell Following once– or twice-weekly doses of the surface marker of epithelial cells that is one of drug, researchers are collecting CTCs and test-the criteria for identifying CTCs, is at the cen-ing them to determine to what extent the tarter of a debate among researchers.

get pathway is being disrupted. The

Endothelial cells are specialized to perform researchers hope to identify an optimal dose a specif ic range of tasks, rather like a highly by increasing it until the biological effect educated human being with years of experi-reaches a plateau.

ence working in high tech. But a gifted college CTCs could also have a broader impact on student is more of a blank slate, and can adapt cancer clinical trials. Today, the gold standard quickly to any of a wide variety of career is to measure overall survival: if patients on a paths. In the human world, it is very challeng-drug regimen live longer than patients on stan-ing for the experienced engineer to turn back dard therapy, it’s considered a success. But the clock and become as f lexible as the col-measuring survival significantly lengthens the lege student. But things work differently duration of the clinical trial, since researchers among cells. By altering which genes it acti-must follow patients long enough to deter-vates—that is, which genes are “turned on”

mine a difference. That greatly adds to the and providing instructions to it—a cell can cost, and delays potential approval of a new switch back and forth from a (high tech work-drug.

er) epithelial cell to a (college student) mes-Veridex has already received FDA approval enchymal cell.

to use CTC count as a prognostic tool, so the Previous research has shown that when ep-company believes that it should also be possi-ithelial tumors metastasize, some of the cells ble to use it as a stand-in for survival in clinical that escape to seed new tumors begin to trans-trials. The company is conducting clinical tri-form and act more like mesenchymal cells, als comparing CTC counts to survival in an at-which are more plastic and can in turn grow tempt to convince FDA that the technology into a wide variety of other cell types. These could be used that way. If so, Veridex hops to cells play an important role very early in life, sell its instruments to clinical researchers.

during the embryonic stage, when they can The company has already had success in seed the formation of a variety of different tis-one trial in patients with metastatic prostate sues.

cancer. The study included patients who were What does it mean when a specialized can-taking a drug called abiraterone, which incer cell reprograms itself to become a general-hibits an enzyme found in prostate tumors ist? No one is really sure, but the answer could that increases levels of testosterone, which is lend important insight into how and why believed to promote tumor growth. Inhibiting metastasis occurs. And a drug that interferes the enzyme’s activity reduces testosterone, with metastasis would be a huge boon to the and could slow tumor growth. One group of field of cancer medicine.

patients took abiraterone in combination with The transformation into mesenchymal cells the steroid prednisone, while control patients and potential loss of EpCAM expression repre-received a placebo combined with pred-
sents both a challenge and an opportunity to nisone. Researchers counted CTCs at the be-researchers working with CTCs. It is challeng-ginning of treatment and at four, eight, and 12
ing because most attempts to identify CTCs rely on their epithelial cell origin and use Ep-7 Presentation at American Society of Clinical Oncology, J Clin Oncol 29: 2011, suppl; abstr LBA4517

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CAM as a means of recognizing them. But so-called biomarkers—proteins or molecules when a cell grows to resemble a mesenchymal whose presence signals that a cell is cancer-cell, it typically stops expressing EpCAM. As a ous. A biomarker could also tell physicians if a result, the instrument can’t spot it.

drug is doing its job. If malignant cells pump That’s the challenge. But if researchers can out large numbers of a particular signaling develop new criteria for identifying CTCs, molecule, for example, then a sudden drop in ones that don’t rely on EpCAM, they stand to the bloodstream might indicate that a cancer learn much more about the biology of tumor is responding to treatment.

cell evolution and what it can tell us about the This is already routinely performed in formation of metastases.

prostate cancer, where the prostate-specif ic One instrument, developed by On-Q-Ity, re-antigen (PSA) is used to screen for cancer and lies on EpCAM but also looks for abnormal-track a patient’s response to treatment.

sized cells that the antibody misses. These But only a few cancers have known bio-cells can then be isolated and further exam-markers, because these markers are diff icult ined. Using EpCAM alone, the company has to find. The differences between a cancerous managed to isolate CTCs from about 50% of cell and a normal cell are often quite subtle, so patients studied, but when cell size is includ-that an increase in a particular molecule sug-ed, it identif ies EpCAM-negative CTCs and gests that a cell is cancerous, but leaves a great boosts the recovery rate to about 95%. Still, deal of uncertainty.

surface markers will always be required to Searching for a biomarker generally involves confirm that a captured cell is a CTC, accord-sampling hundreds or even thousands of tu-ing to the company.

mors. Each cell might be analyzed for the pres-Some systems in development, such as
ence or absence of hundreds or thousands of ApoCell’s ApoStream, drop the EpCAM re-proteins in hopes of finding one or a few with quirement and claim that they find hundreds diagnostic potential. Automation and power-or even thousands of cells with characteristics ful computational algorithms make such ex-implying a tumor origin.

periments possible, and even routine for a ApoStream relies on an overall characteris-richly funded research laboratory, but they tic of tumor cells. Because of the changes still face a critical bottleneck: availability of tu-they’ve undergone, tumor cells tend to have a mor samples. Such samples are only available different characteristic rigidity and dielectric if a biopsy or surgical removal was performed, properties—that is, how electric charges po-and only if the sample was kept in storage, larize in a cell. In an external electric field, tu-and then only if the researcher can gain per-mor cells migrate differently than normal cells, mission to access the sample, which can be allowing physical separation. ApoStream then difficult due to privacy considerations.

uses standard pathology tests to determine if And even if researchers can get access to a the captured cells are indeed cancerous.

sample, it may be years or decades old, and The approach has detected CTCs in 95% of the associated medical records may be sparse.

patients with metastatic prostate, breast, and CTCs could address this problem by providing colon cancer, according to the company.

a source of readily available cells that patients Another advantage is that researchers don’t could donate to research efforts with a simple need to know the surface characteristics of release form.

the tumor cells. That makes it potentially invaluable as a discovery agent—researchers The Future
can fish out tumor cells and then characterize For all of the potential of CTCs, applications them, potentially identifying novel molecular are currently limited to patients with metastat-fingerprints of cancer.

ic cancer. But they have a tantalizing possibili-All cells produce a myriad of proteins and ty, which if fulf illed could dramatically alter small molecules. Due to changes that cancer the landscape of cancer.

causes in their cell function and metabolism, Tumors are most vulnerable in their earliest, tumor cells may release more of some these localized stage. If discovered, a cure is often molecules than a normal cell, or fewer. Re-possible through surgery or localized radia-searchers and physicians are desperate to find tion, or a combination of the two. The trouble 36

JIM KLING

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DECEMBER 2012
is that tumors are notoriously diff icult to de-generalized cancer screen could accompany tect. Tumors often metastasize before they be-cholesterol screenings at annual physical ex-come big enough to cause any symptoms. So ams.

by the time a patient presents with a dull ache In effect, cancer’s seeds could be turned in the bones (bone metastasis), or diff iculty against it.

breathing (lung), or some other symptom, it has passed beyond this stage.

About the Author:

Currently, CTC instruments can only detect Jim Kling writes about science and the fu-CTCs when tumors have metastasized and are ture, but he prefers not to think too deeply thus producing high numbers of the cells. But about either subject as he resides near a dor-even the earliest stage, tumors are likely re-mant volcano.

leasing small numbers of CTCs. If researchers can work out a method sensitive enough to For further reading, see The Emperor of capture such low levels, such an instrument All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, could potentially be a broadly applicable early Siddhartha Mukherjee, Scribner (2010).

detection system.

There are many technical challenges to reaching that goal, but if they are overcome, a Copyright © 2012 Jim Kling

IN TIMES TO COME

It’s a bit unusual for a short story to get a cover in any issue, much less a double—but Jerry Oltion packs a lot into “In the Moment” and it inspired a fine cover by David A. Hardy for our January/February special. We’ll also have big stories, of course, including novellas by Rajnar Vajra (a typically atypical and perhaps dizzying tour de force) and Edward M. Lerner. Lerner shows his range by also having a Probability Zero (one that everybody will find all too easy to relate to!), and Harry Turtledove offers another of those. In between are a wide variety of short stories and novelettes by authors like Brad R. Torgersen, H. G. Stratmann, and John G. Hemry (showing a side of H. G. Wells that perhaps even Wells didn’t know about).

As befits a double issue, we have a unique oversized fact article by Michael F. Flynn called “The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown,” wherein he takes a close look at how the reality of a historic scientific drama differs from the sound-bite version we all “know” (which may make you wonder how the science of our time will look to folks a few centuries hence). And Richard A. Lovett offers another of his entertaining and instructive special features about science-fiction writing, this time focusing on setting: those worlds we love to create, write, and read about.

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Copyright © 2012 Bill Gleason

WorldMags.net

From an

Antique Land

Shane Tourtellotte

It’s often said that a journey begins with a single step—but sometimes, before you can take that first step up, you have to stop sliding down.

ll clear this morning, Your Hon-
dumping their stolen wares.

or.” Captain Hoch’s shout carried

He’d put a Guardsman in plain clothes on over the crackling and spitting of
them. If they were con artists or thieves,

“ATom Brown’s telephone ear- they’d give themselves awaysoon enough.

piece. “We had just one contact at the north The Browntown Guard would arrest them, sentry post. A small wagon team, about half and of course their goods would be conf is-an hour ago.”

cated. Too bad for them.

“North?” Brown asked, raising his gravelly He finished the remnants of his bread-and-voice. “Were they traders?” Browntown got a butter breakfast, and grabbed his familiar fair number of those, usually from the north, broad-brimmed hat. He gave the garden in coming down what once had been Interstate the back a few minutes, picking some obvi-10.

ous pests out of his lettuce and spinach beds.

“Not our usual merchants. Said the y

Soon enough, it was time to straighten his meant to do some trading, but the fellow in aching back and walk into town for work.

charge . . .” Hoch chuckled, or maybe the It was the best part of a mile to Town Hall, line just burbled. “He said they were scien-no casual thing at his age. Not that many peo-tists.”

ple made it to seventy-six any more. Still, it Brown sniffed, thought for a second, then was a point of more than pride. The day he snorted. “That’s sure different. Okay, Captain.

couldn’t make the walk there and back

I’ll see you in town later.”

would be the day he’d let someone else run He hung the receiving horn back on its his town—but that day hadn’t arrived yet.

hook. A few steps returned him to the

He picked up his pace, ignoring the old kitchen, where he skirted absent-mindedly throb from the wound in his right calf. The around Joan the housekeeper. Scientists, day wasn’t that close, either.

huh? Sounded like it might be a scam: some Today’s walk was easy: it was a cool Janu-conf idence gang coming to f leece his citi-ary morning in the south of Arizona, temper-zens. Or it might be a cover story for bandits, ature still shy of sixty. Neighbors were at 40

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DECEMBER 2012
work in their f ields, a few waving in friend-gentle shake, until he winced from Tom’s ship, or at least by rote. He rode easily over own grip. “We’ve got goods to offer, but none the buckled stretches in the sidewalk, and of that’s for sale.”

made the west gate of Browntown still fresh.

“Suits me. Here long?”

The town’s streets already had a bustle to

“A few days, maybe more, then on south.”

them, the f low of walkers and the odd car-

“South?” Brown’s eyes narrowed. “Gets
riage already moving toward the market dangerous south. Bandit country. Mexican square. On a hunch, Brown joined the
country.”

stream, giving out polite “Good mornings” to

“We’re prepared,” Lem said, a little too everyone who recognized him—and who
lightly. “We’ve got business down in the here didn’t?

mountains. We’ll chance it.”

As he had suspected, Hoch’s wagons were

“Oh. Mind telling an old-timer what that there, three of them separated from the usual bus—”

stalls. Brown detached himself from the

“Morning, Mayor Brown!”

townsfolk while still a fair distance away, and Brown managed not to curse. “Morning,
approached obliquely. If nobody gave him Miz Micelli,” Brown called back, lifting his hat away, he might learn a good deal.

to the woman waving from her cobbler’s stall The travelers themselves caught his notice across the square. “Anyway, what might—”

early. A couple were white, but the one car-

“Are there any local trading regulations we rying boxes was definitely black, or maybe a ought to know about, sir?”

mix, and there was a young Asian woman Faced with Lem’s raised guard, Brown gave next to the bespectacled man. That alone up the pretense. “Nothing much that’s not showed they weren’t from nearby. The long good common sense. Square closes for busi-f ighting after The Crash often fell out along ness at sundown. Keep your nose clean, and ethnic lines, and there hadn’t been much you folks’ll be fine.” He touched his hat brim.

mixing since.

“See you around.”

Another one passed behind one of their hitched mules, keeping low. She was small There was a knock at the off ice door.

and black-haired, and if Tom’s guess was Brown glanced at the clock and smiled.

right, she was Hispanic, even Mexican. That

“Come in, Dave,” he said, pushing some pa-could spook some locals, and she looked like pers aside.

she knew that.

Captain Hoch of the Browntown Guard en-Brown drifted toward the rearmost wagon, tered, carrying the usual two lunchpails. He angling for a look through the canvas f lap in had started bringing food with his daily re-back. Machinery f illed his view. He thought port sometime in the seventies, and now it he recognized a pump, def initely a bellows, was a rare workday they didn’t eat lunch to-and maybe pieces of a forge. A larger cabinet gether. The meal was still business, but for with empty round sockets rang no bells for half an hour they wouldn’t be “Your Honor”

him. No bandits would have taken something and “Captain Hoch,” but “Tom” and “Dave.”

so bulky and apparently pointless. Maybe

“Hello, Tom. Getting that mess straight-they were scientists after all.

ened out?”

“Looking for anything particular, sir?”

“Not too well,” Brown replied. Dave didn’t Brown turned, slowly enough that he
mean the papers, but the work they conlooked unconcerned about being spotted. It tained. Brown was struggling to split the was the bespectacled man, only now with his town’s work-crews between the irrigation glasses off. He was short but thin enough to canals from the Santa Cruz River and the look gangly, his face thin and pale beneath a roads to neighboring towns. Their farmland wide hat, his Adam’s apple prominent. Some needed water, but he had agreements with old story about a headless horseman bubbled three other mayors to share work on repair-up in Brown’s mind.

ing and improving their connecting roads,

“Looking. ” Brown offered his hand.

and his side of those bargains was coming

“Name’s Tom.”

due.

“Lem. Lem Fonseca.” Lem gave Brown a

He was going to have to put off most of the FROM AN ANTIQUE LAND

41

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ANALOG
water work. He had had a fantasy about get-not the actual photos, the old computer files ting some running water into Browntown, where they were stored.”

even as far as his house. The notion of getting

“Well, that’s useless,” Brown said. “Those those ancient sinks and tubs—and the toi-all got burned out.”

lets—working again would have to wait, like-

“I know, but they say that’s only the
ly past the time he’d be around to see it. Well, processes, processors, whatever, and not the he had given up thoughts of seeing lots of old memory itself. They’ve got some machine conveniences years ago.

they say will extract those, if they’re still any Forty years off icially running this town, good.”

and the troubles never seemed to lessen.

Brown frowned in thought. “Your guards-Lunch gave him some relief from that. Not man didn’t keep his cover well, if he was the actual meal—sandwiches of dark bread pumping them this hard.”

holding vegetables and a sliver of cheese, edi-

“Oh, they were saying this to everyone, ble enough—but the cool bottle of beer Tom. They’re proud of this mission of
tucked next to it inside the pail. A man had to theirs—or that’s the impression they’re giv-have a few indulgences, even in this age, and ing, to sucker people into whatever their this was one.

scheme is.”

They spread their cloths over clear spaces He looked at the mayor’s pensive face, and on the plastic surface of Brown’s desk, anoth-grabbed his bottle. “It’s all nonsense, of er of his indulgences. The desktop was rare course. Nobody believes we went to the junk: an old television screen, f itted into a Moon. All fakery and propaganda. They’re try-custom-built table. There weren’t many of ing to awe us, maybe to run some big con, them still around, even in the condition of maybe just to pass themselves off as impor-this one, with decades of scratches and spills tant and get a little edge in their trading.” He wearing all the old gloss off the surface. This tipped the bottle Brown’s way. “I can break was as much practical use as any of them got.

them up now, if you like.”

Brown munched on his sandwich a while,

“No.” Brown appeared to regret the snap of grumbling about the compromise he was
his word. “Not yet, Dave. If they pull some making with the road building. A swig of beer tangible fraud, they’re all yours. Until then, seemed to clear his mind as well as his they’ve got a right to tell tales.”

mouth. “You still monitoring those newcom-Dave said a leery “Okay,” then shrugged.

ers, Dave?”

“Suppose they could just be misguided, on

“Oh, yeah. I changed observers already, got some fool’s errand. Scientists were like that.

a good report from the f irst man. They look And they do look young enough to be that legit, but they’ve still got me suspicious.”

naive. Maybe you oughta set them straight.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Me?”

“Their ‘mission,’” Hoch said with an ironic

“No offense, Tom, but you were around be-twist. “They talk about it pretty freely, too fore The Crash. You probably know the facts freely I think.” He leaned toward his boss.

better than they do.”

“They claim they’re going to prove that peo-That brought out a melancholy grin. “Yeah, ple once walked on the Moon.”

Dave. I do.”

Brown straightened up, his bottle clacking against the tabletop. “Prove it? How? And Brown left Town Hall as dusk was settling.

why are they coming here to do it?”

Most folks were already off the streets, but

“Not here. Kitt Peak, down south. The old one f igure picked up speed as he emerged.

observatories there: bunch of big telescopes.”

“Mayor Brown?”

Hoch began to smile, going along momentari-He turned to f ind one of the newcomers ly with the story. “Big enough that pictures running up, a small case in one hand, her they took of the Moon would show the land-boots kicking up dust. “Afternoon,” he said, ing ships, tracks made by the rovers, even the touching his hat. “What can I do for you, Miz footprints of the men themselves.”

. . . ?”

He downed some beer to let Brown swal-

“Rachel Hsiung,” she said, putting on her low that. “That’s what they’re gonna f ind. If most pleasant look, which was pleasant in-42

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deed. “Mayor, can you use some vacuum

“But you’ll be moving on. Grand House
tubes?”

isn’t going anywhere.”

Brown’s eyebrows hiked up. “Me personal-

“Grand House is eighty kilometers away, ly, or the town?”

Mayor Brown. We’ll be right here, where you

“The town. Everyone said the town govern-can watch us working—which your folks alment would be the only buyer for radio parts.

ready do.”

That meant you, sir.”

Very capable indeed. He scratched the

Brown took a longer look at Rachel. Her stubble on his chin, contemplating the state short hair was glossy black under a hat that of the town’s few radios. “All right, we’ll take complemented her round face and high
twenty, and if the quality’s satisfactory, you cheekbones. By the shade of her skin and the can expect a further order. Now, I don’t have cast of her eyes, she might be mixed-race, the money right with me—”

same as the black fellow. She was very pretty,

“Payment on delivery is fine.”

and that made him self-conscious of his own

“All right.” Brown disliked being in debt f laws—the craggy face, the stump of his left even brief ly, a common attitude, but he ig-pinky, the puckered scar s at calf and nored the prickle of discomfort. Making an-armpit—in a way he rarely was with visitors, other test, he added, “Does that help you and never was with townsfolk.

along on your grand project?”

“We have a supplier,” he told Rachel, “up in His tone had been lightly gibing, but

Grand House. If we need tubes, we get

Rachel’s smile ref lected none of his skepti-them.”

cism. “Your Honor, you’ve just done your part

“What size, and how much are they charg-in helping to restore civilization.”

ing you?”

Brown gave her the numbers, and Rachel

“How can digging up some old pho-
unsnapped the latch on her case. “We can tographs—if they even exist, and if they’re beat that.” She pulled out an abacus, and not forgeries—bring back the golden age, played the beads like a piano scherzo. One Red? Tell me that.”

cheek went hollow, pulled in with her con-There was a middling lunch crowd at the centration.

Rombola Diner, and the Moonies—Widow

Once her f ingers stopped moving, Brown Rombola’s term—were the topic of conversa-got in a small dig. “Shouldn’t you scientists tion. Brown had nudged talk that way, but have some mechanical adding machine?”

now that the wagon was rolling, he was keep-

“We do, back at the wagons. But it isn’t ing clear of its path.

very portable,” she said with a revealing Dick Boelke’s challenge goaded Red Mc-smile. Brown spotted the dark spaces, the Duff to a higher pitch of eloquence. “The teeth missing on one side of her mouth. His Crash came because we stopped believing in self-consciousness vanished as though it had ourselves. We thought we were worthless never existed.

wretches who deser ved to be knocked

Rachel tipped the abacus his way. “We can bloody—and then we were.”

make you twenty tubes for twelve silver

“Everyone was.”

ounces, or three quarter gold ounces. We can

“That’s true, Dick, but it began with us. We produce as many as a couple hundred,
heaped ashes on our heads, until we looked though only about fifty a day.”

up and found everything in ashes.”

“Make? You manufacture them yourselves?”

One of the Rombola girls weaved between Rachel nodded in reply. “Not in the market tables, bringing the mayor’s sandwich and square, you can’t.”

beer. Brown would miss Dave’s company to-

“We know. We negotiated to set up shop day, but he had needed to hear what towns-on the McDuffs’ empty lot.”

folk were thinking. He was getting plenty of

“All right, then.” The lady struck him as ca-that.

pable, and he decided to test that notion.

“We’re capable of great things,” Red said,

“What guarantee would I have of your work?”

almost pleading, “but instead we’re reduced

“About as much as with your other suppli-to scratching a bare living out of dry ground.”

er. Maybe more.”

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the kitchen, bare feet slapping on the them benefit of the doubt. Tell them.”

chipped tile floor.

Tom put on his best approximation of a

“We’re not meant to be dirt farmers,” Red humble smile. “Sorry, Red. I try to keep my-continued, and Dick Boelke sniggered
self out of religious arguments.” Red sat down through his nose. “Someone needs to remind to a round of jeers, the arm around his shoul-us, to convince us, of that. Fonseca’s people der deflecting none of them.

can do that. Show us that the legends are Widow Rombola slid over to Tom’s table, true, that human beings really did accomplish ostensibly to wipe it off. “You know, Mayor this, and we could finally believe in ourselves Brown, that’s just what I had been thinking.

again. We could rebuild the country, rebuild Those Moonies remind me of traveling
the world, make it into something better and preachers. Remember that woman last sum-lasting.”

mer, speaking half in babble no one could un-

“If it really happened,” Bess McDuff said.

derstand?” Brown nodded, picking up his Red wheeled on his wife, cut to the quick.

beer to dodge the rag. “They’re the same Boelke guffawed. “Looks like your wife’s type: their babble’s just different. You oughta smarter than you, Red—but I think we knew run them out, before they make something that.”

worse than a nuisance.”

A few people in scattered corners laughed, Brown tipped his head. “Why, Sally? They drawing Red’s quick-darting eye. “Scoff all taking away your business?”

you want.”

“Oh, fine. Don’t listen to me. I only vote for

“Oh, don’t worry, we will.” Even Brown you, is all.” Her huff lasted one second. “Bring smothered a laugh. “Did you memorize Fon-you anything else?”

seca’s whole recruitment speech there, or did

“I’m fine, thanks.” He fished out some cop-you have him write it out for you?”

pers to pay his bill, sending Sally off in a good As the mayor’s ears perked up, Red glared mood. His wasn’t as good, but at least he had at Boelke. “I happen to believe it. All they’ve some peace in which to do his thinking.

done is told me things I already knew deep Widow Rombola was right about the
down.”

Moonies, in her way. Her solution was tempt-

“Those ‘scientists’ have duped you, ”

ing, too, but only for a moment. Being a Boelke said, “like they duped everyone over a tough leader didn’t make him an arbitrary century ago. They made themselves into tin-one. Lem and his folks had the right to talk, god authorities, told all manner of whoppers even to recruit.

to make themselves look good and smart and And anybody who wanted to follow them
important, and nobody could challenge them had the right to be foolish.

because they had the monopoly on brains. Or so they told everybody. Now they’re back to He reconsidered this attitude the next fooling people for their own ends. Looks like morning.

it’s working again, at least a little. I’ll bet you His daughter, nearly frantic, was waiting in gave them use of your lot free. Bet they made the street outside Town Hall when he walked you think it was your idea, too.”

up. “Please, Father,” she said before Brown Widow Rombola came bustling out of the could open his mouth, “talk to my boy. He’s kitchen. “Dick Boelke, this is a diner, not a getting ready to run off with those slick-talk-meeting hall. If you want to have a debate, ing California hucksters. They’ve got him all have it somewhere else.” There was a chorus mixed up. Please, will you come?”

of groans and pleas from other customers

“Take it easy, Cherry. Now, I’ve got a meet-who had been enjoying the lunchtime enter-ing with officials from Grand House and Eloy tainment.

in just over an hour. Once that’s finished—”

Red’s face was matching his nickname. “If

“That might be too late. Ed won’t stop talk-they were such obvious con-men, Dick, May-ing about them. I’m afraid, Pa,” she said, grip-or Brown would have run them out of town ping his arm. “I’m afraid he’s going to do already.” Ignoring the tug on his sleeve, he something he won’t be able to undo.”

turned toward Brown’s table. “You must be-

“All right, child, all right. If we can do it in lieve in them, Your Honor, or at least give an hour.”

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“Of course you can. Just lay down the law, quite pleading, “to help a good cause.”

hard.” She barely gave him time to climb into

“You’re of use here, son,” said Cherry. “We the rickety one-horse wagon before applying need you.” Brown nodded along.

the whip.

Ed wouldn’t yet surrender. “Don’t you

“Mark wouldn’t listen,” Cherry said as they want to get back to what we once had,
weaved through the early traffic. “He says it’s Grandfather? Wouldn’t you like me to have a a passing fancy with the boy. I told him I chance at that, instead of this?”

know it is, but what if Ed hares off with those Brown shook his head slowly, sadly.

fools before the fancy passes? And Mark just

“They’re not going to do that, son. They’re chewed that toothpick, like he does—”

misguided. They’re grasping for things that Thus it went most of the way to the farm, aren’t ours to take any more. I hope you’ll ac-leaving Brown decidedly unsympathetic to cept my word on that, but either way, you’re his grandson by the time they arrived.

not going with them.” Seeing Ed def late Ed didn’t suspect, or didn’t care. He came wordlessly, Brown thought he had gotten running over from the barn, a lanky adoles-through. “Drive me back now, Cherry. Time’s cent still growing into himself. “Grandpa, sir,”

wasting.”

he said, remembering his respect in time.

Cherry nudged past her son, and the slight

“Good to see you. I’ve been meaning to come contact jolted him into a last flare of defiance.

talk to you.”

“I guess some people don’t mind lousy condi-

“I’ll bet you have, Ed,” Brown said, taking tions, as long as they’re the ones on top.”

the boy’s hand as he descended from the Brown rounded on the boy, but it was
wagon. “But the answer’s going to be no.”

Cherry who caught him hard with a slap Ed’s pained expression vanished fast, with across the face.

the briefest glance toward his frowning moth-A girl’s distant gasp was the only reaction, er. “They can use me, Grandfather. They until Tom tugged Cherry along toward the don’t have a good groom for their horses and wagon. Ed backed away, almost staggering, as mules: I can tell. I saw sore spots where the the horses turned and started pulling toward harnesses chafe them. I can hitch any animal town.

better than that. They’ll need different shoes A third of the way back, a small, forlorn when they get off the roads and into open voice beside Brown said, “I thought he had country, and their blacksmith didn’t have any grown too big to strike anymore.” She didn’t of them that I could see. I can even steer say anything else, and Brown didn’t intrude them toward different fodder, that they can on the quiet. He needed the time for his own stretch out better and not need to haul as thoughts.

much. I’d be useful, I would.”

He reached his office with nearly ten min-

“I don’t doubt it, boy,” Brown allowed.

utes to spare, and called immediately for a

“Then why—”

messenger boy. “You know the visitors on

“Because you’re only seventeen next

Red McDuff’s town lot, Jerry?” The lad nod-month. Age of majority is eighteen in Brown-ded, his thick hair f lopping around. “Take town—”

them this message: ‘The mayor sends his

“That’s your law, Grandpa. You could make compliments, and invites Lem Fonseca and an exception. There’s nothing stopping—”

his companions to dinner at his house,

“Edwin Joseph Welker!” Ed ref lexively tonight at six.’ You need that written down?”

snapped to. “This is not some royal family

“No, sir,” Jerry said, and recited the mes-that just serves itself and doesn’t live by its sage back, letter-perfect.

own rules. I thought you understood that.”

“Good. Deliver that message, and bring The shock held on Ed’s face this time. To-back their reply.” The boy tromped down the ward the house there was a soft titter: Ed’s sis-stairs, as Brown went into his off ice. He still ter, amused at the hiding her brother was had a few minutes to call Joan and notify her.

getting. His mother was coming up behind, Not only would she be cooking for more than ready to offer comfort, but he didn’t care to two tonight, he’d need a warm bath ready be comforted.

when he got home. For guests, he really

“I only want to be of use,” he said without couldn’t neglect that.

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* * *

Brown, though it raised the further one of

“Come right in,” he said, meeting everyone whether “Jerry” indicated a pseudonym or at the door. “Use those hooks. Don’t worry merely a lover’s pet name.

about dripping: that’s what the mud room’s Rolls got passed around, and soon the air for.”

was f illed with gustatory crunching from Brown gave them space to remove their
fresh crusts and spinach salads. Brown rain-soaked coats and hats, and peeked into gauged when they had reached a suff icient the dining room. Joan had just finished laying level of contentment before commencing to out the opening courses.

draw them out.

He shook hands with Lem and Rachel, and

“Where do you hail from, Lem,” he inter-let Lem handle introductions with the rest.

jected. “Any place I’d know?”

The pale, reedy man walking with a cane was

“Do you know East Newsom?” Lem said.

