Magazine - Analog Science Fiction and Fact - 2015 - Issue 03 - March (pdf)
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Date: 2015-01-06 02:49:13+00:00

Vol. CXXXV No. 3

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March 2015

February 10, 2015

88

NOVELETTES

TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE, Adam-Troy Castro _________________________________ 6

BRIGAS NUNCA MAIS, Martin L. Shoemaker ____________________________ 30

KARMA AMONG THE CLOUD KINGS, Brian Trent ________________________ 88

SHORT STORIES

ROBOT BOSS, Erick Melton __________________________________________ 42

AFTER, Ron Collins_________________________________________________51

BLUE RIBBON, Marissa Lingen _______________________________________ 52

SECOND BIRTHDAY, Elisabeth R. Adams _______________________________65

THE BADGES OF HER GRIEF, Andrew Barton___________________________68

AN IMMENSE DARKNESS, Eric James Stone ____________________________74

THE EXTRAORDINARY EXTRATERRESTRIAL

TOGO MOUSE FROM GHANA, Ryan W. Norris_________________________80

SCIENCE FACT

FIVE WAGERS ON WHAT INTELLIGENT LIFE

ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WILL BE LIKE, Steven L. Peck __________ 22

PROBABILITY ZERO

PHENOL-FAERIE, Jay Werkheiser _____________________________________60

POEM

THE IMPENDING APOCALYPSE HELPS ME

MAINTAIN PERSPECTIVE, Steven Dondlinger _________________________73

READER’S DEPARTMENTS

GUEST EDITORIAL: SNEAK INVASION, REVISITED, Jamie Todd Rubin _______ 3

BIOLOG: MARISSA LINGEN, Richard A. Lovett __________________________ 59

THE ALTERNATE VIEW, John G. Cramer _______________________________ 62

IN TIMES TO COME ________________________________________________79

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY, Don Sakers______________________________ 101

BRASS TACKS ___________________________________________________ 106

UPCOMING EVENTS, Anthony Lewis _________________________________108

Trevor Quachri Editor

Emily Hockaday Assistant Editor

Cover design by Victoria Green

Cover Art by Dominic Harman

Indicia on Page 4

GUEST EDITORIAL Jamie Todd Rubin SNEAK INVASION, REVISITED
he recent hype surrounding the an-
change fascinating, in large part because it nouncement of the highly anticipated
builds upon itself so quickly. Distant, imag-Apple Watch reminded me of an editori-
ined futures often seem strange to us because Tal that John W.Campbell wrote in the we’ve skipped over the incremental changes, November 1942 issue of Astounding. Titled and have been dumped into that future. We

“Sneak Invasion,” the article’s main thrust become literary time travelers.

was that practical technological improve-

Consider that Campbell’s editorial was
ments are rarely gigantic leaps forward, and written 72 years ago, not long after the Unit-they rarely take us by surprise. As Campbell ed States entered World War II. How were the wrote,
science fiction writers of the day imaging the future? The first stories making up Isaac Asi-The new techniques filter into nor-
mov’s Foundation series appeared in 1942.

mal life so smoothly, in such small

These are far future stories with flying cars steps, with so much forewarning, that
and self-driving taxis. The stories refer to they never surprise us. No company

“book films,” and, of course, an Encyclopedia manufactures new devices until they’ve

Galactica, a centralized, curated repository prepared the public to receive them
of all human knowledge.

and use them.

Lester del Rey’s “Lunar Landing” appeared
in October 1942, and typifies stories of “first One can almost imagine that Campbell had
attempts” to land humans on the Moon. In

Apple in mind with a statement like this, but many stories like these, you get the sense that his point applies to many forms of technology the authors felt humanity was less than a gen-from automobile manufacturers and drug
eration from permanent colonies on the
companies, to computer companies and on-

Moon and Mars. A particularly imaginative
line software services.

writer like C. L. Moore might ponder the im-The main point that Campbell makes is that plications of the multiverse, as she did in her these improvements tend to be incremental
wonderful 1939 story, “Greater Than Gods,”

in nature and therefore sneak into our lives and Robert Heinlein made an attempt to por-through a gradual progression of small ad-
tray a post-singularity future in his serial, “Be-vancements. Such a sneak invasion of tech-
yond This Horizon,” but both of the stories nology is made easier because the rumor mill were outliers.

ensures the public is prepared for it when it We wonder, scornfully, where our flying
arrives. Campbell likely wrote this editorial cars, jetpacks, and food pills are, but in fact, sometime early in 1942, which means that
those were just some of the technological im-what Apple, Google, Ford, and other compa-
provements that science fiction writers seven nies have been doing in this respect—feeding decades ago believed were not far off in their the rumor mill—is nothing new to the
future.

process. Only the methods of delivery have Yet imagine a young science fiction writer changed.

from 1942 drawn 72 years into the future,

As a science fiction fan and writer, I find perhaps by a lightning bolt, like Martin Pad-the incremental nature of technological
way in L. Sprague de Camp’s classic Lest 3

ANALOG

Darkness Fall. Would the small, steady accu-does all of his writing in Google Docs, the mulation of technological changes that sneak change has been very steady.

in over time make for a recognizable future But imagine our science fiction writer, skip-for that dislocated soul?

ping seven decades of small, but steady ad-Context plays a role, and given the focus of vancements. The keyboard is mostly the
technology in the early 1940s, I think our same. But where is the paper? How do the
imagined time traveler would be disappoint-words on the screen get to the paper? Where ed. Microwave ovens might seem like a nifty do they go in the meantime? And why does it invention, but where are all of the atomic keep trying to correct my spelling?

powered cars? Atomic powered airplanes?

Our time traveler probably listened to Bing Atomic powered lawn mowers and vacuum

Crosby’s “Far Away Places” on a radio or
cleaners? We could, with pride, tell our sci-phonograph. He or she went to the movie
ence fiction-writing friend that not one, but house (as my grandfather used to say) to see twelve men once stood on the Moon.

Road to Morocco, and watched their favorite The natural response to the statement

TV shows on—oh, wait, they probably
might be, “And how many are up there
weren’t watching television in 1942. What
now?” Sadly, we would have to admit that no would our time-traveling friend think of an one is on the Moon now. We have robots
iPhone, on which I can carry my entire music roaming Mars, and a probe due to arrive in collection (including nearly two hundred
the vicinity of Pluto (which, by the way, is no Bing Crosby tunes); from which I have access longer a planet—long story) later this year.

to thousands of movies virtually instanta-

But no one has set foot on the Moon in 42
neously; and from which I can download and years.

watch seasons of just about any television However, we do have a kind of Encyclope-show aired in the last half century.

dia Galactica. We call it the internet, and it Our time traveler probably walked to a
isn’t really curated, and you have to take what nearby newsstand to pick up the latest issue you see there with a grain of salt. And for of Astounding, and the other science fiction goodness sake, whatever you do, don’t read magazines of the day. What would they think the comments.

when told that issues of all of my favorite sci-Our time-traveling science fiction writer
ence fiction magazines are downloaded to my might be disappointed that we don’t have

Kindle device, or my iPad, or iPhone each
atomic powered cars, or permanent Moon
month? Would it seem like science fiction to bases, but things like the internet might truly them?

baffle them. Things like a word processor

Certainly our time traveler would recognize might baffle them, for that matter. The evolu-the bookshelves that line the walls of my liv-tion from typewriter to modern word procesing room, and probably many of the books
sor is a good example of what Campbell was and magazines on those shelves. But what
referring to. As someone who started writing would they think when told that most of my on a typewriter (my grandfather’s manual
books are in digital form, and reside within a Royal QuietComfort DeLuxe) and who now

“cloud” made up of millions of computers

Analog Science Fiction and Fact (Astounding), Vol. CXXXV, No. 3, March 2015. ISSN 1059-2113, USPS 488-910, GST#123054108. Published monthly 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) 2014 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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JAMIE TODD RUBIN

MARCH 2015
connected together? Would they be aghast at any device I own within seconds. Even when the blasphemy toward books as a physical ob-flying across the country, I have internet ac-ject? Or would they see it for the very science cess on the plane, and can carry my entire fictional future imagined in the stories that book, movie, and music library in my pocket.

appeared back in their day?

At no time during the last quarter century We can see some of this change ourselves.

did any of these changes manifest themselves A quarter century ago, when I headed off to as huge jumps in technology. The single
college, I took with me an IBM computer
biggest leap was from my old cell phone to with an Intel 286 processor. I used WordPer-my first iPhone, and Apple prepared me for it fect to type up my term papers, but did near-well in advance. Everything else took the
ly everything else by hand. I took notes with a form of small, incremental changes. And yet pen and paper. My textbooks added fifty
the world in which I live today, the world in pounds to my cross-campus hikes. When I did which I work both as a software developer
my homework, I listened to the radio, and
and a writer, is, technologically, leaps and when I needed entertainment, I went to the bounds ahead of the world I lived in when I second-run movie theater on campus.

entered college.

Today, I live in a world where my laptop

Campbell’s 1942 observation was keen and
computer is thinner than the November 1942
prescient, and naturally, leads me to wonder issue of Astounding in which Campbell’s edi-what the sneak invasion of technology will torial appeared. Sitting with my kids on a lead to over the next twenty-five years . . . and video chat with their grandparents is a more beyond. The best part of science fiction, for regular occurrence than a phone call. My sub-me, is exploring those possibilities, testing scriptions to Scientific American, New Scien-the waters, and in the process, stretching my tist, and yes, even Analog are all digital. I can imagination. ■
access any document I need from just about TREVOR QUACHRI ........................................

PETER KANTER

Editor

Publisher

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5

Tasha’s

Fail-Safe

Adam-Troy Castro

Tasha Coombs:

She’d taken lives in order to preserve her own.

s Tasha f led for her life, clutching the

She knew better.

seeping wound in her side, she knew it

But that was also the way she’d been living was her own fault that she was probably
for almost three weeks now, as her investiga-Agoing to die tonight.

tion entered its final stages. None of her prior Heading home that evening had, it turned
precautions had turned out to be necessary, out, been a serious tactical error. Strictly speak-and the operation hadn’t quite passed the nec-ing, she should have stayed within the Intelli-essary tipping point so she made a decision gence complex and sought what sleep she
that she now knew she never should have
needed in one of the several perfectly accept-made: comfort over safety, stubbornness over able apartments the corps maintained in the self-preservation, the hunger for some kind of heart of its own complex for people who had life over the imperative to preserve what life worked so late that it made no sense to go all she had.

the way home.

This was a mistake.

Besides, her assignment was about to go

With her likely murderer’s footsteps not far critical, and the hub-based sun had dimmed to behind, she knew that it had been a mistake.

provide New London with the equivalent of
night. That meant there were fewer people on Earlier:

the streets and more opportunities for an am-She had spent the last few weeks at the Dip bush if she had not covered herself as consci-Corps headquarters, at the heart of the cylinder entiously as she believed.

world known as New London, doing two jobs: Really, going home to her own bed and to
the one she was supposed to look like she was her virtual husband made a lot less sense than doing, and the one she was actually doing.

sticking around the job in case the flares went The one she was supposed to look like she
up.

was doing involved collating economic analy-She was too good to make that kind of mis-
ses of the latest major transactions of exo-con-take. She’d walked in and out of war zones.

federate corporate states, Bettelhine and

6

MARCH 2015

Dejahcorp and Trawleny and the like. They
opportunity to establish that rarest of all birds, were rival powers, not-quite-enemies of the a triple agent. “I like the way you think, Tash.

Hom. Sap Confederacy, with the potential to You should get me a report on that by the end become enemies whenever the winds of for-of the workday tomorrow. But as for now, you tune dictated. Even working a 5-D model with look like you’re about to fall asleep standing the latest known transactions of all principals, up. How long has it been since you closed
the job was intensely dull and, of course, not your eyes?”

the job that she really cared about.

Tasha had feigned a lot of things since join-Late that afternoon, her superior Veronica ing the task force, but her answering yawn was Cheung came over and watched her work for
not one of them.

a while, looming in the way that she did, tsk-

“I thought so. You stay much longer, you’re ing after several long minutes of examination.

going to start making mistakes. Get yourself

“That can’t be right.”

some rest and return when you can hold your Tasha thought she saw what Cheung did but
head up.”

feigned ignorance. “What?”

“One more hour,” said Tasha. “I have to

“You have some color overlap between the
wrap up.”

Bettelhine cloud and the Dejahcorp cloud.

“Ten more minutes,” said Cheung. “Then

That’s unlikely in the extreme. The two corpo-save your work, and get yourself a goddamned rations are not just rivals but bitter enemies; drink or something.” She pivoted on her heels they’ve had what amounts to a shooting war and strode away, her spikes making clack-clack for years.”

noises on the office’s alloy floor.

“And they’d never engage in open trade,”

Tasha had no intention of listening to this ad-Tasha agreed.

vice.

Her fingers flitted over the projection, mag-She gave her current task a full hour, moving nifying the area under dispute.

data about, not uncovering a potential Dejah-

“But they each have resources the other
corp traitor, but instead creating one, as the needs, and it’s never been unknown for lesser cheating bureaucrat she’d just described was administrators far from the central power
wholly fictional. By the time she was done, the structure to engage in barter of one kind of an-numbers painted a portrait of the wholly imag-other as long as they can keep the bosses out inary personality as detailed as any oil painting.

of the loop.”

Tasha could almost smell the man’s fear-sweat She enlarged the area of greatest overlap.

when he tallied up his f igures every day, his

“This represents a flurry of back-and-forth over forlorn hesitation whenever he passed high in the Lesothic Cluster; one of the administra-places and contemplated ending himself be-
tors of Dejahcorp’s wheelworlds there has
fore his perfidy could be discovered. Her per-been exchanging a little more than 10 percent sonal image of him was that of a round-faced, of his annual production to subsidiary powers jowly man with a bad comb-over and a perma-doing direct business with Bettelhine. It’s wild-nent sheen of sweat, returning home to a wife ly against the policies of both corporations, but who had barely two words to say to him and a I don’t think he’s letting his bosses know.”

son who had only half as much to say as the Cheung seemed to admire that. “Cheeky
wife. She sprinkled in a few personal transac-bastard.”

tions to indicate that the poor guy lived be-

“Not quite. His attempts to cover himself
yond his means, in order to support a
have been clumsy in the extreme, and he’s
double-life, and stopped only when she real-been operating at such a loss because of it that ized that her numbers were in danger of trans-he’s going to have to either turn himself in to forming into a soap opera.

the law or defect to Bettelhine in order to So she deleted the digital scaffolding that avoid imprisonment.”

identif ied her f iction as a work in progress,

“Can we make him an asset?”

backed up her work, and stopped off at the of-

“It would mean getting the corps to cover
fice where her other target, one Beau D’Eauffi-his losses.”

er, was taking a break himself. He had draped Cheung didn’t smile; it just wasn’t in her to his oversized bulk over the lounge and seemed flash teeth, ever. But she had to appreciate the to be dreaming, eyes hidden under a hairy

TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

7

ANALOG
forearm, when she poked her head into his of-The commute:

fice, but just before she left him alone, he mur-Tasha signed out and left the antiseptic halls mured: “You’re going to die, Coombs.”

of the intelligence division for the somewhat She laughed. “That’s what Cheung said.”

more antiseptic environment of the surround-

“You should listen to her. Nobody ever saved ing Dip Corps campus, well-manicured and
the kingdom by making themselves a shell.

lovingly landscaped, but always in her mind, You’re going to drain off what life force you impossible to see as anything but a tableau have just trying to impress everybody.”

built on deceit and lies.

She shrugged. “What do you want, I’m com-

The Dip Corps was the face the Hom. Sap
pulsive.”

Confederacy showed to the other great pow-

“Cheung’s compulsive. I’m compulsive. We
ers of known space, but it was a rickety con-all have to be compulsive to do this work. But struct, based less on preserving the peace than if you’re like this when there isn’t even a diplo-in preserving the illusion that humanity’s dom-matic crisis sending us to the bunkers, I hate to inant power spoke with one voice. Some of
see what you’re like when everybody’s called what was entailed in making the illusion work in for a clock-burner. Have you even eaten to-involved the dirtiest of all possible tactics, and day?”

Tasha had seen enough of it to be cured of any Tasha was uncomfortably aware that this
fantasies she might have had about the confed-was the second time somebody had expressed eracy’s claims of being the shining light for hu-concerns for her health. “This morning. I
manity’s future. It was, as far as she was think.”

concerned, just the best of a very bad lot.

“The day will come,” he intoned, “when

Somebody she didn’t like very much had told you realize you’ve missed the best parts of life.

her once that when she started thinking that Come on. You only see this old carcass still way, it would be time to start working off what hanging around because I need a nap just to remained of her Dip Corps contract at some gather up enough energy to go home and
less psychically damaging assignment, like em-sleep properly.”

bassy work. And she’d been thinking that way She smiled. “I just have a few things to wrap for a long time.

up.”