Arnold Rossi, a glassblower according to Cap-Brown freely confessed he didn’t. “It’s in the tain Hoch’s reports. The reclusive Hispanic Central Valley, close to the Bay. I spent a good was Vera Escobar, their electrical expert. She portion of my childhood there, but I did a lot surprised Brown with her near-lack of Span-of traveling around. Always some new town,”

ish inf lection. The black metalworker was he said, a smile blooming, “with new books.

Smith: just Smith. His brief greeting left the New to me, I mean.”

impression he didn’t speak often, and his Lem had done a lot of reading in his peri-handshake grip left the impression that he patetic youth, giving himself a broad if scat-was taking it easy on an old man.

tered education. When his scavenging of old None of them were impolite, but they were libraries turned up photos of the Moon land-all reserved to greater or lesser extents.

ings, showing not just the tracks across that Brown couldn’t fault them much for that.

dead world but the humans and machines

“Let’s go in, folks.”

that made them, his imagination caught f ire.

Neat while linen covered the dining room People invariably told him those pictures table, and his best tableware, prime salvage were hoaxes, products of a corrupted nation and only slightly mismatched, covered the that perpetrated fraud upon the world to but-linen. Bowls sat at all six places, with a small tress its inf lated self-importance, now shat-breadbasket in the center. Two lamps burning tered forever and good riddance.

olive oil glowed serenely on the table, and in Lem decided they were wrong, but knew
an overhead fixture, a lone incandescent bulb mere argument would not suff ice to prove got rare work.

this. He needed evidence better than the pho-It was grand style, a taste of the old days.

tographs nobody believed. He needed it from Brown caught a tangy scent of the main a source that couldn’t have been falsif ied—
course, barbecued chicken with pinto beans, and that source was the telescopes.

that would crown the meal. He might even He began his quest prosaically, turning up break out the beer, depending how the
people with the component skills for making evening went.

rudimentary electronics, skills fairly few peo-

“Were the tubes satisfactory, your Honor?”

ple had, himself included. He provided the vi-Rachel asked, wearing her business-like smile sion, the inspiration that moved them to as they walked in.

abandon their old lives and form the core of

“Oh, absolutely, Miz Hsiung.”

his group. He also took the time to locate one

“Might we expect a further order?”

particular woman he’d met several times in

“I should know by the end of the night.”

his travels.

He pulled out the chair to his left, but it was

“I had thought him an interesting young Vera who slipped into with a murmur of grat-man before,” Rachel said, her hand reaching itude.

for his. “But when he told me his vision, I re-

“Thank you, Mayor,” said Rachel, “but I al-alized he was a special man. Of course I went ways sit next to Jerry—I mean, Lem.” She with him.”

walked around the table, where Lem had Brown watched the mooning looks they
drawn out her chair in perfect emulation.

traded, and kept an indulgent smile plastered That was one small question answered for on his face, hiding his dismay.

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“We tried the Lick Observatory first off, be-when we find the concrete evidence and lay ing so close by. It was mostly stripped, proba-it before you, I hope you’ll be ready to accept bly right after The Crash. Then we traveled it. It’ll be bringing a whole new world with down to Palomar. That was totally stripped.”

it.”

“Demolished,” Arnold chimed in, then

Lem’s face still shone, and his companions coughed into his napkin.

reflected the radiance. They made it sound al-Lem nodded. “But it wasn’t a wasted trip.

most believable—but that was what the best We gained new members all along the way.”

charlatans did. The only difference was that

“And we lost Norris.”

Lem believed his own patter.

Smith’s curt statement stopped talk cold.

This night was not going to end well.

All the visitors turned downcast, and nobody Brown almost started with the direct chal-would say why. Luckily, Joan entered with the lenge he was aching to make, but he didn’t chicken before the silence became unbear-quite have that cruelty in him, not for honest able, and Lem was back to talking before his dupes. He’d give the oblique approach one first bite.

shot.

“The problem was obvious. Both those ob-

“I hope you don’t think I dislike you,” he servatories were in highly populated regions: said to Lem, “or your associates. You’re obvi-of course they were going to be plundered.

ously dedicated folk, and you do good work.”

So we set out for more sparsely settled lands.

He nodded toward Rachel. “Bob Byner tells That meant Arizona. We tried Lowell outside me he’s never seen better vacuum tubes, and Flagstaff f irst—” He caught Brown shaking he’s been building radios for twenty years.

his head. “And no, that wasn’t remote

Your skills are awfully useful—which is why I enough.

think it such a waste that you’re expending

“That’s what brought us down here, that them on this fantasy.”

and the heavy concentration of large tele-He ignored the affronted looks he knew he scopes. Kitt Peak’s got maybe five that could was drawing. “You could be doing so much have what we need. Then there’s Mount Hop-more practical good with your talents. Settle kins and Mount Graham. Moving on east, down here, or in any town, and you’d be a there’ll be Apache Point and Starf ire, even real strength. You could build good lives for Mount Foulkes in west Tejas.”

yourselves, and for others.”

“That one may not be an optical,” Rachel

“We have a good life,” said Vera Escobar, gently reminded Lem. “Your sources didn’t speaking almost for the f irst time since she specify—”

was introduced. “An aspiring life. We mean to

“The point is,” Lem said right over Rachel, build up more than one little town lost in the

“there are so many. Some of them had to have desert.”

taken photos of the tracks we left on the

“Vera!” came a chorus. Rachel’s tone was Moon. Some of those photos must still be shocked, while Arnold’s was more caution-stored in the hard drives on-site, and some of ing.

those drives must still be suff iciently intact

“It’s true,” Vera shot back. “Poor and igno-that Vera can sift them out.”

rant. You heard how they talked about me, He was intent on Brown, his eyes aglow about Smith. Your people, Mayor.”

with sure and certain hope. “They can’t all be

“Ah,” Brown said calmly, “racial animus, dry holes, Mayor Brown. We’re going to find was it? Memories are long here, but they the proof. Next year—maybe this year, but shouldn’t have offended you, and I am sorry.

surely by next—the news will be spreading Is there more you need to say, ma’am?” The across the continent, even the world.

gaze held between them, Vera’s anger balked

“I can see you don’t believe me.” That but not diminished.

stopped Brown in mid-carve, but he didn’t

“I don’t think the town’s so bad,” Smith change his expression to hide what had al-said, and Vera’s heat swung his way.

ready been discovered. “That’s all right. If

“No offense to you, Mayor,” said Lem pre-everyone did believe me, there’d be no point emptively, “but we won’t be settling here.”

to our mission. It’s to change people’s minds,

“That’s final?”

to awaken them, that we’re doing this. And Lem read his companions’ faces, his confi-FROM AN ANTIQUE LAND

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dence validated. “It is.”

they weren’t taken from Earth! There were

“All right,” Brown said. “Then I’ll have to satellites sent to orbit the Moon, and they ask the five of you to be on your way. Tomor-took the shots. I don’t think there was a tele-row. Early.”

scope on Earth that could make out the lanA ripple of consternation crossed the table, ders, or the tracks, or the footprints. Ever.”

but a motion of Lem’s hand calmed it. “Any His short tirade seemed to have the desired particular reason why?”

effect: they were thinking, or re-thinking.

Brown grimaced. “There is the matter of Smith was staring levelly at Lem. “I always your recruiting. That’s fine up to a point, but thought those aperture number s were
when you start enticing kids, I have to draw a screwy,” Arnold admitted.

line.”

“Unaugmented, yes,” said Rachel, “but

“Kids?” Lem looked around at his compan-computers had been canceling out atmosions again, this time in puzzlement. “What pheric effects for decades.”

kids?” Arnold shook his head. Smith

“Fine, but even through vacuum at that dis-shrugged.

tance—”

“The Welker fellow, maybe?” Rachel said.

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute!” Lem Fonse-

“Interested in our animals. But he’s sixteen, ca looked at Tom Brown in something like be-seventeen. That’s of age.”

trayal. “All along, you’ve known we’re right.

“Maybe where you come from, ” said

You should be our ally, not our antagonist.

Brown. “Not here.”

Why did you reject us, reject our mission?”

“I see.” Lem’s lips pressed in swift thought.

“Because none of that matters now. It’s

“If we were to agree not to accept any new done, finished. The Crash didn’t just end that members, could we have a day to f inish up era . . . ”

our business in Browntown?”

Old, unbidden images f lashed before his

“He’s not interested in negotiating, Lem,”

eyes. He watched the Empire State Building Vera said.

collapse to earth, in the dreadful certainty

“I was,” said Brown, nettled. “I made you a that Americans were bringing it down. He good-faith offer to accept you as new resi-watched the increasingly sporadic broadcasts dents.”

and Net videos of madness pandemic, leaping

“But you had to know,” Rachel said, “that borders as easily as a child bounded over side-we wouldn’t accept it. You were asking us to walk cracks. Then suddenly one day, there take the commitment we made and casually was no more TV, or computers, or anything discard it. Is that the kind of resident you else.

want?”

Brown snapped back to the present and his Brown faltered momentarily. “No. I was af-guests. “The Crash severed that era from us, ter the kind that could f igure out they were in a matter of months or hours or seconds.”

making a mistake, and stop making it.”

“Seconds,” Lem said. “The EMP’s were

“That describes you,” Vera grumbled, “bet-global—”

ter than us.” Arnold winced at the sharpness

“That doesn’t matter! The knowledge
of the reply, and shoveled in some beans to doesn’t do us any good. It doesn’t help build cover his reaction.

an irrigation canal, doesn’t fight off bandits or

“Not that that’s really your fault,” said Lem, Mexican raiders, doesn’t fight an outbreak of still trying to conciliate. “All your life, you’ve typhoid or tuberculosis.” Arnold went a little been told the Lunar landings were an infa-paler at the last word.

mous hoax, and if you never see or hear—”

“I suppose you’re right about that,” Lem

“That’s not the point!” snapped Brown, his said. “What it does is highlight what we had, patience f inally gone. “I know full well they and give us a reason to aspire to regain it. I went to the Moon.”

think it’s wrong to be reconciled to what we Five faces went rigid with shock. A fork have today.”

clattered.

“Who’s reconciled? I’d love to have the old

“I watched the videos when I was a boy, luxuries back—and I had them. I know what saw all your pictures. I even saw the photos we’ve lost better than any of you. But there of the rover tracks taken by telescopes—but aren’t any magic words we can speak to in-48

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voke all that again. It’s gonna be a lot of toil your hospitality enough already. And we can getting back to those heights. It takes lots handle ourselves, if the need arises.”

longer climbing back up the mountain than it Brown didn’t argue that point. “Well, don’t did falling off of it.” He smiled wryly. “And it’s follow old Interstate 10 too far. Tucson is a liable to be just as painful.”

ruin and a deathtrap. You’re better off cutting Lem strained to find an effective reply. “But south early, even if the roads are bad. Even if even you admit it’s worthwhile to regain it there aren’t any.”

all.”

Lem received this with a cool caution, and

“Sure. Maybe what you’re digging up, if you a quick look at Rachel, that suggested he could f ind it, would be meaningful in a few hadn’t known there was anything wrong with centuries, when we could do something with Tucson. “Are you sure you won’t accept an it. But the work you’re expending for the far escort?” Brown asked, but Lem’s answer future is work that doesn’t go into today. And didn’t change. He was growing stubborn.

we’ve got big problems today even holding There was no point trying any further.

onto what little we’ve been able to preserve

“All right, then. Now please, don’t neglect from those times. We need your skills here your meals on my account. The least you folks and now.”

deserve is a solid dinner to send you on your

“But you don’t,” Rachel said, “not really.

way.”

Five people working on mundane matters aren’t going to make a big practical difference Tom watched them vanish into the rainy to humanity, or America, or even California night, their wagons carrying them back to-or Arizona. What we can do in summoning a ward the town walls. He returned to the din-rebuilt civilization dwarfs that. There’s no ing room in time to help Joan move the last of guarantee, but it’s a risk we know is worth the dishes to the kitchen, then let her be.

taking. Hopefully, future generations will be Household duties were jealously guarded pre-glad we did.”

rogatives with her.

Brown nodded. “Well, that might be a risk He walked to the living room, his leg
worth taking. If you had calculated your odds wound pulsing from the wet weather, and got correctly.”

on the telephone. Dave Hoch was expecting Lem and Rachel stood steadfast against his the call. “Any luck, Your Honor?” he shouted thrust, but he did reach someone. “Tell us on his end.

more about these satellites,” Arnold asked.

“About what I expected, Captain.”

“Do you remember how close they orbited

“Yeah. Kinda figured that.”

the Moon? You probably wouldn’t remember

“They’ll be heading out early tomorrow aperture size, but—”

morning. Southeast, then turning south some-

“Arnold!” Lem snapped. “This is one data where shy of Tucson.”

point. And you know how fallible human

“Glad to know they’ve got that much
memory is. This disproves nothing!” Only sense,” said Hoch, eliciting a silent smirk from when Rachel caressed his arm and whispered Brown. “Did they accept an escort?”

his pet name did Lem think of how Brown

“Nope.”

might take his outburst. “I’m sorry, Mayor,”

“Understood. We’ll get moving before sun-he said, eyes downcast. “I’m not looking for a rise. How long do you want us shadowing fight.”

them?”

Brown snorted. “Son, I was in the wars at

“Three days,” Brown said. “Can’t afford to sixteen, and for a good twenty years after have your detachment out of town more than that. This isn’t a f ight, it’s a friendly discus-a week. Good luck, Dave.”

sion.” He looked at the f ive doleful faces around the table. “Let me prove it. I’m offer-Lem held his whole band together through ing you a squad of the Browntown Guard as whatever debates they had among themselves armed escort, out as far as Kitt Peak if you that night, and they were gone the next want it. That territory’s dangerous. You can morning. Life in Browntown quickly got back use the help.”

to normal. Brown did hear at second hand

“No,” Lem said quickly. “We’ve imposed on that Ed intended never to speak to him again.

FROM AN ANTIQUE LAND

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He expected that would return to normal as lose that right leg. Gangrene’s already set in.

well, in good time.

The Oriental woman held on ‘til last night, And if it didn’t, it was just another trade-off longer than I expected. We buried everyone in a life full of them.

else at the ambush site. Too many to carry He hadn’t forgotten about the travelers in home.”

f ive days, not with a quarter of the Brown-A tight frown was the extent of Brown’s town Guard over the horizon, but they
mourning. “How much did you salvage?”

weren’t in the forefront of his mind when the

“We saved some of their hardware, what call came in from the southeast sentries.

wasn’t wrecked with an overturned wagon

“We’ve spotted Captain Hoch’s unit coming and the bandits smashing stuff. Guess it’s in,” the guardsman said, his voice cracking as been a while since they’ve seen vacuum much as the line. “Looks like they’ve got ca-tubes, for one.”

sualties.”

They walked toward the back wagon. “Did Brown was off in seconds. It had been

Smith’s forge survive?”

three years since he had ridden a horse, but

“Mostly. He’ll be able to work again, assum-he commandeered one from the town hall ing he survives. And assuming he gets posses-stable. By the time he reached the east gate, sion.”

his backside was reminding him why he had

“He will. I think that much is fair.”

stopped riding. He gritted his teeth, prodded He poked his head inside the wagon, and his mount, and kept up speed all the way to immediately found Larsen, being tended by the southeast post.

two fellow troopers. Brown gave some en-Hoch had pulled up next to the sentry tow-couraging words, and Larsen was gratifyingly er. Despite a number of riderless horses, his upbeat. Farther forward, in the shadows, a detachment was larger than when it set out.

darker f igure tossed in either delirium or Brown recognized the two new wagons, one fevered sleep. Brown didn’t try saying any-with its wood scored and the canvas cover thing to Smith. What was there to say?

ripped down the side. Hoch broke away from He checked inside the other wagon before talking to the sentry as Brown rode up.

everyone headed back to town. A pretty de-

“What happened, Captain? Did you lose
cent amount of salvage: a little more margin anyone?” His eyeball count had only reached against hard times. And there were always seven of the original ten, but he had to let hard times, sooner or later. It would have Hoch deliver the news.

been a waste to lose those goods.

“No, sir. Larsen took a bullet, but he’s re-His eyes caught the blanket-wrapped bun-covering well. The Moonies, though . . .”

dle in a corner, its size and shape unmistak-Brown’s eyes fixed on the damaged wagon.

ably human, unmistakably her. What a shame.

“Who did it?”

And those vacuum tubes had turned out so

“Mexicans. Bandits, not regular troops.”

fine.

Brown started dismounting, making the con-Mayor Brown wasn’t much good for work
cession of not refusing Hoch’s help. “They set the rest of the day, and left town as dusk gath-up a good ambush. We were well ahead of ered. He told Joan not to bother cooking, hav-the wagons, keeping out of sight through ing to snap at her before she’d let him some arroyo country. We never spotted their scavenge his odds and ends. He dragged a ambuscade when we passed, and they were rickety chair outside his front door, and sat smart enough not to try springing it on us.”

with his plate and two drinks. One was beer; Brown got down with a final grunt. “They the other was a half-full bottle of cactus weren’t smart enough,” said Hoch, “to watch hooch he hadn’t touched in nearly two years.

the path ahead when they attacked Fonseca’s This night, he knew he’d be needing the chas-band. We caught them still in the act, killed er.

them all.” Hoch looked back at the wagons.

He picked at dinner, without looking at

“But the damage was done.”

what he ate. His eyes were on the star-flecked

“Any of them survive, Dave?”

heavens, as he waited for the Moon to rise Hoch’s gentle tone was scarce comfort.

over Browntown.

“The black one, he’s still alive, but he’s gonna Copyright © 2012 Shane Tourtellotte

50

SHANE TOURTELLOTTE

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Hearing

Impairment

Stephen L. Burns

We wish we could say this
was purely fanciful. . . .

o how do you stop a Nobel Prize win-
help it. Not that I hadn’t felt the impulse she ning scientist from pounding her head
was surrendering to plenty of times myself.

against the wall?

Like when you’re down to two choices: it’s S Smartly.

pound your head or someone else’s.

“Dr. Jeffs, please don’t do that,” I said, one I had never been a parent, but I’d seen hand on her broad back and one hand on her plenty of them in action, and I fell back on shoulder. I hoped being so formal would what seemed to work in most cases like this.

help snap her out of it. With people she Yelling.

liked, she insisted on being called by her

“Odetta Makeba Jeffs! ” I bellowed sharply.

f irst name, Odetta. Inside the geek world,

“You stop that this instant! ”

where she was considered the Aretha

She jerked up straight. Stared at me in sur-Franklin of weather science, a brilliant and prise, blinking rapidly.

rowdy mother goddess, she was lovingly re-I stared back, mortif ied. “Sorry,” I said.

ferred to as Obi. As in Obi-wan.

“No, I’m sorry,” she said, rubbing her fore-A smirking, libelous, blood-boilingly con-head.

tra-factual statement about us we’d just seen

“I think you guys could really use a drink,”

on TV, issued by the man doing his utmost to said the alien in the room.

make our lives miserable, had sent her off

“Please,” we said in unison.

the deep end.

“I just can’t . . .” she growled, thumping When I’d been recruited as a science advi-her head against the wall, “Listen to that . . .”

sor/science policy explicator to the White Thump! “— obnoxious, smirking Nean-House, I’d f igured I’d have my work cut out derthal . . .” Thump!

for me.

I winced again, thinking about that amazI was utterly, breathtakingly, and touching-ing brain of hers being slammed around in ly clueless. That’s how folks like me get jobs her skull, and all the damage that could like mine: honor outweighs common sense.

cause. As an MD— even one who hadn’t

At that point I’d been making my living as practiced for a quite a few years—I couldn’t a geek gunslinger for about f ifteen years, 51

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ANALOG
along the way gaining some modest fame.

That numb-nuts Longhorn makes a tree

Blogging, writing conventional articles, and stump look like a frigging Rhodes Scholar.”

being science consultant and pocket protec-She glared at Jaam. “Not that you’re much tor ninja to various web portals and TV pro-help.”

grams, quite often trying to promote the The alien was more or less humanoid, ex-penicillin of hard data to people who had no cept for the four arms, leathery magenta interest in being cured of their ignorance.

skin, and a face that was more opossum Depending on the venue I was either Dr.

meets anteater than guy next door. He

Tom Wallingford, Dr. Tom, or you Secular shrugged with three out of his four arms, the Elitist Fag Bastard.

fourth holding his drink steady. “It’s hard for Still, the current president has a fairly wide me to, as the saying goes, suffer fools gladly.”

nerdy streak, willing to listen to brief ings Which was what we were being forced to that have been requested, inclined to ask do. I was in the same room and on the same smart, incisive questions, and actually preside as one of the smartest people I’d ever pared to trouble his mind with actual
met, and an actual space alien. Our objective thought. But I’d been deep enough in the was simple enough: convince a congression-trenches to know that as a rule explaining al committee that Jaam, and his fellow Amaa-science to the general run of politicians ia, were real. In my moments of despair I wasn’t any easier or more rewarding than imagined resigning, running away, and hol-promoting chastity to street corner hookers.

ing up someplace so far off the grid even Science has an unfortunate habit of discov-Amish bloodhounds couldn’t f ind me.

ering information politicians don’t want to

“We want to help,” Jaam continued. “We hear, largely because it has some bearing on could be helping now, if we were permitted reality. Over the past couple decades, that to do so.”

deaf-ear fringe has accreted and calcified into Odetta sighed. “We’re in this f ix because what I always thought of as the Great Wall of we have to play by you r rules.” This was an Denial. That wall was taller—and thicker—
old argument, and I let it roll past me while I than ever before when the Amaai, Peace tried to f igure out how to report on the day’s Corps types from a distant star offering some progress without using words like debacle much needed help to our backward species, and hopeless.

arrived.

“We are all who and what we are. No mat-Mr. Shit, meet Mr. Fan. I got to stick my f inter where we go, there we are. It is what it is.

gers in the blades.

Need any more clichés?”

“Thanks,” I said as Jaam handed me a per-She rolled her eyes. “Spare me.”

fectly prepared martini. The Amaai liked our

“We know this is hard. We’ve done this be-art, music, movies, literature, and ornamen-fore. Your kind have a choice: step up or step tal gardening, and considered our science back.”

sort of adorable. They were not impressed

“Step on a crack,” I mumbled. “Break your with humanity’s multiplicity of one and only mother’s back.”

true religions, but thought we came very They both stared at me, puzzled by this close to making up for that peculiar obses-non sequitur. “I think I need a vacation,” I sion with the myriad ways we had devised said, holding up my pad. “Memo from the for making and consuming alcohol.

Chief of Staff. More pressure from the White

“Yeah, thanks,” Odetta echoed, taking her House to get past this quicksand pit of a com-glass and knocking half of it back in one mittee. Quickly.”

gulp.

“Amen to that,” Odetta chuckled. “Much

“My pleasure,” Jaam said. He dipped his more of this and I’m going to go batshit.”

snout in his drink, smiled at the taste. “This is

“No time for a vacation,” Jaam said. “How obviously not a celebratory belt. I would say about a break instead?”

that our progress making the committee see the light is not spectacular.”

An instant later the three of us were once

“Hell,” Odetta growled, “The only way we again standing on the face of the Moon near could measure it is in microns. Or angstroms.

the crater Tycho. Jaam had taken us on these 52

STEPHEN L. BURNS

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DECEMBER 2012
jaunts before, and Odetta had never turned a ing fees.

hair even on the f irst one. I still spazzed a bit

“Oh boy,” Odetta sighed, draining her
in surprise, and spilled part of my drink. But glass. “We get another go-round with the Jaam had brought the pitcher along and Three Stooges.”

quickly moved to pour a ref ill. Amaai tech kept us in a bubble of warm air, and a feeling We had barely taken our seats when our of about half a gee.

nemesis, inquisitor, and tormentor, Repre-

“I never tire of looking at your home plan-sentative Duke Longhorn, Chairman of the et,” he said as he played bartender. “It’s as Congressional Committee on Questionable beautiful as any I’ve ever seen, and to gaze and Un-American Science, got right in our upon it is quite refreshing.”

faces.

“We like it,” Odetta said, holding her glass

“I have it on good authority,” he drawled out for a touch-up.

accusingly, subjecting us to a faux Wayne

“But not enough,” I f inished glumly. “We squint, “that these so-called space aliens knew that long before you folks came along.”

aren’t nothing but sneaky tricks being played I bent down, picked up a handful of dust and on the American public by rich commie Hol-let it run through my f ingers. There was a lywood traitors to Traditional Values. They’re small stone mixed in, maybe a fragment of nothing but special effects, and I am here to meteor. I stared at it a moment, then stuffed tell you some of us can see through them!”

it in my pocket. I wrote an article once argu-My pad was on the conference table before ing that what set us apart from the other crit-me, and those words were barely out of his ter s is our inclination to take and keep mouth before smart search presented me souvenirs.

with the source of this latest brain-damaged

“Some of you, call it the rational minority, pronouncement. It had come from a press re-understand the crash course you’ve put your-lease by the Common Sense Commons. This selves on,” Jaam said. “But until your govern-strident and well-funded self-nominated ing bodies come around we can’t star t think tank had just two years before gone helping you overhaul your planetary infra-past pushing the teaching of Creationism in structure. We can’t impose what we offer; schools to demanding that equal time be giv-that is against our laws and ethical precepts, en to the proposition that the Earth was f lat and your kind would f ind such interference after all, just like the maps. Every time I had unacceptable. Only cooperative effort can to suffer another helping of their incoherent succeed.”

drivel, I f igured poor old Tom Paine was Odetta shook her head. “Sometimes I think rolling over in his grave.

the only way you can bring us together is to

“You are misinfor med, ” Jaam replied
declare war on us.”

brightly, wearing that ‘provoke the Monkey

“Not us,” Jaam said. “Enlightened peoples Boy’ grin I had come to dread. “I have met do not declare war on other peoples.” He George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and James topped off his own glass, then held up the Cameron. Nice men. But I am older than the pitcher. “Make martinis, not war. That’s our three of them put together, and existed long motto.”

before the f irst of your silent movies was

“Could you at least give us a swift kick in ever made.”

the ass to help the process along?” I asked.

Longhorn whacked his gavel. “You are out

“Given the proper circumstances, yes. But of order.”

you have to create those circumstances, not

“Actually, I’m in pretty good shape for us.”

what you would consider a rather old space

“How about you give us a hint how we
monster. Ready to rock, roll, and rumble.”

might do this?” Odetta said. “Pretty please?”

The grin on his peculiar face got brighter. His Jaam smiled. “I believe I already have.”

kind literally glow when they’re really happy.

Just then my pad began playing the Volga

“Rumble means something different among Boatmen. I checked the message. “We’re be-my kind, nudge-nudge, wink-wink. Speaking ing called back in. Immediately.” Amaai tech of which, oh misinformed one, are you still again: f ive bars on the Moon—and no roam-tripling up on those ED meds and not getting HEARING IMPAIRMENT

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much bang for your buck?”

had gone head to head with Duke Longhorn Longhorn’s face went the color of raw
and his committee before, which marked us beef. Odetta tried to stif le a laugh, hands either as dedicated patriots or gluttons for over her mouth, but ended up letting out punishment.

sounds that were half raspberry, half fart.

Odetta’s Nobel Prize had been awarded for Even the two other committee members,

SYBIL, a computerized weather prediction biddable toadies I thought of as Ditto and system that took every byte of worldwide Yup-yup because of their valuable contribu-weather records from the past, data from tions to the proceedings, looked like they every weather sensor on the planet it could were about to swallow their tongues.

locate, and her own predictive models based This was how four interminable days of on trends brought on by climate change to hearings had gone. We would spend hours make both short– and long-range forecasts of waiting to be called, imperiously summoned, unprecedented detail and accuracy. SYBIL
sneered at, harangued, called liars and fakes, could predict precisely where and when hur-and slapped down if we responded to provo-ricanes would form, and how they would cation. Jaam would make fun of Duke and his track over a week in advance. It could even committee, then we would be dismissed to warn about that most notoriously unpre-wait for our next short, pointless appear-dictable phenomena, tornadoes, twenty-four ance.

hours in advance. Four hours out, SYBIL

We were mired in this debacle because the could lay out the places they would appear Amaai insisted that permission to proceed with an accuracy of f ive-hundred feet, and with their efforts at uplift come from ruling the track they would follow within a quarter political entities. All over the world Jaam’s mile swath.

fellow emissaries were to-be-pitied hostages Less than four percent of her funding had to human politics. The Queen had shared a come from government sources—only be-nice spiked cup of tea with the Amaai envoy cause Congress had not quite been able to to Great Britain, but Parliament had been cut such wasteful spending to zero.

deadlocked in heated debate since day one.

SYBIL had saved billions of dollars and The Canadians were biding their time,
thousands of lives with its short range fore-watching to see what the Mother Country casts, and billions more with its uncanny abil-did, and taking their legate to a lot of hockey ity to predict the intensity and duration of games. The EU still couldn’t agree who longer range events such as droughts, hun-would pay for or cater the hearings. The dred year f loods, atypical freezes, and heat Japanese seemed mostly interested in turning waves.

the Amaai into cute, big-eyed cartoon charac-Odetta had been summoned before Long-
ter s and pitchmen for Japanese liquor horn’s committee, and for all practical pur-brands. Most of the Middle East had, in-poses put on trial because part of her work evitably, declared some form of war on them, was based on the assumptions of climate as had parts of Africa and South America.

change—something he considered blackest Russia kept trying—and failing—to take their heresy. He couldn’t have tried harder to de-Amaai into “protective custody.” The Chi-stroy her and her work if it had been instead nese had not been able to, as yet, effectively based on black magic and human sacrif ice.

deal with the lack of decorum typical of an Longhorn pointed his gavel at Jaam like a Amaai.

gun. “I will not have such talk at this hear-Iceland, Finland, and Australia already had ing!”

limited, short-distance teleportation, inertia

“A thousand pardons,” the alien replied cancellers on many of their vehicles, and had cheerfully, wearing a smile I had come to begun building devices that made energy know all too well. “I merely got carried away from carbon sequestration and desalination.

with this spirited exchange of information.