From the quad she moved on to the slide-

“For Juje’s sake wrap them up then. This is walk and from there to an express tube that not a conversation I want to have with you should have delivered her to a bed and to a again tonight.”

simulated lover who, because he made no de-

“Not much longer,” she promised.

mands on her limited time, was right now a She left the division, did a speed-walk to the f ine substitute for the real thing. She didn’t other side of the Dip Corps complex, spent a even want sex from the damn thing tonight; little time sipping coffee in a breakroom where never mind that it had been longer than she nobody knew her, took her time in the re-wanted to think about since she’d been able to stroom sending a coded update to her han-fit such an extravagance into her schedule. But dlers, then returned to the division prepared to the warmth of another body, however false; tell her superiors that she’d almost made it the soft reassurance of a loved one’s breath home before having to return to the office for against her back, however artif icial; there something she’d forgotten. By then D’Eauffier came a point when that was necessary just to was also long gone. The sound of her footsteps maintain sanity.

echoed wherever she went. She consulted the When this business is done, she told herself; building’s security records to confirm that this when I nail the piece of shit to the wall—then entire wing of the building had been as good I’m going to step back, get a transfer to some-as abandoned for more than an hour, spent
thing less time-consuming, and have a life for about ten minutes debating her options, and myself.

then made what probably qualified as the most The habitat engineers had decided that it
careless professional decision of her life.

would be a warm night with a starry sky, and She decided that going home would not be
so Tasha took her time during the two extenda problem.

ed periods when she was on foot, stopping at

* * *
one point for a meal of protein buzz and

8

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

MARCH 2015
slowing down to slurp it through a straw as The words shouted in her face were hoarse, she gazed up at the false starscapes shifting driven, tremulous: the tones that can enter and dancing across the surface of New Lon-even the most civilized human being’s voice don’s central hub: not quite the sky of the rural when the veneer of the civilized is ripped world where she’d been raised, nor a persua-away by the prerogatives of self-preservation.

sive illusion, but better than the sense she al-

“WHAT DO THEY KNOW?”

ways got of a great metal club, poised to smash The average person wounded as badly as
the jumped-up country girl flat.

Tasha was would have succumbed to the dead-She was almost wistful when she turned the ly illusion that providing answers offered a pos-corner of the corridor that accessed the neigh-sible path to survival.

borhood containing the cubicle complex she Tasha knew better. This little act of despera-called home; thinking of anything but the tacti-tion had just incriminated her attacker in far cal dangers of her surroundings.

more than a simple assault. There was no

Her attacker jumped her then.

chance of this encounter ending with Tasha Tasha’s f irst impression, even as the blade being allowed to live; compliance was, like sur-sliced through her suit and drew a line across render, a direct path to extinction.

her ribs, was that this was just street crime.

She screamed, leveraged the piece of shit to Muggings as such largely didn’t happen on
the ground, enforced her opinion with a sav-New London. Currency was not totally unheard age kick to the belly, only barely evaded an at-of in the confederacy, because member worlds tempt to grab her ankle, discerned that none encompassed such a wide spread of human civ-of this had put her enemy down for good,
ilizations, but here all commerce was direct looked for her sidearm, saw that it had slid transfer from one account to another. There somewhere out of sight, and judged that any was no particular need for anybody to carry attempt to retrieve it now would only succeed valuables. But random assaults, rapes, crimes of in keeping her within the killer’s reach.

passion: these happened, because people were She fled.

people. When the burning pain hit her side Her side bled, and running made it bleed

Tasha even had enough time to feel the irony of more, but it was a shallow wound; not the
possibly falling to a mundane threat so close to great big gaping gash of the sort that spills or-home, after surviving far greater dangers on as-gans or fluids in quantities that leave a corpse signment to distant worlds.

after a few agonized steps, but a shallow cut She reached for her sidearm. Her attacker
meant to terrorize that could only kill her if seized her by the wrist before she could clear she let the pain stop her from attempting es-it and tossed it aside, before ramming her cape.

against the wall a second time.

She had a chance: if not to outrun her as-

Tasha thought to hell with this and got seri-sailant or put a door between them, then at ous.

least enough to get into position for a counter-Getting serious would have normally meant
attack, or to make it to a place where other hu-the death of any amateur who took her on in man beings could be found.

close quarters.

She hated that the sounds coming out of her But her attacker blocked what would have
mouth were those of a panicking helpless girl.

been a deadly counterblow had it been wield-But she didn’t try to stop them or the tears that ed against any moronic street thug.

had sprung, unbidden, to her eyes. Those, she She was treated to her first close-up look at knew, were involuntary physical responses.

the angry but fear-driven face behind the

Fighting them took more energy that it was knife.

worth.

She recognized her enemy, and along with

Behind her, in hot pursuit: “Don’t be stu-
the rush of surprise—because she’d been lean-pid!”

ing toward the belief that the attack would She turned another corner at random and
come from the other one—came the aware-
saw right away that this was the wrong deci-ness that this had been the worst possible sion. This corridor, a route she had never trav-night to succumb to a craving for the pleasures eled, stretched so far away, into the
of home.

unreachable distance, that the floor and walls TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

9

ANALOG
and ceiling converged into a point that seemed A now-hated voice called out to her. “Tasha?

slightly above center in what may have been a I can hear you gasping.”

manifestation of New London’s curvature.

“I can hold out until help comes.”

There was no place to go but straight ahead,

“I don’t believe you can. And even if you
no side passages in which she might find shel-shut yourself down, I can boot you back up. I ter. The pain in her side was eloquent testimo-can bring you to people who can take their ny that if she rested all her hopes for survival time getting what I need from you.”

on just outrunning the death coming for her,

“Bullshit.”

she would be no better off than she would be But the chuckle came rolling down the tun-simply stopping to embrace it with welcoming nel anyway. “Did you honestly believe that I arms.

would move after you, even in desperation, if I But she was in luck. She spotted a small
hadn’t researched exactly how to get what I mechanism gliding across the f loor about a want from you?”

hundred yards ahead, and recognized it: a

The light in the tunnel f lickered again, be-cleaning drone, making its nightly rounds as it coming just the few narrow strips of white left swept its environment clean of dust. That gave uneclipsed when the rest of the space was tak-her something else to look for, and she found en up by an advancing form.

it, midway between that squat shape and her Tasha shifted and felt the pain f lare in her own position: the distinctive opening known side.

as a “mouse hole” that had never been home She knew she was about to be taken.

to any mice but which was instead the recess where cleaning mechs stored themselves

Andrea Cort:

when not in use.

They didn’t give me any choice about com-

If she was lucky it might be deep enough to ing with them. They didn’t even tell me why shelter her during her last stand.

I’d been summoned out of a sound if drugged It was close, very close; the sound of run-sleep, in the middle of this, the third month of ning feet, behind her, had grown so loud that my house arrest on New London.

she expected the next slash of the knife at any They just insisted. Insisted hard. In the man-second. But she had time to sidestep, fake a ner of men who made it clear that if I would dodge to the left, then go left anyway and dive not walk I would be carried or dragged.

into the tunnel just large enough for her to I refrained from asking questions because
speed-crawl in, on her hands and knees. Hands that’s something I do only when further infor-grabbed for her, and she kicked them away, unmation can alter an outcome, and thirty sec-fortunately not landing an impact hard enough tions of sleepy you’re-kidding-me directed at to bruise; she pulled herself forward, aware the two scowling presences at the foot of my that any second now she would reach a dead bed didn’t win me anything than other than end and find herself trapped with nowhere to five seconds of no-we’re-not.

go but back into the corridor where her

I did refrain from killing them with any of would-be murderer awaited.

the weapons I’d begun secreting on my person She was lucky, though. There were no other even in sleep, because I was already in trouble drones in residence. The tunnel ended in a for killing a man, and adding these two behe-shadowy cul-de-sac spacious enough to permit moths to the list would have still left me with turning and she drew herself up, with her back the problem of somehow getting off New Lon-against the wall, glaring back at the tunnel don and out of Confederate Space. I still gave she’d just traversed.

fifty-fifty odds of the corps choosing to incar-She saw that she’d just left a moist trail.

cerate or disappear me by the end of the day Her exertions had opened her wound, caus-but going peacefully kept my options open.

ing more pain, and unfortunately causing more I was lucky enough that they agreed to with-weakness. Dizziness assaulted her. She took draw from my quarters to let me get dressed four deep breaths and shook her head, forcing for work in private, a kindness that permitted alertness back into her brain as she steeled her-me to transfer my weapons from my sleep
self for whatever came next.

clothes to the severe black suit I use as both The light in the tunnel flickered.

uniform and armor. This made me feel a lot 10

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

MARCH 2015
better about my preparedness when it turned under house arrest these few past months.

out my escorts had no intention of taking me Routine busywork that should have involved through any corridor or public place where I nothing more complicated than my signature might be seen in their company; instead, they to a chain-of-custody agreement negotiated by were determined to take me out unseen,
parties well above my pay grade, it had instead through utility corridors and fast-transit tubes ended with me nullifying the agreement, mur-used only by security personnel. I upgraded dering a man, and advocating a permanent mil-my estimated odds of soon having to fight for itary blockade of the planet.

my freedom to seventy-thirty.

Granted, I’d had the best possible reasons.

One long uncomfortable commute later,

But these were not the kind of decisions any they brought me to a suite of off ices I didn’t low-ranking, freshly minted Dip Corps coun-know, and to a featureless little room where I selor can be expected to get away with. I’d was locked in, to await my fate. Not one single spent the last few months waiting for the ham-word of explanation had been asked for, or of-mer to fall and expecting Bringen to be the one fered. The odds now seemed ninety-ten. I sat in to drop it.

one of the two chairs facing each other across He surprised me by shaking his head. “You
a table and waited with clasped hands, deter-were the subject of discussion for a while, and mined to wait out any hidden observers who I’m afraid the killing is always going to be a might be analyzing my every gesture for tips on black mark on your record, but nobody in the breaking me.

investigation can deny that you stopped us I expected to wait hours.

from making a terrible tactical mistake. Unoffi-But less than a minute after I took my posi-cially, we’re even grateful.”

tion, the door slid open, admitting a man I

“The Bocaians, then?”

loathed beyond measure.

“That guess doesn’t even make sense.

I said, “You bastard.”

Please. Use that logic you’re getting so famous Artis Bringen was a wispy-thin, smooth-for. Why would we go to such lengths to pro-cheeked functionary who, for reasons of his tect you from the fallout of your actions among own, had had himself auto engineered to look a people as powerful as the Zinn, if we were like a boy of no more than fifteen years. The then only going to surrender you to a provin-concessions to his actual age were a hairline cial backwater like Bocai?”

trimmed back to accentuate his glacial wasteI held on to my hard-earned paranoia a little land of a forehead and a pair of world-weary bit longer. “Perversity?”

eyes that his obsessive overuse of rejuvenation Only a dedicated enemy would have joined
treatments had not been able to lend the same the charge against me as many times as Brin-apparent youthfulness as his face and body.

gen had, but he had one particular bad habit He was my boss, which—thanks to my
that made hating him more nettlesome than
shaky legal status as childhood war criminal, hating most people: the hurt look he flashed even before this latest trespass—also made whenever I failed to give him the credit he him my keeper.

thought he was due. “Come on, Andrea.”

He sighed. “Someday, Andrea, I’ll walk into I’ve become an expert in the various classifi-the room and you’ll say hello. Or good morn-cations of enemy, over the years. The worst are ing. Or even how are you. Something other
those who think they are on friendly terms be-than another redundant reminder that you
tween assaults; those who think that what they hate my guts.”

take from you, they take for your own good.

I said, “You shouldn’t hold your breath.

Bringen was so clearly in that camp that he What kind of trouble am I in?’

sometimes exuded frustration at my disinclina-

“You’re not in any trouble.”

tion to accept his claims of friendship.

The knot of tension in my belly dissipated a I gave him no further room to protest. “So little, at the offhand implication that I might be what do you want?”

able to look forward to days other than today.

“We have a problem for you.”

“What about the Zinn?”

I shrugged. “I’m under suspension.”

My recent turbulent mission to the home-

“You’ve been specifically requested.”

world of the Zinn was the reason I’d been

“I’m still under suspension.”

TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

11

ANALOG

“It might save the life of somebody you care unenhanced human being. I couldn’t tell if her about.”

physique had changed as well, for better or ill,

“I can’t think of a single person who fits that because she was imprisoned by life support description.”

that enclosed her up to the neck, keeping her

“It’s Tasha Coombs.”

fed and exercised and clean, but never reach-Tasha was one of my fellow counselors;
ing the void behind her eyes. Her face bore no we’d gotten our degrees at about the same
sign of the intelligent, involved, pain-in-the-ass time and, as one of our first projects, spent a woman I’d known; instead, her mouth and her year in close quarters working on a joint pro-eyes hung slack, unsupported by any con-
ject of sublime dullness.

scious effort by the soul trapped deep inside We were two strong alpha personalities, of her. It was tempting to think of some part of unfortunately incompatible types. She had
her screaming in there, but I’d been in the more social skills than I did, or likely ever same condition myself a couple of times over would, but was also a child of privilege used to the years, and I knew that she was unaware of having her own way in any dispute; I was the the passage of time, of her current sorry state, ball of anger I am, intent on taking charge out or of her own utter inability to think or act.

of sheer insistence on my own infallibility. Past

“Teemed,” I said.

a few days at the beginning, when between my

“Teemed,” Bringen conf irmed. “She also
reserve and her surface pleasantries we’d both had some other wounds, and the blood trail made a well-intentioned effort to get along, the from the alcove where she was found indicates atmosphere between us had quickly devolved a fairly protracted flight from an assailant bear-to open hostility. For a while, until we decided ing an edged weapon. But those we were able to be coldly robotic in each other’s presence, to heal in short order.”

speaking only to exchange work-related infor-

“How long has she been unresponsive?”

mation, we’d gotten along about as well as two

“Fourteen days, give or take.”

rabid animals in a canvas sack.

I frowned. “She should have recovered her

Since then I’d joined the Judge Advocate’s mind by now.”

off ice, and she’d entered the more shadowy

“This is a special case.”

world of Dip Corps internal security and we’d The weapon that had reduced Tasha to this
not suffered any further contact.

had a formal name of little evident poetry but Any implication that I might have anything was popularly known as a “teemer,” a neolo-to do with some predicament she’d gotten her-gism coined by one of the bastards who in-
self into now was ludicrous; also an anomaly of vented it out of T and M, two consonants from the sort I could not permit to stand.

a now dead language that had once been the

“Show me.”

abbreviation for the legal term, “trademark.”

The significance of that required underlining, Twenty minutes later:

and the research I’d done after the one and Tasha didn’t know where she was or who
only time it happened to me had not been es-she was. She was a closed system, trapped in a pecially illuminating. It seemed that there’d moment of her own creation, a moment that
once been an insanely popular beverage
offered no means of escape. As a noted wit had known as pedsi, or something like that, whose once said of a home world city known for its sellers concocted advertising jingles that, once dullness, there was no “there” there.

heard by the consumer, were fiendishly diffi-When I’d known Tasha she’d had light
cult to dislodge from conscious thought. Peo-mocha skin, shoulder-length brown ringlets ple hummed them, sang them, listened to
and brown eyes that had once been penetrat-hours of more enjoyable music to wipe the dit-ing but now utterly failed to generate any of ty from their meatware. Then they inevitably their own natural heat. Some of that had
ran into the advertising again and were rein-changed for reasons either professional or cos-fected.

metic. She’d darkened the skin three or four Teemers operated on a jacked-up variation
shades, cut her hair to a gray buzz, and created on the same principle. Operating via eye con-a designer eye color closer to orange than tact with their victims, they strobed a high-in-anything you would normally f ind on an
tensity viral image that so completely

12

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

MARCH 2015
imprinted the target’s mind that conscious reasonable attention to the needs of authorized thought and personal volition became impossi-visitors, and one of those was the soft chair ble. For up to a week, until the effect faded, that Bringen sank into now, looking as defeat-the victim was too focused on the image to be ed and as shamed as I’d ever seen him. He cov-able to see, hear, feel, or act.

ered his head with his hands and said, “Don’t Teemers were riot gear, the most humane
put this on me, Andrea. I never approved of weapons to use against an unruly mob, but I the damn thing. I just work for the people who got hit once when trapped in the middle of a did, the same way you do.”