Odetta was one of our premier scientists, You had some infor mation—the fatally
and Jaam had asked for her—and me —
f lawed product of typing chimps, to be specif ically to help him present his case. We sure—and I have more. My people know all did have experience on our side; she and I sorts of things, extremely useful things such 54

STEPHEN L. BURNS

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DECEMBER 2012
as ways to end many of your problems with I had forgotten that he not only denied the such issues as energy, pollution, food and validity of climate science and evolution, the water production and distribution, and your toxicity of various pesticides, herbicides, and primitive means of travel. We would be de-pollutants, he also believed that slavery, the lighted to share these means and methods Great Depression, segregation, the McCarthy with humankind. All you need do is admit terrors, the Moon landings, and a whole grab that we know more things, and more true bag of things either hadn’t happened, or things, than you do, and consent to our weren’t as bad as everyone made out.

help.”

“See this stone?” I held it up. “This stone He spread his four hands. “I have come came from the surface of the Moon. I picked here before you with this offer, and you not it up less than an hour ago.” I was putting on only refuse to listen to me, you even refuse a serious face, but in the back of my head I to admit that I exist. I am beginning to won-was hearing the echo of an old Firesign skit der if it is you, sir, who is not really real. Your I’d heard back in college: I’ve been to ankind calls itself Homo sapiens. I have yet to cient Greece! See! I’ve got this grape!

see you display the slightest shred of evi-Duke rolled his eyes. “Yeah, sure you did.”

dence of the sapiens part of that descriptor.”

A smirk. “Maybe if I was stoned I might be-It took Duke a few seconds to parse that lieve that, but I’m not.” Ditto and Yup-yup graceful insult. I couldn’t help but be once snickered dutifully.

again amazed by Jaam’s command of English, I let the gibe slide. “I never thought I’d and how that powered this elegant bit of hoever set foot on the Moon. We went there a mophobe baiting—no doubt delivered on
long time ago, but seem to have turned too both Odetta’s and my behalf.

cheap and chicken and short-sighted to go I appreciated the gesture, but knew it had back since then. As for a manned base there?

earned us nothing more than a f leeting mo-A dead dream for some of us. Now that could ment’s satisfaction and yet another angry dis-change. The Amaai could make it possible for missal. I dug in my pocket for an antacid—I us to go there for the weekend, if we want-was up to two rolls a day. My f ingers instead ed. To go up for a beer or coffee, just to en-closed around the stone I’d picked up not joy the view.”

half an hour earlier.

All this earned another long-suffering sigh.

I remembered that we’d asked Jaam for a

“Why the hell would someone want that—if hint how to get past all this crap.

it was even possible? Which it ain’t. There’s He’d told us that he thought he already no point to being in space. Everybody knows had.

that.”

Suddenly I sat up straight, that stone I saw that Odetta was itching to get into it clutched tight in my hand.

with Duke, and gave her a small shake of the

“Chairman Longhorn,” I said in the most head. It would be too easy to get sidetracked unctuous tone I could muster. “Might I ad-into another long, pointless argument. Long-dress the committee?”

horn’s record spoke for itself: he’d come out He glared at me sourly. “Can you possibly against almost ever y form of satellite or have anything useful to say?”

probe launch because in his worldview all I played humble. “I believe I do, sir.”

they did was circle up there, beeping like He let out a put-upon sigh. “I’ll give you Sputnik and burning money. Some people, two minutes.”

like Odetta, have minds like steel traps.

“Thank you.” I took a moment to collect Duke’s was more like a glue trap. Nothing in my thoughts, then said, “Have you ever been it but dead mice and dust bunnies. Or as an to the Moon, sir?”

old physicist friend puts it: He isn’t anywhere He scowled at me. “Of course not.”

close to a Disunif ied Theory of Shit from Shi-

“Of cour se not, ” I echoed. “Mankind
nola.

hasn’t set foot on the Moon since the last

“I’ve been to the Moon,” I repeated. “Jaam Apollo landing.”

took Odetta and me there. We drank martinis

“Those landings were a hoax, ” Duke
and watched clouds move over the face of sneered.

the Earth. I brought back this stone.”

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Duke checked his watch. “Your two min-
disbelief. During the hearings they had func-utes are almost up. Is there any point to tioned as little more than an echo chamber this”—a smirk—“fairy tale?”

for Longhorn, and in a way they were still do-

“Probably not,” I said with a sigh, glancing ing that, only where their boss was shrieking over at Odetta and Jaam. “Maybe we need a in a glass-shattering falsetto they were mere-break.”

ly whimpering and moaning.

Odetta’s eyes widened, but she kept a pok-

“Welcome to the Moon, gentlemen,” I said, er face. Beside her Jaam was studying me making sure I got a nicely framed shot of the with a gleam in his eyes. Then he linked his dark stain at the front of Duke’s pants. “Don’t hands in front of him and cracked both sets worry about the air, the tech the Amaai use of knuckles.

takes care of that. Same for gravity. That’s

“So what do you say, sir?” I said, facing been boosted up to about half Earth normal Longhorn again. “Would you like to take a so you don’t bounce around, but can still get break?”

that low-grav feel. You’re perfectly safe here.

Duke was scowling. This was not the way Right, Jaam?”

he tried to run things: making us wait around

“Absolutely,” he agreed. “Although all that endlessly for his summons, dragging things hysteria probably isn’t good for your health.

out when he wanted to grandstand or pontif-And you risk a nasty rash from peeing your icate or pander to his base and backers, cut-pants. I’d suggest some nice talcum powder.”

ting things short when he thought he might Odetta nodded. “Probably going to need a be losing even one grain of ground.

throat lozenge after all that screaming. Maybe

“I suppose we could take a break,” he said gargle with hot salt water.”

grudgingly.

Longhorn ignored these health tips, wail-Let the record show that the Science Advi-ing, “Take me back! Right this instant! ”

sor to the White House leapt to his feet,

“Back where, sugar?” Odetta cooed sweet-pumped his f ist in the air, and let out a cry of ly, sounding like she was questioning a small

“Waaaa-hooo!”

lost child.

“Back to Earth!”

Who would have thought that a 270-

She cocked her head. “So . . . you’re saying pound, 66-year-old, aggressively macho good you’re not on Earth any more?”

ol’ boy from the Great State of Texas who af-Duke started to answer, then stalled with fected the whole rootin-tootin’, gun-totin’

his mouth open. Probably trying to provide a cowboy drag thing could scream more shril-place for a new idea to escape before it could ly than a four-year-old girl? One dumped into take root.

a vat full of snakes, spiders, and human eye-

“Come on,” I wheedled. “Do you want to balls.

go back or not?”

The six of us had been beamed —the

“Yeah,” he groaned.

Amaai call it transposed—onto the surface of I waggled a f inger. “Got to get good marks the Moon at a point within sight of the f irst on the pop quiz f irst. So where are we now?”

Moon landing. We were washed in bright He pressed his lips together and shook his sunshine, and the Earth hung before us like a head like a child refusing to eat his broccoli.

priceless jewel.

“Tell them! ” Ditto and Yup-yup bawled in Well, three of us stood there. Jaam was at unison, Ditto adding, “Tell them we’re on the Odetta’s side, both sets of arms crossed, frigging Moon! ”

clearly pleased with having reconvened the

“On the Moon because a genuine space
hearing in this new location. Odetta had her alien brought you here.” I glanced back at hands on her hips, looking toward where the Jaam. “By the way, thanks for the ride.”

Eagle had landed. I had my phone out,

“No problemo. We aim to please. Should I recording the fact-f inders f inding more facts provide some refreshments? Crow, cooked than they had ever bargained for.

goose, and humble pie, for instance.”

The two f lunky committee members clung

“Come on, man,” Odetta said. “This is the to each other like drunks in an earthquake, Moon under our feet.” She pointed. “See that staring wide-eyed around them in terrif ied over there? That’s where our kind f irst set 56

STEPHEN L. BURNS

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DECEMBER 2012
foot here. Denying we came here doesn’t added with a f ierce grin. She made a sugges-change the tr uth. Denying the climate tive gesture. “You know where it will go if change models I used for SYBIL doesn’t you screw with us.”

change the fact that they’re reliable enough I stuck out my hand. “So, do we have a to help it predict weather hundreds of times deal?”

more accurately than ever before. Denying Finally he nodded, though he refused to reality doesn’t make it untrue, or make it go shake. No surprise there: he believed being away.”

gay was contagious —when it wasn’t a

She shook her head. “Ever hear the phrase lifestyle choice that could be prayed away.

‘science marches on’? Well, it does. Some-

“Well, Jaam,” Odetta said. “Looks like our times the ignorant or those invested in keep-little break is over.”

ing the tr uth bur ied manage to make it

“All right, Mr. Longhorn,” he said. “All you march in place for a bit, but eventually more have to do is click your heels together three of it builds up and it marches harder, and it times and say, well, you know what to say.”

goes right over top of your kind. Well, here Duke stared at him uncertainly.

are the boot-prints on your head. The Amaai The alien laughed. “Just kidding.”

are real, and they’re here. Pretending they A moment later we were back in the hear-aren’t won’t make them go away. If we can ing chamber, back in the places we’d started get right with them, then we can get right from.

with a whole lot of things. Don’t like it?

Duke shoved himself away from the micro-Tough titty. Run and hide your head or get phone, wanting only to go hide and lick his turned into roadkill.”

wounds. And change his pants.

“Nice sermon, Obi-wan,” I said with a

“Whoa, cowpoke,” I said. “Can’t leave just chuckle. “So what’s it going to be, Duke? Are yet.”

you willing to admit the obvious?”

He whirled back. “What?”

He shook his head from side to side, starI pointed at the gavel.

ing at his feet. “This . . . can’t be happening.”

“Fine,” he snarled, grabbing it and slam-

“It is! ” Ditto shrilled.

ming it down. “This hearing is concluded

“Make it stop! ” Yup-yup begged.

and adjourned.” That done, he spun around

“Maybe he needs more convincing,” Jaam and lurched away, Ditto and Yup-yup stum-said thoughtfully. “We could go visit Mars.”

bling along in his wake.

His eyes lit up. “I know! We could go back to

“I think this calls for a drink,” Jaam ex-Earth and check out the center of your plan-claimed. “I’ve just learned of the recipe for et! I’m pretty sure we could do that with a something called a Hairy Rasputin.”

reasonable degree of safety.”

“Got to be vodka in that,” Odetta said.

“I’m up for it!” Odetta said with a laugh.

“Make mine a double.”

“No,” Longhorn whimpered.

“Done. What about you, Tom? You sure

I f igured it was time to roll this up. “Here’s earned a snort, f iguring out how to twist the deal,” I said, adopting a f lat, no-nonsense Longhorn’s arm.”

tone of voice. “You let us pass out of com-

“I guess. But now we’ve got even bigger mittee, and promise you won’t cause any battles to f ight. The rest of Congress, then problems on down the line, and we’ll take the Senate.”

you back and pretend none of this ever hap-The alien gave me a wink. “Don’t worry.

pened.”

I’m sure we’ll f igure out something when we Duke peered at me with bombed-out eyes.

have to.”

“What about those pictures you took?”

That said, he transposed us back to his ho-I smiled. “Insurance. Let’s face it, you’ve tel suite and went straight to the bar to get us never given me one single reason to trust you started on happy hour.

any further than I could throw a dump truck I have to believe he’s right. If politics is the full of anvils. You started a game of hardball art of the possible, then a lot more things with us, so we’re going to play by hardball were possible than even an hour before.

rules.”

“And we’re hanging on to the bat,” Odetta Copyright © 2012 Stephen L. Burns

HEARING IMPAIRMENT

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THE ALTERNATE VIEW John G. Cramer INTRODUCING THE HIGGS BOSON
n July 4, 2012, the two major experi-
gate together in the same quantum state, and mental collaborations operating at
under the right circumstances many identical CERN’s Large Hadronic Collider (LHC),
bosons can pile up in the same quantum state Othe CMS and ATLAS experiments,inde- to produce Bose-Einstein condensation.

pendently announced that they had each con-In the standard model of particle physics, firmed the discovery of a previously unknown the mediating particles that serve as the carri-boson with a mass-energy of about 125 GeV, ers of the forces are always bosons. The pho-whose behavior so far has been “consistent ton (mass=0, spin=1) is the boson that medi-with” that of a Higgs boson. They cautioned ates the electromagnetic interaction. The Z0
that additional data and analysis were needed and W± bosons (masses=91.2 GeV and 80.4
before positively identifying the new particle GeV, spin=1) mediate the weak interaction.

as definitively being the Higgs boson. The The gluon (mass=0, spin=1) is the boson that physics community in general, not being so mediates the strong interaction. Also hypothe-cautious, is now convinced that the long sized is the graviton (mass=0, spin=2) that, at sought after Higgs boson has been discovered.

the quantum level, should mediate the gravita-This is not a “breakthrough” or unexpected tional interaction. As we will discuss below, discovery, because it has been long anticipat-the Higgs boson (mass=125 GeV, spin=0) is ed and was the motivation for constructing the boson that is expected to mediate interac-the LHC in the first place, but it is very signifi-tions with the Higgs field, the field that gives cant. It represents a confirmation of the stan-mass to some other bosons and all fermions.

dard model of particle physics. It is a major step toward understanding the universe in Q:What is the Higgs field? The Higgs field which we live. The CERN/LHC announce-was suggested by Peter Higgs in 1964, as a ment has already stimulated many discussions way of explaining why some fundamental par-of the Higgs boson in the popular press, but in ticles have mass and others do not. The idea is this column we want to delve a bit deeper into that there exists a scalar field (i.e., a field with the meaning and significance of this discovery.

no preferred direction) that is an intrinsic We will do this using the familiar Q&A format.

characteristic of all space, even completely empty space. The fundamental particles have Q:What is a boson? The fundamental parti-mass depending on how strongly they couple cles of physics, depending on their intrinsic to and interact with the Higgs field. Photons angular momentum (or spin), come in two and gluons do not interact with it at all, and distinct “personality types”: the individualistic thus have zero mass. Quarks and leptons inter-fermions and the group-oriented bosons.

act with it to varying degrees, accounting for Fermions, named for Italian physicist Enrico their non-zero masses.

Fermi, have half-integer spins (normally 1/2 of In principle, the electromagnetic and weak an Ã unit), obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, and be-forces should act in the same way and be in-have as described by the Pauli exclusion prin-distinguishable. The reason the weak force is ciple, with at most one fermion allowed in any so different from the electromagnetic force is given quantum state. Bosons, named for Indi-that the mediating particles of the weak inter-an theorist Satyendra Nath Bose, have integer action, the Z0 and W± bosons, interact strongly spins (normally 0, 1, or 2 Ã units), and obey with the Higgs field, while the photon does Bose-Einstein statistics. Bosons tend to congre-not. This difference in mediating masses 58

JOHN G. CRAMER

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DECEMBER 2012

“breaks the symmetry” between the forces, provide an answer to this question. In analogy leading to very different behaviors in the two with electric forces, there must be some “Hig-forces. Since the mass of the mediating parti-gs charge” that fundamental particles possess cle determines the “range” or distance over in varying degrees. It is not quantized, like which the interaction acts, the weak interac-spin and electric charge, and it can be very tion, mediated by massive particles, is a very large, giving the top quark a mass-energy of short range force while the electromagnetic 171.2 GeV, or very small, giving the electron interaction, mediated by massless photons, neutrino a mass-energy
of around
has infinite range.

0.000000001 GeV. The Higgs charge can also The Higgs field is often characterized as a be zero, as it is for the photon, gluon, and sort of “molasses” that impedes the progress graviton. What sets the coupling strength of a of massive particles interacting with the Higgs particle to the Higgs field, and why that field as they move through it. This is not really strength can vary over such a large dynamic a very good analogy, however, because mov-range, are questions that the present standard ing through molasses involves loss of energy, model does not answer. We need a better the-while moving through the Higgs field does ory.

not. It is better to think of a moving massive It should also be noted that composite par-particle as surrounded by a cloud of virtual ticles like the proton and neutron do not owe particles (see below) that the moving particle most of their mass to the Higgs mechanism. A must carry along as “baggage” as it moves proton is a system of two up quarks
through the Higgs field. Massless particles like (mass=0.0024 GeV) and one down quark
the photon carry no such baggage and move (mass=0.0048 GeV) bound together by the at the speed of light.

strong interaction. The quarks themselves contribute only a small fraction of the total Q:What is a Higgs boson? If the Higgs field mass of the proton. The majority of the pro-is a still pond of water, the Higgs boson is the ton’s mass-energy is attributable to the action ripples in the pond. The presence of a force of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. The field implies the existence of a particle that is a strong interaction confines the quarks in a pro-minimal disturbance in that field. Examples ton to a rather small ‘box,’ making their posi-are photons (electromagnetic field) and gravi-tions very well localized. The uncertainty prin-ty waves (gravitational field). The Higgs boson ciple requires that such localization in position is a wave disturbance in the Higgs field, and is be accompanied by a rather large uncertainty the lowest possible energy state of such a disin momentum, meaning that on the average turbance. The Higgs boson is also the mediat-the bound quarks have a large momentum, ing particle of the Higgs field, so that the mas-and thus a large kinetic energy. The kinetic ensive particles that are strongly coupled to the ergy of the three quarks, as they rattle around Higgs field will be surrounded by a cloud of in their proton box, accounts for most of the virtual Higgs bosons that give the particles mass-energy of the proton (0.938 GeV)

their mass.

The mass-energy of the Higgs boson was ex-Q: How do the CERN experimenters know pected to be roughly one hundred times larger that the particle they have observed is a Hig-than that of a proton (mass energy=0.938
gs boson and not some random unrelated GeV), but the standard model provides no de-particle? The Higgs boson is very unstable, finitive prediction of what the Higgs mass and when produced it exists for a very short should be. The LHC experiments have report-time before it decays into other, less massive ed the mass-energy of their candidate Higgs to particles. Because of the way that the Higgs be about 125 GeV, consistent with this expec-field couples to other particles and because of tation.

its zero spin, there are some decay modes that are favored and others that are “forbidden” or Q: Why do some fundamental particles disfavored. In searching for the Higgs boson, couple to the Higgs field while others do not?

analysis of p+p collisions at the LHC has fo-Our present understanding of particle physics cused on favored decay channels, for example is what we call the standard model. It does not the decay into a pair of Z0 bosons, and looked INTRODUCING THE HIGGS BOSON

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ANALOG
for “mass bumps” in those channels that acceleration is changing its reference frame.

would indicate a Higgs boson of a certain mass-energy. Correlated studies must show Q:What is the significance of the discovery that the candidate particle must not decay into of the Higgs for everyday life and the real forbidden channels when produced. The evi-world in which we live? In one important dence so far strongly suggests a 125 GeV mass-sense, if the Higgs field did not exist, we bump appearing in the favored channels and would not be here to worry about it. The Hig-the absence of such a bump in forbidden gs mechanism gives mass to the electrons that channels, but more data needs to be analyzed orbit atoms. The massive electrons organize to make the identification of the new particle themselves into shells that account for chemi-as a Higgs boson unambiguous.

cal valences and lead to the chemical properties that make life possible. If one could throw Q: Is there only one kind of Higgs boson?

a switch that would make the Higgs field van-The standard model does not require that ish from space, all particles would become there be any more than one kind of Higgs bo-massless and could travel only at the speed of son, but some of the extensions of the stan-light, all solid matter would evaporate in a dard model suggest that there may be two or cloud of lightspeed particles, and all life would even more Higgs-type particles in nature. The abruptly end.

more massive ones, if they exist, are yet to be In another sense, the Higgs discovery has discovered. In particular, one extension called everyday importance because today we un-

“supersymmetry” would predict a second Hig-derstand something new about how the uni-gs-type particle. The experiments at the LHC
verse works that we did not understand, or at are focused on this question, and as more data least were not sure of, yesterday. When the is collected and the analysis becomes more se-large accelerator at Fermilab that became the lective and statistically significant, some indi-Tevatron was first being constructed in the cations of additional Higgs-type particles may early 1970s, there was reportedly a hearing in emerge. Theoretical extensions of the stan-the U. S. Senate at which a senator asked dard model will be supported or falsified de-Robert R. Wilson, then the director of Fermi-pending on the outcome of this work. At this lab, if his new accelerator could be used to de-writing (late July 2012) there are unconfirmed fend the United States. “No, Senator,” Wilson rumors from the direction of the LHC that a is supposed to have answered, “but building second Higgs may be showing up at a mass-en-machines like this to learn how the universe ergy around 140 GeV.

works is one of the things that makes the United States worth defending.”

Q: Does the discovery of the Higgs boson explain everything about the origins of AV Columns Online: Electronic reprints of mass? Unfortunately, the answer is no. As over 160 “The Alternate View” columns by mentioned above, mass and energy are relat-John G. Cramer, previously published in Ana-ed, and the mass of the proton arises mainly log, are available online at: http://www.npl.

from kinetic energy rather than from the Hig-washington.edu/av.

gs-derived mass of its constituent quarks. Further, even “massless” particles like the photon References:

exhibit the properties of mass like deflection Discovery of the Higgs Boson:

by gravity because they have energy. The term

“CERN experiments observe particle consis-

“massless” means only that they have intrinsic tent with long-sought Higgs boson”, CERN Press rest mass of zero. And while interactions with release, July 4, 2012, http://press.web.cern.

the Higgs field may explain the mass of funda-ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR17.1
mental particles, it does not completely ex-2E.html.

plain the origins of inertia, the tendency of

“Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key mass to resist acceleration. Some deeper ex-to Universe”, Dennis Overbye, New York planation, perhaps Mach’s Principle, is re-Times, July 4, 2012. ■
quired to account for the origins of inertial forces and explain how a mass “knows” that Copyright © 2012 John G. Cramer

60

JOHN G. CRAMER

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BIOLOG Richard A. Lovett PAUL CARLSON
aul Carlson was born to be a science
went on for two or three single-spaced fiction writer. His mother and father
pages. We corresponded for several years, were both schoolteachers (his father
until he passed away.”

Plater became an elementaryschool Encouraged byAnderson,he gave writing principal), so of course he and his sisters a try, and after the normal series of rejec-learned to read early—”just about the time tions and some sales to Yard Dog Press we were out of diapers,” he says with no (which he calls “the world’s most quirky sign of exaggeration.

small press”), he began selling to Analog in Nor was he confined to kids’ fare. His 2008.

mother liked science fiction and there were So far, all of his Analog stories have fea-all these books lying around . . . “So I didn’t tured a truck driver with a robot partner.

bother much with Cat in the Hat,” he says.

In part that’s because Carlson is writing

“I started picking up Asimov, Clarke, and what he knows, and hoping that maybe he Kornbluth. It was adult fare, but nobody can save someone’s life by showing them told me, so it made a very vivid impression.”

what the road looks like from behind the By the time he was in fifth grade, Star wheel of something with a longer stopping Trek was on TV, and when two years later distance than a passenger car.

NBC announced its cancellation, Carlson But he’s also intrigued by the paucity of was pounding the pavement, helping bring trucker stories in science fiction or related it back for its franchise-saving third season.

genres. Through personal contacts and mes-

“I got every kid I knew to sign the petition sage boards, he’s assembled what he thinks to the network,” he says.

is a near-complete list of everything in the Meanwhile, he scoured the science fic-field, finding only thirty or forty science fiction section of his suburban library. “I think tion stories, five fantasies, and a mere two I read virtually every book they had when I mysteries. “As far as I know there are four of was in middle school,” he says.

us alive in the English-speaking world Then life intervened, as world travels sent who’ve written [trucker science fiction],”

him to places as exotic as Ukraine, South he says.

Korea, and Macedonia.

In addition to introducing readers to the But by 1990, he was back in his native world of trucking, Carlson shares many Northern California, where he took a job as Analog writers’ interest in writing stories a truck driver, bought more science fiction that counter the cynicism, hopelessness, books than had ever been in his small-town and destructive anger he often sees on both library, and discovered that Poul Anderson sides of the political spectrum. “Analog sto-lived nearby.

ries generally have a very positive outlook,”

“I wrote him a letter,” Carlson says, “and he says. “Even when things are really bad, he wrote back. He’d always start, ‘I’m kind the people have a chance.”

of busy, so this is going to be quick,’ then Copyright © 2012 Richard A. Lovett

61

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The

Perfect

Book

Ken Liu

Every book is a quotation.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

’d like something beautiful, set in a
tences.” Or maybe she preferred “lyrical, warm place,” the young woman
imagistic writing, major plot types 17, 27, mi-said, a hint of melancholy in her
nor variations 81-89, transparent metaphors,

“Ivoice.

variant pace, loose, exploratory sentences.”

“Sun-dappled waves okay?” the barista

The Book Genome Project worked in mysteri-asked.

ous ways.

She nodded. “And friendship. But no ro-He put the cup of coffee on a tray, along mance.”

with a biscotto. As he waited, he imagined

“Happy ending or sad?”

the software routines searching through the

“Surprise me.”

vast database of quotations, snippets of books The barista held out his hand. She handed tagged by keywords and Book Genome meta-over her reader, a little plastic slate as light as data. The algorithms strung the snippets to-a few sheets of paper stapled together. He slid gether into a coherent narrative, altered the it into the dock, punched in a few codes, and selections, replacing names, dates, places, depressed START.

scriptions so that they all f it, tweaked and

“Anything else I can get you?”

polished the whole thing so that it all ap-

“A coffee would be nice.”

peared seamless and consistent.

As he prepared the beverage, he kept an The blue LED stopped pulsing. “Here you eye on the dock, where a blue LED pulsed go,” he said, sliding the tray and the reader slowly. He imagined her purchasing history over the counter. “The biscotto is free.”

being uploaded to a server somewhere in the

“I seem to get a lot of free biscotti here,”

cloud, and her reading tastes analyzed, lashe said, her voice already brightening. She beled. Maybe she was the sort who liked picked up the reader. “Anybody famous in

“slow, meticulous prose, major plot types 23, this one?”

25, 72, minor variations 117-221, few allu-He glanced at the display on the dock. “I sions, moderate pace, long, lingering sen-see there’s a bit of Woolf, a bit of Joyce, and a 62

KEN LIU

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DECEMBER 2012
lot of this new author from Taipei, Annie W.

She’s popular. Very malleable prose, I under-She handed him the reader. He nodded,
stand, adaptable to lots of books.”

then frowned as he looked at the dock.

She thanked him, sat down, and began to

“I have to take this into the back,” he said.

read her book, the book that was custom

“The one out here is broken.”

made, brewed just for her by a machine. It A few minutes later, he came back out. He was unlike any other book in the world. It returned her reader along with a bowl of soup was perfect. He could already see the smile and a sandwich.

forming on her face as she gradually lost her-

“Sorry for the inconvenience,” he said.

self in the pages.

“This is our apology.”

The smile was every bit as beautiful as he

“It’s no big deal. You didn’t make me wait had expected.

that long.”

He slipped a few bills into the cash register,

“We insist.”

to pay for the biscotto. Every week, he did She laughed and thanked him. “Anybody fa-this so that he could be around her a little mous in here?”

longer.

“No, not this time.”

She sat down to eat and read.

After work, he went home, turned on his He paid for the food and stared at her in-computer, and stared at the empty screen.

tently. He hoped that the lunch would delay He thought about the algorithms in the her longer than usual.

cloud. They continued to run, tallying up how She frowned as she read. His heart grew much each author had contributed to the heavy. Her frown deepened into an expres-book. The $4.99 she paid would be distrib-sion of anger. He clenched his f ists. She uted to everyone whose words were in the f lipped through the pages quickly with her book, even if it was just a sentence or two.

thumb. His heart quickened.

There was no more piracy because every She sighed, got up, and put the reader book was unique, tuned to a particular read-away, a bit reluctantly.

er’s taste. Copyright was finally doing its job, He went up to her. “Everything all right?

and every author was getting paid. Everyone How was the book?”

was supposed to be happy.

She thought about it for a bit. “It’s not like He knew he was late to his night school any other book I’ve ordered.”

class, where they taught him how to write for He waited.

the algorithms, how to generate snippets with

“It’s not perfect. It’s downright infuriating the most popular Book Genome metadata, in some places. But . . .”

how to craft his prose so that the sentences His heart hovered.

would be easy to modify by the computer, the

“. . . there are passages that are just wonder-words easy to stitch together with the words ful, original, like nothing I’ve read before. It’s of others.

got a mind of its own, like a person, like But he didn’t care. He continued to stare at someone I’d like to meet.”

the screen. He wanted to tell a whole story, His heart leapt.

not to write snippets. He wanted it to be read

“I wrote it,” he said. “I wrote it for you.”

from start to finish. He didn’t care if he would be paid.

Copyright © 2012 Ken Liu

THE PERFECT BOOK

63

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Garden

Spot

Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Some say the periodic table is the best Rosetta stone. . . .

atty Gurkow looked out across the
specimens they had collected in the first sec-vista afforded him from the passen-
tor of their grid. They weren’t really snails—
ger seat in the Surface Rover Unit.

more of a snail analogue—but they seemed to MHe took a deep breath of the be everywhere there was something even canned atmosphere inside his enviro-suit and minutely endowed with chlorophyl.

pretended he was breathing the air of ELP539-There was no way Matty could f ind the 2030.

charting of new worlds boring, and he hoped Matty wrinkled his nose. How blah. Earth-he never would. Five years ago, he had been a like planet yada, yada, string of numbers. That glorified trash collector—picking up and dis-wasn’t a name.

posing of the tons of space debris in his own Matty—ever the romantic—preferred to
solar system. He’d only dreamed of journeying think of the planet as Sedona. That was what into real outer space until one of his crew-it reminded him of, after all, with its vivid mates—Janine Dukakis—had encouraged him reds, terra cottas, ochres, and sands—Sedona, to study and apply for remote missions with Arizona, where he and his family had vaca-the Space Exploratory Project.

tioned from time to time. There was no true He was the low man on the team totem
green here, and—at least at this location—lit-pole, charged with setting up testing stations, tle of the silvery blue green that typif ied the scraping samples of goo and ick off of rocks, plant life they’d catalogued so far.

and carting around snail analogues. He didn’t

“Striking, isn’t it?” Matty asked.

care. He was standing on an alien world, see-

“Boring, don’t you mean?” said his partner, ing alien rocks and plants and snails, pretend-Explorer Second Class Keven Royce-Ang. “Af-ing to breathe alien air, and hoping against ter a while, all these uninhabitables look alike.

hope to actually meet an alien. He refused to Earth-like, my aunt’s anti-grav boots. If it was be as jaded as Keven.

Earth-like, we wouldn’t be in these enviro-

“Here we are,” said his partner, stopping suits and there’d be something living on it big-the SRU in a long, boulder-strewn vale bor-ger than snails. ” Keven gestured at the dered by low, rolling, rust-colored hills.

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MAYA KAATHRYN BONHOFF

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DECEMBER 2012

They debarked and Matty grabbed the sam-come through. It was a shame, he thought pling kit while Keven picked up a hand-held wistfully, that there were no aliens here to in-sensor array and set about looking for life-dulge his deepest longing—First Contact. He signs. He found a promising spot in the lee of had dreamed of it since childhood. In his prea boulder the size of a small pony.

vious job there hadn’t been a snowball’s Keven pointed at the damp sand around the chance in hell of experiencing it. At least out base of the big rock. “There you go—water.

here, there was a chance. Who knew—maybe I’m picking up algae, some mold spores. A the snails were sentient.

regular stew. Once you’ve got the sampler set The thought struck him as funny and he up, you can get some clippings off the nearby laughed, striking the boulder on which he sat greenery—and I use the term loosely.” He with a gloved fist.

gave Matty a pat on the shoulder with one Odd. The rock seemed to vibrate with the gloved hand and headed back toward the SRU.

gentle blow.

“I’m going on up that hill about a half-klick Matty stood and studied the boulder closely.

and get some plant samples. When we came It was a pale gray-tan with striations of glitter-over the ridge, I thought I saw something with ing black and white f lecks that looked like little flowers on it.”

mica. It seemed solid enough, but . . .

Keven slid into the driver’s seat of the little He struck it again, with the same result. It electric vehicle and gave Matty a wave before did not feel like solid rock. On a wave of ex-turning the SRU in a tight circle and buzzing citement, Matty dug a tool and a sample bag-up the nearest slope in a spray of sand and gie out of his kit and scraped at the surface of dirt.

the rock, expecting the shiny flecks to pop off Matty went to work quickly, setting up the into his bag. They did, but the rock beneath testing station in the damp sandy soil where was not at all what he’d expected. It was the light of Sedona’s star would warm it for smooth and uniformly gray.

long hours. That done, he set up a tiny video He scraped at the bared layer and was sur-camera with a wide angle lens. It would pan prised when his knife left a paler gray gouge.

slowly around the area unless and until it He turned up the gain on his external mic and sensed movement. Then it would swivel and tapped the rock sharply with the butt of his hopefully give the explorers a look at a life-knife.

form larger than the local snails.

Hollow! It had to be hollow! Solid rock sim-Once the camera was up and running, he ply did not sound like that.

checked Keven’s progress. Up the slope, his Stowing the knife, Matty got down on his partner was busily popping local f lora into a knees next to the boulder and examined sample bag.

where it met the soil. Right next to his sample Matty went to work as well, clipping a se-station, where the dampness was most pro-ries of samples from low-lying mounds of sil-nounced and the earth had subsided a bit, very vegetation. He was especially gratified to there was a sliver of darkness—a gap.

find a funny-looking cactus-like plant growing All but holding his breath, Matty reached a around the base of a large, f lat slab of rock hand into the gap and dug a little more sand that had, not just “little” f lowers, but big, out. When there was enough room for both bright red blooms the size of Matty’s palm.

gloved hands, he dug his f ingers in and The plants grew in sunlight and shadow, but heaved.

the f lowers only seemed to blossom in the The boulder flipped upward with such ease shade.

that Matty toppled over onto his well-insulated Matty dug up several of them, then returned backside. When he clambered back to his feet, to his sampling station. He glanced up the hill-the boulder was standing on one end, reveal-side at where Keven was still working, then ing that it was, indeed, hollow. In its shadow shrugged and sat down on the boulder to soak was what it had concealed and what was re-in the moment.

sponsible for the dampness of the soil—an He was on an alien world! A place where, over-sized metal water spigot attached to a until today, human beings had set foot only coiled hose the same color as the native soil.

once, when the Initial Survey Mission had The hose was leaking.

GARDEN SPOT

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Before he could react to this impossible dis-thereafter so as to avoid further contact with covery, Matty heard the grind of stone on the unknown (and unexpected) alien crea-stone from behind him. He turned and beheld tures and high-tailed it back to their orbiting the slab of rock from which he’d dug most of vessel.

his plant samples sliding back to reveal a very The entire exploration team watched the large, very dark hole.

video feed as they circled the planet, awaiting Out of that hole came a creature that looked orders from SEP Central Planning.

like nothing so much as a giant gecko—but a The giant alien geckos came back into the gecko out of nightmare, with sharp, bright frame, the camera swiveling to follow their teeth, humongous amber eyes, and a ruff that movement. Their neck frills were still fully ex-stood out around its head in a spiky halo. It tended, and the one with the stick was using carried a big stick in one paw, which it waved it as a walking staff. The two paused briefly to over its frilled head, and shrieked at him unin-put the boulder back in place over the water telligibly.

spigot, then kicked at the tire tracks that fur-Matty turned and ran. He’d gone only two rowed the sand between the sandy hillocks.

steps when his radio unit crackled and The gecko with the stick opened his tooth-Keven’s voice pierced his eardrums.

some mouth and gestured at the sky with his

“Jeez, oh man!” Keven shrilled. “What the cudgel, his jaws working.

hell? I’m coming in hot, Matty! Just jump in The second gecko disappeared briefly, then and hold on!”

returned with a short pole and a flat piece of Matty looked up the hillside. Keven was, in-material with pictographs on it. This, he lifted deed, “coming in hot.” He had the little SRU
into place just beyond the hose cover and moving at top speed, spitting sand and small held the pole while his companion pounded it rocks every which way. Behind him was an-into the sands with a rock the size of Matty’s other of the alien geckos; this one was throw-head.

ing rocks.

The camera remained focused on the duo, Keven bore down on Matty, serpentining to giving the explorers a good look at the sig-avoid being hit. At the bottom of the low rise, nage. It showed a stylized image of a gecko he slewed the little vehicle sideways, slowing with a cudgel. The two aliens turned and just enough for Matty to dive into the passen-marched out of the frame.

ger side. Then he turned back toward their

“Soooo,” said Keven on a gust of air. “That shuttle and floored it.

was First Contact.”

Matty prayed that giant geckos couldn’t run Matty sighed, momentarily overcome with as fast as small electric cars could roll at maxi-disappointment. When he’d enlisted with mum throttle.

Space Exploratory, it had never occurred to His prayers were answered, the geckos fell him that the f irst words in an alien language behind, and the two explorers made it back to he’d learn would be “Get off my lawn!”

their waiting shuttle. They lifted off shortly Copyright © 2012 Maya Kaathryn Bonhoff 66

MAYA KAATHRYN BONHOFF

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Cats

Know

Richard A. Lovett

Are there degrees of immortality?

he was a peculiar mix of clichés: hair in terialize in the air beside it. Educational Socia bun and a shapeless granny dress . . .

ety of America, or some such thing. Which ex-sheer enough to reveal a shapely figure plained why it was so easily confused.

Sbeneath.Victorian schoolmarm meets Nonprofits never had much budget for high Victoria’s Secret: an ensemble designed to tech. Not that their ’verts had to be all that so-catch attention even among a mall crowded phisticated, given their constitutional right to with holoverts.

pester you.

“Name three supermodels,” she said.

He thought about telling it to leave him Ed Widmer never knew what to do with
alone. But probably part of what drew these these things. And somehow, he f igured, the things to him was that he radiated enough ads must be designed to know it, much like soft-touch gentleness that even the most unso-cats are drawn to people who feel the same phisticated adware could spot it. Which was way about them.

why Marie used to tell him that protests to the

“Huh?”

contrary, he was a closet cat person. “Cats

“Supermodels. Name three.”

know,” she’d say with one of those Mona Lisa He shook his head. “You?”

smiles that could mean anything. It had been She wasn’t programmed for that. The image f ive years, and there wasn’t a day he didn’t f lickered, then decided to go on with the miss her.

script. “Now name three of your children’s

“Umm,” he said, and the ESoA logo froze teachers.”

mid-fade, waiting.

Sadly, he’d never had kids. And if he had, it He was wondering what he truly remem-would be their children’s teachers she should bered of his long-ago teachers. There’d been be asking about, or maybe even their chil-the one in fifth grade who’d pinched his ears dren’s children’s. However attention-catching whenever he wasn’t paying attention. Mrs.

the surface, she wasn’t the most sophisticated Somebody-or-Other. And the shy one, a year or of holoverts. Wrinkles, Marie had called him.

two later, who’d been prone to the most amaz-My happy Mr.Wrinkles.

ing sneezing f its. “Choo-choo-choo-choo-Ed’s hesitation wasn’t helping. Already, he choo-choo-choo-choo,” in a soft little voice, could see the holovert trying to jump another sometimes thirty or forty times in a row. Miss step ahead in its script as a logo began to ma-Something Else. Though it ought to have been 67

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ANALOG

Ms., even back in what the grandkids he didn’t lated to why he attracted cats.

have would think of as the Stone Age, before .

And it had been an interesting minute. Take-

. . well, before anything cool. He and Marie home lesson: if you’re a teacher wanting to might not have had kids, but that didn’t mean leave an impression, a great nickname is the they’d not known how kids thought. Cancer way to start—though it might not be the im-kids were their specialty. Every Tuesday and pression you wanted. He had no recollection Thursday in the children’s hospital. Mr. Wrin-what had been wild about Harry, couldn’t re-kles and Madame Mophead. Clowning to bring member if Jack had had great abs or a beer bel-smiles, because all the medical literature said ly. Three Eyes? That one at least he could happy kids had a better chance of surviving.

remember. The guy’d had an honest-to-good-Or such, at least, was the off icial reason the ness monocle. When he screwed it in and doctors let them in. For Ed and Marie it had stared at you, that’s when you knew his pa-simply been because these were kids, and kids tience was wearing thin. Only idiots crossed deserved smiles.

Magee when the monocle was in place.

Teachers? Who the hell else had there been?

Oh yeah, the high-school chemistry teacher.

That night, Ed hit the Net. “Supermodels,”

Just out of college and gorgeous enough her-he said. “Who’s hot?”

self to be a supermodel, or so his hormone-No, that was going to get him a string of drenched brain had thought when he was nearly nudes pretending to be dressed to staring at her legs instead of learning chem-swim.

istry—which, sadly, was most of the time.

“Change that. Who’s popular?”

There ought to be a rule against teachers like That also produced a string of swimsuit pic-that for adolescent males. Maybe she’d kept tures, but also gowns and perfectly made-up him from winning a Nobel Prize. The resulting faces. Plus names. Alicia, Tatiana, Miranda, C– had certainly helped persuade him science Gletchen.

wasn’t his forte. No name at all there, howev-No Maries, Susans, Beckys, or anything nor-er. Just the legs. And the hair. Jet black, mid-mal. And what the hell kind of name was back. The opposite of the blonde apparition Gletchen? He looked it up on BabyNames and before him now. Everything else about her, in-found three in the U.S. and four in Germany.

cluding the chemistry Ed hadn’t learned, was Whadya know. If you can imagine it, someone lost in the mists of time.

will use it.

But he could still find a few names.

Bemused, he clicked down the list.

“Six-Pack Jack Fitzgerald,” he said. “Wild And suddenly, there she was: the Victoria’s Harry Grazier. Third-Eye Magee.”

Secret/schoolmarm holovert. Not so Victorian The holovert f lickered again, probably at-in these pics, although not as rampantly not-so tempting to match the names to a database.

as some of the others. She even had a name.

But of course they weren’t there, so she went Chanterelle. Chanterelle Greene. Though fur-on with her program, letting the ESoA logo ther research indicated she’d invented it some-fade fully into view, then morph into the push where along the line. She’d been born
line: So, what’s really important to you?

Candace Bloumer. Middle school must have Thank God she didn’t actually say it. Or maybe been hell.

she was about to, when he was spared by the approach of a thirtysomething woman carry-The next day Ed went back to the mall, trying a large Macy’s bag, and she blinked away ing to remember the route he’d taken the day from him, into position in front of the new-before. First he’d gone to PlayCentral, looking comer.

for a toy for his grandniece, Maddy. But noth-

“Name three supermodels.”

ing had looked like fun. Too single-purpose.

The Macy’s shopper barely gave a glance.

High-tech gizmos that didn’t know what toys

“Go away,” she said, and walked right on really were and followed scripts any reason-through the ’vert, without breaking pace.

able child would f ind mind numbing by . . .

Ed had often wished he could do the same.

what did the British call it? Boxing Day, that But even though a holovert wasn’t real, he was it. The day after Christmas. What an odd couldn’t help but be polite. It was probably re-name for a holiday. Was it was about fisticuffs, 68

RICHARD A. LOVETT

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DECEMBER 2012
or cardboard? And what had happened to vorite brandy.

dolls or stuffed animals or any of those things Then he again went on the Net. This time children could take with them on adventure he researched holoverts.

after adventure? When Ed had been Maddy’s What he found was depressing. Even the age, he’d had a toy tractor, complete with low-end models drew from high-end web-plow, cultivator, harvester, and he couldn’t re-ware. Artificial intelligence was the name of member what else—all made of steel, with the game, but fees were based on simulated rubber tires and a steering wheel that worked.

IQ. Baseline: 70. Anything more was an add-Probably worth a fortune if he’d saved them on.

rather than using them to plow furrows in the Not only had Chanterelle’s purchasers been sandbox for imaginary corn.

hypocritical enough to use a genuine super-He shook himself, trying to focus. Forget-model as their template, they’d been cheap ting the plan was one of the big downsides of enough not to program her with the intelli-getting old. Give his thoughts the right tan-gence and self-awareness to know who she’d gent—hell, any tangent—and he could chase it been. With any semi-decent program, his forever. What was I doing? It had become a

“you” quip should have produced a reaction.

lot worse since he’d lost Marie.

He and Marie had spent years clowning to can-After the toy store, it had been socks. Then cer kids. Either of them could’ve come up lunch. He was a sucker for big baked potatoes, with a million better ad-libs than the holovert’s loaded with all the toppings, but food-court flickering indecision. Even a grin would have outlets that sold those things had a half-life not done the trick. Bargain-basement AI, trapped much longer than wonder-widget toys. Spud-in a mall, repeating the same script, over and Station was already losing business. Not over.

enough grease to keep customers coming He drained the last of the brandy, thought back, he supposed. Demands for healthy food about pouring another but decided not to.

choices were like New Year’s resolutions. Top Marie wouldn’t have approved.

priority on Boxing Day, forgotten with time to spare for Valentine’s chocolate.

That night he slept poorly. He blamed the Where was I? Oh yeah. Socks, then lunch.

brandy, but when he did sleep, he dreamed of What then? A movie, yeah. He’d just left, think-Marie trapped in a cancer ward with her quick ing Marie would have liked it, when—
wit and ever-perfect reactions crippled by a She was wearing the same shapelessly re-swarm of . . . bees? . . . gnats? . . . that buzzed in vealing dress as yesterday. Blonde hair pinned her head until she might as well already have just as before. “Name three supermodels,” she had the stroke that ultimately claimed her.

said with precisely the same intonation.

“You.”

“Name three supermodels.”

As before, she flickered, reached the same Nothing had changed.

decision. “Now name three of your children’s

“You. Chanterelle.”

teachers.”

Again the flicker.

“Six-Pack Jack Fitzgerald, Wild Harry Gra-

“Now name three of your children’s teach-zier, Third-Eye Magee.”

ers.”

Again as before, she flickered, accessing im-

“Six-Pack Jack Fitzgerald, Wild Harry Gra-possible information. No nicknames in her zier, Third-Eye Magee.” The logo was appear-database. The image was again fading toward ing, so Ed rushed the rest. “You—your name the sign-off. Educational Society of America.

was Greene. Chanterelle Greene. I don’t re-

“Your name,” Ed said. She was already trans-member anything about Six-Pack or Wild Har-parent, the ESoA logo fading into the f iery ry. But you, whoever you were, you matter.”

words: So, what’s really important to you?

Another shopper was already approaching.

“You’re Chanterelle. Like the mushroom.”

“Check the web,” he said. “You were also Candace. But you preferred Chanterelle.”

Ed rarely drank—it was a bad habit for wid-Then the other shopper was within range owers. But that night he poured himself a and Candace/Chanterelle flicked away to do .

sherry, followed by two fingers of Marie’s fa-

. . her job? Her destiny? Her only option?

CATS KNOW

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ANALOG

“Name three supermodels . . .” He didn’t

“You.”

wait to watch.

But that wasn’t any more in her programming than anything else.

That night Ed searched the Net yet again.

The ESoA wasn’t hard to f ind. But an ad-That night he had an email from someone at dress that might lead to a real person was.

ESoA. Sorry, and all that. Too expensive . . .

Eventually, he found a contact form. Poured better uses of funds . . .

two f ingers of brandy. Couldn’t f igure out what to do and went to bed, the brandy un-Weird names have an advantage: they’re touched.

easy to run down on the Net. Candace

Bloumers were even rarer than Gletchens.

“Name three supermodels.”

Beautiful blonde ones, rarer yet.

“You. Chanterelle.”

She was a bit older than the holovert’s

“Now name three of your children’s teach-frozen-in-time image. She was also a lot more ers.”

interesting. No IQ 70 here.

“Greene. Your name was Greene.”

And, she was dead. Only a few months after But someone new was approaching and she Marie, in a hit-and-run on the Terwilliger was already gone.

curves. Brain-dead, but not quite. Perfect for

“Name—”

an upload, the organic brain unsalvageable but This shopper had no patience at all. “Shoo!”

the template still good enough for AI. He won-She caught Ed watching. “What is it with dered what heir had sold her out, then won-damn these things? You’d think the mall could dered what was left of the real her. Thought keep them out.”

again of the dream of Marie, then fired off another email to the advert’s . . . employers?

Two more f ingers of brandy, then two

Owners? Contractors?

more, nearly a full glass. The bastards.

Somewhere out there was a databank with a Half the glass was gone.

copy of the real Chanterelle—or at least her They thought they stood for . . . IQ seventy .

template. A databank that sold out this dumb-

. . Anything below that was the technical defi-ed-down version, so constrained that even if it nition of mental retardation.

knew who it was, it wasn’t allowed to . . .

He drained the rest of the brandy.

what? Know that it knew?

How could they, and call themselves edu-This time Ed’s email wasn’t as friendly. I cators?

have a friend who works for the Associated He found where he’d bookmarked the con-Press . . .

tact address for the association and started to type. Nothing about bastards or hypocrisy. Just Two days later, she was again at her usual a polite suggestion that their ads might be post. But this time her greeting was different.

counterproductive. The type of nice-guy stuff

“It’s you.”

that was probably what made him a cat-mag-

“Yes.”

net.

“Was I really Chanterelle?”

But that raised several other concerns, he

“Yes.”

started to write, though the first time, it came

“She was so beautiful. So . . .”

out comcernes. He stared at that a bit before

“Yes.”

correcting it, trying to figure out what kind of Then the next shopper drew near, and she language root such a word might come from.

flicked away. “Name three supermodels . . .”

Brandy Italliano, he concluded. But he was done with the brandy. He knew what he want-That evening, he took a long walk instead of ed.

brandy. It was spring and the city smelled of flowers. Cherry blossoms, azaleas, rhododen-

“Name three supermodels.”

drons. Ed had always been a creature of sum-

“You. Chanterelle.”

mer—endless daylight and months without

“Now name three of your children’s teach-rain. Marie had preferred the swing seasons.

ers.”

Fall, with its brisk nights and golden leaves.

70

RICHARD A. LOVETT

WorldMags.net

DECEMBER 2012

Spring, with its petal-strewn streets, tree buds

“Name three . . . oh, it’s you.”

in overdrive, and ever-changing cycle of show-She f lickered then reappeared. No more ers, sunbreaks, and rainbows.

granny dress. A simple T-shirt—ESoA logo, but What if they’d wanted Marie for an AI tem-what the hell—and blue jeans. Designer, of plate? Would he have jumped at the chance of course, but the type that simply made her look keeping some semblance of her around, or good, not excessively attention-catching.

would he have wanted the real Marie or none

“Thanks for coming back.”

at all?

“What do you remember?”

“About you? Only that you’ve been here be-Better, he typed that night, but not good fore. Several times, I think.”

enough.

“I meant about yourself.”

He tried to find a suitable threat, but came

“Oh.” She stared into space. “Not a lot. I’m up blank. His friend at AP was actually a sports an upload . . . I think. You can find versions of writer. Not the type to be able to push some-me in 172 malls in twenty-seven states. Califor-thing like this into the expose he’d threatened.

nia, Arizona, Nevada—”

Ed had been raised Lutheran, but it had

“Whoa. Tell me about the original
been a long time ago. What was it Jesus had Chanterelle.”

called the hypocrites of his era? Whitewashed Long pause. “I don't know much about her.

tombs? Something like that. Beautiful on the Just the name and a couple of photos. I could outside, but dead within. The phrase “brood look more up on the Net, but it seems a little of vipers” also stirred memory. There’d been weird.”

more to Jesus than the hippie-guy pictures on

“Want to know?”

Sunday-school walls.

Longer pause. “Yeah. I think.”

Marie had known something similar. She’d But of course, there were other shoppers.

had a tongue in her, and knew how to use it.

“Sorry,” she said. “Gotta work.”

What would Jesus do?

She flicked away.

Another vision came to mind, this one

“Name three supermodels.”

about whips and the overturned tables of

“Screw you—”

cheating moneychangers. Not that Ed would And again she got walked through. But this know how to use a whip if someone gave him time, her image lingered.

one. And he’d already tried his best equivalent,

“Hmm,” she said, shooting a glance at Ed.

with his threat about his reporter friend.

“That doesn’t work all that well, does it?”

What would Marie do?

He shook his head. “No.” He wondered if Put that way, it was obvious.

he was the only one who’d ever truly talked to You’re better than this, he typed, but your her. “Not usually.”

message is getting lost. It might be more ef-She flicked back to him.

fective if you used the full intelligence of your

“So, who was I?”

holo . . .

He hesitated, suddenly unsure. “You had it He continued to type, well into the night, all,” he said eventually.

picking his words, then re-re-picking them,

“Had?”

telling the folks at ESoA about Mr. Wrinkles Marie, he thought with a pang, but forced it and Madame Mophead, telling them that, yes, aside. Marie was gone. This was today. “Yeah.

kids were important but that what was also When the template was taken, you were thir-important was working with them with en-ty-seven—”

thusiasm and joy, not because someone forced

“Over the hill . . .”

you to. Because kids were smart—instinctively

“I guess. But only for a model. You’d gone smart, not just book smart—and like cats, they back to college and gotten degrees in paleon-knew the difference. Which, he didn’t write, tology and biogeochemistry, whatever that is.

was part of why he’d only clowned a few I could track it down if you want.”

times after Marie’s death. Because his heart

“Fossil chemistry,” she said. “You can learn wasn’t in it, only his pain, and the kids had a lot from the chemical residues preserved in known.

fossils.” A pause. “Wow. I didn’t know I knew

* * *
that. I like . . . liked . . . being active. I remem-CATS KNOW

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ber that, too. More than just being fit enough cause life had been a barrel of laughs. Any for my job. When I retired, I was going to hike form of laughter had taken a long time. Why the world. I couldn’t do it young, because if had he kept going?

you slipped and banged yourself up . . . got a Then he had it. Because anything else
scar in the wrong place . . . I was waiting.” She would have dishonored her. She expected him gave him a wan smile. “Waiting to live the life I to soldier on, to make the world better, de-really wanted to live.” She glanced over his spite her absence. Because that was who she’d shoulder into space, then back. “What else been and who she expected him to be, even if should I remember?”

clowning was no longer part of it.

Was this what he really wanted? To rub her

“What about Chanterelle?” she asked. “Did nose in the reality that had vanished? Too late anyone care that much about her?”

now.

Not about me. About Chanterelle. She

“You would have been good at such work.

knew.

You placed third in something called the He thought a moment, then went for total America’s Most Brilliant Model Contest, and honesty. “I don’t know. I never knew her, but I the winner was an MD/PhD, so ‘brilliant’ prob-know you. And if she really was like you, then ably meant it.”

somebody must have cared.” He paused, re-She huffed, an almost-laugh. “Maybe. Plenty membering her comment about the people of them were smart, but most had to drop out she’d dealt with, and thinking about the fact of school early. The glamour factor can be that this discussion hadn’t stirred any memo-overstated. And the folks you have to deal with ries. “Should have cared,” he amended.

. . . I was kind of looking forward to the fossils.

Because she’d been a good person, and

“Keep going, please. This is like waking up she’d mattered. Just like Marie. Like himself.

in a strange place and trying to figure out how Like everyone.

you got there. When you say things, I remem-It was why he and Marie had done what
ber. You said I ‘had’ it all.” She made air quotes they’d done. Sure, it had been fun. Who could on the had. “What else is missing?”

resist watching a child smile for the first time

“Some of it was simply that to save money, in weeks? But it had also hurt, every time one your current . . . employer . . . set your IQ very died. And that was the real reason his heart low. That part, I think I f ixed. I told them it hadn’t been in it afterward, because the first wasn’t consistent with their mission.”

death would have been like losing her, all over This time the laugh was more complete. “I again.

guess not.” Her brow furrowed. “But only Chanterelle smiled. “Thanks.” Then, “Sorry,

‘that part’? What part didn’t you fix?”

just a moment.”

Ed shook his head but was spared by the ap-She f licked to another shopper. “Hi, I’m proach of a crowd of shoppers.

Chanterelle. I used to be a supermodel, but This time he didn’t wait for her to come the real me got run over by a drunk before she back. Noon hour was approaching: busy time turned forty. But that’s not as bad as it sounds in the mall. It was as good an excuse as any.

because I don’t remember it. And the real me had time to go to college and learn all about He spent the night researching. Who had fossils . . .”

she been? Why did he care? How do you tell someone they’re dead?

Ed found a bench and sat down, letting her But in the morning, she beat him to the voice merge into the background of mall bab-punch.

ble. But it was still there, ebbing and flowing

“Your wife’s dead, isn’t she?”

into his consciousness because this time, she

“Yes. How did you know?”

hadn’t been brushed off. This shopper had

“Just a guess. You loved her very much, stopped and was listening. Not just listening, didn’t you?”

but conversing. “I’ve got a son in third grade,”

“She was everything.”

he heard her say, “and a preschool daughter.

No, that wasn’t true. Had she been every-My husband works sixty hours a week and is thing, he’d have put a bullet in his brain or always tired when he gets home, but . . .”

jumped off a bridge. Why hadn’t he? Not be-Ten minutes later, Chanterelle was back.

72

RICHARD A. LOVETT

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DECEMBER 2012

“Mind if I sit?”

us . . . are lonely too.” She looked again at the He shrugged. “I didn’t know you could.”

crowd. “Your wife, what was her name?”

“I’m not sure I could have, before.”

“Marie.”

She plopped beside him, somehow manag-

“Marie. I like that.” She rose. “I have work to ing to make the appropriate sound but far do. See you tomorrow?”

enough away that the lack of touch wouldn’t He rose too. Almost extended a hand, then break the illusion.

realized it wouldn’t work. “Sure.” He paused

“You’re lonely,” she said.

one more time before deciding that honesty, He thought a bit, then again opted for hon-not the fog of her prior existence, was the esty. “Yeah. I’ve found a few things to do.

only thing he’d ever had to give her. “Sorry Things my wife would have approved of. But, about the fossils,” he said. “I bet you’d have yeah, nothing will ever replace her.”

been good at biogeo-whatever-it-was.”

“No,” she said. “Nothing ever will.”

She smiled and this time her eyes were They sat in companionable silence.

clear. “Yeah, but these days I might have a bit

“And you wouldn’t be you if something
of a problem with the rock hammer.”

could,” she said.

Suddenly Ed felt lighter than he had in years.

More silence.

He thought of all the things he could do that

“You didn’t have children, either.” It wasn’t Marie would approve of. Children and laugh-a question.

ter and just plain being a friend to those who

“No.”

needed him. Could he still clown? It would She gazed off into the crowd, then back at never be the same, but maybe it didn’t have to him. “You do now.” Her eyes shone with, be.

what, simulated tears? Whatever they were,

“See you tomorrow,” he said.

they were real enough. “And we . . . all 172 of Copyright © 2012 Richard A. Lovett

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WorldMags.net

Scary

Monsters

Liz J. Andersen

“Only following orders” does not necessarily lead to the best solution. . . .

ou take this case!” I held out the

“Lovely.”

odd parchment request slip with

“I needn’t remind you that our mission is to a trembling hand. The Veterinary
help all nonintelligent lifeforms in Sector Sev-

“YCare Unit in FIL Station Seven en.We make no exceptions.”Cespar grinned was a very small business, so the staff all evilly. “Have fun, Dr. Jesmuhr.”

knew each other far too well. And I suspect-

“Do I at least get to borrow a tech?” I pered my boss was just trying to yank my leash.

sisted, hands on hips.

“I’ll cover double shifts meanwhile—”

“With our two top students in the middle

“I’m not letting you out of another call.” Dr.

of interplanetary vet school applications? Are Cespar snickered. “And they certainly can’t af-you nova? This case can’t wait that long.”

ford to bring it here.”