New London street riot, and I’ve got to tell

“I’m still listening.”

you, they’re a def inition of humane I can’t He rubbed his eyes. “You know how, once
even begin to credit. Not only is the sense of upon a time, spies used to carry poison pills, helplessness retroactively terrifying, but recov-so they could commit suicide if they were ever ery from the effects isn’t always as fast or as in danger of being captured and forced to spill easy as the technology’s defenders claim. Some what they knew?”

teemer victims suffer f lashbacks, leading to I’d seen that referred to in some of the sillier further spells of incapacitation, at odd mo-fiction I’ve seen. “Go on.”

ments for years afterward . . . and since the

“This is considered an improvement on that.

wielders can program any image at will, there’s The way it works, the agent gets implants on a despicable tendency among some of the nas-her optic nerves. If she ever finds herself in im-tier people wielding authority to program in minent danger of compromise, she can teem
images disgusting and/or pornographic. There herself with the right mental signal and put are even reports of some governments teem-everything she knows beyond the reach of an ing their political prisoners over and over enemy. It makes her useless as a prisoner, be-again, allowing them only moments of self-
cause she’s impervious to torture or intimida-awareness before putting them back into the tion, and therefore impossible to question.”

limbo of their own skulls, a process that, over

“It’s also a virtual guarantee that any enemy time, permanently damages the brain’s ability who knows about it won’t even bother to try to recover from the treatment.

to take her alive.”

Teeming’s terrible. People have been ruined

“True. It’s more compatible with long-term by it.

survival in those cases where the operative’s But most teemers wore off after less than a working on soil we control and can be re-week.

trieved by authorities capable of restoring her Bringen said, “The device used on her . . . it cognitive functions.”

was, well, a highly classif ied and somewhat I glanced at Tasha. Her mouth had fallen a lit-more advanced version of the weapon you
tle bit open and was loosing drool. It was know. The image it imparts is self-repairing, de-tempting to think this qualified her as an idiot, signed to reset to the original whenever the and I’d be lying if I said that the part of me that brain starts to react to outside stimuli. Unless remembered our many fights wasn’t tempted
we do something, she’ll be like this for the rest to take a little savage pleasure in that. But I had of her life.”

a problem unconnected to any pretense of a I pulled the thumbnail out from between my working conscience: my respect for intelli-incisors and shot Bringen a revolted look I gence. As far as I was concerned, the destruc-might have reserved for mass murderers and tion of any working intelligence was an
rapists. “And just who brought that obscenity obscenity. I said, “So you’re saying that there’s into the world?”

supposed to be a release, a fail-safe of some He pinked. “We did.”

kind.”

“Well, this has got to be a slimy justification

“Of course there is.”

worth hearing.”

“But you haven’t used it.”

We weren’t in an ordinary hospital room but

“We don’t have it.”

in an illicit clinic the corps maintained on-site

“Aren’t you supposed to have it?”

for its more embarrassing problems, a subsec-

“Now you’re beginning to see our problem.”

tion of humanity that had for some time in-My head began to hurt. I paced from one
cluded me. But the amenities included
wall to the other, cogitating, then closed my TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

13

ANALOG
eyes. “Get me the hell out of here. I need some was writing up her personal character assess-fresh air and can’t think with her in the room.”

ments of various Dip Corps personnel who
have fallen under one cloud or another. This is Five Minutes After That:

one of the closing paragraphs from a two-hun-He took me outside, or as close to outside dred page report she wrote about you.”

as it’s possible to get in a cylinder world like He tapped the hytex port at his collarline, New London. It was a spacious balcony thirty and Tasha’s cool, mellif luous voice f illed the stories above the Dip Corps’s campus
air between us.

grounds, overlooking a green f ield and a

Tasha said, “Andrea Cort’s detractors have pond where water jets sent silver sprays aloft called her unstable, antisocial, self-hating, an-in one of those eternal liquid ballets whose gry, and paranoid. These are all undeniable ele-appeal I have never personally understood. It ments of her emotional mix, fostered in her by was early morning local time, and the solar the life she has led, and are so prominent that lamps in New London’s central hub had just they discourage others from seeing anything begun to f lare to the brilliance they affected else: among them her incisive intelligence and during the day; the air circulators had manua sense of personal integrity as absolute as any factured a controlled breeze, and the curving this observer has ever seen. Despite worries horizon revealed the f irst signs of activity in that her prof ile marks her as prime recruit-the town’s residential and commercial sec-
ment material for an enemy power, it remains tors. I didn’t like heights, and therefore I my personal assessment that the chances of didn’t like balconies, and therefore I was on this ever occurring are remote in the extreme.

edge; a feeling I embraced because it was an She may never be someone to like. But she will edge I needed.

be someone to trust. I would put my life in her Bringen took me to a table in the artif icial hands in a heartbeat.”

sun and placed a small, oblong device between He clicked the report off.

us. It was a hiss-screen, ensuring that anybody Tasha’s voice had only warmed the growing
trying to eavesdrop on us from a distance—un-knot of tension in my belly, and her opening likely, as that kind of thing takes advance plan-words had heated it to a slow boil. Her conclu-ning—would hear nothing but a wall of white sion hadn’t mollif ied any of that, but had in-noise.

stead robbed me of any place to put it.

He sat. I didn’t.

“Damn you,” I said conversationally.

He said, “The two of you were not friends.”

“In case you’re wondering, my own profes-

“No. We weren’t. She hated me. I hated
sional assessment on f ile has always said the her.”

same thing.”

“Hate’s a strong word.”

I repeated, “Damn you.”

I flashed annoyance. “If you want me to say He sighed the sigh of the long-persecuted
that I didn’t lie awake at night thinking of ways and looked away, regarding the distant, curved to kill her, no, I didn’t hate her by that precise fields of New London’s farmland with the eyes definition. But I was still relieved that she was of one hoping they possessed some landmark out of my life and that I was out of hers.”

he could use to guide him past this dangerous

“You would like a lot of people out of your territory.

life, wouldn’t you, Andrea?”

After a moment, not facing me, he said,

There was that look of hurt again, possibly

“When she was in the worst trouble of her life, pretense and possibly self-delusion; the atti-with nobody around to help her, she put
tude of a man who believed that his offenses everything she had on your shoulders. You
added up to nothing, and that the resentment want to call that hate, feel free. You want to of those he had hurt added up to salvageable maybe rethink your premises after you’ve done misunderstanding.

this, feel free to do that, too. You’ll do what I said, “If you have a point, please make it.”

you want in any event.”

“You should know this. One of Tasha’s earli-

“You didn’t wake me up out of a sound
est internal security assignments, an elemen-sleep just for the sheer joy of lecturing me. Tell tar y test of her perceptive abilities only me what you can, starting from the beginning, tangentially related to this current problem, and I’ll see what I can do.”

14

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

MARCH 2015

He hesitated, but I could tell it had less to do neuter, working in close proximity. Various with reluctance to share sensitive material than other factors you don’t need to know about the habits of a man accustomed to secrets who cleared the neuter, one of the men, and one of needed to consider those he chose to share.

the women. But isolating the actual culprit out After a moment, he said, “All right.

of the two who remained was more difficult,

“About two years ago, classified information as any open questioning would have simply
belonging to the Dip Corps was found on an alerted that party to shut down all of his, or off-site database belonging to an unaff iliated her, illicit activities.

human entity outside the confederacy.”

“That wouldn’t solve the problem. The diviThe various worlds that make up the con-
sion would still need to be shut down because federacy account for some 81 percent of hu-of the breach. A number of important operamanity’s trillions, but there are some remaining tions would have to be curtailed. Both the players, corporate and governmental, that nev-guilty party and the innocent one would al-er joined, and some of them were serious trou-ways remain under suspicion, which would
blemakers.

mean two important assets lost when we only I said, “Of course, you never would have
needed to eliminate one.”

known this if you didn’t have spies in their

“And also,” I said, dripping acid contempt, camp as well.”

“one actual innocent life ruined, which I’m He spread his hands. “That is the way it certain remained key among the considera-works.”

tions you wished to avoid.”

“What was the information?”

He f lashed that hurt look again. “That

“To fully brief you on that, I’d need days. Suf-should go without saying, Andrea.”

fice it to say that seven operatives working un-I sniffed to indicate that I didn’t believe it at der highly difficult conditions in locations far all. “Go on.”

from home were compromised; two of those

“As it happened, Tasha was rated for the
never made it back. There was no way of
kind of work these people were doing. We
knowing how many others have been endan-
transferred her into their off ice and had her gered, but the potential remaining loss of life watch both to determine which one was our
and the blow to our interests cannot possibly traitor. It was sedentary off ice work, here at be overstated.

home, but it was still considered a risky assign-

“We naturally wasted no time tracking down ment, as both of our suspects had also worked the leak. From various internal indicators I also in the f ield under dangerous conditions and don’t need to go into, we knew that the source could be expected to defend themselves with of the transmitted information came from
deadly force if necessary. If Tasha ever tipped someplace here on New London, so we sent
her hand, it would be well within character for each of our on-site divisions a test file designed the guilty one to lash out. She could be killed.

to look important, and tracked exactly how Worse, on a strategic level, she could be cap-long it took the same information to show up, tured and tortured for information on what we verbatim, in the data of the government we be-already knew, let alone on just what compro-lieved responsible.

mised intelligence was false. She was provided

“Of course, we also made sure that each ver-the teemer implant to limit our losses in case sion of the f ile contained a few unique ele-our culprit ever got close to what she carried ments, involving no more than a couple of
in her head.”

decimal points in certain vital statistics. In this

“And I gather that happened.”

way, when those elements showed up at the

“Clearly. She went off-line and was discov-enemy’s location, we knew exactly what office ered in a niche for maintenance drones in a was involved.”

corridor about five minutes from her home. As I nodded. “A little like filling a boat with water near as we could figure it the drones started re-to determine the places where the hull leaks.”

turning to the alcove before her assailant could

“Right,” said Bringen. He went on:

get to her: that bitch or bastard was forced to

“Identifying the specif ic off ice narrowed f lee, and the drones saved Tasha’s life by re-our problem down to one pod of trusted intel-porting the discovery of what they assumed to ligence analysts: three men, two women, one be a critically injured rape victim. Whoever TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

15

ANALOG
confronted her appears to have been scared data: all enough to stymie the most anal in off before doing her any permanent damage.

what had to be a small army of analysts. Brin-But she remains nonresponsive ever since.”

gen wasn’t a remarkable mind, by my estima-I sighed, strode away from him, thought fution, but he wasn’t an idiot either. If he said the riously for several seconds, then returned and answer was drowning in too much data, I be-said, “So let me see if I can use her current con-lieved him.

dition to extrapolate what happened. Tasha If I was the key to this problem, I was the found the identity of the guilty party elusive.

only key.

She laid a trap of some kind, giving him a I said, “Two last issues. What’s the fail-safe chance to self-incriminate. Whatever measures and why don’t you have it?”

she took to protect herself failed; the culprit

“It’s supposed to be a specif ic code word caught up with her on the street and in some that can be uploaded in a later image, that way, likely superior weaponry, possibly just by overrides the f irst image’s ability to repair it-drawing blood first, demonstrated a tactical ad-self, and jump-starts the individual’s thinking vantage Tasha knew she could not beat. Tasha capacity with direct neural stimulation. If we took herself off the board, the guilty party got had that word, we could bring her back up to away undetected, and you found yourself with speed in a matter of minutes.”

the same problem you had before, except with

“That would make sense. But you said you
your traitor now aware that you’re on the case, don’t have it.”

and Tasha no longer useful to you.”

“She must have changed it after the last time

“You’ve got it.”

she checked in.”

“I suppose there’s no forensic evidence, se-

“Why would she do something that stupid?”

curity footage, or ancillary evidence that points He rubbed his eyes, for what I perceived
to either of your two suspects over the other.”

must have been the hundredth time in the last

“There’s plenty of evidence, Andrea. But it few days; they were red and worn, glassy with points in both directions. It’s all ambiguous, a frustration that I could almost taste. “It’s right up to the moment where Tasha teemed
something she would do only if she had reason herself: for both suspects, just as much sup-to believe her fail-safe was itself compromised.

porting their respective innocence as their re-After all, there’s absolutely no advantage in spective guilt. There isn’t enough of it, on shutting yourself down, if your enemy has the either side, to be definitive. There are indica-means to just start you back up again. So our tions that some of what we have might be
people always have the capacity of changing faked. But so far we haven’t been able to tell the code, and the image the flash imprints on which way the disinformation is targeted.”

the mind, to substitutes of their own choosing.

I cupped my right elbow in my left hand,

It must have been at the very last minute; she’d and paced, nibbling on my thumbnail again.

last checked in with us a couple of hours earli-

“It’s an interesting problem,” I admitted. “Even er, and at that point didn‘t have any new infor-if you could determine which evidence was
mation to impart . . . but sometime after that faked, there’s no guarantee that your traitor she must have found herself trapped and in didn’t self-incriminate, hoping that you’d see trouble and unable to contact us.”

through the provided evidence and f ind rea-

“The teemer itself doesn’t keep a record of son to suspect the other.”

the code?”

“We have volumes of the stuff,” Bringen

“If it stored the code in any form that could said. “And it’s all useless, for that reason. You be read, the enemy could obtain that by re-can look at it if you have to. But that’s exactly moving and examining the device. No. The
where everybody else before you has gotten code’s in her head, an inherent weakness in lost.”

the image that’s overwhelming her.”

I didn’t regard that prospect with anything

“And I gather you can’t just start sending ran-but dread. The dossier would be exhaustive, dom words until you pick the right one.”

and it would be meticulous, and because my

“Because that could take hundreds or thou-
security clearance wasn’t nearly as high as sands of tries. The human brain was never

Tasha’s, it would also be heavily redacted, con-built to be teemed at all, let alone that many taining more gaps than hard islands of pure times. It would inflict permanent psychosis.”

16

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

MARCH 2015

Curious, I said, “How many could you get
weeks. We know it was the last thing she up-away with?”

loaded, before shutting herself down; the one

“Considering how often her current teem
thing she risked having stuck in her head for image must have been refreshed, by now . . .

the rest of her life. This. We took it as her let-two. Three. With her prospects of regaining ting us know that we should go to you. But sanity even with the right word growing more what you know, is something none of us can remote, all the time.”

guess.”

My relentless nibbling at my thumb had

I thought about it. Then thought about it
drawn blood. I examined the wound, thinking some more.

of how often the terrible habit had caused Bringen said, “You’re smiling.”

wounds just like it, and wondering how many So I was. I was sure that it wasn’t a nice other less obvious wounds I dealt myself on a smile, either; it would have been half-bitter and daily basis. After a moment I said, “Final issue.

half-knowing, all victorious, not at all warm.

You said she requested me.”

“There’s something we can try.”

“Yes.”

“You can’t just be referring to that analysis Sometime later:

you excerpted.”

There’s a rule of thumb, among those who

He tapped his hytex link again. A holo ap-
hunt and prosecute criminals, that you can peared in the space between us, and I was sor-pretty much tell whether suspects are inno-ry to say that I knew the image very well. It cent or guilty by leaving the accused alone in a was the off icial 360 degree head-shot of me room and observing their behavior.

that once appeared in the Dip Corps database, It doesn’t work the way intuition would sug-an image that in its intense demeanor and in its gest.

clear resentment of the portrait-taking process Innocents have done the right things,
communicated everything most people f ind
obeyed the proper rules, and not trespassed in objectionable about my personality. My lips the manner they have been arrested for; they were curled in an attempt to smile that looked are therefore victims of caprice, and they tend more like a grimace, and my eyebrows were
to react with escalating apprehension, ner-knit in what I’d once intended to look like a vousness, and fear, as they wrack their brains penetrating look but was instead the most anti-for some means of bringing the universe back social scowl imaginable.

in line with their logical understanding of ac-Out of rare concern for the impression I
tions and consequences. The guilty are ner-made on others, I’d appealed to the people vous, too, but they’ve already been living with who maintained the database and gotten that the knowledge of their actions and have been, portrait changed to something no more charm-on some level, emotionally preparing them-
ing but several shades less psychotic. But the selves for their current predicament. Finding damage was done. Among my enemies, the im-themselves in the place where their actions age is a prized if rather petty weapon, excavat-sent them is more of a conf irmation that the ed to be attached to any report that might world around them does, in fact, work exactly reference me. It had certainly enjoyed a great in the manner it was always advertised to func-resurgence over the past few months since the tion. They react with resignation, boredom, business with the Zinn: the perfect visual to go and impatience over just how long it was go-along with any argument that I’m too unstable ing to take to get past the current bit so they to ever be allowed any more responsibility, can move on to the next part. The theory goes, ever again.

an innocent person left in a room starts climb-My current expression must have been
ing the walls. A guilty one goes to sleep.

something very close to it. “And this?”