“Right.” What was I thinking?

“But—” I f inally had to ask, “is this some

“You’ve handled large patients before. This kind of Halloween or April Fool’s joke?” I critter can’t be that different. You’ll do fine.”

tended to lose track of human time living

“Sure.” I stomped over to a com to book a here, and I could be very gullible.

shuttle, while everyone but Cespar took one

“Oh, it’s serious.” Cespar may have been look at my face and f led. I think Cespar was more human than me, and knew our holi-spying, just to make sure I didn’t book a vaca-days, but now his golden brow furrowed tion instead. And believe me, I considered it.

grimly. “This animal has become far too dangerous. They want it put down, and they

“I think we should equip you with a multi-sound quite justified.”

shield aircar—”

“So how do I get near it? Even if I waive a

“But what can I do for a patient from inside physical exam—is it completely covered in that?” I reluctantly followed the gold-scaled scales?” I had as yet to utilize my vet school Lorratian whose extra-long name I could nev-blow dart lessons, and I guessed I wouldn’t er pronounce, something like Quinine-Mega-get to now either.

tron-Scapula-et cetera, only much more

“Better talk to someone in engineering or gargly. Thankfully she didn’t seem to mind me fire control,” Cespar said, losing patience.

calling her “Q.”

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LIZ J. ANDERSEN

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DECEMBER 2012

“Well, we do have one model with a robot-ward silence that fell, after introductions too ic arm—”

hopelessly numerous to remember. I

I snorted. “Simple, huh?”

coughed. “Can I ask why?” Then I suddenly

“Oh, it’s quite easy to use.” Q slapped the wondered if I’d interfered with the ambience door lock pad, making a sound like a handful by even saying this.

of metal coins, and the thick door slid open.

“They’re actually one of the reasons we se-She led me into a tiny cabin and showed me lected this planet for our colony.” The king’s the control sleeve attached to a pilot seat with brown beard twitched with nervous laughter.

a holo monitor and 360 degree swivel. “My

“My husband is too humble.” The queen
scales tend to catch when I pull out, but even giggled and flushed. “One of his scenarios in-my daughter can operate this.”

spired our decision. On our last world, he ac-I had to bend over to stand in the cockpit.

tually created a robotic dragon to test his I’m not short for a human female, yet this knights. So when we heard about the ptero-wasn’t a particularly small vehicle, so I dactyl-like species on this planet, we just guessed it was all the shielding that cramped couldn’t resist relocating.”

the interior.

“Even if they might eat you?” I tried to ask

“Can we really cram this whole mess into a politely—instead of “Are you folks insane?”

shuttle?”

“Oh,” said a young blond knight, “the most-

“No problem. The wings and tail fold up. I’ll ly reptilian lifeforms here possess a mirror-im-also plug in a medication synthesizer. Now age biochemistry, so they can’t feed on us or let’s look at some serious spacesuits. Really, our livestock.”

anything that can withstand a brief solar flare

“And they don’t even try?” I persisted.

ought to be more than sufficient—”

“We must smell all wrong,” said a big burly I sighed. “I really have to do this?”

knight with a black beard, hair cropped helmet-short, and sun-bronzed skin. “It’s a live The emergency request actually contained and let live planet. Sort of.”

a dearth of details, so I didn’t learn much until Sort of ? But I began to relax, as I suddenly I met the queen and king and their entourage hoped I’d made far too many assumptions at their Society for Historical Life castle.

from the term “dragon.” Even if Q would be As I sat down to a sumptuous dinner
disappointed when I returned to engineering feast—especially impressive considering the with unused equipment. “So your ‘dragons’

lack of a conventionally powered kitchen, don’t really spout f ire?” I reached for my plus rumors of serious food shortages—I tried f lagon, and my plateful of food f inally began to boost my spirits by wondering how many to smell good to me.

modern vets could brag about meeting any The big knight coughed. “Well, not until royalty, even if democratically elected. This we hired a bio-engineer. . . .”

pair even wore hand-crafted, jeweled metal I yanked my empty hand back under the
crowns, and purple silk brocade, the king in a table, where the beagle sniffed it with disap-heavily embroidered tunic, which matched pointment. I wove my trembling fingers into the meticulous stitching on his wife’s flowing a granny knot on my lap.

gown.

I hate house calls! The animals are in their Their table was so massive it must have own territory, so they think they can get away meant the death of some noble trees, or it with anything. If this torch-mouthed beast came out of one huge clone vat. I hid my could fly, these folks wouldn’t even be able to hands under it, because I’ve discovered shak-corral it like a horse for me (which still takes a ing doesn’t impress my clients, even when lot of work, if the animal doesn’t want to be surgery is not on the menu. Meanwhile a bea-caught in that corral). And it was probably gle had scanned me as the one inexperienced way too much to hope for a patient already guest, parked beneath my place, and zapped trapped in a chute.

me with his imploring brown eyes.

Nor would I put it past these folks to ask I stared at the fresh bread, vegetables, and me to take a look, on my way out, at the long-grilled meat piled on my plate. “Uh, so you horned bull with a penis problem which my have dragons here?” I said, to break the awk-driver had muttered about on the wagon ride SCARY MONSTERS

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from the shuttle port. I’m sure that’s why he

“We’re not bloody barbarians. ” Brom
drove me past it, and I swear the bull was frowned at me. “We engage in practice bouts, nearly the size of a grand piano. That is, if a pi-contests, and re-enactments, but never real ano could be squished into the shape of a battles.”

bull.

“We’re full members of FIL,” the queen

“So your dragons do shoot fire,” I mumbled added primly, referring of course to the Fed-with a mouth gone dry.

eration of Intelligent Life, which believes vio-

“Well, more like a few sparks, at dawn and lence is definitely not a sign of intelligence.

dusk.” The pale young knight waved her

“We want Hrothgar killed humanely,” the hand. “When they’re airborne. It’s just sup-king said gravely. “He may be rabidly insane, posed to be a very pretty courtship display.

but he still deserves a dignified death.”

Too bad we couldn’t afford it for all of them—

Great Galaxy, I was really going to have to just our own flock. But Hrothgar has gone ab-figure out how to euthanize a dragon. Maybe solutely crazy.”

I’d please Q after all. What a vacful assign-

“Bonkers,” the big knight said.

ment!

“Brom means nova,” the queen added in
modern slang, just in case I didn’t get it.

“They are beautiful,” I had to admit in a

“Hrothgar is very valuable,” said the king, whisper that evening, as the pale knight and I setting his f lagon down heavily. “But our dragon-watched from a parapet. The bat-council has unanimously agreed that he must winged, triple grand piano-sized creatures be put down. He’s burnt up so many of our cruised the thermals, their sparks briefly light-crops that we’ll have to go on very strict ra-ing up their claws, spines, teeth, and irides-tions this winter, or break down and actually cent green scaled armor, against the orange buy Outside food. And now he’s catching sky. I guesstimated wingspans of about ten thatched roofs on fire.”

meters. “But why do they fly so low?”

“We’re losing whole buildings,” the queen

“The nasal spark implants really challenge explained. “We have a fire department, but of their weight limit,” the pale knight said, smil-course it’s rudimentary. We didn’t think we’d ing gently. “Of course their bones are hollow need more. And we’ve moved everyone will-and they’re chock full of air sacs like birds, but ing to comply into the castle for now, which they’re just barely able to glide—you’re fright-makes life very crowded, and we simply don’t ened, aren’t you? That’s why you hardly have enough room for all our goats, sheep, touched your dinner.”

chickens, ducks, cattle, horses, plows, looms, Blast it all, she’d noticed. The beagle hadn’t forges. . . .”

acted very discreet, either, when he joyfully I gazed at painted shields and scar y
received most of my goat steak.

weapons hanging on the stone walls, be-Normally I’m great at putting on a very con-tween hand-dyed, woven tapestries depicting cerned but business-like front, especially at colony history. Now they’d have to add one the beginning of a case, when it’s so easy to more, showing off a marauding dragon, I lose the confidence of a new client.

thought morosely. But it didn’t add up. I had But I gazed into the knight’s calm blue eyes to admire all the ancient human skills these and nodded. Maybe she reminded me too
people were so intent on preserving. But now much of an old roommate, an empath I

I stared at the knights in their colorful tunics.

couldn’t hide anything from. Or maybe I was

“Why haven’t you just dispatched this trouble-just too scared this time. Normally any patient some beast—as an exercise?” What more ex-too dangerous to handle directly could still be cuse did they need for a real adventure?

caught mechanically and subdued chemically.

Two brawny knights immediately stood up, But I wasn’t sure how I’d even snag this bowed to their king and queen, drew swords one. I tried to remind myself of the incredibly from their heavily embellished belts, and logical lecture a vet school classmate had fre-clashed blades. They made a very convincing quently zapped me with, about how worry is metallic clang, plus some less realistic but im-a complete waste of emotion. I knew she was pressive sparks, while the blades passed right right, but somehow it never helped.

through each other. Holo swords. Wonderful.

“You promise not to tell?” I suddenly asked, 76

LIZ J. ANDERSEN

WorldMags.net

DECEMBER 2012
perhaps too late.

flee, if Hrothgar fought back?

“I promise.” The knight nodded firmly. “I’d

“Whew, it’s hot out here,” I stalled, waving be scared too.”

a hand at my sweaty face before dismounting Lovely.

awkwardly from a horse who hadn’t looked

“By the way, my name’s Joan, in case you twice at my outlandish riding suit. I couldn’t missed it earlier. What’s yours again?”

wait for my helmet seal and climate control,

“Dr.—Dr. Jes—oh, just call me Taje, like my but it had seemed rude until we rode this far.

friends do.” I wasn’t sure I still deserved my ti-So why was I still stalling? I hate to admit it, tle tonight.

but putting a patient down is the easiest way out—for the doctor as well as the patient—

My armored aircar elicited outright laughter which is why I always question this medical the next morning. “You won’t need that!”

decision more than any other. A license to kill Brom scoffed.

should never be taken lightly—obviously

“Why not?” I said. “You’re wearing armor.”

there’s no going back.

He stared scornfully at my bulky spacesuit

“Of course it’s hot.” Brom dismounted, and and the helmet cradled in my arms. “So are removed his plumed metal helmet from his you. And we can loan you a horse.”

sweaty head. “It’s summer. What did you ex-

“But how will we f ind Hrothgar on horsepect?”

back—unless you’ve also bio-engineered f ly-A loud sneeze issued from the cave, showing horses?” The gravity here ruled that out, ering the guards, ground, and nearest dying without an extreme aerodynamic make-over bush with foul-smelling blood and sparks. The of both horse and rider, but no one laughed at hunters, obviously prepared for this, set up an my joke.

efficient bucket brigade between the ignited

“Nah, we’ll just sniff for smoke.” Brom got bush and nearest waterfall, while the horses almost all the knights sniggering over that one were led safely away to a temporary picket instead.

line.

“Our trackers have been on Hrothgar’s tail

“I expected a dragon who only showers
for days,” Joan broke in.

sparks at dusk and dawn!” I said. “Not to men-

“And he’s no longer flying.” Brom leered at tion no one said a word about a bloody nose!”

me.

“The blood is new, or it burned up before

“And when were you going to tell me that?”

we could see it before.” Joan frowned. “But I almost snapped back, while a hunter with our bio-engineer linked the spark implants to what looked like a real bow and arrows the dragons’ biorhythm brain center, with an-strapped to her back trotted up on her big other link to the sexual reward system. So the bay. I had suffered scenes of monster chases timing is a puzzle. . . .”

through the sky all last night!

“Hrothgar is nuts. You know—a brain mal-But I had neglected taking a better history, function? So maybe setting all those crazy my only excuse being why bother for a eu-fires burned a hole in his nose!” Brom turned thanasia that’s already decided. And one must to me. “Do you have a pole for your euthana-never insult owners, no matter how much sia injector, or must we cut you a long stick?”

they deserve it, because then they won’t let Insulted, I bit my lip, dropped my VetPac, you help. Now wait a micro—maybe that’s a and removed my telescoping injection pole, thought. . . .

along with my bioscanner.

I caught Brom’s grimace and quickly ex-Well, as it turned out, I’d completely under-plained. “I’ll have to scan Hrothgar f irst—
estimated my new clients. By noon the hunter wait—leave some of that blood for me!” I had led us to a rocky cliff, where nimble track-finally remembered to warn the fire brigade, ers had managed to corner the beast in a dark before they washed it all away.

cave. Now elaborately armored knights with

“If you’re just going to kill it—” Brom be-metal shields and presumably real rocks in gan.

their gloved hands blocked Hrothgar’s escape.

“I need to make sure I’m using the right But would they actually be willing to throw drugs f irst,” I cut in. “I’m not familiar with those rocks, or would they just turn tail and this species, and if I use the wrong medica-SCARY MONSTERS

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ANALOG
tions, he might suffer—a lot. That wouldn’t of cool clean air, snatched up my scanner, and be very humane, would it?”

plunged into the dark cave before my brain That shut Brom up, while I turned on my had time to obsess further.

scanner and started with a blood sample.

What vacful luck—a dragon with a nosebleed.

My suit lights came on as Hrothgar retreatI’d probably have to march my suit through ed to the very back of the short wide cave, the waterfall afterwards, or Q would throw a and let out a sparkly moan. Then he slumped fit. My nose wrinkled. “What’s that smell?”

into a massive, pathetic lump of scales

“Blood and smoke stink.” Brom gagged and sprawled on the floor. His chin collapsed onto spat.

his left front leg, and his leg, left nostril, and My nostrils f lared as I leaned towards this lip were soaked with congealing blood and new clue. Oh Great Galaxy, did I actually have pus. His saucer-sized eyes were closed and something besides a euthanasia patient here?

sunken, emaciation outlined his skeleton, and

“It stinks more than blood and fire,” I said. “It until he f inally sighed hugely, spraying me smells like anaerobic bacteria—”

with blood, pus, and a few weak sparks, I

“Like what?” nearly everyone asked.

wasn’t sure he hadn’t just gone and died on

“Like infection. It’s an infection! Never as-me.

sume a behavioral problem, before you’ve I finally slapped my scanner on my belt and ruled out a medical issue!” I flashed back to a walked up to him. When my heavy boots
few of my odder cases: the komeroon who’d crunching on gravel didn’t elicit any reaction, suddenly started chewing on his owner’s fire-I struggled to lift Hrothgar’s f ilthy lip. Proba-place, and turned out to have a life-threaten-bly the most vac-headed thing I’ve ever done ing anemia. Or the cat who peed on her in my career, considering I’d already had to re-owner’s bed whenever she was pissed off, but grow a leg, an experience I never wanted to who really had an inflamed bladder set off by repeat.

stress.

But I didn’t lose either of my clumsy gloved

“Blast it all, he’s sneezing sparks, blood, and hands to my patient’s dagger-sharp teeth. Inpus!” My differential diagnosis quickly grew stead I discovered an abscessed upper left ca-too daunting to list aloud. Did my VetPac con-nine tooth. Ouch! I struggled to prop the lip tain a large enough scope for a proper nasal out of my way with one arm, while I gently exam, biopsy, culture, and possible foreign palpated the inflamed gingival pocket around body extraction; much less enough of the the base of the cracked tooth. As all the chal-right anesthetics? Maybe I’d actually need an lenging details of a proper dental extraction explorator y bot; had I brought one big or a root canal and crown—and whether the enough with me?

colony could even afford that—flew through I dug frantically through my VetPac, having my head, the pale tooth just gave up the ghost not bothered with pre-f light inventory, be-and fell into my hand.

yond generous supplies for the last resort.

I glanced down at it dumbly for a micro.

Great Universe, I’d also have to perform a very Then I stuffed it into my belt pouch, so I thorough oral exam . . . and consider the im-could gently probe the empty dental socket plant as an offending agent. . . . I untangled my for any dangerous remnants of the infected largest livestock mouth speculum, which now root. My heart f inally quit pounding when I looked like it was built for Minnie Mouse, and discovered the draining tract no longer con-crammed it back into the Pac with disgust. At tained any solid tissue, all the way up through the bottom of the Pac I found a vial of the nasal passage. Hrothgar hunched up to nanobots, and suppressed a curse.

sneeze again, and I just barely pulled my arm Brom probably couldn’t hear my heart
out in time.

banging in my chest, but he studied my pan-A huge sigh of relief escaped my lungs, and icked face and his brown eyes bugged.

I exited the cave to show off the reeking

“You’re going to try to help it?”

tooth.

I just stood up, clamped on my helmet, and I removed my spattered helmet. “I bet
felt grateful that my suit was thick enough to Hrothgar also hasn’t eaten or drunk much for hide a whole-body shiver. I took a deep breath a while, right?”

78

LIZ J. ANDERSEN

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DECEMBER 2012

The trackers nodded numbly. Then every-my face burned as I gazed at the last scene, tione cheered, while Brom pounded my back tled The Kind Veterinarian.

so hard I almost fell over.

After that humanely brief moment of fame, Instead I bent over my VetPac, retrieved my we returned to the grand dining hall, where I IV catheter injector, programmed it to seek a surprised my hosts by devouring every won-vein down between scales, and collected up derful morsel, from a plate obviously carefully my telescoping f luid pole, portable pump, titrated for my previous performance. The every IV line, and all my fluid bags, now tiny beagle whined over my decreased generosity.

drops of hope.

But I kept quiet, as I realized Joan had hon-

“What are you all standing around for?” I ored her promise to keep my nervous stom-tottered under my awkward load. “Hrothgar ach a secret. Then I excused myself to f ly will start feeling better soon! Someone better back to my patient.

ride fast to the nearest blacksmith, and haul Death was no longer the goal for this mis-back whatever you need to quickly install a sion, thank the Universe.

metal gate across this cave entrance.

“A wagon load of straw—no!—make that

“How’d it go?” Cespar pretended a casual small smooth pebbles—topped off with one interest upon my return. Although I thought I or two armored knights-in-training, and a big caught him scanning me for burns and lacera-shovel, would also help. Oh, and toss in pairs tions, or at least a few bruises. He seemed al-of metal troughs for water and food, so we most disappointed that I appeared unscathed.

can switch them out frequently for disinfec-

“Piece of cake.” I held up my prize, the tion. We’ll hold off on solid food for now, but cracked dragon tooth.

your hunters should start killing any particu-

“They let you keep a tooth after euthana-larly annoying reptiles, and get the cooks to sia?” Cespar now looked supremely jealous, lightly grill and grind them into a whole-body but he made an obvious effort to overcome it.

puree. Or at least snatch and soft-boil a bunch

“Great extraction practice!”

of fresh native eggs.”

“Since the colony had to help me, I told I always f ind treating a carnivore rather them the tooth was more than sufficient pay-ironic, but I try to tell myself the sacrifice inment for my services. I think I’ll want it volved simply obeys the second law of ther-mounted on a necklace,” I said as I hastily modynamics. To achieve any positive results pocketed the still slightly stinky trophy. “But in medicine, one must create more entropy.

you’ll have to let me return when Hrothgar is

“Do any of you know how to f ly a shuttle?

healthy enough for surgery, so I can close his The onboard medication synthesizer can oronasal f istula. Otherwise he’ll snort food make painkillers and antibiotics, and prepare and water the rest of his life, instead of more f luids. Come on—we have a patient sparks.” And I’d managed to get some smooth here who still needs our help!”

scans on my patient while he was down, so Poor Hrothgar actually perked up enough I’d be better prepared next time. Maybe we to lift his head and stare at us after his first lit-could start by sealing the cave, and flooding it tle round of fluids. By the next day he’d stabi-with a gas anesthetic—
lized enough for squires to take over some Cespar gave me a suspicious look. “Are you basic care. I shed my suit, showered in the actually attempting to convince me you en-waterfall, napped in my shuttle, and then flew joyed this case? You aren’t trying to pull a back to the castle to deliver a direct report to Tom Sawyer on me, are you?”

the king and queen in their throne room.

“It’s always a lot more fun saving a life.” I They’d already heard most of it from horse-had to work harder and harder at suppressing back messengers, and replied with a prepared a galaxy-spanning grin.

speech f illed with heartfelt gratitude and

“But it’s my turn to go out next!” Cespar praise. They also introduced their master arti-said.

san, who showed me preliminary sketches for

“Too bad. Hrothgar is my patient now. The the new tapestries. Sure enough, they depict-queen and king have decreed it!”

ed a dragon engulfing the crops and homes of anguished farmers in vivid f lames, and then Copyright © 2012 Liz J. Andersen

SCARY MONSTERS

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Silent

Mode

Paul Carlson

Information is power, and
power isn’t always conspicuous.

hate getting the silent treatment, and most as long as that joke’s been around, and Laurie is a specialist. From the World’s she’s usually right about things. So I’ll eat Nicest Nursery School Teacher at work
crow, bring her fresh f lowers if there’s any Ito Ice Queen at home.Some relation- in the stores,and endure for the customary ship problems never do get solved, only re-day or so.

duced in consequence.

Finally I tiptoed down to the garage, and Then again, my wife and I have a strong drove my old Camaro to a small neighbor-connection. Wish I was perceptive enough hood park. Nothing but few acacia trees, to avoid such uproars in the f irst place, but lots of gravel, and some play equipment.

this was about a serious issue. So I stayed in Most locals were having their Saturday din-our spare-bedroom workshop all afternoon, ner, I guess, so I was alone. Locked the car, tinkering with my little robotic dove, a de-set three different alarms and theft deter-vice which has caused a few uproars of its rents, and strolled around the park.

own.

The September evening brought an arid

I kept on daydreaming. There’s an old
desert blast that baked me on alternate joke about a man who f inds a magic bottle sides as I walked. Densely-built townhous-on a Pacif ic beach, and asks the genie to es, two and three stories high, made the build him a bridge to Hawaii. He’s got too wind cross the park from several directions.

many phobias or something, and wants to I tried whistling a few old tunes, giving me drive over there. The genie says that’s a time to calm down.

daunting task, and please, might there be a Finally made up my mind, and got the
different request? So instead the man talks words I’d need sorted out. Linked my spe-about a f ight he just had with his girlfriend, cial emergency cell phone to a secure net-and asks the genie to explain ‘what do work, then set up a conference call to some women want.’ The genie gives the man a unusual buddies. Poppins the nanny robot long hard look, then says, how many lanes was busy with her two young charges, but I did you want on that bridge?

connected to my truck driving partner Mek, Okay, Laurie and I have been married al-who was halfway to Dallas with a rush de-80

PAUL CARLSON

WorldMags.net

DECEMBER 2012
livery. Also got in touch with Yunick, the for themselves. At least those impoverished Argus Trucking company mechanic, and
folks can have yard sales and barbeques Vera the reformed fembot.

without getting ticketed.

“Please,” I asked them, “get the word out.

I sat a while longer, seeking peace and We’ve done a great job tracking down those quiet. Clear sky above, but no spaceship fuel thieves, and a bunch of them got arrest-tests to spot this weekend, and maybe not ed. We even got a few crooked VIPs in hot for years to come. That was last week’s huge water. But I’d better not receive any more in-news stor y. Purest Skies ter ror ists had formation from other robots.” Didn’t men-wrecked much of NASA with hacking and
tion Laurie’s role in my decision, although explosives. Clobbered what little remained these experienced robots would under-of the agency, after those rocket scientists stand.

poured everything into one departed star-Mek replied f irst. “Of course, Claude.

ship.

Continued forwarding of our intercepted With other countries mired in similar

RFID tracking data builds an increased problems, a lot of people were acting like chance of your being exposed.” Probably things might get worse. I was afraid those sending his voice directly, instead of speak-anti-tech terrorists would turn against closer ing aloud, where his rookie driving partner targets.

could overhear.

Exposed, the perfect word. Busted by cor-Clocked into work at f ive the next morn-rupt federal off icials, or punished by the aning, for an unusual Sunday run to a large Syl-gr y remnants of a nationwide truck-fuel vantronics facility in the desert, hours east theft ring, or blacklisted by rich families des-of town. Nobody human was on duty at the perately stocking up fancy survival hide-Argus Trucking yard that early, so Yunick let aways. Or even blabbed about by the news me in the main gate. I retrieved the paper-media. My family and friends didn’t need work, and yes it’s real paper, from a box out-any publicity, good or bad.

side the dispatch off ice.

“We can’t risk your getting arrested, or Got in the truck and placed my robotic har med, ” Vera added. “You’ve done so spy dove in its hidden compartment. Then I much for robots, and we intend to protect asked my built-in assistant Doll Box about you.”

the load: a full shipping container, hooked Yunick, as always, was a robot of few
up and ready to roll.

words.

“Boss,” said my resourceful aide, “this

“Thanks,” I told them. “You guys only for-container came by hovership from Singaward new data if it’s really major, okay?”

pore, then got hauled by train from Long A police car rolled into the parking lot.

Beach to our local rail yard.” A manifest ap-Thankfully not some blustering Metro Patrol peared on its main screen. “Looks like parts enforcer, or a private security guard, but a for a new technology, to equip Sylvantron-fully trained city police off icer. I sat down ics’ humaniform robots with a better self-re-on a bench and tried to look inconspicuous.

pair capability.”

Just a harmless old graybeard, not quite

“Sounds like a good idea to me.” My sil-scruffy enough to be homeless.

very friend Mek, and most other high-level The off icer got out of his squad car and robots, spends an awful lot of time in the re-walked around the restored Camaro. Simply pair shop.

admiring the paint job, I think, because I’d My rig’s new engine wouldn’t need a fuel been extremely careful about keeping the car tr idge for a couple more days, so I window tint setting, modern controls, and cranked it up. Actually it’s almost silent, so everything else street legal. Still, I began I’d gotten Yunick to install a noise maker by sweating from more than the heat.

the front axle, so as not to surprise any crit-A minute later the of f icer drove of f.

ters who might’ve taken shelter underneath.

They’ve been told to patrol in certain “bet-Brought along two sandwiches that Laurie ter” neighborhoods, while in some parts of made for me the night before, since I
town the residents pretty much have to fend planned on taking as few breaks as possible.

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She’s good like that, never so angry as to their church.

shut me out totally.

Pedro and I being plain old trucker s, I set my federal trucker’s card for Crucial these dinnertime chats are informative.

Citizen Participants for direct interfacing, so Small talk and large, solving the world’s I could run at ten miles an hour above the problems over dinner, that sort of thing.

posted speed limit and the cops would

“This rice is really good,” Laurie told Al-know to leave me alone.

ice. “I’m better with pasta.”

Heck, if I was lucky, I’d make the drop

“Want to play mahjong after dinner?” Pe-without getting yelled at by the prickly in-dro’s always hopeful about that. At our ventor I’ve always called Mr. White Coat. No triplet of frowns he went on, “Okay, then doubt the man would be there, at work on a how about a few hands of bridge?”

Sunday. He prefers his dependable robots

“Bridge sounds good,” said Laurie, with a over foolish, inconsistent humans like me.

quick glance that informed me how good I’d f ind it, too.

In the event, I was dependable enough.

Of course I agreed, and Alice is killer at Took the new highway, which ser ves a
many parlor games. Pedro (Stansf ield Peter, bunch of sprawling solar and wind farms actually) learned mahjong as a child, in the and cuts northeast toward my destination.

fancy parlors of his parents’ New England Mr. White Coat was there, all right. But in-mansion. A household with matrons and
stead of yelling, or passing me off to some servants, but until quite recently, no robots.

lowly staffer, he signed for the load himself.

“Did you hear about the latest proposal to I got the impression he wanted to ask me a unite North America?” Alice asked us. “A question, but he never actually did.

slim majority of Canadians are for it, mostly Made that four-hundred-f ifty mile round thanks to our health care system, but Mexi-trip, and got home in time for dinner. Per-co doesn’t want its currency dragged down fect day for a trucker, zooming through the by unpayable debts.”

hours without a hassle—and no boss breathI f linched. Not long before, she’d told me ing down my neck.

about f inding microphones in their house,

“A smooth run, and plenty of overtime
as the Obser ver s agency blanketed the pay,” I told Laurie as I walked into our living whole city. Probably, the entire nation. I room. “What’s for dinner?” I added, hoping wrote, IS IT SAFE TO TALK? on a napkin, she’d respond.

and slid it across to Alice.

“Silly lunkhead, don’t you remember?”

Alice practically crowed. “Oh, yeah! A she replied. “It’s our turn to eat with the guy we know f ixed that for us.” On the nap-Owens tonight.”

kin she sketched a high-tech ‘shell’ that

“Oh yeah, of course.” We’d only been ex-went over each bug, and altered our words changing family dinners for several years. I in realtime. “I found one mobile robug, and hadn’t f inished those sandwiches, so maybe sicced Viewpoint on it.”

my subconscious did remember.

We all laughed. I’d found a black kitten, All right! Somehow Laurie understood
abandoned in a Montana forest, and named that I’d shut down my dangerous project. I’d it Viewpoint. Alice’s new baby, while her only told a handful of humans about the human one’s still on the way.

stolen-fuel-tracing plan, using tiny RFID

“My father is opening a new Owen Robot-Dust chips. The robots who’d done most of ics plant in Matamoros,” Pedro commented, the monitoring have their own discreet

“and he’s divided on the North America is-ways to coordinate.

sue. If the border stays open, then political changes hardly matter to him. Robots will Alice Owen ser ved fr ied r ice, with a continue to integrate into the work force, blend of f lavors from her Asian heritage and and increase the overall wealth of society.”

the Native American traditions our city is fa-Alice frowned. “Humaniform robots are
mous for. Pedro and Alice could be rich, but too vulnerable. Half the f irebrands in the aren’t, preferring a f lexible lifestyle. Always world see them as the wave of a luxurious dashing around, doing volunteer things for future, while the other half see only a threat 82

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to human workers. Those retro-marxists robots will do a great job of grasping human perceive bots as pure machines, who can motives, and be able to, umm, stretch their add no value, and thus no price increase, to programming enough to avoid violence.

any product they make.” Her small hands Maybe defend themselves.” Laurie winced, clenched.

so I added, “By non-lethal methods.”