It would be nice if the rule of thumb were

“We may not be able to get the correct fail-reliable enough to be used as a tool in convic-safe from the device, but it was designed to re-tions. Alas, human variation plays its part.

tain the image it imprinted on its target, in case Some, guilty or innocent, just refuse to believe that ever contained important information.

that the universe will ever permit anything bad This . . . is the image that’s been crowding out to ever happen to them. Some have anxiety
the rest of Tasha’s cognition, the last two triggers that can induce near panic even if the TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

17

ANALOG
only penalty at risk is a nominal fine. And oth-D’Off ier snorted. “Give me a break, Coun-
ers are sociopaths for whom the normal vari-selor whoever-you-are. Just how green do you ables of good and evil are just plain irrelevant; think we are?”

the way their minds process such questions, This was an invitation to either answer or to anything they’ve done is so perfectly justified say that it was none of his business, either way by need that it’s just plain not worth worrying acknowledging that I was younger and less ex-about.

perienced, and therefore, that all my textbook And then there are the professionals, like the knowledge about psychological manipulation two before me: the ones who had been trained was irrelevant.

in exactly what the signif iers were, and who I smiled. “It’s not an attempt at manipula-had been subjected to background checks and tion, I assure you. I know you’re both too ex-security screenings so frequently that this was perienced to be taken in by such things. It’s a test no more formidable than those they’d just me being hospitable.”

taken a thousand times before. I saw no ner-D’Off ier said, “It’s you trying to position vousness, no paranoia, no damning absence of yourself as a f igure to trust, and I’ve ques-tension: just a cold angry determination to get tioned enough criminals and terrorists to
on with it.

know better. But I’ll take a cup of water, if you They were in the same room, at adjacent ta-don’t mind, just to get me through this.”

bles separated by a narrow gutter; both knew I turned my attention to Cheung. “And you, what this was about, both were deadly, and ma’am?”

both had been given the same neural block to

“I’ll have a water, too. With the same under-render them temporary paraplegics for safety standing as my ex-colleague, the piece of crap during the interrogation. They had shared the traitor over here. It’s not going to affect the room for two hours and had suffered in si-power dynamic in this room, not in the slightlence, waiting for my entrance. They hadn’t est.”

even looked at one another, not for a moment.

Whatever it said about me, I found myself

The woman was Veronica Cheung; tall, slim, feeling a kinship with these guarded and para-athletic, with a high forehead, and hair that noid people. Maybe I’d taken the wrong career was, like mine, cut helmet-length. The man path.

was Beau D’Off ier: thick-jawed and balding,

“Very well,” I said. “The people monitoring with a gym physique that had started to go soft this conversation will make sure they bring at the edges. He looked ten years older than enough for both of you. My name’s Andrea

Cheung but was, from the f ile, f ive years Cort. Do you know who I am?”

younger: a conscious decision to accentuate

“The name’s familiar,” D’Offier said. “I know his apparent age in a bid at enhancing the au-it’s come up in some file or another.”

thority he had over his division.

Cheung said, “I recognized you when you

I disengaged the lock on the door and en-
walked in. I also know that you’ve been in le-tered carrying a cup of coffee, not looking at gal trouble again, and that you don’t work for either one of them at all until I had taken my internal security.”

position at the blank wall they’d both been I sipped my coffee. “Correct on both counts.

forced to stare at for two hours. This was stan-As of this morning, and in recognition of the dard prosecutorial technique, further breaking help I’m providing your division, I’m back work-down the resistance of the suspects by taking ing for the Judge Advocate’s office. The session my own sweet time to acknowledge them, but we’re about to have will be brief, as my duties though it had worked for me on the small
regarding this current situation are tangential.”

handful of interrogations I’d been able to have

“They would have to be,” Cheung noted.

a part in so far in a career that was not yet stel-

“Last I checked, you don’t have the clearance lar, I found that when I faced them they were for any of the intelligence at stake. You don’t both unimpressed and facing me with a re-even have the clearance to talk to us about it.”

markable lack of intimidation.

I emitted a soft, pitying chuckle.

I said, “Before we begin, I’d like to ask if

“No. I don’t. And if either one of you says there’s anything I can get to make you more anything that directly references the informa-comfortable.”

tion in those f iles, or covers anything to do 18

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

MARCH 2015
with the spying investigation, the people mon-here to speak to you. No. I’m only here to pre-itoring this conversation will pull me out of sent you with your options.”

here at once, before I hear enough to make me I watched them both, to see if I could derive a security risk.”

any cues from which one nodded f irst—but

“A further security risk,” said Cheung.

though Cheung went first by about a second,

“That too,” I agreed, with no special heat.

this by itself was not significant. It only reflect-

“In fact, I want to make this perfectly clear. Ex-ed current processing speed.

cept for that offer of refreshments, I honestly She f lashed a crooked, appreciative smile.

don’t intend to ask either of you any questions

“This doesn’t have anything to do with me, at all.”

Counselor. But I’m listening.”

The two wore the expressions of ven-

D’Offier said, “She’s the guilty one, not me.

omous snakes, secured just below their jaws.

But I’m listening, too.”

They knew I would not surrender all possible The door opened and one of the security
power in this negotiation. But they also knew personnel entered carrying two cups of water, that I had just ceded their key point of advan-placing one before each prisoner. Cheung and tage: their ability to answer or stonewall my D’Offier each took sips, then put down their questions. And so they measured me, won-respective cups, waiting.

dering how I intended to get the information I began to pace. “All right. As I said, I know anyway.

next to nothing about this side of the building.

But I was telling the truth. My life was al-All the knowledge I have of the spy trade is the-ready paranoid enough. The last aggravation I oretical.

needed was any connection to classified mate-

“But common sense does tell me some
rial capable of complicating my existence furthings.

ther.

“As I understand it, the traditional problem I honestly didn’t want to know.

with capturing and prosecuting a spy is that D’Offier said, “Then what are you here for?”

once any spy is no longer a source of informa-

“Well, I’m not here to fool you into self-in-tion for the enemy, that enemy has immediate crimination, that’s for sure.”

reason to try to put another in place. This can I gulped the rest of my coffee, tossed it in be a difficult proposition because the first leak the trash, and turned to D’Offier.

has been patched and more stringent security

“You’re right, sir. I’m young. I’m also contro-procedures will certainly be put in place, but versial and, according to my superiors, seri-the fallibility of all organizations being what it ously unstable. For those and other reasons I is, another spy will get through; another leak haven’t risen in my own career as meteorically will open up; more sensitive information will as my colleague Tasha Coombs did. I’m ab-be passed.

solutely certain that I have not yet picked up

“Except for the satisfaction we take in dis-the skills or the experience to outmaneuver gracing and ruining and possibly even execut-people like the two of you, who have received ing a piece of crap who deserves that and
so much training in the fine art of maintaining more, there is no net gain.

one’s cover even when subjected to the most

“But if we can confront the same spy, ensure hostile interrogation.

that he or she knows that continued freedom

“I can’t manipulate you, either of you. If a and privilege can be revoked at any time, we few words from the likes of me were all it can continue to use the leak already estab-took, they wouldn’t have had to send Tasha un-lished to transmit whatever false information dercover in the first place. And since whichev-we want transmitted. I’m correct on this,
er one of you attacked her did see through her, right?”

any chance a relatively inexperienced non-spy D’Offier said, “We don’t need you to explain like myself might have of being able to accom-disinformation to us.”

plish in minutes what she failed to do over

“No,” I admitted, “you don’t. I’m just being months is minimal.

meticulous in my presentation. The curse of a

“Put the bullshit aside and accept as given too-orderly mind.

the obvious truth that deception of any kind

“Now I’ll get to how our current predica-
cannot possibly be the reason I was sent in ment impacts the one we know to be guilty.

TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

19

ANALOG

“You see, the corps can’t prosecute the re-D’Off ier said, “Veronica’s the spy. But she sponsible party for spying, not without achas a point. If you already had evidence to con-knowledging that the spying took place.

vict, you wouldn’t be having this conversation

“What it can do is prosecute the responsible with both of us. You’d only be having it with party for the physical assault on Tasha Coombs.

the one you already knew to be guilty. So you

“The Judge Advocate’s office I serve can see don’t know. This has got to be one huge bluff, to it that you are charged with all of the most nothing more.”

serious versions of your charges, not just as-I grinned at them both, aware that the ex-
sault but also the related charge of attempted citement was showing on my face but not giv-murder by depraved indifference, which you ing a damn that they saw it.

opened yourself up to by abandoning poor

“I know that’s the way it looks.

Tasha in that alcove after she entered her cur-

“But it’s also where the game gets interestrent incapacitated condition.

ing.

“Further, we can balloon the number of

“Because don’t fool yourself. This is a game; charges to as many as the letter of the law pera game of nerves.

mits, and we can press any sentencing judge to

“Literally. Outside this room, there are even make sure that your sentences are served con-bets being exchanged.

secutively.

“You see, whether you choose to believe me

“Only then will your sensitive government
or not, we absolutely do already know who’s position be brought up, to justify your impris-guilty.

onment in maximum-security isolation.

“We know because I succeeded in reviving

“You would, I fear, never be permitted to

Tasha Coombs less than an hour after my supe-communicate with another human being
riors finished briefing me on the situation, and again. I promise you, you would go insane in she told us everything.

short order.

“This offer’s being made with her full ap-

“We already have enough evidence to make
proval.

sure that you’re convicted. But it would be a

“We make it for the most practical and cold-long and arduous process, and you would be blooded of reasons, which is to say, the inter-forever lost to us as an asset.”

est we have in preserving a potentially valuable I let that hang in the air for a few seconds.

means of streaming disinformation.

“Alternatively,” I resumed, “you could con-

“It’s our duty to make the offer, but that fess to the assault and attempted murder, with doesn’t mean any one of us has to like it. Not the understanding that you will not be prose-Tasha, not me, and not her superiors—who
cuted and that it will only be used as a guaran-as inhuman as they may sometimes seem, are tee of your future cooperation. You will not be also not incapable of feeling. They mourn the free in the usual sense of such things, as your people who died because of this leak, fear every movement will be supervised from now for those who are still endangered, and feel on, but you will be able to keep your own
damn angry about the attack on Tasha, in
home, continue to earn money, even have
particular.

friends and family.

“They take what you’ve done pretty person-

“All we’ll expect of you is that you transmit ally.

any information we demand, whenever we de-

“I don’t even like Tasha and I take it person-mand it, for however long your method of
ally.

transmission remains viable—with the under-

“So when I succeeded in waking her and the standing that if you ever betray us in any way, question of what to do with you came up, I the charges against you can always be revived.

pointed out that if we take what seems to be

“That’s the deal. Any questions?”

the natural next step and have Tasha march in The two of them looked at one another, as if here to confront you directly, you would know in consultation, before realizing that the prof-that we’re not lying to you about what we
fered terms applied to only one.

have, and will have no choice but cooperation.

Cheung said, “I’m not the spy. This bastard

“But if I, an unknown quantity, came in here is. But I should ask, just out of curiosity: how instead, you wouldn’t have even the slightest do we know you’re not just fishing?”

idea what to believe.

20

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

MARCH 2015

“Wherever you go from here, defection or
other human beings; and when it did, I surren-prosecution, it will be entirely as a result of dered to the inevitable, often getting an early your own actions.

start so that the necessary interaction, when it

“I argued that in the event that you did de-came, felt less awkward and off-putting than it cide to cooperate, this would make you signif-might have been otherwise.

icantly easier to control; more in our hands, By the time Tasha showed up, the room was
because you would then know you betrayed
ensconced in a comfortable soft blur. Then she your masters out of conscious volition. And came in, self-satisfied, chipper, not showing one that if you didn’t, we could take just as much ounce of the wariness she had long exhibited satisfaction in knowing that you guessed
with me, sliding into the opposite side of the wrong and therefore condemned yourself to a booth with the same kind of brightness she living hell.

might have shown anyone who was an actual

“That’s why we also arrested the one we
old friend. She was dressed for a night out and know to be innocent, and made sure to hold wore a light, sunny outf it a million years re-both of you in the same room. Because, in this moved from the more forbidding shades she af-game we’re playing, the guilty one will then infected at work, and even further from the
evitably harbor at least the ghost of a hope of forbidding black suit I had worn from the office.

getting through this unscathed, in order to Eight days had passed since D’Offier’s arrest, make what will then turn out to be the very and I hadn’t been able to put off her request worst decision of a damned worthless life; one for a social rendezvous any longer.

that will prove a torment, for every day the She said, “You look down. What’s the mat-piece of garbage has left.

ter? Are they not welcoming you back?”

“I apologize to the innocent one. We all do.

I shrugged. The Judge Advocate’s office was

“But I’m sure you’ll appreciate the result.”

the way it always was. Bringen professing

I spread my hands, palms upward. “Sixty
friendship while yanking my leash. Daily resis-seconds. Hang yourself or not. I honestly win, tance to giving me a new assignment, based on either way.”

how liberally I’d interpreted my last one. The Cheung and D’Offier stared, glanced at each sense, as always, that I was not a colleague but other again, looked at me, and demonstrated a fully owned spare part, wielded by a machine the one thing I’d been hoping for all along: un-with no concerns over my comfort or well-be-certainty. I saw more of it on one face than the ing. I was used to it. But I was “down” enough, other, who at the halfway mark decided to be-if down meant grim confirmation of what I’d lieve it and broke out in the kind of smile that always believed, that nothing would ever
is ordinarily only reserved for weddings.

change. So I changed the subject. “And you?”

At the ten second mark I announced that the

“You know I can’t tell you everything,”

time was almost up. The one who remained

Tasha said. “But you-know-who is pretty much unsure fought a losing battle with confidence, begging to give us all he knows. We’ll let him faltered, and then (as I’d predicted), made the stew a little bit longer to make sure he believes absolutely wrong decision, by remaining silent.

we intend on letting him rot. By the time we

“Time’s up,” I said.

offer him his second chance, he’ll be a puppy The door opened.

dog.”

Tasha Coombs strolled in, crossed the room I took another sip. “That’s good. But I meant in four angry steps, and slapped the stunned your recovery.”

Beau D’Offier in the face.

She winced. “That image of you was re-
freshed so many times in those two weeks that Tasha Coombs and Andrea Cort:

it keeps popping up at odd moments, like

I didn’t often drink in public. Public drink-when I’m trying to sleep. I don’t mind telling ing implied a level of social invitation I didn’t you that it’s difficult to even sit here talking to want to encourage; oblivion, when I wanted it, you, for more reasons than . . . what lies be-was best enjoyed alone. But every once in a tween us. But they say that’ll go away. In the great while, some obligation presented itself, meantime, the therapy’s taking care of it.” She and I found myself having to meet someone
dipped her head to achieve eye contact. “But in places where human beings went to meet
you don’t look okay.”

TASHA’S FAIL-SAFE

21

ANALOG

“I’m as good as I ever get, Tasha. I just need something not quite as all-encompassing is something to do. I may be off house arrest, but that these are all things I want to have again.

they have me doing busywork, stuff they

But one of the things I knew about you then, should be assigning to interns. I don’t know and confirmed about you when I had to write how long it will be before they deign to give a that silly report, is that these are pleasures case again. I‘m beginning to feel they may nev-you’ve never let yourself have. This isn’t just er.”

an intervention I owe you, Andrea. It’s also

“They will,” she said. “Talent has a way of something I want to be part of. I want to try. I fighting its way out of the box. Or, if you’re in-trust you enough to think you can try, too.”

terested, a certain individual’s change in for-I regarded her expression, which was direct tunes leaves an opening in the division . . .”

and appealing, and as far as I could tell, sin-I shuddered. “No, thanks.” The last thing I cere. This really wasn’t a trap. This was a gen-needed was a career spent in a box, analyzing uine overture. And the one thing I
the data unearthed by others. I needed to be remembered about her, that still def ined her out where the problems were, dealing with
for me after all this time, was that when she them, being challenged by them, and most
took on a project, she finished it. It was inter-importantly, being distracted by them. I
esting, on an intellectual level, to consider just would, sooner or later, die without that stim-how she would tackle this one, if she had a ulation.

chance.

Her drink arrived, and she kept up her end Even so, I shook my head. “You’re fooling
of the conversation for a while, talking about yourself, Tasha.”

her own impending transfer to regular em-

“Am I? I know you read what I wrote about
bassy work, her hope that this would give her you. And you know that when it came down
more free time, a recent news story about a to my life, I did trust you.”

couple of space rogues whose attempt at a

“You trusted me,” I said, “to solve a problem scam had just gone hideously awry.

when it was put before me. You trusted me to I gave her one- or two-sentence replies until see your chosen image, apply it to our experi-she finally ran out of starters to poke me with, ence together, and know exactly what your
at which point I finally said, “Tasha. What do fail-safe must be. You trusted me to get the you want of me?”

message you had sent. None of these mean

She didn’t blink. “I wanted to thank you.”

that I can be trusted to change, or even that I

“There’s no need. I just solved a problem
might want to. I appreciate the offer, Tasha.

that was put before me.”

But I’m not friendship material. And I’m not

“And in the process returned me to myself.”

hoping to be.”

“Something I would do for anybody, even a

I slid out of my seat, thumbed the credit pad stranger. You want me to accept your thanks, to pay for my drinks and hers, and aimed my-f ine, I accept your thanks. You’re welcome.

self at the door, but, given the cramped space I’m glad you’re better. But it doesn’t make us between tables and the f loor plan that re-friends.”

quired me to walk right past her in order to She was still neither surprised nor per-make my way to the exit, she had time to grab turbed. She just sipped her drink, gathered her my wrist.

words, and said, “Has it occurred to you, AnShe looked more stricken than angr y.

drea, that we’ve never really tried to be?”

“Come on, Andrea. This can be the way to

“Oh, come on—”

something better. You don’t have to always try She cut in. “I mean it. My own ego certainly so hard to make the world see you as a bitch.”

contributed to the unpleasantness when we

I gave her a sweet smile before pulling my worked together, but you have to admit, I had hand free.

a lot of help from you. And whenever we

“And yet,” I said, filling my words with ven-were not together, treating each other to the om, “how extremely fortunate for you that it death of a thousand and one cuts, I always had was the one word that best summarized our re-other people to go to: friends, family, even a lationship.”

real lover who was worth the emotional ef-

She averted her gaze, and I made my way
fort. One of the reasons I’m transferring to out. ■

22

ADAM-TROY CASTRO

Science Fact

Five Wagers on

What Intelligent

Life Elsewhere
in the Universe

Will Be Like

Steven L. Peck
e know a lot about life on Earth.

On Earth, we see commonalities among or-

Every year our knowledge of the
ganisms, even among such wildly different
other living things with which we
creatures as insects and wombats. Certain

Wshare this planet expands bythou- adaptations consistentlyappear and reappear: sands of scientific papers. Our discoveries are legs to propel animals over the planet’s sur-amazing. Shocking. Blow-your-socks-off as-
face; mouths and waste disposal orif ices
tounding. The one planet to which we have
found on opposite ends to keep the two activ-access never ceases to surprise and delight.

ities separate; brains located in the head; mus-What about other planets? Can we extrapo-
cles attached to a skeletal system (e.g.

late the version of life we find around us here grasshoppers are surrounded by a hard chitin-to make claims about it elsewhere in the uni-ous shell, while an otter’s bones are found on verse, especially intelligent life? Can we make the inside); and other generalizations of struc-some guesses about what we might expect a
tures that allow things to survive. These com-visitor from another planet to be like?

mon threads,
which scientists call

23

ANALOG
morphology, exist because life is conf igured of characteristics that any form of life might be on this planet along particular lines, mostly expected to have across the far-flung outback due to the way that things shook out early in reaches of the Universe.

our evolutionary history, when Earth first be-So as an evolutionary biologist, here are my gan to crank-start the biosphere. The Cambri-best guesses as to what an intelligent alien an radiation, as we call this explosion of life creature would look like. However, I am not forms occurring about 543 million years ago, going to define intelligent life too closely. I as-gave us all kinds of the attributes we find cur-sume for the sake of this exercise that “intelli-rently in Earth’s creatures. For example, bilat-gence” means that a creature from
eral symmetry, wherein a creature’s right half somewhere else in the Universe has reached usually mirrors the left, has appeared in many the stage where it has similar reasoning skills, evolutionary lines.

planning abilities, language use, and the po-One can still see this structural history em-tential for technological development as hu-bryonically in the way most organisms devel-mans. This is a very human def inition for op from an egg or a seed. For example,
intelligence, but that’s the kind I’m interested humans develop from an egg into a many-seg-in for this project. I’m not going to presup-mented creature, like an earthworm than the pose that they use DNA for their genetic code, soft, cuddly babies that eventually arrive.

or that they evolved on an Earth-like planet, or These segments appear in everything from in-that their biochemistry is the same as ours, or sects to horses, and a whole lot of earthy that they exhibit any other details of our biolo-types grow limbs on certain of these hidden gy that make up the unique life found on this segments. These structures fade in our more planet. Given those caveats, can we offer any mature forms, but we all start the develop-guesses as to what they’ll be like? The surpris-mental process as segmented worms—struc-
ing answer is “yes.”

tural remnants of our Precambrian ancestors.

Are these features necessary? In science fic-Wager I—The creature will be the
tion, we usually borrow heavily from the life product of evolution
forms we find here on Earth: arms, legs, tenta-All life on this planet is the product of a cles, claws, eyes, mouths, mixing and match-lengthy evolutionary process. This will be true ing the parts of creatures we recognize into for our alien beings as well. There are three novel combinations. This may or may not
necessary and sufficient conditions that must work as a way to conceptualize alien life, but exist in order for evolution to occur. First, we hold to a suspicion that these are at least there needs to have been variation in the traits possible constituents of life elsewhere in the that the organism, whether alien or Earthly, Universe. Although many try, it is hard to possesses. Whatever constitutes its way of life, imagine how very “other” these creatures
evolution must have variation with which to from different planets might turn out to be. So work. One cannot look at the diversity of or-we work with what we’ve seen before. How-
ganisms without realizing that they vary. Even ever, alien structure could differ beyond our seemingly identical blades of grass, if examined ability to envision. It could be non-DNA based closely, are different in subtle ways. So
life, or creatures that have adapted to life on whichever planet our alien creature evolved Jupiter-like gas giants that evolve in ways that upon, there must be a method of maintaining defy our wildest imagination.

variation in whatever passes for the instruction Still, despite all the potential for a limitless set that makes new copies of this creature. For array of wildly divergent creatures, I have a us, it is our genes. We can guess that our crea-wager about what things are necessary for
ture has something functionally similar. Not any sort of intelligent life to arise from the necessarily made from deoxyribonucleic acid maelstrom of a planet’s early chaos. Through (DNA), but something similar. Here on Earth, things such as computer simulation models of DNA has been the earthly chemical system of digital life, we are learning things about possi-choice for creating life, but there are other pos-ble organisms that seem to transcend our local sible systems. For example, some have suggest-biological instantiation of it. These might be ed that silicon could replace carbon, or that thought of as “Life Universals,” i.e., a likely set arsenic could replace phosphorous. The most 24

STEVEN L. PECK

MARCH 2015
fundamental requirement is that whatever
when organisms directly compete for re-
chemicals compose life in the Universe, they sources, as when two rams smash their heads must be able to carry and pass on informa-together to prove their superiority to the tion—so it is assumed that there must be a watching females. This is why we see an abun-chemical “alphabet” to do that work. Scientists dance of life forms that possess claws and currently speculate that there might be poly-horns, swiftly pumping legs, and lightening mers besides nucleic acids (like DNA and RNA) fast beak strikes. It is why there are colors to in the vast array of possibilities present in the camouflage and entice.

Universe.

The alien’s ancestors must be the champi-

That said, however, DNA is a pretty darned ons of resource competition. Which means of good way to encode the instructions for mak-course that it will recognize what it needs to ing life, so it might be used throughout the live and have superior methods of obtaining it.

Universe. Still, maybe not. We’ll have to wait This creature’s species will be the victor in for more information from other places in the many bouts of competition. No matter where universe before we can answer such ques-it came from, it was a winner in the game of tions.

life.

The second necessary element for evolution is a way of passing these traits on to offspring Wager II—The alien will be a complex

(they must have offspring, of course). If off-confederation of differentiated cells or spring don’t resemble parents in some way, cell-like structures forming organs that then what follows in the next generation is a specialize in the different tasks of
random assortment of possible traits, and the keeping it alive.

survival of that generation is just a haphazard Over and over on Earth, we see the same
event relative to its environment. The ability pattern: cells have joined forces to divide up to inherit parental features is a must for evolu-the labor in surviving the uncertainties of be-tion.

ing a living thing. We know this happened

Lastly, intelligent life will be the product of when Earth life was just getting started, but selection. The creature represents a line of or-one can see a radical example of this today in ganisms that have survived in a f ield of com-the Portuguese man o’war. It looks like a sin-petitors that did not make the grade. It will gle creature—often mistaken for some sort of avoid extinction while many of its contempo-jellyfish—but it is really a multiple being. It is raneous evolutionary lines end in oblivion. So a bunch of individuals. It is a community of whatever environment our alien comes from, single organisms that specialize and cooperate that environment has changed and been mod-to help the collective survive. Some of the in-if ied over the course of its planet’s history.

dividuals become stinging cells, others make Consequently, the being’s ancestors must
up part of the air bladder that gives it buoyan-have also changed and evolved into something cy to f loat on the ocean’s surface, and some that adapted to those changes. On any planet, will become reproductive cells. It is a unit of there is a limited supply of resources, and that coordinated individuals, like an ant colony in will constrain an organism’s reproductive po-which the individual players make up a
tential. Therefore, our creature’s ancestors greater whole, working together to get things will have to have survived repeated bouts of done—not quite an individual organism but
competition with other creatures seeking the tending in that direction.

same limited resources. It does this by being This appears to have happened over and
better than its neighbor at getting the stores it over in our evolutionary history and is likely a requires to live. Our creature will be a sur-key evolutionary mechanism for the appear-
vivor.

ance of increasingly complex organisms. We It may have survived using one of two typi-evolved from a single-celled creature, but we cal ways organisms compete for resources.

are now composed of multiple specialized

First, they might be really good at scrambling cells of many kinds—including some hitchhik-for it, like a warthog that tries to root out the ers like our mitochondria, an ancient kind of succulent root before its neighbor does. Sec-proto-bacteria that united with our cells long ondly, through ‘contest competition.’ This is ago. The mitochondria derived some benef it FIVE WAGERS ON WHAT INTELLIGENT LIFE ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WILL BE LIKE

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ANALOG
from joining forces with us in the game of sur-development from information-bearing mate-
vival. We liked the energy it produced for run-rials. On Earth that occurs in a womb or seed ning our cellular machinery, and it probably and likely our hypothetical intelligent creature relished being fed. It has been a mutually ben-will do the same.

eficial symbiosis.

So my second guess is that the alien will be So chances are that our visitor will be simian individual made of multiple other individu-lar, with complex cellular division, reminis-als. Evolution will frame it to consist of differ-cent of our own bodily system, or a
entiated parts that work together to create confederation of individuals uniting to be-something unique and that will emerge from come something more than the sum of its
some sort of development process. It might parts. The division of labor will allow the cell-be like the single organisms we are familiar like things to specialize into organs or subsets with, or more similar to a Portuguese man
of individuals working on different tasks. All o’war, or to an ant colony framing a looser for one, and one for all, as they say.

confederation of individuals. Whichever form This implies also that our extraterrestrial pal it takes, it will, like Walt Whitman, be able to will be an individual of some sort. This is a sub-cry out, ‘I contain multitudes.’

tle but important observation. The world is full of individuals: individual plants, individual ani-Wager III—Our new friend’s species will mals. Why is that? Why doesn’t one giant mass likely have sex
of ectoplasm cover the surface of the planet? It Sex turns out to be very useful. Not just for turns out that for life to develop, there must be fun and poetics but also for maintaining the individuals on which selection can act, and kind of variation that evolved creatures need there must be a developmental process that in order to respond to the challenges they face creates that individual. This is the way evolu-in their local environments. However, sex is tion rolls. One humongous, living, oil-slick-like costly. When it comes time to pass self ish thing covering a planet could not evolve or genes, if an organism could pass all of them on adapt. The moment its environment changed, to the next generation, it would be so much it would die or split off parts that could survive, more advantaged. By mating with another
hence individuals. This happens at many levels.

member of its species, a life form gives up a There is a back and forth process between
half of its genes—for what? It turns out that forces that create individuals and forces on a given the contingencies of survival, those that higher scale that bring individuals together to maintain loads of variation are more apt to sur-create a more complex emergent individual. Invive the next environmental challenge—
dividuals emerge, come together, and form
whether it is a new predator or parasite1 or a larger individuals—cells make ants, ants make shift in climate or whatever. If some of its off-colonies, etc. Humans are a prime example: spring have the plasticity to respond to that cells make organs, organs comprise bodies, new challenge, it is much more likely that which in turn form families, that join into they will be around next year.

tribes, which constitute communities, which Of course, some plants and animals aban-combine into social media mega conglomer-
don sex. This usually comes about in unusual-ates of artificial intelligence that . . . well, who ly unstable environments or in places where knows where it will end.

f inding a mate is just too hard. Sex seems to This multi-constituted individual will have be widespread enough, however, to warrant
to go through a development process. Devel-thinking it is an important strategy for surviv-opment is how organisms go from whatever
ing, and it has evolved on Earth several times.

carries its genes into a complete organism.

Mathematical theory also hints that two is To become the kind of individual it’s going about the right number of sexes. Even bacte-to eventually be requires its emergent ria exchange genetic material in an event 1

And wherever our new friend comes from, there will likely be parasites. When Thomas S. Ray created a digital ecology of creatures made of digital computer programs, one of the first things that evolved was parasites that hitched a ride with the other programs. Ray, Thomas S. 1994. An Evolutionary Approach to Synthetic Biology: Zen and the Art of Creating Life. Artificial Life 1:1_2, pp. 179-209

26

STEVEN L. PECK

MARCH 2015
called transduction in which a tube erupts on on what it is like back in its old neighborhood, the cell wall so that neighbors can shuff le the habitat there may select for a vastly differ-genes with each other. Because of the advanent creature than anything we have here. How-tage variation confers on a lineage of organ-ever, it may also be that given constraints isms, sex is flat-out a great idea.

might pull its physical aspect toward some-In addition to the wondrous evolutionary
thing more familiar to us.

benefits of sex, sex introduces new dynamics For example, look at the creatures that have to evolution. Principally, things like sexual se-evolved f light on Earth. If our alien comes lection. Finding a good place to acquire some from a place with an atmosphere that lends it-nice genes for an organism’s offspring often self to flight, we can expect that wings might becomes a competition among several indi-be a part of its trait repertoire. Flight has inde-viduals trying to attract a potential mate.

pendently evolved at least four times on Earth.

Things like horns for combat and show, the Flying insects may have emerged from nonfly-male lyrebird’s gorgeous tail, or even hairing creatures with big panel-like membranes styles in humans emerge to advertise the su-on their back for heat exchange. These struc-periority of a genetic package. Because sex tures may have been attached to muscles to between two individuals requires that only adjust their angle toward the Sun. Those mus-one individual carry the offspring, male and cles and membranes turn out to be useful for female have differing biological strategies for having descendants eventually able to take to achieving their shared interest in creating the the air, along with all the other precursors of next generation. Anthropologist Sara Hrdy2
body form on the insect’s way to powered
notes how females bear the brunt of caring for f light. Flight has also emerged three times in offspring while males typically (but not al-the vertebrates: in birds, pterosaurs, and bats.

ways) contribute less. This creates differences While each species evolved flight using differin the way the different sexes compete for re-ent bones in their wings, i.e., with arm, finger sources and face the problems of survival. The and hand respectively, in each species, we rec-dynamics of sex are vast, complex, and multi-ognize the common shape designed to con-
variate. A glance at the effects of sex on life on form to the requirements necessary for beings Earth boggles the mind; living things respond of the air.

to the effects of sex diversely. So it is likely We see something similar in the indepen-that during our creature’s raucous evolution-dently evolved aquatic species. Ichthyosaurs, ary history it will discover sex as a way to dolphins, and f ish all have a fairly similar maintain variation. As such, the same kind of shape, largely because the best way to move complexity we find on Earth will inevitably be efficiently in water is using certain mechanical a part of his or her world (pronouns are prob-forms and designs. If something moves in wa-ably appropriately used in that sentence as ter, it is liable to need fins, flippers and tails.

there will likely be a his and her depending on Ask snorkelers. These kinds of evolutionary if they have just two sexes and who gives
convergences are common. To live a fishy life, birth to the alien kittens—but do not underes-it is a good idea to look like a fish.

timate the potential for alien weirdness when Another dramatic example of convergence
it comes to sex).

comes from two voracious land predators
both designed to take down large, lumbering Wager IV—It will be engineered to be

Pleistocene megafauna, which independently efficient in its environment.

evolved from rat-like ancestors. The first is the Whatever our alien’s nature, it will be well familiar saber-toothed cat. Lion-like, with engineered to survive in its environment. It stiletto teeth, it’s engineered for taking the gi-will have evolved in a particular ecology that gantic mammals that roamed the plains of the will impose certain constraints on its shape early American continent. The second evolved and the way that it functions in the unique on the marsupial line (the line that contains niches found on its far away planet. Depending things like kangaroos, wombats, Tasmanian

2

Hrdy, Sarah. 2000. Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species.

Ballantine Books. New York, NY.