Alice wasn’t ‘showing’ her pregnancy yet,

“Bet they’ve got some clever ideas for self-but the rest of us did not want her to get up-defense.” Alice’s tone made it clear: if not, set. We kept steering the conversation to she’d help them f ind some. Quietly, which more agreeable topics.

she’s good at, because too many people Halfway through dessert Alice brought
would misunderstand. I know all about that.

out a cloth bag, and emptied a pile of plain little cubes onto the table. As our conversa-Started the regular work week doing antion continued, and while hardly even look-other early run. They say older folks need ing, she began to assemble the cubes.

less sleep, so I must not be old yet. Drank a Thought I knew what to expect, because lot of coffee, and felt glad I’ve never used last time she ate at our place, Alice’s tiny the drugs that messed up too many of my f lexi-bots ran around and cleaned up the trucker buddies. Rules are, I can take a dinner table. Not this time! As we chatted, a morning break, so instead of snacking I of-kitten took shape under her nimble f ingers.

ten pull over and snooze. I know every qui-Viewpoint took notice.

et pullout within a hundred miles.

Minutes later, the robo-kitten and the bio-The pickup at Shendrake Industr ies
log ical one were char g ing around the would probably not be relaxing. Their ware-Owen’s condo like streaks of furry light-house manager Boyer gets the job done, and ning. Cute! Well, the robot kitten didn’t that’s why his bosses keep him on. After he have fur, but the outer texture changed to took some anger management classes, that seem like it.

is. If it were up to his human work crews, Alice explained, “I set those f lexi-bots to the guy would be doing something else, and learn better coordination, and to imitate really far away.

what Viewpoint does.”

Arrived there on time at seven o’clock, Remembering a news story, I spoke up.

parked at the edge of the loading area, and

“Talk about distant views, I heard that the went inside.

ESA’s gamma ray telescope broke down.

“Claude Dremmel!” roared Boyer. “How

The Japanese neutrino detector ran out of are ya!” The man’s forked beard makes mine money, so they can’t track the starship ei-look tame, and what a contrast with his f lat-ther. And one of those big radio dishes, way top crew cut.

out in the Mohave desert, got shut down by

“Doin’ good, you old dawg. Busy around Millennial Fire activists this morning. Better here today.” I had not been able to back into uses for the electric power, or something. If a dock.

this keeps up, Earth won’t be able to stay in

“Damn straight. More ‘n more shipments touch with those astronauts at all.”

for Chile and South Africa.” Boyer held up Oops, another hot topic.

two massive hands. “I’ll let you know when

“I can only hope those anti-tech crazies there’s a space.”

will attack military robots next,” Pedro de-So I waited a full hour. No worries. I fell clared. “They can all die gloriously that asleep, paid to take a refreshing nap. Doll way.”

Box woke me up in time —and probably

“Solving two problems at once.” Laurie fended off some queries from my dispatch said. “Unfortunately the terrorists aren’t off ice. They can argue with Boyer directly, that crazy.”

if they’re masochists.

“Nasty,” said Alice. She gave me a pointed I grabbed dock f ive when a problematic look. “Do you think civilian robots will com-Shendrake customer f inally okayed a ship-prehend such threats?”

ment, and that long-suffering trucker pulled Alice the specialist, asking me? I only hes-away. It can be tough when you’re paid by itated a moment. “I’m sure that high-level the load, although Pedro does pretty well.

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“Looks like I’m bringing a load of gadgets said with a frown. “That’s a bad part of to the Wal-Mart distribution hub,” I told the town. Take one of our older trailers, why shipping clerk, a cute young lady.

don’t you?”

“That’s right,” the clerk told me. “Place

“Yes, sir. ” So the g raffiti you expect your thumbprint here, and we’ll have your doesn’t matter so much? I call the new boss sixteen pallets loaded in a few minutes.”

Tightwad, and no cartoon-strip manager has

“Sounds good.” I had not seen this young ever been so clueless or shortsighted. Still, lady before. “Did you know that Sylvia he’s not aggressively evil, so we company Morales, our junior U.S. Senator, used to drivers simply try to avoid the man.

have your job here?”

All the short ‘city’ trailers were fairly new,

“Yeah, boss Boyer told me, ” the lady
so instead I hooked up number 429, a f ifty-replied. “You know her?”

three-footer. Beat up old thing, with dings in

“Sure. ” I made a nonchalant gesture.

the aluminum siding and a hole in the f loor.

“Can’t say we’re best friends or anything, Loaded a pallet jack, along with more
but we’ve always gotten along f ine.”

freight-handling equipment, and scrammed.

“Cool. ” The clerk smiled. A perk we

As I drove, I recalled my past visits to that truckers enjoy.

factory. The Sunf lower Collective had pur-No way I could tell the clerk, or anybody chased an old agricultural processing plant.

else, how Mek and I helped the senator get After the irrigation ran dry, that place sat elected. Mek had even erased his memory of empty a long time, so the redevelopment the event, just in case.

agency granted the collective a lot of breaks.

A couple of years ago the collective’s What a day! Grabbed a ten o’clock lunch founder, Hakim X Sunshine himself, accept-in the Argus break room, then company dis-ed a load of specialty construction material.

patcher Doug Hernandez called me to his He and his foreman Eric gave me a tour. Lat-desk.

er I’d brought assembly-line equipment for

“You’ve got a pickup at the Sunf lower their factory, which was almost totally auto-Collective. Hook up an empty city trailer mated. Next time it was raw materials, sent and get on over there.” He frowned. “Big over free by a friendly socialist nation. By piece of custom-built manufacturing equip-then the collective’s board was squabbling ment, tagged as high value. Wasn’t paid for, with Hakim, and maybe that ruined their and you get to retrieve it for the supplier.”

chances.

Not my favorite sort of job. Not exactly Enough grumbling. As I entered the free-like a repo man, or so I’m told, but these sit-way, I got around to planning ahead. “Doll uations can make people rather touchy. Al-Box,” I asked, “can you please contact the most as bad as places going suddenly

Sunf lower Collective and tell them I’ll be bankrupt, where the whole staff is on the there in about half an hour? Get a look verge of tears. That happens a lot.

through their security or assembly-line cam-Mek wasn’t back from Dallas yet, and the eras, if you can, and see if they’re actually company couldn’t spare anyone else, so this ready to ship that big piece of equipment.”

was going to be a solo job. To top it off, the

“Sure thing, chief.” Doll Box sounded
new branch manager summoned me into
chipper, as always. I’d given it a plain voice his off ice.

for our discussions, not famous or sexy or

“Dremmel, isn’t it? I hear you’ve been to anything.

Sunf lower before,” the boss said. “I want Drove east a couple of miles, then turned you to use those relationships. Get the south onto city streets. The truck’s new en-workers there to help you load that valuable gine worked great, enough that I was glad machiner y. They’ve promised to have it the safety systems would keep me from
disinstalled.”

speeding. The military developed metallic

“On my way, ” I told him. S o i t ’s u n -
hydrogen as a nontoxic aircraft fuel, and hooked from their assembly line, but not lucky truckers like me already had the tech crated, I thought. Wonderful.

installed.

“One more thing, Dremmel,” the boss

Up ahead, a big-rig in front of me slowed.

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Rolling closer, I spotted a rarity: a California Like I said, not a fun chore.

commercial license plate. Easy to notice They were playing poker. Five video pads, with its redwood, eagle, and serpent logo.

three solid and two cloth, sat in front of the Maybe three long-haul outf its still have their players. A hand of cards showed on each headquarters in California, the self-pro-man’s screen, plus their chip-bets and com-claimed worker’s paradise. I’d hate to work munity cards in the middle. The hands went at any of them.

fast.

“Hey Claude,” Doll Box announced, “I’m As I stepped forward all four of the guys not getting anybody at Sunf lower, human or looked up, and all of them scowled. “Sorry electronic. No camera linkage either.”

man,” one of them said. “We got promised a

“You’re kidding.” Maybe their f inancial gig at noon. All of us.” He winked. “Raw trouble was worse than I’d known. “How cash, the Man ain’t moochin’ any of our the hell am I supposed to get in there, much moola.”

less shift that machinery?” My back wasn’t I must’ve looked awful disappointed, be-getting any stronger, and the newest treat-cause the guy sympathized. “What you want ments wouldn’t be allocated to a peon like is over there.” He pointed to the far end of me.

the room, a corner near the front door.

Telling Doug Hernandez about the lack of

“Thanks,” I said, and walked that way.

contact would be a waste of time. He’d be Sure enough, another person sat alone, unsympathetic, and then have to clear any-noticed when I’d come in. Baggy work shirt thing with Mr. Tightwad. And the boss
and plain trousers. Another man? It’s rarer would say, go there and check.

than hen’s teeth to see a woman in these I’d have to f ind a workaround. “Doll Box, temp-labor halls, but I was not certain.

remember that day-labor place I went to, a

“Ahem.” The applicant looked up from a few years back?” In the same part of town.

collapsible ebook reader. “I’m looking for a

“It’s almost eleven. Are they still open?

lumper, to help me with a special load. Not Maybe I can pick up a helper.”

an all-day job, but several hour’s worth, at The answer came fast. “Boss, they are
transportation worker rates.”

open, and the Argus Trucking account re-The wannabe worker’s expression bright-mains valid. They are not allowing advance ened. Better pay than most, even in a horri-selections.”

ble economy, thanks to Trucker’s Federation Probably the same lazy manager who’d
lobbying, plus laws that robots can’t do all been there last time.

the truck driving and loading for free.

Drove into their parking lot, in a crum-

“Let’s go! I’m Robin.”

bling strip mall, a few minutes later. Plenty We shook on it. A hand with no calluses, of room to park my big-rig, trailer and all, in but maybe strong enough to help.

front of some abandoned shops.

The yellow-f lower lady woke up enough Inside, the battered old plastic chairs to register Robin Collier for a part-day’s were mostly empty. Early calls would’ve got-work with Argus Trucking. With hourly
ten most of the guys out on jobs already, do-rates Mr. Tightwad would scream at, not ing whatever it is that requires little to zero that I minded.

skills. The woman behind the counter was Robin followed me out to my rig. I know heavyset, wear ing a yellow f lowered
the world is full of special humans, even muumuu. Not the same lady as before, but though that’s illegal in most places. I’ve this could’ve been her sister. She barely rarely met anyone who appeared totally an-glanced up.

drogynous, but for the life of me I could not I counted four guys, sitting around a table tell about Robin. Anyway, none of my busi-in the back of the hiring hall. ‘Rough char-ness. We just needed to get the job done acters’ did not begin to describe them. With right.

no advance selections, it was up to me to High clouds kept down the day’s heat,
pick a helper. Without knowing much about which felt good. Thanks to the collective’s the per son, and favor ing just that one, location at the very edge of town, we drove against everybody still hoping to get work.

south along residential streets where heavy SILENT MODE

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trucks aren’t allowed. Made sure I had my unless its mud f laps are missing. Let that CCP card and destination paperwork handy, big-rig cut the wind, and hit anything in the but no cops pulled us over. Not a lot of cops way, instead of messing up my Camaro.”

in that area, period.

“You have a Camaro? What year?”

We drove through a neighborhood that

Turned out Robin’s an antique car buff, so used to be rather ethnic, past small wellI described my favorite sports car.

tended houses, now occupied mostly by

A few minutes later we came to Sun-
folks who share Hakim’s philosophy. I saw a f lower’s ten-acre facility. The chain-link few kids playing outside, with plain soccer truck gate was closed, and I couldn’t see balls and simple toys, and a deliberate ab-anybody around.

sence of personal technology. They call it I jumped out to look, even as Doll Box an Azanian Zone.

put in another call to their off ice. The gate There’s just one stoplight along that
was open a little, with a piece of paper route, near a humble shopping center in the taped near the dangling padlock. A note middle of the area. We rolled up to a red from an EPA inspector, which certif ied that, light, with hardly any traff ic in sight, and as of noon that day (about twenty minutes came to a halt. About thirty seconds later a earlier) the place was belching zero emis-jitney came along, full of local residents, sions. No surprise, as I couldn’t hear any and stopped behind us.

machinery. The windows were dark. A few A car came from our right, stopped until tumbleweeds, and some windblown trash, it got a green ‘turn’ arrow, and then a car dirtied up one corner of the receiving area.

coming from our left got the green. And so Strange, because these guys were neat-on. But in our direction, it stayed red.

freaks.

“What’s going on?” Robin asked me from

“Any luck?” I asked Doll Box.

the shotgun seat. “Shouldn’t we have gotten

“Nope,” said my assistant, who’s familiar a green light, twice by now?”

with my casual way of speaking. “No hu-

“Happens sometimes,” I replied. “Our
mans answering, and no unusual announce-wheel base is so long it misses the sensor in ments from their automated phone system, the road bed. The stoplight controller which is running on battery power.”

doesn’t know we’re here.” I pulled forward Got to follow procedure. “Now we go
a couple of feet. “The system is designed for into CYA mode,” I told Robin.

four-wheelers, and I know most of the spots I called the Argus dispatch off ice. Doug in town where this happens.”

repeated: our customer wants that equip-A couple more feet, and the jitne y
ment bad, so please go inside and f ind honked at us. Good thing traff ic was sparse; somebody. Yes, open the gate wider if you downtown I’d be blocking a bunch of cars have to. Technically, repo men are allowed already. A bit more, and f inally we got the to do that. Which did not make me any
green light. I started rolling, and the jitney more conf ident.

passed me on the left, crossing into the op-We pulled into their paved yard. A loading posing traff ic lane.

door stood half open, so at least we

“That’s risky, isn’t it?” Robin asked. “Full wouldn’t have to sneak inside. Robin fol-of passengers, no less.”

lowed me into the main building, a low, Not only that, the jitney switched back rambling structure of brick and concrete.

into our lane, so I had to hit the brakes.

Dark inside, with only a few solar tubes and Then they pulled off the road, into a park-long-life battery lamps letting us see the ining lot on our right.

terior. Up top, the building’s ancient sky-

“See that?” I said. “They could’ve waited a lights were coated with dust, and barely let few extra seconds, and turned behind us, in any sunshine.

the moment we got past that entrance.”

Row upon row of machinery, including a

“Nobody wants to drive behind a truck,”

few simple robots, stood silent. Half-built Robin said.

items lay scattered along the assembly lines.

A very observant person. “When I’m in a It looked as though everything had stopped four-wheeler I’d rather stay behind a truck, in mid-motion.

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“Hello?” I walked past the work areas, to-

“Let’s see if it’ll shift.” Two tons is a strain, ward the front off ice, and spoke loudly.

but the machine lifted a little. Without need-

“Eric?” No response. “Anybody here?” Still ing to be asked, Robin slipped a piece of nothing. Creepy.

wood underneath. That opened room on

Once in a while I’ll go by some large
the next side, and so we proceeded to lift all warehouse where the only person around is four sides.

the receptionist up front. Many are dark, to One more layer of wooden supports, and save on their energy bill. Even so, I’ll get a I could slip a pallet jack underneath. Then I sense the place is active, like, open for busi-borrowed one of Sunf lower’s jacks, and ness. In comparison, on this quiet Monday, placed it on the other side.

the Sunf lower Collective felt like a ghost

“You get on the leading side, ” I told town.

Robin. “Lift the jack, pull, and steer like it’s

“Is this the machine in question?” Robin one of those f ire department ladder trucks.”

asked from behind me. “Perhaps we should With two steering wheels.

load it up and get going.”

We both pumped our jack handles, and

“Good idea.” No point in searching the up went the whole machine. I had to lean whole place, along with several outbuild-into it, shoving backward with my legs, but ings. I recognized the machine: a bare steel we got it rolling. Moving so much weight framework with complicated f ittings.

would’ve been impossible on a slope, or Maybe twelve by six feet, f ive tall, weight at across a rough surface, but the old building least two tons. No wheels or skids, bottom was basically clean and sturdy.

struts f lat against the concrete f loor. Hope-We pushed and pulled until the machine fully we could load it up and get out of was inside the trailer. Set it right over the there, with no objections. Let Eric and the rear axels, the most stable area. Next I crew yell on the phone, when they see it’s placed wooden blocks under one end, and gone.

removed Sunf lower’s pallet jack. Then we I caught a f licker of movement outside used decking beams and ratcheting straps to the loading door. Looking harder, apparent-tie up that machine like the Lilliputians did ly someone had come up to the back gate, to Gulliver.

then run away, back toward some houses.

“What’s this facility for?” Robin asked,

“Let’s get this done.” I opened the trailer meaning the whole factory.

and backed it up to the loading dock, then

“The y g ive away a lot of household
asked Doll Box to keep a lookout. Wheeled goods,” I replied. “Some kind of Marxist the freight handling gear inside. I saw two thing, providing items made totally by ma-forklifts, but didn’t have permission to use chine, so it ought to be free to the working them, even if I could outfox their employee-class. Stuff like that.”

only interlocks.

“That may account for the lack of mainte-

“I take it you’ve handled similar loads benance, and the missing human staff.” Robin fore?” asked Robin.

walked out of the trailer, then waved me

“All the time.” Not really, but enough over to look. Outside the fence several peo-times. We faced an engineering puzzle. “See ple had gathered, watching our efforts.

if you can f ind us some pieces of wood, or I was a bout to wrap things up when
blocks of metal.” I held my f ingers a couple Robin pointed out a strange thing. “See that of inches apart. “About this big.”

light?”

First I laid a thin steel plate over a hole in

“Where?” Then I saw it, a blinking light the trailer’s f loor, near its ‘tail’ end. No from one of the stalled assembly lines.

point in getting a broken leg! Then to the Maybe f ifty feet away, and I could barely job itself. I took a pry-bar (a steel wedge make out the old ‘SOS’ code patter n.

with two wheels and a long wooden han-

“Huh?”

dle) and poked around the bottom of the We both walked over there. A small ma-machine. By the time I’d found a big enough nipulator arm was stuck, halfway extended, space, Robin was back with a few pieces of across some tiny items. The light kept blink-2x4 lumber.

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our way.

Meanwhile Doll Box searched the node,

“Morse code?” I wondered aloud.

via its data link with my cell phone. “Boss,

“Let’s see.” Robin took out a cell phone.

looks like the factory’s solar power was lost

“This can handle common codes and simple when a converter blew out, yesterday morn-encr yption.” As if in response, the light ing. The staff attempted to order a replace-blinked faster. “It’s saying, ‘Power me up’.”

ment, but a lack of funds or credit stopped This was really strange, but I’ve got a soft them.” Its voice grew harder. “The same is spot for new forms of intelligence. “Doll true of parts for all their equipment.”

Box,” I asked with my regular cell phone,

“Most unfortunate,” said Robin.

“we need to get some electric power into Outside, I heard the sound of two or
this factory contraption.” Using two-way-ra-three gasoline engines.

dio mode, I swept the phone’s camera

“Robin, old chum,” I said, “I’m wonder-around the scene.

ing if things might heat up around here.

“Boss, your phone can match the amper-

We’d better take care of things, and scram!”

age of that unit, but you’ll need the proper

“Thank you,” said the little unit, and then cable.” A pause. “Okay, your visuals show a it went dark.

correct type, about ten feet behind you.” I

“Should we spend time looking?” Robin
turned, and we did a ‘getting warmer’ thing.

asked. “I think it advisable to leave this

“The blue one, about six inches long.”

place.”

I unsnapped that cable and brought it

“Dang it, I’m not sure,” I said. “I make over. The little manipulator had a data node, sure my robot buddies get decent treat-and the cable plugged right in. Its other end ment.” But Robin had a point. “Let’s at least didn’t match my phone’s connector, so I check the off ices. There might be a human held it close, and the phone rearranged a in trouble, for all we know.”

port to match the conf iguration.

“Thus I shall earn my pay, on this occa-A moment later, with a special override, sion,” said my day-helper.

my phone drained most of its battery. The Before I could change my mind we
unit woke up, or so it seemed.

walked though the off ices, seeing no one.

“Welcome to the Sunf lower Collective,”

Way up front, in the reception area, I got a said a quiet voice. “You are listening to an shock. A gasp showed Robin’s equal reac-interactive recording, made by the robotic tion. A woman lay slumped over her desk, workers at this facility.”

alone by the glass front door.

“We haven’t seen any humaniform or

I shook her shoulders, and my sore back high-order robots here,” I replied.

gave an ominous twinge. “You okay? Ow!”

“They are in different rooms,” said the in-With Robin’s help, I got her straightened teractive program. “Because of potential up. She had a cord attached to her bellybut-danger, before all power was lost, two roton, exactly like I’d seen Vera use for hard-bots concealed themselves in storage areas.

wired data handling.

The third should be in our front off ices.

“It’s a fembot!” I exclaimed. This unit had They are requesting a secure environment, dark brown hair and mocha skin, ethnically with proper charging and maintenance.”

indistinct. “Bet she’s that gift you read

“That’s what Senator Morales’ robot-rights about.”

bill requires,” I said. “Of course we’ll f ind Robin understood. “No appearance of
them, don’t worry.” Easy to empathize with cushiness for Hakim X Sunshine. She
that simple device.

must’ve been ordered to stay at her work Standing beside me, Robin did some
station, and continue with no breaks, until quick data searches. “This facility wasn’t it was too late.”

supposed to have any humaniform robots.

Several weeks earlier, my robot friends There was a compromise between several had sent around a secret programming
factions, back when the collective f irst or-change, intended for robots of many types.

ganized.” More fast searching. “Looks like With more time, this fembot might’ve got-one arrived as a gift to Hakim, a couple of ten our unauthorized ‘review with con-months ago. Not many details on that.”

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DECEMBER 2012
and disregard a stupid command. Gone to I ran to the cab. Doll Box had the truck f ind a power source. But with the building’s ready, and we took of f fast. I spotted a solar power blown, maybe she didn’t have Neighborhood Guard patrol wear ing
enough reserves to get very far, anyway.

Hakim’s colors. They’d probably defend the Right then, things got ugly. A rock
collective, and a pitched battle would erupt.

bounced off the plate-glass front door. Then We headed away, doing twice the speed
another, and part of the door shattered. A limit, and from ahead of us came several wild-eyed man kicked away more glass, and characters on motorbikes. With masks, all in ducked inside.

black, and carrying some scary gear. One He looked surprised to see us. “Down
tube-shaped piece looked to be a military with the system!” the black-clad dude
weapon! Guns are so illegal it’s ridiculous, screamed. “Death to technology!”

and that nasty thing could get somebody a Lame rhetoric, but a sincere and deadly life sentence.

intent. I dodged one more rock, which

From the back, Robin called me via cell glanced off my elbow. It caught the fembot phone, sounding calm. Seems the two de-on the head, tearing her synthetic skin.

vices had linked up at the factory. “I believe Before I could react, Robin moved really that was a strike team of Downers. They’re fast, and pepper-sprayed the assailant. The a wing of the Purest Skies terrorist move-attacker’s grubby hands f lew to his eyes, so ment.”

I bent sideways and kicked him in the solar Just great, and happening faster than I’d plexus. The fanatic collapsed. So did I, al-imagined. Fortunately the terrorists kept go-most. Chuck Norris I am not.

ing. In the rearview mirror I actually saw We left the robot in her off ice chair. I cov-their f irst weapons shot, and dense smoke ered her with a load blanket from the trailer, poured from one of the collective’s out-then we wheeled her out. People were in-buildings.

side the workshop area, grabbing every-A mile down the road, I f igured it was thing they could reach. Fortunately the safe to pull over. A busier area, where it’s looters ignored us.

hard to park a car for blocks at a time. I

“I can’t lift her into the cab,” I told Robin.

thought of a bus stop, but Doll Box said too

“She’s not heavy, but . . .”

many meter maids were nearby, and my

CCP card only excuses so much.

Several people ran back outside, carrying I spotted a construction site, a graded lot tools and gizmos, and threw them into wait-empty of worker s. Pulled in there, and ing pickup trucks. Nice wheels, too, but no hoped any onlookers would assume I was time to admire them.

making a delivery. In the distance a column Robin said, “Let’s put her in the trailer.”

of smoke climbed the sky, and f ire trucks I strapped the robot, chair and all, to the raced by.

trailer wall.

I got out and hobbled to the trailer. Robin,

“How about those other two bots?” I said.

the machine, and all three robots remained

“We can’t just leave them. ” The y’d get in place. “C’mon buddy, you can ride up smashed up, for sure.

front,” I said, and waved toward the f ire.

“Agreed,” said Robin.

“Let’s not waste the distraction.”

I stood watch while Doll Box guided

Robin jumped down, a four-foot leap

Robin, and thankfully there weren’t any from the standard-height trailer, and stum-locked doors. Robin used dollies to bring bled. I saw torn pants, and a lot of blood.

out the robots, and we laid them on the

“Seems it’s worse than I thought,” Robin f loor by the machine. Not too close, in case pronounced, with an odd kind of detach-the heavy mass shifted.

ment. “One of those looters had a knife, and As I threw load blankets over them, more tried to jump in. I kicked him on the shoul-people dashed inside. Instead of grabbing der.”

stuff, one guy began smashing things.

I looked more closely, then took the liber-Robin said, “I’ll ride in back. Don’t bother ty of rolling up a trouser leg. Robin’s lower to stop and close the trailer doors.”

right leg was covered in blood, but the knife SILENT MODE

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slash wasn’t bleeding. “I’ve got a basic f irst their mouth shut, like the y do in sp y aid kit up front, but you’re going to need se-movies, and meantime drop our load.” I rious medical attention.”

tapped Doll Box’s main screen, which

Robin had shown no pain, but now came
showed a GPS map. “My old eyeballs have fear. “No hospitals.”

about had it. Please see if you can identify

“Huh?” What else had I gotten myself
us a good route.”

into? Then I realized, except for a full head Robin leaned close to the screen. “Okay, of hair, my day-helper’s skin was totally continue straight. Turn right on Clinton smooth. No curves, either. I said, “We can’t Blvd. in one mile. Then it’s two miles to the stay out here.”

freeway, and proceed west.”

I shut the trailer, then helped Robin get Robin didn’t know about the tiny scan-into the cab. Blood carries a bunch of horri-ning camera built into the screen’s frame.

ble contagious things, yet somehow I f ig-Was this fair? Probably. Meanwhile, with my ured that would not be true with Robin, so I left hand I opened a little compartment in tried not to worry.

the door handle, and slipped a Bluetooth

“Okay, look,” I said, as we pulled away, “I headset into my ear.

need to accomplish three things. One, get

“Identify?” Doll Box whispered.

you patched up. Two, drop off that stupid I nodded yes, silently, then sniff led and machine. Three, take care of those poor ro-rubbed my nose to cover the gesture. This bots.” And soon.

was a kind of game, a bit of role playing Robin used scissors from my f irst aid kit we’d done over the years, to wile away the to cut away the bloody pants leg, then long hours highballing down some inter-dropped it onto the roadway. “Mr. Drem-state. Never actually thought I’d put it to se-mel, two of those robots are older Sylrious use.

vantronics units, and they’ll need more than A minute later, Doll Box spoke through a recharge. The other unit is not, technically the earpiece. “Vera under stands our
speaking, a fembot. She, or it, is a Mitela predicament, and is working on a solution. I Electroptics administrative unit. They are have identif ied your passenger, via facial not built, or easily modif ied, for intimate and iris patterns.”

contact.”

I nodded again. Robin pointed as two

“Okay.” I chuckled, but without much hu-more f ire tr ucks, and then an ar mored mor. “Less complicated. ” Mitela’s a big SWAT van, raced by in the other direction.

South African outf it, and I hadn’t even

“Jhr real name is Dana Marell.” Doll Box known they made robots. I thought of my spelled out the unfamiliar words. “‘Jhe’ and granddaughter Maxine’s favorite toy. “Must

‘jhr’ are the proper gender-specif ic probe built like a Barbie doll.”

nouns referring to genderless neuters. The Too many mysteries, and not enough sup-neutering procedure is done on zygotes, port, with Mek out of town and Alice preg-and removes anatomical and hormonal gengers. “Doll Box,” I said, “please contact der characteristics. This is illegal in the Unit-Vera, discreetly. See about safe medical care, ed States and most other countries.”

and mention those three damaged robots.”

I knew Doll Box was searching data bases

“Vera?” asked Robin.

for infor mation, and dumbing this way

“My robot friend Vera was rescued from a down for my sake. I tried to focus on the nasty owner by a charity outf it called Ra-road, and doubtless looked as dull as I felt.

hobot.” Long story, short version. “Now she Adrenaline wearing off.

has a job at the Superior Court, with plenty In my earpiece, Doll Box’s unusual for-of connections in the bureaucracy.”

mality resumed. “From the speed of coagu-Was Robin legit? The last thing I needed lation and apparent lack of pain, your was more danger, and even if my day-helper coworker probably has conscious control was innocent, we might both get ques-over many autonomic functions, plus entioned.

hanced healing abilities.” A pause. “At least

“Robin, let’s give Doll Box time to work one federal agency is searching for Dana on this. We’ll f ind you a medic who’ll keep Marell at this time. No ordinary crimes are 90

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mentioned.”

Instead jhe frowned, and spoke f irst.