FIVE WAGERS ON WHAT INTELLIGENT LIFE ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WILL BE LIKE

27

ANALOG
wolves, and such). The marsupial saber
largesse and exact revenge when necessary.

toothed ‘cat’ looks superficially similar to the In Harvard biologist Edward Wilson’s book, saber-toothed cat from the placental line. Here The Social Conquest of the Earth,4 he gives are two beasts that converged in form and
what he thinks is the minimal set for sociality function to a very similar shape—because
to emerge in a species. First, groups must they are animals that both emerged from ratty form (there must be something that def ines ancestors who hunted the same kinds of prey.

the social unit). Second, the groups must be This means that on an Earth-like planet, we tightly formed. A group has to be more than a might f ind some very familiar friends. Cam-bunch of wildebeest standing in a crowd
bridge Biologist Simon Conway Morris3 argues watching for lions. Wilson speculates that this that the human shape might not be uncom-requires a nest of some kind, for example, a mon on a planet like ours with trees for evolv-place to bring food or secure enough to deing hands and savannah to help a creature to fend young offspring. A nest is not necessarily become upright. Could the Star Trek concep-physical; for example, dolphins don’t have a tion of humanoid aliens f illing the galaxy be burrow, but they do seem to have the idea of right after all? Klingons? Maybe. NuqneH!

which pod they belong to, a place to call

So my fourth guess is that our alien visitor home. (Maybe dolphins have a saying, “Home will have features that solve particular prob-is where the pod is.”) Then he adds that muta-lems of survival in whatever environment ex-tions must arise that maintains the group. This ists on its planet. If it’s an Earth--like place, we might be the development of a worker caste, might even recognize some of the alien’s
as we see in the eusocial insects (eusocial structures.

from the Greek, true-social, is just this kind of system where there are reproductive individu-Wager V—It will be a social species
als, like the queen in an ant’s or bee’s nest, If one makes a list of the intelligent species with others who are sterile workers).

that have appeared on Earth, what does one Part of what makes humans so bright is our notice? The list probably includes chimps, dol-use of language. Language allows us to com-phins, ravens, elephants, parrots, many mon-municate complex ideas, to pass these ideas keys, dogs and wolves, and maybe even rats.

onto our offspring. It allows us to carry out To some extent these are all social species.

more complex plans, or to communicate the

Sociality demands smarts. First, social
things we’ve learned over the course of a life-species rely on information. Signals must be time, e.g.: “Okay, here’s how you carve a
sent and interpreted—signals about where in-stone spear point, no, not that way. Look! Am dividuals stand in relation to others in the I holding it that way? No. Hold it like this.

group. Social species are also usually hierar-Now, here’s how you hunt. Got it? And here’s chically structured, and status will often deter-how you cook it . . . roasted lightly in a sauce mine access to the pantry and to the most
of mammoth milk and tarragon.” Language
desirable mates. This also requires the cogni-also provides a way to imagine futures and ask tive wherewithal to contextualize others, for

“what-if” questions. If an intelligent species is example, “Where does that strapping male
going to develop a material culture (say that is that just entered the troop f it in the eyes of capable of space flight), it had better be able others? Should I attack or make a pal?” A
to use language.

group member must recognize both who the

So my f ifth wager is that our intelligent other individuals are and where they stand in agent will understand sociality. It will be the relation to it. It needs to be able to form al-product of a give-and-take social world and liances, distinguish friends from enemies, and will understand both position and place with-retain a bright memory of who has helped and in a society. I predict that it will likely even un-who has hindered it— so it can reward
derstand our social structure. If it wants to 3

Morris, Simon Conway. 2003. Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

4

Wilson, Edward O. 2012. The Social Conquest of the Earth. Liveright Publishing Corporation, New York, NY.

28

STEVEN L. PECK

MARCH 2015
place itself high on the social ladder, if an alien as either a resource, or as something standing visited us it might say something like, “Take in the way of getting the resources it wants.

me to your leader.”

This is also possible. What we find out there will have survived billions of years of selection So those are my f ive wagers on the nature that have demanded it be good at f inding or of alien visitors. Not earth-shatteringly surpris-taking the resources it needs.

ing, but all point to areas that are likely neces-Both of these are possibilities. Intelligent sary for an alien to be as advanced as we are.

otherworld aliens might be philosophers or Hayden Planetarium astronomer Neil de-monsters, but I’m betting they will be

Grasse Tyson in his book, Space Chronicles,5
evolved, complexly constituted by something points out that astronomer Carl Sagan favored equivalent to our cells, sexual, designed for a beneficial aliens who had survived the worst specif ic environment, and who are social in of human tendencies. This is quite possible.

relevant ways. In short, much like us. ■

Today, we find that humans care more for the creatures and landscapes with whom they

About the Author:

share the world. We have created the ecologi-Steven L. Peck is a professor of evolutionary cal crisis that faces the planet, yet we have be-ecology at Brigham Young University and has come aware of that condition and can take
published over fifty scientific papers. He also steps to try to ameliorate it. There is growing writes award-winning speculative fiction in-consensus that we have a responsibility to cluding three published novels and numerous maintain the habitability of our planet, not short stories (for further details on his work only for ourselves, but also for the organisms see http://www.stevenlpeck.com/). His exis-with which we share our world.

tential horror, A Short Stay in Hell, is current-Neil deGrasse Tyson points out that, on the ly in development for a feature film by
other hand, physicist Stephen Hawking thinks Wandering/Cuts Films.

we will meet a species that will largely see us 5 deGrasse, Neil. 2012. Space Chronicles:Facing the Ultimate Frontier. W. W. Norton & Company, New York, NY.

FIVE WAGERS ON WHAT INTELLIGENT LIFE ELSEWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WILL BE LIKE

29

Brigas

Nunca Mais

Martin L. Shoemaker
hadn’t intended to spend our entire wed-
al and gray, though Bosun Smith had continding reception talking about Captain Nick
ued the lilac decorations out there. Tracy Aames. Really, I hadn’t. But Nick has a
looked stunning in her dress—a white ensem-Iwayof working his wayinto events even ble that practicallyfloated in the quarter-gee when he’s not trying to, especially events on of the Aldrin’s main habitat ring. Her veil was the Aldrin, his ship. I’d be damned before I’d clipped back behind her dark, elegantly styled let him ruin our wedding night! So when Tra-hair, and her deep brown eyes were aglow.

cy asked a bunch of questions about Nick, I The corners of her eyes were lifted by a smile, f igured it was better to get them out of the and I couldn’t stop staring. If I could see only way immediately, not later when we were
one thing for the rest of my life, I would want alone.

it to be Tracy’s smile. And if I could smell only It all started with the reception line. We one thing, let it be the lilac water she wore.

stood just outside of the chapel, a small one Like the rest of the officers, I was in white by Earth measure, but a pretty large space by as well, my dress whites which never felt quite the Aldrin’s, large enough for our sixty guests.

right to me: more like equipment than clothes.

The rest of the ship had watched by video.

I was awkwardly aware of all the places where The ceilings were no higher than standard
it didn’t fit the way it was designed.

deck height, but the simulated wood grain

Then I saw someone who was perfectly
and some creative use of lighting and pillars comfortable in her dress whites; but then, she implied depth up there. Overall, the chapel had been wearing them for a lot more years felt spacious compared to the rest of the ship.

than I had. Admiral Morais, my former com-

It was decorated all in lilacs. Oh, not real ones, mander, had rearranged her schedule—literal-we didn’t have the budget for that; but little ly for months—so that she could join us on purple silk blossoms were tastefully arranged the Aldrin as it swung around Mars. I was on pillars and pews.

honored beyond words, and I beamed when

By contrast, the corridor outside was just she came up through the line. “Admiral.” I another ship’s corridor: narrow and function-snapped a salute.

30

MARCH 2015

Morais returned my salute. “At ease, Chief born in them. He was slightly short, but I al-Carver. You can relax for a day. You’re off most never noticed that. Nick acted tall; he duty.”

was a tall presence even around senior off i-I relaxed as much as I could in full dress—
cers like Morais.

maybe 5 percent or so—and I got Tracy’s at-

“The Aldrin is a very fine vessel, Captain,”

tention. “Tracy, honey, this is Admiral Morais.

Morais said. “I see the new habitat rings are I’ve told you about her. Admiral, my wife, Tra-completed.”

cy Wells.”

“Completed and half booked. It’s getting a

“Tracy Wells -Carver, Anson. Get used to bit crowded aboard.” Nick was proud of his that!” Tracy smiled more broadly, and I melt-command, but he didn’t like many people.

ed. (Would I ever stop doing that? I hoped The more the Aldrin grew, the more he hud-not.) Then she hugged the Admiral, and I
dled in his black-walled office and let me deal cringed. I wasn’t sure how this fit with proto-with passengers and crew. “I would offer you col.

an inspection tour, but—”

But I needn’t have worried. Morais returned

“‘Orbital mechanics waits for no man,’”

the hug, with only a slight reserve. If Tracy Morais replied with an old cliché of the space had breached protocol, Morais was too classy business. The Aldrin was on a cycler orbit be-to react. Instead, she just smiled back. “Dr.

tween Earth and Mars and back. At each end, Wells-Carver. Delighted! I loved Pioneers’

it made three swift, looping passes around the Creed! I can’t wait to see your next documen-planet before zipping back in the other direc-tary.”

tion. The rendezvous windows were tight,

Tracy’s smile couldn’t get any broader, but I and precisely timed. Not even an admiral’s could feel how happy she was. “You’ve seen power could change those.

Creed?”

“Still,” Morais continued, “we’ll have time Morais nodded. “Tracy, everyone on Mars
for a fine reception, and for our dance.”

has seen it repeatedly. They’ve seen your

Nick’s face was stony. “I’ll have to pass on whole series. You captured the real Mars ex-the dance. It was bad enough Carver got me perience.”

into this suit. Dancing wasn’t part of the agree-

“Admiral . . .” Tracy hesitated, very unlike ment.”

her. “I’m flattered.”

The admiral shook her head. “I must insist.

“You deserve it. When this affair is over, I Protocol demands an Officers’ Dance; and as would enjoy a chance to talk with you and
senior officers present, we must set an exam-Chief Carver in less crowded circumstances.”

ple. Plus it would be good to test those leg-

“Absolutely! I want to hear all the news!”

endary dance moves of yours.”

Then they hugged again, and the admiral,

Nick started to steam. “My ship, my rules.

mindful of the crowd backing up behind her, Pass.”

moved down the line to Nick. “Captain

The admiral’s face tightened. She wasn’t an-Aames,” she said. You would have to know
gry—not yet—but she was heading that way.

Morais well to detect the amusement in those

“My gravipause, my rules, Captain.” Nick’s words. She knew Nick hated formalities like contract gave him nearly complete autonomy this.

between planets; but when the Aldrin was

“Admiral.” The captain and the admiral
within the gravitational zone of a planet, local saluted, stiff ly. While I greeted my guests, rules applied. “Anson Carver is one of the half my attention was reserved for Nick and finest young officers I have ever commanded, the admiral. Nick clashing with the brass was and I will see him shown the proper respect.”

as predictable as an orbit, but I hoped he I tried to defuse the tension. “Admiral, it’s would be on his best behavior for Tracy’s
all right, we don’t need—”

sake. He had been reluctant to attend at all, But Morais would have none of that. “It’s all only agreeing to be my best man after I had right, Chief Carver, because Captain Aames harangued him for weeks, but he had
knows he’s going to accede to protocol and cleaned up nicely for the occasion. His red-my request. We will show proper respect gray hair and beard had been trimmed neatly, to you and your lovely bride. And we’ll do and his dress whites f it precisely, like he was it without my having to make it a formal

BRIGAS NUNCA MAIS

31

ANALOG
command and an incident in his record, won’t instant, she jabbed her fingers into the ticklish we Captain?” She stared directly at Nick.

spot beneath my ribs, and I jolted off the floor I expected Nick to bristle even further at in the low gravity. “So you might as well tell that. The only records he cared about were me now,” she said as I settled to the deck, “be-safety and mission objectives. Threatening his fore I really make you jump!”

personal record usually made him laugh.

“Oh, you think so?” I grabbed her wrists,

But Nick surprised me. He stared right
and I wished we had the rest of the night to back, never breaking the f iery eye contact, ourselves. But we didn’t. “All right, all right.

and answered, “As you wish, Admiral.”

But I wasn’t actually there. This was before I ever served under Nick. This is just the story Tracy and I had twenty minutes of privacy
as Bosun Smith told it to me.” And slowly, as between the receiving line and the reception: the evening’s celebrations played out, I started just enough to build up anticipation, not
telling Tracy the story Smitty had told me enough to do anything about it. Not properly, about Nick. And about Rosalia.

anyway. But we did spend f ive of those minutes embracing, kissing, and enjoying the an-Nick was a lieutenant in the Space Corps at ticipation. And the quiet! I had never
the time, stationed at the new São Paulo
imagined how chaotic a wedding would be.

Spaceport and overseeing component tests

But then Tracy pulled away. “Sorry, Anson, for L2 Farport. Smitty was a petty officer at the you’ve messed up my hair. I need to touch this port; but the Corps was pretty new then, and up before we go in.”

fraternization rules were pretty lax. Smitty was

“Allllll right,” I sighed, “if you’re sure you

. . . well, not Nick’s friend—he didn’t make don’t want to just sneak away to our cabin . . .”

friends easily even then—but a close acquain-Tracy giggled. “After the point Admiral
tance. And his occasional dance partner in the Morais made about protocol, do you think we nightclubs of São Paulo. Bosun Smith is a large, dare miss our own reception? She scares Nick outgoing, friendly woman—unless you make

Aames! She’s certainly more than I want to her angry, which I don’t advise—and she has tangle with. So let me work!”

a way of dragging people out of their shells. In Tracy started adjusting her hair in the mir-Nick’s case, she did so through dance. I make ror, and I stood back and gazed at her as she jokes about Nick’s dancing, but he’s actually worked. Removing her veil and reaching for a not bad, and very enthusiastic. It’s one of his brush, Tracy continued. “So Nick is certainly very few passions outside of his work. These in an extra sour mood tonight, isn’t he? I days he only dances alone, and only in the pri-know he and Hannah had a messy breakup,
vacy of his off ice. I’m one of the few people but does that have to put him down on all who has seen him dance in years. But back
marriage?”

then, he had quite a reputation in the Corps.

“It’s not marriage,” I explained, “it’s wed-Of course, Nick also had a reputation as a dings.”

bit of a martinet. Oh, not like he is now that Tracy paused. “Oh?”

he’s in command. He wasn’t as moody as he is

“Hannah was his first marriage, but his sec-now, with his cabin all in black and him never ond wedding. The first one was a disaster, and leaving it except on duty. The dark moods
he’s been sour on weddings ever since. He
came later, after all of this. But he was just as and Hannah ran off to a Justice of the Peace, much a stickler for procedure and safety and and he had to get half drunk even to go
attention to detail. He never hesitated to write through with that.”

up any infraction that he saw, no matter how

“A disaster? How bad could it have been?”

small. But his first introduction to Rosalia, the

“Tragic, really. But Nick never talks about it, new ensign at the port, was when she wrote and it’s not really my story to tell.”

him up.

Tracy put her veil back on, adjusted it in the Smitty was an Astronaut First Class then, at-mirror, and turned to face me. “Oh, come on, tached to Commandant Birch as an adminis-Anson. Now that you’ve started, you know
trative aide, so she was there for their f irst you’re going to tell me eventually. ” She
meeting, recording the minutes. She said Nick reached her arms around me; but at the last showed up just at the appointed hour,

32

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MARCH 2015
summoned by the commandant to discuss his
his desk display. The inside of the rocket ap-inspection of a cargo rocket bound for high peared. “I simulated the most likely scenario.

orbit. He paid little attention to Rosalia, stand-The covers would have shaken loose during
ing at attention along the wall. She was in per-launch—” The image started shaking with a
fect duty order, her long dark hair rolled up simulated launch. “—and crashed around the into a bun behind her cap, her blue Corps uni-cabin.” And the simulated covers smashed
form neat and trim. Nick sized her up as a back, bounced around, and broke instruments Brazilian local, correctly as it happened, and everywhere they tumbled. “The results would so he didn’t consider her worth his attention.

be tens of thousands of dollars in lost time and The locals in the Corps then had a reputation equipment.”

as token spacers, enlisted merely to satisfy Throughout her simulation, Nick had

Brazilian politicians, and expected to wash out leaned over the desk. Occasionally he openly before they ever saw orbit. Nick didn’t know glared at Rosalia, as if enraged that she had the it then, but Rosalia was determined to shatter temerity to report him. But at the end, he that reputation.

shook his head. “Hundreds of thousands. De-After Commandant Birch returned Nick’s
pending on which instruments were broken,
salute, he called the review to order, and he possibly the entire payload.” He straightened started asking Nick questions about the cargo up and snapped to attention. “Commandant, I rocket. Finally he got to the crux of the mat-have no excuse. I await your discipline.”

ter: “So on f ifth May, you performed a readi-And then Birch actually laughed. “Relax,
ness inspection on Cargo Rocket 54–17?”

Lieutenant. We caught the problem. And we

“Yes, sir, I did.”

would have caught it before launch, regard-

“And you found eleven exceptions that
less. You had so much to report, you just lost caused you to issue a hold on preparation for track. This will go in your record, and that will launch?”

gnaw at you: a blemish on your spotless

Nick glanced over at Rosalia. “I did, sir. I’m record. That will be enough to make you
sure the ensign did her best to prepare the twice as careful in the future. Dismissed, Lieu-vessel, but—”

tenant.”

Birch interrupted Nick to say, “You are under As Nick turned to leave, he stole one more a misimpression, Lieutenant. The ensign was glance at the young ensign. This time, with not in charge of preparing the cargo rocket.”

Nick blocking her from the commandant’s

Nick suddenly felt warm under the com-
view, she openly grinned at him.

mandant’s gaze, but he chanced another

The incident became a mark on Nick’s
glance at Rosalia. The corner of her mouth record; but in the eyes of his fellow lieu-was turned up in just the hint of a grin. “Oh?”

tenants, the mark on his reputation was even he asked.

larger. No one had ever caught Nick in such a

“No, the ensign was in charge of the readi-large mistake before. No one had ever made ness inspection of sixth May. Ensign, tell the Nick back down. But the new ensign, a local lieutenant what you found.”

girl who had worked her way into the officer

“Yes, sir.” Rosalia stepped forward. “Sir, in ranks of the Corps, had done both in one day.

addition to the eleven exceptions reported on In one move, Rosalia had become Nick’s rival f ifth May, I found two loose safety covers on for the top officer at the port.

an environmental system.”

Nick had been dead wrong; he’d been

Nick couldn’t stop himself from interrupt-
caught, and he took his lumps. As you might ing. “That’s impossible! Someone must have guess, it motivated him to be more careful in been in there between the inspections.”

his own work, but it also drove him to be

The commandant shook his head. “We have
more ruthless in his reviews of others. Sure the access records. No one entered the rocket enough, about three weeks later he found
or the area between the inspections. And En-something to report in Rosalia’s work. It was a sign, what would be the consequences of
minor thing, Smitty didn’t even remember
these loose covers?”

what it was, but Rosalia took her lumps better

“If I may, Commandant?” Birch nodded, and
than Nick had. She was always much more

Rosalia pushed a simulation from her comp to good-natured than him. Sometimes that made BRIGAS NUNCA MAIS

33

ANALOG
her a little sloppier, but it made her easier to And then, Smitty says, magic happened. Be-deal with as a person.

tween Nick’s enthusiasm and Rosalia’s grace, And then the inspections became almost a
they made the perfect partners: swinging
game for them, tit-for-tat reporting on each around the f loor, changing steps and styles other, but a game with strict, fair rules: they with the time changes as if they could read only reported legitimate infractions that actu-each other’s minds. They anticipated every ally belonged on a report. They never made step, every spin. Smitty thinks it was another up anything just to score points on each other.

form of testing each other, challenging and as-Their commanders were amused, but also an-
sessing each other, and they quickly learned noyed, because the infractions they reported what they could do together, daring them-became a paperwork nightmare. Also, the
selves to new heights with every song. There game became frequent fodder for the rumor
was no more trading partners that night; Nick mill, and a few joked that Nick and Rosalia and Rosalia had found their partners. They fin-should just get a room already. But most as-ished with “Brigas Nunca Mais,” a slow, lan-sumed it was rivalry, not romance, the two of guid, romantic tune that’s great to listen to but them bucking for promotion—Rosalia earned
nearly impossible to dance to. The tempo’s lieutenant in record time—and each seeing
just wrong: not quite a fast song, not quite a the other as the most likely obstacle in their slow dance. But they did it, turning it into a path.

sensual mix of pulling away but not quite out And they were probably right, up until that of reach, drawing swiftly together as if tugged night in Porco Cego, a nightclub near the ho-by a gravity well, and then spinning slowly tel where many of the junior off icers stayed.

around, locked in each other’s arms. When

São Paulo was a pretty small port then, and the music f inally stopped, the onlookers ap-there was a shortage of on-base housing, so ju-plauded.

nior officers and senior enlisted were encour-Smitty tells me that Nick never made it back aged to find billets nearby. Smitty had a room to his hotel room that night, the first time that there, too, and she said it was a great way to had ever happened. But it became a pretty
meet the locals, particularly at dance clubs regular occurrence after that.

like Porco.

That night, Nick was cutting moves on the

Though the reporting game continued, the
f loor, drifting from partner to partner and tone changed, at least for Rosalia. It became dance to dance. Smitty says he was in a rare, more about giving Nick points that he could relaxed mood, enjoying the release of just work off on the dance floor. But for Nick, it removing to the music. Locals and Corps, he
mained as serious as ever, and eventually Ros-danced his way through them all.

alia realized: this wasn’t a game for him; it was Then a beautiful, graceful, dark-haired
rehearsal for the most deadly challenges imag-Brazilian woman tapped him on the shoulder inable. Yes, that’s exactly what it’s supposed for the next dance. It took two takes for Nick to be. They drill that into us so we can’t forget to recognize Rosalia, out of uniform and hair it. But that message struck Nick more deeply down around her bare shoulders, decked out than it did the average astronaut. Obsessively, for a night of liberty.

you would have to say. And so he kept right

“What do you want?” Nick asked in his usu-
up on every smallest infraction, every smallest al blunt fashion.

detail, reporting them with that cynical, criti-Rosalia laughed. “If you don’t know, then
cal view he has.

you’re probably too thickheaded to keep time, Mind you, Nick wasn’t being an ass just for but I’ll give you a try anyway. Dance, Lieu-the fun of it. L2 Farport, the jumping-off sta-tenant?”

tion at LaGrange Point 2 beyond the Moon,

Nick started to turn away, but he turned
had recently been approved by the System Ini-back and looked her over, her golden skin set tiative, and everyone knew they would be
off against a sleeveless blue peasant blouse staffing construction crews in the near future.

and a flowing white skirt. He shrugged. “Oh, São Paulo started receiving a lot of visits from what the hell? I’ve danced with everyone else brass and diplomats, and everyone assumed
tonight.”

the teams there had a good shot at L2. Nick 34

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MARCH 2015
made no secret that he planned to turn that at Nick’s hotel room one night, dressed for a good shot into a sure thing.

night on the town. When Nick answered the

Even though Rosalia agreed with Nick in
door, she smiled and asked, “Join us for liber-principle, and even though she wanted the L2
ty, Lieutenant?”

assignment as much as he did, she grew an-

Nick shook his head, face turned down.

noyed with Nick’s obsession. She decided she

“Not in the mood, Smith. Pass.”

wanted to find Nick’s fun side, somehow. On Nick moved to shut the door, but Smitty
the dance f loor, out on the town, in bed . . .

held it open. “Come on, Lieutenant. It would She wanted to lighten him up, to show him he be good for you to bond with your team a bit.

could enjoy life and still live within regula-You know the L2 selection committee puts a tions, still advance his career. One night, des-high value on unit cohesion.”

perate, she took it a little too far. She always Nick glowered. “Who cares what the selec-did take more risks than Nick. That night, af-tion committee thinks?”

ter Nick fell asleep, she logged into the hotel

“Begging your pardon, but you do, Lieu-
computer and cancelled his morning wake-up tenant. You’ve just forgotten for a bit.”

call.

Maybe Smitty was convincing, or maybe

Smitty says that she heard the conse-

Nick was just in a mood to be convinced,
quences the next morning from three rooms
but he went along. Once at Porco Cego, she away. “You did what?”

wheedled Nick out onto the dance f loor for

“Lighten up! It’s not like you have important a few numbers, but he was sulky and unen-duty today!”

thusiastic, just going through the motions.

“It’s duty! It’s all important! People rely on Finally Smitty made her move: when a new
us! The brass are watching us! I’ve got twenty song started, she grabbed Nick’s arm and
minutes!”

spun him around. Behind him stood Rosalia,

“No problem! You woke up even without a
equally trapped by Ensign Matsuura. “Sorry, call.”

Lieutenants, ” Smitty said, “but you two

“I woke up f ifteen minutes late without a need to talk. For the sake of unit cohesion.”

call!”

And she backed away, sure that Nick and

A door slammed, and Smitty heard Nick’s

Rosalia couldn’t avoid their overdue con-
running feet in the corridor outside. She says frontation.

that morning’s report showed Nick at his post And if you believe that, you don’t know
on time—but out of uniform in three particu-Nick Aames! Without a word, he stalked off lars, a record for Nick.

the f loor, through the bar, and out into the Outside of official duties, Nick and Rosalia warm Brazilian night.

didn’t speak to each other for five weeks after But as stubborn as Nick is, he had met his that.

match in Rosalia. While he pulled away, she determined to draw back together, whatever And Nick was miserable! You’d have to
it took. She chased after Nick. Smitty and the know him well to tell the difference between others had the good sense not to follow, but Nick’s usual acerbic manner and his new bit-they heard the shouts from outside, even over terness, but Smitty said it was unmistakable if the music. They were sure Nick would be an you knew the signs. It was the difference be-absolute terror in the morning, and they won-tween a gleam in his eye as he pounced on a dered how badly they had screwed up.

mistake, versus a frown and a tone in his voice Then, just as they were imagining the hor-that indicated despair that anything would rors of their next duty shift, they noticed the ever be right. He even stopped talking about shouting had stopped. And the music had

L2.

stopped. Rosalia was crossing the dance floor, Finally Smitty and some of the other
storming for the exit and her home, but Nick trainees took matters into their own hands. A was up at the DJ stand, handing over a credit brash move, perhaps, but they hoped to get chip as the DJ swapped songs. Rosalia slowed Nick to let up on them just a little. Plus, I’ve al-when she heard the opening guitar notes of ways suspected Smitty was a closet romantic

“Brigas Nunca Mais, ” pausing just long
under her party-girl exterior. She showed up enough for Nick to dash across the floor, grab BRIGAS NUNCA MAIS

35

ANALOG
her hand, tug her back to his arms, and twirl The reporting game continued in earnest,
her into a blur of hair and skirt and f lashing and it had one more side effect: it brought up limbs. They spun around each other, pulling the performance of their entire unit. You’ve closer and closer until they clung together as seen how Nick is: he drives away or breaks or one. As the song trailed off, they leaned in for pisses off anyone who can’t measure up to his a kiss. The song meant Fight no more, and standards, but the ones who remain, even if that was the effect it had. That dance, their they don’t like him, are prepared for any chal-song, those always drew Nick and Rosalia
lenge. The entire unit got better, with individ-back together.

ual and unit commendations far above the
norm. They supervised preintegration testing

“But Anson, what about the wedding? I still of the L2 environment units; and they found don’t see Nick’s problem here.”

and diagnosed so many problems, they practi-I had a panic impulse to hush Tracy—prob-
cally bankrupted the supplier. That caused a ably not the smartest move on our own wed-construction delay, but it also saved lives and ding day. I looked around and was grateful schedule in the long run.

that Nick was nowhere in earshot. We were in So it was natural that, when the time came the corridor outside Assembly Deck, waiting to staff the construction team for the L2 Far-for Bosun Smith to formally announce us to port, a large contingent were selected from our reception within.

the São Paulo Spaceport. Smitty made the cut, I lowered my voice and hoped Tracy would
even though she was more junior than com-
follow my example. “You can’t really under-mand was looking for, because of recommen-
stand what went wrong with the wedding
dations from both Nick and Rosalia. Anyone without understanding how they got there.

who thinks that was a matter of personal bias Trust me; Nick and Rosalia’s relationship was doesn’t know Nick.

a tangled knot from the start, and the wedding What followed was eight months of mission
disaster was a consequence of that.

training in simulators and neutral buoyancy

“But for a while, things were knot-free. Af-tanks, Nick and Rosalia both driving the team ter making up on the dance f loor, Nick did to the highest marks on record. Then came
lighten up. Smitty says you wouldn’t recognize the blast off to orbit, transfer to Luna, and him. Instead of his cynicism being locked on then finally a transport out to LaGrange Point all the time, it was like a rheostat that he only 2. When the transport delivered them to the dialed up when he needed it to make a point.

L2 construction site, those demanding stanThe rest of the time, he almost gave up his dards really began to bear fruit. Sixty thousand snide remarks, as if the world suddenly mea-kilometers beyond Luna, with nothing around sured up to his expectations. Smitty even saw but temporary habitats and the growing shell him smile at odd times for no reason at all.

of Farport, the team had to rely on each astro-Rosalia made him a different man, she said, a naut getting each thing right. Captain Leeds complete man like he never was before. Or was one hard-nosed son of a bitch, as bad as since.”

Nick in a lot of ways, although for him sched-Tracy smiled wistfully. “I think I’d like to ule and budget were as important as safety meet that Nick.”

and detail. He had a timetable; he had a spend-

“So would I, my love, so would I. But I fear ing target, and by damn, he was going to hit that Nick is dead.”

them! He drove the construction team harder Just then, I heard Smitty’s voice boom
than any downside off icer ever had; but he through the door: “. . . Chief Anson Carver, seemed to have an internal micrometer that and Dr. Tracy Wells-Carver!” And the door
could measure precisely where the team’s
opened with a roar of polite applause. We
breaking point was, and then he stopped just went into Assembly Deck and into our recep-short of it, before stress would make them tion, but throughout the night, whenever a sloppy. Accidents would cost him valuable, private moment presented itself, Tracy
trained personnel and untold lost time and pressed me for the rest of Nick and Rosalia’s money. So though Nick was never as con-story, starting with how they went to orbit.

cerned about the budget, he worked well

* * *
with Leeds. Soon he had a promotion to

36

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MARCH 2015
lieutenant commander, and he was on Leeds’s nor Rosalia had served there, so this was a new advisory staff. They often clashed—this is challenge for them. You know the Coriolis

Nick we’re talking about—but Captain Leeds Catch, that move we can never get right? You appreciated Nick’s independent voice and his can’t do that move on Luna, can’t do it any-focus on the mission. Nick also got command where but a spinning habitat. I’m supposed to of one of the four construction shifts.

toss you so high that the Coriolis effect takes Farport then was just a hint of what it is to-over, so you’ll land somewhere downspin; and day. The Prime Module was there, of course, then I slide across the deck on my knees and the original construction platform that served catch you when you land. My knees still ache as their habitat and base of operations. It has from the last time we tried. Well, Smitty claims the massive engines they use for occasional or-Nick and Rosalia invented that move at that bit corrections. The Prime was mated to the gala, Nick catching her and wrapping her in long docking axis, but the axis was still only a his arms as if they’d practiced it all their lives.

framework—not closed in yet—and they were

Then they would hold that embrace through
just starting to assemble the first habitat ring.

the end of the song, as if trying to make that You would need a lot of imagination to look at moment last forever.

that skeleton and see Farport today, with its growing stack of habitat rings and the new ex-The gala wasn’t the only place that Nick and tensions added every year. But even then you Rosalia danced. With habitat ring 1 spun up, would see a lot of traffic: suited astronauts, one-Leeds was able to accommodate a larger con-person construction hoppers, and the larger struction crew, so all of the schedules and as-Mobile Platforms that served as ferries and signments got reshuffled. Rosalia was assigned transports between the docking and assembly as lead hopper pilot on Mobile Platform 1, and points and the port itself. A lot of modules were as second in command of the construction
assembled far from the port, so that stray parts project, Nick was the pilot on MP1. If it had or any other problem couldn’t threaten the been the other way around, it would’ve never port itself. Then the hoppers would grapple worked; Nick wouldn’t have been happy go-and tug the modules to dock with a Mobile Plat-ing from a shift commander to command of
form, and the MP would ferry it and maneuver just a hopper squad. But Rosalia loved to pilot it to attach to the port’s skeleton.

above all her other duties, and lead hopper pi-Soon Rosalia had command of another con-
lot was enough command to satisfy her. And struction shift. She got along with Captain when they worked together, she and Nick

Leeds, of course. She was always more in
turned her hopper and the Mobile Platform
touch with the human side of the Corps.

into a delicate duet, each anticipating the oth-When Leeds wanted an opinion on whether
er’s moves, launching and rendezvousing with he was pushing the crew too hard, it was Ros-unparalleled elegance. Given their relation-alia he asked. He knew she would have a betship, a few in the Corps grumbled about the ter read on crew morale, and morale mattered two of them working so closely together and to him, because it could affect their perfor-in two such prime positions; but their eff imance and his timetables.

ciency ratings were absolutely top-notch, so Morale-building was actually a line item in Leeds left them where they were. Later he

Leeds’s schedule, and in his budget. So as soon would come to question that decision.

as the f irst habitat ring was spun up to one-Working the same shifts and in a small, re-quarter gee, he announced a gala in celebra-mote station, Nick and Rosalia became closer tion. It wasn’t much of a gala by Earth
than ever. Smitty didn’t think that was possi-standards, not even by the standards of our ble, but they became almost of one mind on wedding here on the Aldrin, but for a weary most things. Oh, they still clashed sometimes, crew of astronauts stationed at humanity’s far-and some of their shouting matches were leg-thest outpost (at the time), it was a much-need-endary, but it was always about the safest, ed chance to unwind and cut loose. And to
most effective way to perform the mission.

explore the possibilities of dance in low gravi-And once one of them was clearly proven
ty! That was something only old Luna hands right, they united again to carry out their deci-had experienced before then, and neither Nick sion with utmost precision, as if the shouting BRIGAS NUNCA MAIS

37

ANALOG
had never happened. They never really

“In the end, maybe that was the mistake.

reached fight no more, like they did on the Maybe they tried to cram too much celebra-dance floor, but they had found a way to fight tion and too much work into too little time.

only over what mattered, without losing what Maybe if Nick and Rosalia had scheduled their mattered.

wedding for later, everything wouldn’t have So no one was too surprised when Nick and
gone so horribly wrong . . .”