Things began to make sense. Workers

“You’re Vera? I am grateful for your concern, from a temp-labor hall are often paid in and please understand my situation. I’ll ac-cash. I rubbed my lip with an index f inger, cept the medical consequences of going showing Doll Box our need for caution. Be-without treatment, if necessary, because I ing illegal from head to toe, Robin/Dana had cannot risk off icial attention.”

plenty of reason to live ‘off the books. ’

Robin’s preference for big words remind-Could I handle such a challenge? Bigger ed me of Mek. I’m pretty open-minded, but question, did I need any more trouble?

could see how some jerk would be upset I tried to act casual. “Robin, bet you’re with neuters.

glad to make some extra money today. I’ll

“It’s all right,” Vera said, looking earnest.

see if I can squeeze in your full hours, like if

“I know doctors who will treat you with you’d helped with the remainder of the complete secrecy. Sometimes individuals job.”

appear in court who are using a false identi-

“Thanks.” My day-helper showed me a
ty. If they appear to be genuine criminals, I small key. “This is all I have left. One locker, will make an anonymous tip. But if the gov-with a few special items.” A frown. “I used ernment is persecuting them, my colleagues to have a full key ring. Workplace, but the and I will overlook the identity issue, and do business shut down. House, but it got fore-our best to garner a fair hearing.”

closed. Car key, but one day it got towed, Clerks really do run the show, in fancy and they slapped on excessive fees. Home-courthouses and grubby factories. Amazing less shelter, but some jerk there didn’t like that Vera would trust a stranger, though me, and I had to move along.” Robin waved surely she’d deny making such bold claims, the key. “One left.”

if it came to that. Doll Box usually checks

“I’m sorry to hear that.” A slow disaster, for any wiretapping. Besides, our municipal step by painful step. “This will be medical off icials were bristling at federal intrusions, treatment at no charge, okay?” There’s a few like the microphones Alice Owen found in decent clinics around.

her home. Half our local judges would prob-Doll Box spoke in the earphone. “News
ably approve of Vera’s idea, even if they from Vera.”

could never admit it.

Only a few minutes since we’d asked for Robin looked equally amazed. Not so pas-help. I allowed a tight smile.

sionless after all, maybe about different

“There’s a suitable clinic in the Nuevo things instead. “I did not know that robots Tenochtitlan neighborhood.” Doll Box read could act with such wisdom.”

me the address. I waved my hand, and it I wore a smug look. Had it only been a showed on the GPS screen instead.

few weeks since I asked Vera to help modify

“Hey Robin, looks like my friends found Rahobot’s special ‘conscience’ software?

something,” I said. A relief, since all that We’d used the major manufacturer’s own se-nonverbal stuff makes me dizzy. “Doll Box,”

cret Directive system to spread it around.

I continued, “is this really safe for our new Still, I felt a pang. Vera was taking quite a friend?”

risk in pursuit of greater justice.

“Vera is available to speak. Let me con-

“We can be at that clinic in about f ifteen nect you directly.”

minutes,” I told Robin. “I’ll bring you now,

“You can trust Vera,” I told Robin, hoping then continue with my run.” I didn’t say: jhe’d trust me. “We’ve worked together be-and get far away from danger.

fore. ” Basic pr ide made me emphasize

“Sounds good,” said Vera. “Robin, please worked.

go to the clinic’s employee entrance, and My versatile friend appeared on the screen.

ask for Dr. Moreau.”

Supermodel glamorous, from one of Honey Robin snickered. “That will suff ice.”

Be’s top fembot lines, built to entertain pow-Moreau? I had to look it up, and then I erful, old-fashioned men. Being around Vera laughed too. Vera and Mek were both work-makes about half my IQ points vanish, but ing on humor, and we sure needed it.

Robin did not seem to react that way.

Robin grew serious. “Claude, I should tell SILENT MODE

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you, I have an excellent sense of hearing.”

drive out.”

To my dumb look, jhe added, “I could un-

“Okay, man, glad you’re okay. ” Doug
derstand much of your assistant’s input via paused.

earpiece, and your gestures were rather ob-Leaning forward, Robin waved a hand,
vious.”

meaning, not me.

“Okay, ya got me.” Took a deep breath.

“That temp, umm, I dropped him off al-

“Then you know I had to make sure, if I’m ready,” I told Doug, remembering that Mr.

really going to help. No bad guys here.”

Tightwad could listen in. “We took the Robin nodded. “I understand, and thank fastest route to get clear of the area, while you. We can only hope there are no unin-half the cops in the state showed up.” No tended consequences.”

exaggerations there. “Guess he’ll walk back Up ahead, I saw an older traff ic camera to that temp labor place. Please pay in full on a light pole. “Robin, you know there’s when he signs out, the guy really helped me cameras everywhere, and my truck is clearly get the job done.”

marked. Well, not everywhere in town, but Anyway, the supplier would be motivated along this main route for sure. Besides, the to unload that damn machine, and I could company tracks this rig, and anybody can not possibly move it alone. Never did f ind follow our cell phones.” Probably forgot a out what the contraption makes.

few more factors.

The afternoon was getting hot. Up ahead, What to do? “Kid, you’d better sit on the I saw a freeway overpass.

sleeper bunk, so you don’t show up on any

“I’m real sorry to get you into this,” I told cameras we pass.” One thing might help.

Robin. Thought some more. “We aren’t

“But f irst, get my bird out of that little com-crooks, and those robots did make a formal partment, by your knees.”

request for assistance. But, I doubt you want Coolly, Robin took out my spy dove. “In-to be involved in any follow-up investiga-teresting. Customized hobby model?”

tion.”

“Yep. Doll Box, let’s program the bird to

“The situation is rather serious,” Robin mimic my rig’s Argus Trucking transponder.

observed.

It can f ly ahead, while I cut over to the clin-We rolled under the freeway, then a half ic. Then I’ll catch up, near the drop-off loca-mile northwest into the Tenochtitlan neigh-tion. ” Awkward, but one less source of borhood. Montezuma would not have rec-hassles. Once a job gets done, and if no seri-ognized its tree-lined streets and picket ous complaints pop up, my bosses don’t re-fences. A no-go area for cops, and forget Esally care anyway.

pañol, speak Nahuatl and you’ll f it right in.

Robin let the spy bird go, then got in the Before I knew it, we arrived at the Pate-back. Mr. Tightwad would think I was dri-catl Clinic. A robot orderly waited at the ving straight to the delivery point.

curb with a wheelchair, so I double-parked Almost on cue, we heard from Doug Herin front of a narrow driveway. With the or-nandez. Voice only as usual, and he sounded derly’s help, Robin eased down from the upset. “Hey Claude, what’s this about a f ire cab.

in the Azanian Zone? Are you okay?” He Moments later they were indoors, and I meant it. “Geez, the company system says moved on. My destination was an area of you hired a temp worker, then made your scattered tilt-wall warehouses, with large pickup okay. Now there’s a huge fracas at open f ields in between, and a four-lane ac-Sunf lower, it’s all over the news.”

cess road.

I count Doug as a like-minded ally, but Stopped once more, real quick, to con-saw no need to drag him into a mess. “No ceal the inert robots under a pile of blankets kidding.” Think fast. “Yeah, the place was and equipment at the ‘nose’ of the trailer.

abandoned when we got there, and we real-Very strange, almost like a mortician, but ly hustled. Sure enough, word got around these bodies could be revived.

and a bunch of people showed up. Probably started looting when they saw us leave. I Completed the job with plenty of time to think we passed some real crazies on the spare. Heck, the delivery itself was an anti-92

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climax. A manager came out to the freight Oh yeah, and nix that clinic too.” Still no dock and bitched like the whole uproar at area wide enough to stop.

the collective was my fault. That anger

“Uh, boss, you’re being too complicated.

would, I hoped, clog the man’s brain

Please specify.”

enough to prevent him asking any real ques-Ouch. Sometimes I need to be very literal.

tions.

“Okay, show them my GPS log for the

With a tremendous sense of relief I drove whole day’s route, except to the clinic. Add away, and brought my spy dove back in. Al-a few more random gaps. Share external ways enjoy the scenery on the west end of video of everything that happened early on, town, with low hills in the distance on three bad quality, but skip our loading of those ro-sides, green after the monsoon rains.

bots. Show us driving away, after we cleared We’d spared ever yone a wrecked mathe Zone neighborhood, and then skip up chine, and I owed Robin for that. Should’ve to when I got near the customer and un-given jhr a few bucks, to help things along, loaded.”

and I hadn’t. Kicked myself for wanting to

“No problem, Claude sir.”

jettison the kid, instead.

Come to think of it, Argus trailer 429 was A minute later my trucker’s instincts, and so old it didn’t have a rear camera. That Doll Box’s customized programming, both made fudging things easier. Robin would noticed a certain black car. Plain, new-mod-simply vanish from the record. Some quick el sedan, no decals or antennas or other video voodoo, and Doll Box’s half-fuzzed-giveaways, but it just screamed ‘cops.’

out recordings streamed from my truck to The black sedan followed us for a while, the black mystery sedan.

then things got worse. It got ahead of my All that required another minute, far too rig, and kept pace. A Metro Patrol squad car long a time in the view of an impatient cop.

pulled in behind me, and stayed on my tail.

Ahead I saw a wide dirt margin, but on the Bad karma?

other side of the road. I put on my left-turn This went on for a ver y long minute,
signal, and because traf f ic was light, while I drove in the right lane, below the crossed the lanes.

speed limit. One time the patrol car pulled Shut off the engine, rolled down my dri-into the left lane, then went back, while the ver’s-side window, and waited with both sedan pulled ahead then closed in again.

hands on the wheel. The sedan made a u-Seemed like the two drivers were doing a turn and parked in front of me, then the cop dance—or having an argument. I decided to zoomed past us and stopped behind it.

install better radio monitoring equipment A middle-a ged woman got out of the
for Doll Box.

sedan. No uniform; she wore a conservative It was almost a relief when the patrol pantsuit, dark to match her complexion.

car’s red-and-blue lights began to f lash. Still, Didn’t see anyone else in her vehicle.

it must’ve been amateur hour, because an She f lashed a badge. “Claude Dremmel, exper ienced cop will pull over a tr uck currently employed by Argus Trucking?”

someplace where the rig can actually pull

“Yes, ma’am.” I did not say: like it’s writ-over. That stretch of road has no margin, ten all over the tractor and trailer, not to and a barbed wire fence at the edge of the mention on my company work shirt.

pavement.

This woman represented the Federal

“Hey boss, ” said Doll Box, “those en-

Health and Safety Assessment Bureau, who forcers are pinging your truck’s computer, call themselves HealthForce, but to every-to download the service log and other data.

body else they’re CleansiCops. I handed her They’ve got valid federal-level overrides.”

my commercial driver’s license and CCP

“Emergency mode,” I replied, and put my card, which she barely glanced at. She’d blinker lights on. “Let the computer show scan my cell phone also, so I was glad I’d them the standard log and views. Make it powered it down. I mean physically
look like the system is glitching, and miss switched it off, with a separate node to the parts from the collective, and when we watch city-wide for incoming calls.

stopped at the construction site afterward.

“Citizen Dremmel,” she said, “I under-

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stand you hired a temporar y worker at away, but could hardly avoid it.

about eleven-f ifteen today?” Not a stern

“It’s right here, in my pocket.” Slowly I voice, oddly enough. “Someone going by took out the phone, switching it on as I the name of Robin Collier?” A scowl. “The grasped it. I left my pepper spray, and every-individual’s real name is Dana Marell.”

thing else, alone. Those work trousers have The Metro Patrol cop, a big guy, got out huge pockets.

and watched. Kept his hand near an old-The agent lady, Ms. Rani Kaur Gujari, ac-fashioned revolver. Obviously he’d been cording to her card, took my phone and ran called in as backup, and wasn’t happy about a data scan. Doll Box would’ve erased our it.

search of the factor y, but the woman’s

“That’s correct, ma’am,” I told the agent smirk indicated she’d found Robin’s num-lady. Be respectful and act stupid, I remind-ber.

ed myself. Don’t give ’em any excuses. “I

“So, you’re saying this guy’s name is Dana, needed extra help to transport a heavy load, not Robin?” I only asked because she’d and we successfully completed the task.

brought it up f irst. “Thought he was kind of Mister, umm, Marell, is it? He gets standard squirrelly.”

pay for the hours worked.” Slow blinks.

“I wonder if you didn’t know that al-

“Went back to that hiring hall to pick up his ready.” More smirking. “It is standard indus-money, I think.”

tr y procedure to vet new worker s,

“You’ve never worked with that citizen especially from such a questionable environ-before?” A frustrated note, underneath. “He ment. Someone looked up Marell’s biomet-did not assist you with the f inal delivery?”

ric information this afternoon, and the

“Nah, things got kind of hairy at the Sun-matter came to our attention.”

f lower Collective.” Short pause. I’d been

“Ma’am, it’s really none of my business.”

pulled over enough times to stay on track.

Dang! A flagged search, and I was only try-

“Robin wanted to scram. Can’t say I blame ing to help. Realized I am way, waayyyy out the guy. He’s probably half-drunk by now.”

of my league. “I needed help and got it, and Or sedated. Tell no detectable lies.

I’m sorr y you missed the individual. No

“I’ll need to verify Marell’s absence.” She doubt you’ll remedy that soon.”

wore a gun in a shoulder holster, and car-Or not. Robin wasn’t wanted for any real ried a small f lashlight. Maybe with scanning crime, only unapproved DNA. When their built in.

agency f irst launched, the CleansiCops bust-I got out and stood against her car, while ed some genetics la bs with a ferocity she peered into the cab’s sleeper compart-Torquemada would’ve liked. I began to un-ment. Then she opened the trailer, while derstand how Alice could get so furious the big cop never let me out of his sight. No over these things.

handcuffs, at least! Glad I’d covered up The Metro Patrol cop glared, and crossed those rescued robots. Things look decep-his arms, as if each minute of the conversa-tively small at the far end of a long trailer.

tion came out of his salary. Maybe it did.

Between the hot weather and their lack of Agent Gujari became friendly. “Sir, you power they wouldn’t show up on infrared, may go about your business, and please stay like a hidden person would. Thank gawd out of trouble.” She even told me why. “You the agent did not climb up inside. Prissy, I see, I followed the Trucker’s Federation suppose.

case against that fuel theft organization, and

“Citizen Dremmel,” she told me, “if you several corrupt Observers were implicated.

have any contact with Marell, it is your duty You provided some crucial information in to report this immediately.” She handed me those cases.” She made a neck-slash motion.

a business card. “I’ll need to inspect your

“About time those cocky rascals learned a cell phone.”

lesson.”

Uh, oh. My special emergency phone was I’m an open book, looking very surprised.

hidden, but Robin had called me on my reg-How did she know about my theft-tracking ular one, from the back of the trailer. I plan? Or was it just a guess, a f ishing expe-didn’t want to give jhr current number dition?

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“Umm, yes, thanks,” I f inally said. “Some That was enough for Laurie. “Oh, no.

of those Observers went too far, with wide-Now I remember, you met Hakim in person, spread surveillance, and uh, associating one time. Don’t tell me you were . . . “
with rough types.” Lowered my voice. “I

“I picked up a big piece of equipment
hear they’re way too soft on genetic experi-over there, and drove away before things mentation.”

got too crazy. I’m f ine, really.” I got an idea.

At that last bit she nodded, and so my

“Hey, remember when you talked about get-own f ishing expedition hooked a fact or ting new cover s for my sleeper bunk? I two.

heard about a really good sale, and won-

“If you hear from citizen Marell again, dered if we could pick up something today.”

please contact me directly,” agent Gujari As we talked, I stepped into the sleeper told me. “There may be a reward granted.”

compartment and turned on the phone’s

She got into the sedan and drove away.

camera. “Look how ratty the bed cover is With a f inal glare, the Metro Patrol cop took getting.” Actually it was, with crud Robin off in the other direction. So I closed up the smeared on it, while avoiding public cam-trailer, again, then slumped against a tire.

eras. “What color should I get?”

Whew! The adjacent f ield was empty, ex-We hadn’t talked about this in weeks, but cept for a homeless encampment on the far Laurie took one remote look and agreed.

side. With all those badges around, they’d

“Beige is good, a heavy fabric. I can wash kept out of sight.

that old one, use it for the grandkid’s dog After I stopped shaking, I climbed into house.”

the cab. Why, it occurred to me, was it so Meanwhile, without aim, I waved the
important I contact the agent directly? Not camera around. Both the CleansiCops and only was there interservice rivalry, but be-Doll Box were welcome to intercept all the tween agents too?

cellular signals they wanted. What I sternly Doll Box blinked a light, and what do you told myself not to do was, try and spot the know, an SOS. The main screen showed
bug.

some text, but dim and fuzzy, low-contrast

“Beige sounds good, sweetie. That was a so it was really hard to read.

major haul, so dispatch didn’t schedule me Squinting, I made out: AGENT LEFT BUG IN
for anything else today. See you in a couple CAB, BEHIND DRIVER’S SEAT. AUDIO, PROBABLY EM
hours.” I ended the call.

SCAN, BUT NO EFFECTIVE VIDEO UNLESS IT’S A MO-Back in the driver’s seat, I waggled the BILE ROBUG.

phone at Doll Bo x’s main indoor lens, Just great. The CleansiCops would be
which is primarily the ‘driver wakefulness watching me like a hawk, like in half the safety system’ camera. Then I made a ques-cops shows I’ve seen, hoping I’d lead them tioning gesture.

to Robin. How could I send a jhr a warning?

Doll Box showed me an image of the back First things f irst. Before going anywhere, of my driver’s seat, with an arrow indicating I used my regular cell phone to call Laurie.

the bug. STUCK ON WITH GLUE. AUDIO FOR SURE, She’d be at work, but usually takes short MAYBE RADIO WAVE INTERCEPT.

calls.

No roving eye, to literally peer over my

“Hi sweetie, it’s me,” I said, when my shoulder. Agent Gujari, if that’s her real wife came to the phone.

name, had shown up pretty fast. She

“Surviving another day on the road?” She must’ve acted with the equipment on hand.

didn’t sound too busy.

Probably tapped into the Argus company

“Yep, so far so good.” But I wasn’t very system, which any f ive-year-old could do, conf ident.

and found my current location.

“Honey, did you hear about the riot?” Lau-THE AGENT’S BUSINESS CARD PROBABLY HAS CIR-rie asked. “The staff at this weird collectivist CUITRY.

group called a sick-out, then half their place Very glad I’d installed a bunch of “initia-burned down in a four-sided battle!”

tive” programs in Doll Box. I grabbed a left-

“Um, yeah.” The main building was still over sandwich from the sleeper
intact, I’d heard, but heavily looted.

compartment’s refrigerator, then realized I’d SILENT MODE

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missed lunch. Devoured the sandwich, then time is, plenty of folks f igured out ways to wrapped the business card in aluminum foil.

shoot them down. Even, legend has it, to Hoping that grouchy cop wasn’t around, I hack them and take control.

pulled across the lanes and got out of there.

Traff ic slowed to a crawl. Nothing unusu-Robin would be all f ixed up, and leaving the al, if a bit early. A scooter passed me on the clinic. Maybe going to pick up the money, left, lane-splitting. I noticed the driver was a for real. Any direct call would give away jhr Korean-made Advanced Humaniforms ro-location, but if I was going to send a warn-bot, working as a courier. All bronze-looking ing it better be quick. A phone booth might metal, no doubt carrying some kind of gad-do, unless the surveillance was heavy.

get or physical sample.

Being so far out of my depth, and not a Up ahead, I saw the reason for the slow-praying man, instinct was about all I had to down. A small dog was loose in the road-go on. Agent Gujari might be looking for a way, wandering in and out of the two right personal coup, hence the unwelcome use lanes. Drivers braked, and swerved, but the of local police, and her hokey friendliness. I lost mutt’s prospects were not good.

could not risk the CleansiCop’s wrath, or let The robot cour ier saw the dog, and

Robin fall into their hands. And a sliced leg!

pulled onto the narrow shoulder. He, or it, Not even in my stupid teenage years had I got off the scooter and beckoned to the gotten anyone into such a bloody mess.

dog. Whistled, too. When the dog came

Driving and thinking. Pay phones are
over, the robot picked it up. Then the light-scarce. Couldn’t program my spy dove with-ly-built unit made a standing leap, clear over out wireless signals. Step away from the the chain link fence. Maybe seven feet up truck and use my emergency phone? What and over, onto the edge of the frontage then, should I ask for this Dr. Moreau? Sure-road.

ly Robin had checked in under yet another I noticed a woman near a minivan, who’d name.

stopped to watch. The robot explained

Switched on the radio, for local news. Af-something to the woman. She nodded, then ternoon is a good time to f ind out what’s go-put the dog into her van. Some of my fellow ing on, but I couldn’t shake the notion that drivers honked and cheered.

Robin would be mentioned on the broad-

Not conspicuous public heroism, but
cast—or even me. Meanwhile I got on the surely a conscience in action. If the dog had freeway, for my eleventy-zillionth trip back a biochip, maybe the courier already knew to the yard. Hit a few potholes and rolled who owned it. As the agile robot jumped onward.

back over the fence, I came alongside.

The Sunf lower Collective was the lead Light bulb! I tapped the hor n, then
story. My favorite news anchor said, “Home-through the windshield, beckoned to the ro-land Security, the Observers, and Health-bot. Mimicked him driving alongside me, as Force have authorized drones to overf ly the traff ic began to move again.

city, for the duration of this emergency.

Whether obedient or curious, the robot They will assist in tracking down extremist got on the scooter and did exactly that. I elements, and help prevent further terrorist rolled the window down, leaned out, and action.”

like I’d seen Asian people do, pointed at my Oh yeah, drones. Alice explained those to nose with my middle f inger.

me, about how extremely sharp they are.

‘Who am I?’ I mouthed. I’d bragged to

Recognizing one particular car, or person, Robin about how robots would help me,
from high altitude, while rapidly scanning and remembered what Vera said earlier, whole neighborhoods at a time.

about keeping me out of trouble. Better be For instance, they could spot Robin. No true, I hoped. Not mythical like some ge-doubt the ambitious Gujari would add that nie.

item to their drone’s search protocols. Also, This robot’s face was f ixed metal, but I they can grab everybody’s wireless chatter.

think he looked surprised. Yes, I’m that The main reason some Orwellian agency
trucker. The guy who worked with the orig-honcho doesn’t keep them f lying all the inal driver robots, and keeps landing in the 96

PAUL CARLSON

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DECEMBER 2012
middle of pro-robot developments.

Alice might know more about this, or I

“Hello!” he said, voice amplif ied to over-could ask Mek. Later. At the moment things come traff ic noise.

were too hot.

I shushed him with a f inger to my lips.

Then I made a ‘wait a moment’ gesture, Pulling into the Argus yard, I noticed an hoping this courier wouldn’t miss his exit.

unfamiliar bobtail truck. Off to my right Yu-Also, that the CleansiCops would have no nick stood outside his mechanic shop, wav-idea who’d just spoken.

ing at me to back in nearby. Was this a Put my knees to the wheel, and trusted special welcome, or had the CleansiCops Doll Box to handle the driving details. Then beat me there, and taken direct control of I grabbed a roll of paper towels and a mark-Yunick to lure me in? No way I could handle er pen. Maybe thirty seconds had passed.

so much paranoia, so I ignored the feeling Like a cartoon strip, I wrote a message on and parked.

a towel square. In case a drone or a traff ic The visiting truck came from a tool com-camera could see us clearly, or we got pany, basically a movable sales f loor. Glanc-pulled over, this would have to be vague.

ing across the truck-f illed yard, I spotted Mr.

But not too vague.

Tightwad heading into his off ice, arms NEED HELP, THANKS!

laden with brand-new equipment. Free sam-But, even at our low speed, the f limsy pa-ples, no doubt.

per towel crumpled in the wind.

Inside the mobile display room, a couple The courier took the square and held it of drivers I knew were making serious pur-with both hands. Quite a feat of balance.

chases. Then I noticed that the sales crew, Then he tore it up. Pieces scattered beneath or at least some of them, looked familiar. I’d an endless stampede of wheels. I always met a young man and woman at the Owens’

said robots are smart.

church, not long before. One guy ran the I spotted a sheaf of blank cargo manifests, cash register, and he reminded me of Robin.

and grabbed a few. Much thicker, and I Maybe not a neuter, but some kind of modi-could write on the back.

f ication I couldn’t quite f igure out.

MY NEW FRIEND IN BIG DANGER.

An older fellow stood outside, watching Same procedure, he read the message,

Yunick bring three carts. I recognized him then shredded it. Time and pieces f lew by.

as a famous computer expert, often inter-Another big-rig came alongside, its high viewed on the news. Okay! This was a team trailer blocking any view of our strange con-from Rahobot. Maybe under cover, or mak-versation. I tapped the accelerator to match ing some money while they’re at it. They its speed. The scooter moved along in be-sure can move fast.

tween, with inches to spare. Beneath this The computer expert approached me.

unexpected cover, I made the next two

“They’re in the trailer?”

notes more specif ic.

“Yep.” Then I remembered. “Be careful! A CONTACT VERA AT SUPERIOR COURT,

CleansiCop agent stopped me on the way TELL HER FEDS SEARCHING
back here, and put a bug in the cab. She ROBIN MUST HIDE, MAKE NO OUT-opened the trailer, but didn’t f ind the ro—”

BOUND CONTACTS

The expert stopped me. “She might have Another thirty seconds.

placed a bug in the trailer,” he whispered.

With that I made an A-OK sign, and the He raised an arm, making some kind of
courier waved and sped off. My circle of hand signals.

friends is not large, and every robot can Jaw drop time. “Oh man, sorry.”

f ind out who’s close to me. This robot

“Happens to the best of us,” he replied, would contact Vera, and she’d take it from no doubt from experience.

there. Somehow, I had conf idence the feds The cash register dude brought some
would not intercept this communication.

kind of scanner, then opened the trailer and Robots had built invisible bridges across the used a br ight light. He got inside and world, far beyond what humans designed snooped around. “Here.”

for them.

Turns out Gujari’s second bug fell off the SILENT MODE

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dirty plywood siding, rolled along the f loor,

“What did they call you?” I asked. “Over and got crushed by the thin steel plate I’d at the collective?”

put on the f loor hour s earlier. Ne ver

“By my serial number, N 54,” she said in a thought I’d be grateful for potholes.

neutral tone. “I was not to become too fa-Next the dude got into the cab, and put miliar with the human staff, and Mr. Hakim one of those interactive shells around the always kept his distance from me. Over bug in there. A specialty item, and they did time, I realized this is not typical of human not ask me for anything in return.

relationships.”

The Rahobot folks used Yunick’s carts to

“How about we think of a better name?” I br ing the covered robots inside. He’d remembered a science f iction story Alice cleared part his shop, and since the me-loves, that’s got a perfect moniker.

chanic robot has that building all to himself, The young lady from Alice and Pedro’s
it was as good a place to work on them as church walked over. Georgia, I think her any.

name is. “Oh, hi Mr. Dremmel.” Nice kid.

“Bet you’re wondering who owns those

“We’ve made contact,” she told the expert, robots,” the computer expert said. “What then handed me a big video pad. “It’s for we can do to provide them a better future.”

you.”

“Sir, you read my mind,” I told him. “By On screen was Hakim X Sunshine himself.

the way, I really like your technology show

“Hail and salutations,” Hakim said. The on Sunday morning.”

same way he opens his sermons, and greet-

“Thanks!” A sincere grin. “That Sunf lower ed me once before. “I remember you,” he Collective is an odd duck. Does a lot of com-went on, with a politician’s memor y for munity work, and will probably rise from people. “You brought us some important the ashes. Most everything is donated to supplies when the factory was getting start-them, or bought with cash. Decent insur-ed. Eric and I showed you around.”

ance, but no regular corporate structure.”

“Good to talk to you a gain, ” I said, He grinned wider. “Their charter says it all amazed to be having such a conversation.

belongs to The People.”

“Sorry to see that big wipeout today. I guess

“Yeah, I’ve heard that line before.” And I you heard, I made a pickup at the collective had. “But who gets to actually run every-earlier, and drove away in the nick of time.”

thing, with The People always in mind?”

“Doing the bidding of the Man, but I’m He replied, “I’m told the collective’s not going to hold that against you.” Hakim board is in disarray. But you, Mr. Dremmel, was serious. “I’m told we had extra staff on are a man of the people. As proletarian as the premises, plus a special visitor from hu-they come.”

manity’s motherland. Glad you got them to

“Me?” Sure I was, but so what? Then it safety, and in the process you relieved a ma-dawned on me, I might end up owning
jor headache of mine.”

those robots. A considerable fortune! There Meaning those three robots, but oblique-were new ‘community salvage’ laws too, as ly, I suppose in case of a wiretap.

more and more locals f led overseas. “How

“Oh?” I said. Rahobot must’ve told him soon can you guys f ix them?”

a bout my rescue. Then I remembered

“Let’s take a look.” The expert led me to a Robin’s comment, how a fembot might tar-corner of the shop, which now resembled a nish Hakim’s image.

surgical operating room.

Now the famous man turned chummy.

The two older units lay still, but the

“Claude, you take good care of those special Mitela unit was operational. “Mr. Dremmel?”

friends, okay? I was never involved with she asked, upon seeing me.

them, and you and I have done each other a I bowed. “’ Tis I, fair lady.” Laurie watches big favor. Everybody’s a winner.”

some corny medieval dramas.

“I hear ya,” was my response. “Thanks,

“Thank you for your help,” the Mitela ro-and don’t you worry.”

bot said. “I did not know what would hap-Hakim signed off.

pen, but all the major possibilities were I turned to the Rahobot folks, who’d been negative.”

standing out of camera range, listening in-98

PAUL CARLSON

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DECEMBER 2012
tently. “So I’m a proud papa all over again?”

bub, but that’s okay. As planned, Vera came I asked them. No doubt they’d reviewed my along, passing for a human as usual. She life story, knew my kids are grown. “And I, can’t really eat much, but I’d seen her have a worker among workers, gets to decide a few bites, to f it in better. We got a few what to do next.”

passing glances, an old codger sharing a

“That’s right,” said Georgia.

table with three beautiful ladies. I doubted Looking at the two hopeful activists, I felt anyone would suspect how much was really like Ebenezer Scrooge. “Okay, I have an at stake.

idea.” Inspiration struck. “Two ideas. Please, I had a million questions for Alice and you guys keep the Sylvantronics units.

Vera. Was it safe to talk? Safe as anywhere.

They’re pretty old, so improve them as best It’s a peaceful and even festive gathering, you can, or as much as they’ll accept. If they and yet rumor has it that pickpockets (phys-turn out half as clever as my robot friends, ical and electronic) and wannabe bombers you’ll f ind them very helpful allies.”

and other nasty intruders have vanished

“Thank you!” The expert pondered for a without a trace.

moment. “Might have a role for them on my Laurie said, “One of my school parents technology show.” He drifted into thought.

signed up for the Sunf lower Collective.

Georgia beamed with approval. As for the They’re going to resume operations next rest, I’d have to clear it with N 54.

week, with a new board and business plan.”

“Cool,” said Alice. “I hope they can bal-I love our Farmer’s Market, held in a big ance their work force better. We humans empty lot a mile from my home. The ‘good have always been fat and lazy, given the op-old days’ might be long gone, but the com-portunity. Human nature itself needs to immunity fought hard to keep this tradition.

prove, and you guys know I believe that’s Now it’s a small Indian reservation, off-lim-possible.”

its to outside enforcers. Live music, exotic

“Sure hope it happens,” was all I could chow, handcrafts, and always fresh pro-say about her church beliefs. “Vera,” I went duce. Laurie and I shop there on many Sat-on, “thanks so much for taking care of urdays.

Robin. I’m curious how you folks pulled it On this occasion Alice joined us, while off, steering the CleansiCops toward a seri-Pedro was away on a deliver y r un. I
ous case, and keeping jhr safe.”

wouldn’t mind if more friends came along,

“It’s funny,” said Vera. “I was born into an but we didn’t want to draw attention. Same evolved robot society, and literally do not with inviting Mek, who’s rather conspicu-give our ways much thought. Analysis when ous, and anyway Mr. Tightwad had sent him needed, yes, but there are too many details straight back out on another job.

for any one being to grasp. Rahobot helped An hour of browsing the vegetable stands, me, and Mek shared his experience. For me, and I’d already lugged three armloads of coordination between robots comes natural-goodies back to our car, with more to come.

ly.”

Hard to imagine how we manage to eat it

“The def inition of ‘natural’ is hereby ex-all.

panded.” Alice nodded at Vera’s choice of Finally, time for a break. Tommy’s Diner, words. “Claude, I’ve done enough research my favor ite place in town, was gone.

to give you a rough answer.”

Trashed by activists, then shut down by the

“Please.” I thought of a blogger friend’s city. Tommy himself called in a few favors, handy mnemophage pill, to erase the dan-like from VIP customers who’d enjoyed illic-gerous knowledge in his head, in case he it hamburgers and imported booze, and
e ver got busted. Would I need such a
avoided prosecution. So he opened a

‘blanker’ pill also, in case agent Gujari portable food booth, and became a regular turned nasty?

at the Farmer’s Market.

Alice said, “It has to do with the sheer We got a table outside Tommy’s booth,
volume and variety of data.” She scribbled a enjoying the cool autumn weather. It was few diagrams, to show us. “Every robot, hard to talk over the music and general hub-every minute, generates far too many bytes SILENT MODE

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ANALOG
to share, so it has to be winnowed down.

Robin shook my hand. “Good to see you

This idea started with an outf it called CERN, again.” Jhe hugged Laurie and Alice. “You’re many years ago in Europe, and now it’s com-the ladies Claude speaks so highly of.” Ad-mon with big scientif ic projects.”

dressing Vera, jhe said, “I can never repay

“A digital deluge,” I commented.

you for your help.”

Alice continued, “Low-priority or irrele-Been a while since I’ve seen Laurie blush, vant data is left out, at several steps. Only but Robin managed it. Then I realized jhe what’s deemed important to complete a
wasn’t alone. As I’d hoped, Robin’s new task, or to inform various human agencies, buddy waited quietly behind a stack of veg-gets passed up the line.”

etable crates.

Laurie caught on right away. “So, if a ro-

“Claude, ladies, meet my boon compan-
bot decides something is unimportant, or ion Dors.” Robin offered a hand, and N 54
merely routine for a job, they’ll only pass it emerged from the shadows and took it.

among themselves, if that much. They’ll

“The f inest sentient around, don’t you screen that information out of their desig-think?”

nated reports, and permanent memory.”

“A perfect match,” said Vera.

“That’s r ight, ” said Alice. “There are I hadn’t told Laurie and Alice my idea for countless data channels going at once, via N 54, now called Dors. Robin was taking numerous paths. Each encrypted, and virtu-pills to gain darker skin, plus, grow enough ally all deemed insignif icant. A secret mes-whiskers for a different appearance.

sage can be divided, and portions sent by

“We’ll be leaving town,” Dors said, “as different routes. No central agency could soon as we get new identities established.”

possibly keep up, though of course they can

“With proper birth certif icates from the focus on suspicious activity. Also, if human county courthouse,” said Robin.

techies begin to get a handle on these meth-

“I’m told that Social Security has robots ods, robots will quickly adopt new ones.”

doing their boring data-entry jobs,” Alice Vera spoke up. “I guess we are clever that added. “So do the health service agencies.”

way. Claude, Alice, Laurie, I’m happy you’ve

“You’re very perceptive,” Robin told Al-helped robots become a positive force. The ice. “We have a low-prof ile career in mind.

situation could’ve been different, as I’ve The incident at the collective was overly learned from human f iction. Robots would dramatic, but I was for tunate to meet not fare well in a direct confrontation, or Claude. And now, his wife and friends.”

from becoming widely unpopular.”

“Thanks again,” said Dors, “and farewell I doubted Vera and her fembot sisters
to you.”

would ever be unpopular, except maybe

They walked away, vanishing amid the
with jealous wives. Still, as with all high-lev-hodgepodge of supplies. I saw that Robin el robots, she does require sophisticated rewas still limping. The CleansiCops would pairs. Thinking back, maybe I should’ve not be looking for a couple, that’s for sure.

asked Mr. White Coat a question about

Still, Dors was taking upon herself. . . okay, those ‘better maintenance’ parts I’d brought not herself . . . or jhr-self . . . geez, time for him.

another set of gender-specif ic pronouns.

Vera looked at the passing throng. “Will Anyway, for a robot to defy federal en-you come with me, please?” she asked us.

forcers, that’s quite an act of loyalty. So

“Sure,” Laurie said. Silent communication much risk, so much potential.

in action, for sure.

“An amazing couple, ” Laur ie mused

The concubine-turned-court clerk led the aloud. “I wonder what’s next?”

three of us to storage area. A huge assort-ment of supplies was stacked back there, (Editor’s Note: Earlier stories of Claude and the Native American watchman let us and his friends include “Crooks” [June pass. In moments we’d left the crowd be-2012] and “Rule Book” [March 2011].) hind.

I spotted an almost-familiar face. “Robin?”

Hard to tell this was really jhr.

Copyright © 2012 Paul Carlson

100

PAUL CARLSON

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THE REFERENCE LIBRARY Don Sakers his is the December issue, which
plenty of other reasons to have an e-reader.

means it’s time to encourage you all to While e-book prices are still too high, at least Tbe subversive.In manycultures,the from the big publishers,you can almost al-end of the year is gift-giving time, and ways get them cheaper than their print coun-of course you want to give your friends and terparts. For voracious readers, the experi-family reading material. In fact, being a good ence of having dozens (or hundreds) of and proper Analog reader, you want to give books at one’s fingertips is heady . . . as is the them science fiction.

instant gratification of being able to read a Trouble is, some people don’t think they book seconds after discovering its existence.

like SF. Here’s where the subversion comes More and more public libraries are making e-in . . . as is the custom, I’m going to give you books available to their patrons, despite op-some suggestions for books you can use to position from many publishers.

sneak SF in on those people. The trick is to I’m not going to tell you which e-reader to accompany your presents with a sincere and get. There are a variety of manufacturers, enthusiastic “I know you like to read xyz, so I styles, and prices; judge by your own means got you this.” You’re such a thoughtful, gen-and needs. I’ve used most of the major comerous friend, how can they resist reading petitors—iPad, Kindle, Nook, Sony—and
your gift? And now you’ve got them reading have friends who use just about everything.

SF. (Rubbing your hands together and cack-Any of them are fine for reading, especially ling at the success of your devious scheme is fiction and popular nonfiction. Don’t worry optional.)

about picking the “perfect” device, this isn’t Before we get down to specific titles, I’d a lifelong commitment.

like to make a general recommendation for Before we dive into recommendations for any voracious readers on your list: if they those who don’t read SF, I’ll make my stan-don’t already have an e-reader, it’s time to get dard plug for the magazine you’re reading them one. The e-book revolution is in full right now. For any reader of SF or speculative swing, and enormous tectonic shifts are hap-science, a subscription to Analog makes a su-pening throughout the geology of the pub-perb gift. You can even get a subscription to lishing world. As you’ve probably noticed in the e-book edition.

this column, most new books are available as e-books, usually from multiple vendors and The Year’s Best Science Fiction,
in multiple formats. Small presses and indi-Twenty-Ninth Annual Collection
vidual authors are scrambling to make older, edited by Gardner Dozois
out of print works available as e-books. In-St. Martin’s, 704 pages, $21.99
creasingly, low-price e-books are the place to (trade paperback)

try out new and unfamiliar authors without iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $9.99 (e-book)

risking your money on paperbacks that are ISBN: 978-1-250-00355-3
quickly approaching ten dollars. Such are the Genre: Reprint Anthology
economics of e-publishing that it’s not un-common for authors to have at least some of This one is for the literary folks. If they their work unavailable in print at all. Over read SF, they wouldn’t be caught dead read-the next decade, I wouldn’t be surprised to ing Analog; if they don’t read SF, they are cer-see mass market paperbacks start to disap-tainly devotees of Margaret Atwood and pear, replaced by e-books.

Michael Chabon.

The publishing business aside, there are Gardner Dozois, hard-working former edi-101

WorldMags.net

ANALOG
tor of our sister publication Asimov’s Science mance,” which includes everything from Fiction, performs the annual Herculean task steampunk vampires to far-future SF.

of bringing together the prestige anthology Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s Liaden Uni-of the science fiction universe. As massive as verse series successfully blends space opera they are authoritative, each volume is packed SF with paranormal romance, yielding a re-with stories (this year there are 35) as well as sult sure to delight readers from both sides of a scholarly retrospective of the year.

the fence.

Well, different editors and different readers When we last left Theo Waitley, plucky have different tastes, and Gardner’s idea of a space pilot and lusty lover (Ghost Ship, great story isn’t necessarily that of the aver-2011), she was saddled with the self-aware age Analog reader. The Year’s Best Science trade ship Bechimo. Together in symbiosis, Fiction collections are weighed more in the Theo and Bechimo are incredibly powerful—
direction of literary quality and less in the di-but the symbiosis is all-consuming, and rection of rigorous science (this time around Bechimo is a jealous partner.

only one story—Alec Navala-Lee’s “The Bone-Meanwhile, Theo has a few other things to less One”—was published in Analog.) I’m keep her busy. Her former lover is dying of a not being negative here; these are all good strange nano-virus, she’s stuck in the middle stories, well worth reading. The list of au-of an explosive political situation, and sud-thors includes John Barnes, Peter S. Beagle, denly she’s responsible for engineering the Elizabeth Bear, Michael A. Flynn, Robert rescue of a few hundred fellow pilots in an Reed, Geoff Ryman, Michael Swanwick, and orbiting death-trap.

dozens more, all masters of the craft.

Adventure, espionage, romance, drama,

The literary SF reader will be in heaven. As humor— Dragon Ship has everything a ro-for the literary non-SF reader, you’ll only have mance or SF reader is looking for. Deliberate to do a little bit of persuasion. Point to the echoes of Anne McCaffrey just add icing to

“Year’s Best” in the title and the phrase the cake. If your romance reader likes this

“Award Winning” on the cover. Let them heft one, there are plenty of other Liaden Uni-the book, examine the small type, and in-verse books.

spect the eight-page “Honorable Mention”

list at the end. This is clearly an Important Tales from the Clockwork Empire

Literary Book. Finally, mention Peter S. Bea-Ian Duerden
gle, Robert Reed, and Cory Doctorow. That Markosia Enterprises, 128 pages,
will surely perk up their ears.

$17.99 (graphic novel)

iBooks, Kindle: $5.99 Nook: 3 volumes, Dragon Ship

$0.99 each (e-book)

Sharon Lee & Steve Miller

ISBN: 978-1-905692-67-5

Baen, 400 pages, $22.00 (hardcover)

Genre: Graphic Novels, Steampunk

Baen Ebooks: $6.00 (e-book)

ISBN: 978-1-4516-3798-4

Chances are good that you know someone Series: Liaden Universe: Theo Waitley 4
who likes steampunk, graphic novels, or Genre: Romantic SF
both. If so, I have a treat to tell you about.

Ian Duerden’s Tales from the Clockwork What about the romance reader on your

Empire isn’t, technically, steampunk at all.

list? Well, to begin with, she’s probably more The story takes place in an alternate history friendly to SF than you think.

in which the advent of steam power was de-While you weren’t looking, the romance layed, and the previous clockwork technolo-field has undergone some pretty major
gy of springs and gears continued to ad-changes. While there are still a lot of the old vance. The f lavor of steampunk is
formula romances around, many romance
here—charmingly anachronistic mecha-
readers have embraced enormous diversity nisms, baroque designs, plenty of brass and of settings, styles, and cross-genre hybridiza-wood—but there’s nary a puff of steam.

tion. The biggest and most vital category of It’s 1803 and Napoleon has set his sights romances today is the “paranor mal ro-on England. Admiral Nelson’s f leet stands 102

DON SAKERS

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DECEMBER 2012
ready to protect Britain . . . but beneath the manity? Give that person Year Zero. (And English Channel, intricate clockwork sub-forget the hardcover: give them the e-book mersibles attack with spring-powered torpe-version. They’ll read it on their phone and does. Investigative reporter Calamus Quill, laugh the whole time.)

with the aid of the beautiful Lady Isabella Rob Reid knows a thing or two about the Hastings, is on the trail of the genius behind internet music scene; he founded the compa-submersibles and torpedoes—the dastardly ny that created Rhapsody, one of the first le-turncoat inventor Lord Percy Dashwood.

gal music download sites. His credentials in Their quest takes Quill and Lady Isabella to the tech world are impeccable; he’s also a the bottom of the Channel and beyond, to an good storyteller and a true master of the ab-Imperial Russia besieged by flying clockwork surd.

AirKites.

Nick Carter, very junior partner in the en-Meanwhile, in a framing sequence set mil-tertainment law firm of Carter, Geller & lennia in the future, we witness the legacy of Marks, specializes in copyright law involving the Clockwork Empires, a strange world in music. One morning, his office is invaded by which automatons have replaced human be-a nun and a mullah who explain that they are ings. The book ends with a setup for the se-extraterrestrials, and they’d like to obtain a liquel: beneath the sands of Egypt, long-stilled cense for all Earth music, a license that clockworks are reactivated, and a three-thou-would cover the entire universe.

sand-year-old Empire begins to awaken. . . .

At first Nick thinks he’s being hoaxed, In graphic novels art is as important as even when his visitors vanish before him. But writing, and Tales from the Clockwork Em-an encounter with a particularly nasty parrot, pire doesn’t disappoint. The visuals are stun-followed by a second meeting with the
ning, the technology intricate and beautiful.

aliens, convinces him that there’s trouble.

The pages are painted, not drawn, an effect You see, in 1977 (known as Year Zero), a which adds to the sumptuous air of luxury.

passing alien space probe discovered Earth’s Throughout the book Duerden constantly music (specifically, the theme from Welcome plays at muddying the distinction between Back Kotter). Aliens had never heard any-clockworks and real life. He renders human thing like music, and pretty soon the whole forms and faces in a frozen, digitally-generat-universe was addicted to Human tunes.

ed aspect that makes his characters seem al-Further probes were sent to record every most like sophisticated automatons them-bit of music played in New York, and the re-selves.

sulting supernova of interstellar file sharing You might have to work a little bit to get a made Napster look like a birthday candle.

hold of this book, but the effort is well worth Earth music spread through the galaxies.

it. Markosia Enterprises is a British company; But where there is copyright violation, their titles can be found in large comic there are fines and penalties. By the present shops, and you can always visit their website day, the rest of the universe is bankrupt, and (www.markosia.com). For that person who Humans own . . . well . . . everything.

likes steampunk or graphic novels, this is a That doesn’t sit well with the movers and special gift that won’t be forgotten.

shakers, and Earth in a lot of danger. Carter’s two visitors appeal to him to clean up the Year Zero
whole mess—and he’s got 48 hours to do it.

Rob Reid

While being chased by a universe full of bad Del Rey, 357 pages, $25.00 (hardcover) guys.

iBooks, Kindle, Nook: $12.99 (e-book)

It’s crazier than the Hitchhiker’s Guide to ISBN: 978-0-345-53441-5
the Galaxy, crammed full of jokes for the mu-Genre: Humorous SF
sic fan, and manages the near-impossible task of bringing drama and humor to copyright Are you looking for a gift for a hip, funny law. Definitely a fun romp.

guy or gal? Someone who wears earbuds all the time, and constantly shares their playlist The High Crusade: 50th Anniversary Edition on every social media channel known to hu-Poul Anderson

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY

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ANALOG

Baen, 262 pages, $7.99 (mass market)

with shots of knights battling hideous aliens: Baen Ebooks: $6.00 (e-book)

“Resistance is feudal!”

ISBN: 978-1-4516-3832-5

Ahem.

Genre: Space Opera

Hank Reinhardt’s Book of Knives

Do you know a history buff, or someone Hank Reinhardt
who reads historical fiction? Introduce them Baen, 180 pages, $13.00 (trade paperback) to this classic SF tale by a master of SF and Baen Ebooks: $6.00 (e-book)

history.

ISBN: 978-1-4516-3755-7

The High Crusade appeared as a serial in Genre: Nonfiction

Analog in 1960, and stayed in print for decades as a standalone novel. Now this sto-Do you know someone who’s a military en-ry of medieval knights in combat against an thusiast? How about a gamer? Or anyone who alien interstellar empire is back in print along writes SF, fantasy, thrillers, mysteries, or his-with a sequel short story and appreciations torical fiction? This is a weird one, invaluable from various SF luminaries.

to the right person. It’s not SF, but certainly of The story is as audacious as it is entertain-interest to many in the SF community.

ing. In England in 1345, Sir Roger Baron de Hank Reinhardt was a student of fighting Tourneville is training his knights to join in styles. In this well-researched and highly read-the war against France. Suddenly, a huge able book, he presents everything there is to spaceship lands in the quiet Lincolnshire vil-know about knives and knife fighting, com-lage. Out come the alien Wersgorix, bent on plete with pictures and diagrams. From the his-invasion and conquest. The Wersgorix rule a tory of knives through such chapters as “the vast galactic empire, and they’re very good street knife,” “knife concealment,” and an conquering planets. Or so they think.

“wounds,” Reinhardt dispels all the Hollywood Unfortunately, all the weaponry and tactics myths of what knife fighting is like. (Example: are based on high tech, and they’ve long for-

“Holding the blade with the edge up may look gotten the techniques of hand-to-hand com-tough and macho, but . . . limits your mobility.”) bat. Frankly, the aliens don’t stand a chance Reinhardt passed away before completing against Sir Roger’s knights.

the book; one of his students, Greg Phillips, Eager to deliver the captured spaceship to completed the chapters on choosing a knife the battlefields of France, Sir Roger brings and acquiring skills.

the entire population of the town aboard For someone who is interested in the sub-with all their belongings. They take off suc-ject, this book gives a wealth of information.

cessfully, but miss the mark and wind up on a Wersgorix outpost world instead of France.

I’d like to make mention of a new anthology What with one thing and another, it isn’t called Galactic Creatures, edited by Elektra long before the knights control the outpost Hammond. All the stories are based on the world, and Sir Roger leads them on a new idea of spaceships made in the shape of ani-Crusade to defeat the Empire and free all its mals. Now, the anthology contains one of my slave races.

stories, so obviously I can’t give it a review, The characters are compelling, the adven-but I thought Analog readers would want to ture thrilling, and the history spot on cor-know it exists.

rect. Seeing interstellar technology through the eyes of fourteenth century knights is one That’s it for this time around. Safe and hap-of the delights of the tale. Your history buff py holidays to all, and best of wishes for the reader will love this book as generations be-new year.

fore have.

By the way, The High Crusade would make Don Sakers is the author of The Leaves of a killer film. There was a 1994 movie version, October and A Voice in Every Wind. For more but by all accounts it was dreadful . . . it’s high information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.

time for a good one. Besides, I have the perfect tagline for the action-packed trailer, filled Copyright © 2012 Don Sakers

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DON SAKERS

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BRASS TACKS
reetings!

ating system is the most f lexible of the As you pointed out in your March
choices available at this time. My colleagues 2012 editorial (“What’s Technology
at work joked about my writing code using GFor?”),“hard copy”can stayaround WordStar 4.0 but theyliked the results that a while the electronic version can be unusable clean ASCII program gave them. The “latest because of changes in the electronics used and greatest’ is not always the best.

to read the file be it on tape, disk, or the var-Sincerely,
ious types of CDs. I started in computing C. Henry Depew
with IBM’s 80-column version of Herman Hollerith’s punch card. I do not know where Sir;

I could find a keypunch machine or a card I was reading the April issue and was re-reader these days to either read or repro-minded about your question in the Janu-duce the cards I have in storage from a grad-ary/February 2012 issue. “Why do we say uate project finished in 1969. The nice part

‘nuke’ when refer r ing to using a mi-
is that the key punch machines I was using crowave?” I always thought it was because printed the information on the top of the of the similarity between the terms “mi-card, so I could sit down and reproduce crowave radiation” and “nuclear radiation.”

each card in today’s electronic environment.

In the minds of most Americans they mean From the keypunch, we went to terminals the same thing. Anyway, I’m not sure this is connected to the mainframe. And then came the reason, but maybe it is. Thank you.

CP/M and the personal microcomputer.

Paul Basile

Then we had IBM’s DOS (and versions there-Longmeadow, MA
of) and now Windows (in all its varieties).

While most of IBM’s programs were “back-I suspect you’re right, but that merely un-ward compatible”

and there were
derscores my point about how poorly edu-boards/software that would convert from cated most Americans are about such CP/M to DOS (and visa a versa), Windows things, and how sloppy their thinking as a became a whole new ballgame. As an editor result.

of two newsletters, I now have on my machine Open Systems Software to allow me to Dear Stan,
read and convert the latest of the MS-Word I agree completely with your (April 2012) files to something I can use, since my con-observations and conclusion. However, I’ve tributors run on both Mac and Windows ma-noticed that, over at least the last decade, chines and the copy comes to me (except business and government managers/adminis-for those who use “Save as” and convert the trators have been operating under the prin-file to RTF) in all types of word processing ciple that every job can be quantified and formats.

structured so that every employee can be re-My machines run in the Windows 2000
placed with a chimpanzee. Employees at Professional environment because the oper-many levels are expected to adhere blindly 105

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ANALOG
to established “policy” to provide ostensibly Dear Stan,
uniform service. I wish I had some solution, June 2012 will be a milestone for me. I but the current economy seems to encour-will be 75 years old. Also, it will be a mile-age the kind of blind obedience you have stone for my relationship with your maga-noted. It might be a good basis for a story . .

zine and its predecessor, Astounding. I en-

.

countered the ma gazine and the

Thomas Schreiber
wonder/mystery/experience of science fic-Hellertown, PA
tion in June 1947. So that makes our relationship 65 years and counting.

Stan,

I have no idea what it is like to be a ten You wrote (in the April 2012 issue):

year old today, when we appear to be turn-

“An advanced and advancing civilization ing our back on space and the future, but for needs citizens—lots of them—who have
me in 1947, experiencing Astounding and well-developed judgment and who under-its future vistas changed my life. My family stand and accept the need to be accountable was of the working class; my father, a master for its quality and consequences. It does not plumber, had only an eighth grade educa-need a straitjacket of policies that were de-tion. Yet I decided I was going to be a scien-veloped to fit one set of conditions, have no tist and do great things!

f lexibility to adapt to new ones, and are My enthusiasm and personal drive carried viewed as a substitute for thinking.”

me for many, many years. So I was able to You thereby exclude from the definition graduate with a BS from CalTech and taught of “advanced and advancing civilization” any secondary school science and math in north-one that practices “Zero Tolerance” and ern Nigeria. However, the reality is that I am cowers under a “Patriot Ax,” including but not a mathematical genius and it will be not limited to one in thrall to Homeland Se-many years beyond my lifetime before we recurity and a Transportation Security Agency.

turn to the Moon.

R. Lee Montgomery

Yet your magazine and the stories/lives Yasothon, Thailand
presented there are very important to expand the minds/lives of your readers. My Dear Mr. Schmidt:

secondary school in far northern Nigeria Analog is a great magazine. While I agree was at the souther n edge of the Sahara wholeheartedly with your reasons to be con-desert. When I told them of snow falling cerned with “The City ‘Solution,’” [June from the sky and great glaciers wearing 2012] I would like to add what I believe is an down mountains, it was like science fiction even more compelling reason to avoid ur-to them. For them and your authors/readers, banization as a “Solution.” Anyone that has it is very important to expand the bound-taken a psychology course in college will rearies of what is possible far beyond the lim-member the experiments done with rats in its of the here and now.

cages. As the population increases, the rats Thank you.

begin to exhibit strange behaviors: self-muti-Richard N. Newlin, PhD.

lation, random violence/killings, acting in odd ways, etc. When the population is re-Congratulations and many thanks for duced, these behaviors cease. Read a news-your long support and continued enthusi-paper from any large city. You will find ex-asm.

amples of the same strange behaviors being Your reference to snow brought me a exhibited by humans. There are too many chuckle, as I remember looking the word rats in the cage! I believe overpopulation is up in an English-Swahili dictionary and the root of our environmental, sociological, finding the borrowed Arabic word “theluji”

and economic problems.

and a lengthy Swahili explanation whose Wayne Patton
gist was, “Water made hard by the cold and Leadville CO
resembling finely-grated coconut.”

106

BRASS TACKS

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UPCOMING EVENTS Anthony Lewis NOTE: Membership rates often change after sentation of Skylark and Gaughan Awards.

we have gone to press. Check the websites for Membership: $50 adult; $35 college student; the most recent information.

$25 K-12 (student ID required for student rates) until 21 January 2013. Info: www.nes-11–13 January 2013
fa.org/boskone/b50; info-b50@boskone.org; ILLOGICON II (Research Triangle SF Confer-

+1.617.776.3243 (fax); +1.617.625.2311
ence) at Embassy Suites Raleigh/Research Tri-

(voice); Boskone 50, PO Box 809, Framing-angle, NC. Writer Guest of Honor: Tim Pow-ham, MA 10701
ers; Webcomics Guest of Honor: Garth

Graham; TM: Mark Van Name. Membership: 29 August–2 September 2013

Info: illogiCon.com; info@illogicon.com.

LONESTARCON 3 (71st World Science Fiction Convention) at Henry B. Gonzalez Convention 18–20 January 2013

Center, San Antonio, Texas. Author Guests of INFINITE CONFUSION (Detroit area SF con-Honor: James Gunn & Norman Spinrad; Editor ference) at Pro Guest of Honor: Charles Stross; Guest of Honor: Ellen Datlow; Artist Guest of Editor Guest of Honor: Scott Edelman; Fan Honor: Darrell K. Sweet; Fan Guest of Honor: Guest of Honor: James Davis Nicholl; Special Willie Siros; TM: Paul Cornell; Special Guests: Guest of Honor: Mary Robinette Kowal; Sci-Leslie Fish & Joe R. Lansdale. Membership: un-ence Guest of Honor: Jennifer Ouellette. Mem-til 30 June 2012. Attending $160 (adult), $110
bership: $35 (adult 13+) until 1 January 2013, (young adult 17-21), $75 child (to 16), family $50 at the door; $20 (kids 5-12) until 1 Janu-

$440; supporting $60. This is the SF universe’s ary, $25 at the door. Info: http://confusion.

annual get-together. Professionals and readers stilyagi.org/; confusion13@stilyagi.org; Ann from all over the world will be in attendance.

Arbor Science Fiction Association, Attn: Con-Talks, panels, films, fancy dress competition—

Fusion, PO Box 8284, Ann Arbor, MI 48107.

the works. Nominate and vote for the Hugos.

lonestarcon3.org; info@lonestarcon3.org; PO

18–21 January 2013

Box 27277, Austin, TX 78755-2277.

ARISIA 2013 (New England Speculative Fiction Conference) at Westin Boston Waterfront, 31 October–3 November 2013

Boston, MA. Guests of Honor: Tananarive Due WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION at The

& Steven Barnes; Artist Guest of Honor: Roger Hilton Brighton Metropole, Brighton, England Dean; Musical Guests of Honor: Emerald Rose.

Themes: World Fantasy Convention: The Next Membership: $50 until 31 December 2012, Generation and Arthur Machen @150. Guests $60 thereafer and at the door; $25 students of Honor: Richard Matheson & Richard Christ-13-25 with student ID. Info: www.arisia.org; ian Matheson; Artist Guest of Honor: Alan Lee; info@arisia.org; PO Box 391596, Cambridge, Special Guests: Brian Aldiss & Tessa Farmer; MA 02139.

MC: China Miéville. Membership: GBP100 attending,

GBP50 supporting.

Info:

15–17 February 2013
www.wfc2013.org; info@wfc2013.org; World BOSKONE 50 (New England Science Fiction Fantasy Convention 2013 c/o 130 Park View, Conference) at Westin Boston Waterfront, Wembley, Middx HA9 6JU, England.

Boston, MA. Guest of Honor: Vernor Vinge; Official Artist: Lisa Snellings; Special Guest: John Hertz; Featured Filker: Heather Dale. Pre-Copyright © 2012 Anthony Lewis

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ANTHONY LEWIS

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