Rosalia showed up one day wearing matching gold rings, each on the right hand in the

Or maybe not. So many small things had to

Brazilian engagement tradition. With boost go wrong to create the disaster. Afterward, de-costs as high as they were, it had probably cost spite his pain, Nick dispassionately document-Nick as much to lift those rings up from Earth ed every one of them, def ining causes and as the rings themselves had cost—a few
assigning blame in an incident report that is months’ pay all together. But Smitty says the still taught in the academy today as an ideal af-sparkle of the gold matched the sparkle in Ros-ter-action report. But even Nick couldn’t have alia’s eyes. Like I said, she’s a closet romantic.

foreseen everything that went wrong. It had She really believed Nick and Rosalia were fated started nearly sixteen months earlier, at Dar-to be together. If only she had been right . . .

win spaceport, when a technician transposed two digits while setting up a test for a fuel in-

“Anson, don’t you dare think you’re going jector. The injector was tested at more than to stop there!”

twice maximum pressure, and it developed a

“Tracy!” I whispered, putting down my nap-hairline crack. But because the readings all fit kin. “They’re about to call us out for our first with the transposed digits, the test “passed.”

dance.”

So the injector was certif ied and placed into

“Good! It’s a long, slow song. You can whis-inventory on Superorbital Transport DeMarco, per in my ear, and no one will be the wiser.”

and there it sat in a parts locker for sixteen

“But . . .” I hesitated. “You know I’m a lousy months. But when the DeMarco was bringing dancer. I have to concentrate, or I’ll be all over a contingent of System Initiative bigwigs and your feet.”

other civilians up to Farport, there was a fault Tracy giggled. “Sorry, hon, but you’re all in the starboard engine. The DeMarco’s engi-over my feet even when you concentrate. It’s neer, showing admirable caution under ordi-okay, it’s quarter-gee, my feet can take it. Now nary circumstances, chose to overhaul the
tell me about that wedding.”

entire starboard engine while they were coast-I glanced over at the Off icers’ Table. Nick ing to their next burn. She was absolutely cor-seemed to be in some argument with Admiral rect per maintenance protocols, but in the Morais—a polite argument, but I could see
process they installed the faulty injector. The f ire in his eyes again—and I f igured he
unit lasted through initial testing and course wouldn’t hear. So I continued. “Rosalia chose correction burns, but when the DeMarco a wedding date to fall within the Grand Open-went to a full burn to settle into a matching oring ceremonies for Farport. The System Initia-bit with Farport, the vibrations caused the tive had scheduled a week of celebrations to cracked valve to break wide open. The igni-mark the port’s opening to civilian personnel, tion chamber flooded with far too much fuel, researchers, and tourists. The wedding
and with a horrifying WHUMP, the entire star-wouldn’t be the opening night, of course, or board engine blew out, venting gasses and
the closing night. Those were slated for mas-causing the ship to spin. The port engine ausive diplomatic/public relations parties. But tomatically adjusted to compensate, but not Captain Leeds had grown quite fond of Ros-enough. The DeMarco, crippled and tum-alia. He said she reminded him of his daughter.

bling, sped ahead on an altered trajectory.

He also said she was an excellent officer, and They couldn’t make orbit, and they couldn’t too good for Nick, but he pulled some strings return to Earth. All they could do was f ly and arranged for the wedding to take place on deeper into space and hope someone was in
the second-to-the-last night, when there
position for a rescue.

would be plenty of brass and friends to attend.

And fortunately, someone was. Even though

He even agreed to officiate.

they had a wedding scheduled in less than

38

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MARCH 2015
twenty-four hours, Nick and Rosalia and their So if you don’t want to get stranded in the MP1 crew were on duty, picking up modules
cold, boys and girls, vector on me and haul that had been dropped by a cargo rocket.

ass. Burn your tanks to empty if you have to, They had insisted on keeping up with their but I can’t wait around for you. You’re going work right up to their f inal shift before the to have to catch me. Signal your approach so-ceremony. So when the SOS went out from
lutions.”

the DeMarco, Nick got on the comm. “Trans-And Nick watched as the hopper status
port DeMarco, Farport Mobile Platform 1, screen showed solutions coming in: Hopper

Lieutenant Commander Aames commanding.

6, Hopper 3, 4, 2, 5 . . . but not 1. Nick We’re in your neighborhood. What’s your vec-switched to Hopper 1’s channel. “Hopper 1, tor?”

MP1. Where’s your solution, Rosie?”

The comm screen lit up, and a young,

It took several seconds for Rosalia to re-
blonde female astronaut appeared. “Mobile
spond. “MP1, Hopper 1. I can’t work a solu-Platform 1, Transport DeMarco, Captain tion. Recommend . . . you proceed without

Austin commanding. Our vector is still chang-me.”

ing. We’re trying to use our remaining engine

“Nonsense! Burn the tanks dry. You’ve got
to get control. Sending our control feed now.”

enough fuel to catch me.”

A blinking light on Nick’s console told him

“Nick . . . No, I don’t.”

the feed was connected. He looked at his nav-

“What?”

igation screen and nodded. “DeMarco, MP1.

“Nick, I didn’t . . . I didn’t refuel on my last Aff irmative, we have your feed. Nav comp
docking. I had plenty in my tanks, more than says it’s tight, but we can catch you if we start enough for our pickup schedule. I just forgot.”

immediately. My computer and yours will

“You forgot!”

work out the approach maneuvers. What’s

“Remember, you called, just to talk. And
your situation, Austin?”

then the caterer called, a problem with the

“MP1, DeMarco. We’re shaken, Aames, but dinner menu. By the time I worked that out, surviving. We have six crew, ten passengers.

there was no time for refueling. I was still No casualties, but the erratic boost led to within safety margins, on the low side, but some injuries. Our chief engineer suffered within. So . . . I’m sorry . . .”

some nasty burns while ejecting the damaged

“Sorry?” Nick fumed. “Fine. I’ll wait for you.

engine. And I think the engine may have rup-I’ll find another intercept solution.”

tured our O lines. We’re losing pressure, not

“Nick, you can’t. I’ve worked the numbers, 2
fast, but steadily. The assistant engineer’s suit-by comp and by hand. Orbital mechanics
ing up for an outside inspection, but he
waits for no man, Nick. Or woman. If you
doesn’t sound very confident.”

don’t keep boosting, you’ll never catch them; Nick took his thumb off the comm switch
and you’ll run out of fuel trying!”

long enough for a quick, “Damn.” Then he

Nick paused and ran some numbers of his
thumbed the switch again. “DeMarco, MP1. Un-own. “Okay, I’ll jettison some oxygen tanks.

derstood. I’ll tell the computer to prefer a fast That will lighten my load, make me faster, and pickup. MP1, out.” By that time, the nav comps then you can pick up the tanks and have
of the two vessels had worked out a solution.

enough air for a rescue.”

Without a load to haul, the Mobile Platform had

“Nick, you can’t. With sixteen more people power to spare. It wasn’t graceful, but it was on MP1, and with their own O leaking away, 2
fast. Nick punched the EXECUTE button, and you’re going to need every kilo of air you MP1 started boosting for the DeMarco.

have. It does no good to rescue them if you all Then he switched over to his command cir-suffocate from CO buildup. Now go!”

2
cuit. His hopper team was deployed, and he

“Rosie, I can’t leave you out here to . . . to . . .”

didn’t have time to wait for them. “All hop-

“One of me, sixteen of them. No choice,
pers, MP1. As you’ve heard, we have to make the numbers don’t add up. Now go get them, an emergency rendezvous and pickup with

Lieutenant Commander Aames. ”

the DeMarco. I’ve already started a low-thrust Nick worked at his computer furiously,
course for them. As soon as you all dock, I’ll looking for a solution, his frown deepening as switch to high-thrust and catch that transport.

every second pulled him farther and farther BRIGAS NUNCA MAIS

39

ANALOG
from the hopper and his bride. Finally he
due to overtime and structural repairs and ex-smashed his f ists against the keys several pended fuel, alongside the point-by-point enu-times. When he looked back at the comm
meration of the direct causes of the incident screen, Rosalia was shaking her head, tears in and the parties to blame, Nick included a thor-her eyes. She whispered, “Go get them, Nick.”

ough list of secondary causes; and at the top Lost for an idea, Nick just stared at the
of that list was Rosalia’s failure to perform ba-screen. Finally, his voice choking, he said, sic maintenance due to distraction by personal

“Brigas nunca mais, Rosalia.”

issues. Second on that list was his own per-Rosalia answered, “Nunca mais, Nick.” And
sonal call that was a direct cause of her dis-she cut off the comm screen.

traction. They both got summoned before the Review Board to answer charges.”

“So she died?” I saw tears welling up in Tra-Tracy paused and glared at Nick as he grace-cy’s eyes. “On their wedding day? Oh, poor lessly suffered through the Off icers’ Dance Nick . . .”

with Admiral Morais. “That . . . bastard!”

As Tracy had asked, I’d continued telling

I shook my head. “I like to think of him as a Nick and Rosalia’s story right through our first calculating bastard. He calculated that he dance as husband and wife. She had gotten
could lose her by following the rules, or he caught up. Like I said, Nick has a way of end-could risk really losing her someday by letting ing up in the middle of everything, even when up on the rules. He couldn’t face that again.

he’s not there. Now in the middle of the Offi-His way, she would live. She would hate him, cers’ Dance, with all my superiors and peers but she would live.”

circling around us like a sea of white, Tracy Tracy frowned, trying to see things through had insisted on more.

Nick’s eyes. “But then what happened to her?”

I shook my head. “Died? Oh, no. Nick made

“At first, there were some who used the in-some quick mass calculations, came up with cident to dredge up the old prejudices about one more wild idea, and made Leeds see it

Brazilian astronauts. I hear Nick got into a few was the only option. Leeds detached the
f ights trying to quash those rumors, but the Prime Module from the docking axis, and
rumors stung Rosalia, and she took them per-freed of the mass of Farport, those giant en-sonally. She was hurt. But after the Review gines made Prime into one hellaciously fast Board confirmed every one of Nick’s conclu-rescue craft. It wasn’t eff icient, but by burn-sions—and after Nick himself suffered a deing fuel like they were giving it away, they motion as a result—Rosalia eventually,
found a solution where MP1 could hold up for grudgingly, saw that it wasn’t personal. She Rosalia, reach the DeMarco before they ran was still angry at Nick, but she moved on and out of oxygen, and make rendezvous with grew from the incident. And she realized that MP2 when it launched from Prime with
her career wasn’t completely washed up. She enough spare fuel to bring both platforms
could still make Brazil proud of their native-back. Then Leeds brought Prime around and
born astronauts. So she took her lumps and back to Farport, tanks nearly empty. The dock-then threw herself into her work with a nearly ing was rough, it shook the whole port; but Nick-like zeal; soon she got her rank back, and mostly thanks to Nick’s determination, every-she rose up through the Corps, proving her-body lived.”

self to be the f ine, dedicated off icer Captain

“But then—”

Leeds always told her she was. One of the

“And then the wedding had to wait. It took finest officers in the Corps.”

two weeks of double shifts for all crew to sta-

“But did she ever forgive him?”

bilize the port and correct all the orbits. And The music stopped, the off icers started to then another f ive weeks for Nick and an in-clear the floor for more guests, and I shrugged.

vestigative team to prepare that marvelous af-

“No one’s really sure. Some people say yes, ter-action report. And by the time that was some no, but the two of them . . . Well, at least done, the wedding was off.”

in public, they act like none of that past ever

“But why?”

happened. Like they’re practically strangers.”

“Because in that incredibly detailed report, Then I heard the opening guitar notes of a fa-alongside the tally of millions of dollars lost miliar Brazilian love song. Smitty up to her old 40

MARTIN L. SHOEMAKER

MARCH 2015
tricks, no doubt. I turned Tracy around. “But leaped at Nick, and he sidestepped, turned, you’ll have to judge for yourself.”

caught her at waist and thigh, and propelled Admiral Morais stopped, her back to Nick,
her higher, so high that the deck of the Aldrin and with one quick move, she let her hair
spun beneath her, carrying her downspin. Her down in a distinctly nonregulation fashion.

hair streamed behind her like a triumphant There was some gray in it, but it was mostly still banner. And Nick continued his step into a the dark hair of the young lieutenant, and it still leap of his own, a downward leap ending with flowed in the low gravity. As the music picked him sliding across the deck on his knees. His up, she pranced lightly away from Nick, but face shone with a light I had never seen there one hand trailed behind her, beckoning. Nick before as he slid to a halt almost in front of Tra-leaped after her, clasped her hand at the last cy and me, exactly where he had to be to
moment, and drew her gently back into his
catch Rosalia exactly when she needed him to arms and a twirling, laughing embrace.

catch her, and he folded her into a loving, pro-The other dancers, seeing two true artistes tective embrace. The guests rose to their feet at work, yielded the f loor to watch them
in thunderous applause.

move, and for three-and-a-half minutes, Nick But from our place right next to Nick and
and Rosalia whirled around the f loor as if Rosalia, Tracy and I saw what the other guests twenty years had never passed. She fled, and couldn’t. Nick bent in to kiss Rosalia, but the he pursued. He ignored, and she enticed.

admiral turned her face away, shaking her

They circled each other like two f ighters, head. No. I saw the light fade from Nick’s face.

looking for weakness, and then they em-

Without missing a beat, as if nothing was
braced and twirled, stronger together than wrong, Nick rose with her still in his arms, when they stood apart. And they clung to
and he set Admiral Morais back on her feet on each other, swaying and leaping in the low the deck. Then he snapped a salute, and with-gravity as if they were one.

out waiting for a response, Nick Aames

And just like on Farport, they reached the stalked back to his dark, empty office. ■
climax of the music when Rosalia ran and

BRIGAS NUNCA MAIS

41

Robot

Boss

Erick Melton
on Donalson looked at the production

No point in telling that to Cue, though. Don sheet in the A-bot’s manipulator. He
sighed. Everyone knows, the boss is always reached out and took it as if it might ex-right.

Dplode.

“So . . . ?” Don looked up at the A-bot’s bul-Don sat across from Sunny Tomaschewski in
bous head and its bulging camera eyes. There the break room. She was twirling a long strand was a small screen between them. Right now, of her henna-red hair around her index finger.

it displayed the logo of the company they

It was her “thinking” gesture.

worked for: North American Legal Services.

“So-oh . . .” Don braced himself. Sunny

“The CD I attached to this order earlier . . . it’s turned single syllable words into two when been misplaced?”

she was going to say something that could be

“That is an incorrect interpretation.” The taken wrong. “You didn’t . . . leave it on a NALS logo disappeared. The face of an animat-work table, or set it on a processor, or some-ed chimpanzee, Cue, the avatar for the prothing?”

duction department, appeared in its place.

Don sighed. Sunny was a good girl. A good

“There was no media storage device at-
worker. She was from the generation that fol-tached.” Cue beat its chest and snorted into lowed Don’s. They had less trust in anything a the small screen. They even added a special ef-human might tell them.

fect of his snort fogging the glass. “Locate the Sunny let go of her hair and leaned forward.

missing storage device as soon as humanly pos-Hands pressed flat against the table. Ample bo-sible.” The A-bot spun on its hemispherical som creased by the table’s edge.

base. It moved off toward some other task.

“I’m not saying you’re lying or anything. It’s Don sucked on his teeth. “As soon as hu-just . . .” She wrinkled her face, then gave up manly possible,” huh? How about you find it as her effort to finish the sentence. “Why didn’t soon as “robotly” possible? Don knew he’d at-you have your lifelog on?”

tached it. It stuck in his mind because of how

“Cue doesn’t allow it.” Don shook his head.

long it had been since he’d held an actual CD.

“It’s a privacy violation. My lifelog would pick 42

MARCH 2015
up all sorts of personal data just walking

“You don’t, but . . . ?” Sunny waited. Don through the department.”

waited right back. She scooted her butt back

“Leila, at the end of the day, she analyzes my and forth on her chain and leaned forward, lifelog and redacts anything that shouldn’t go eyes boring in.

out.”

Don relented. “But . . .”

“Too bad I can’t go back in time and make

“But . . . what?”

that proposal to Cue, huh?”

“I think . . .” Don stopped to take a breath

“Yeah.” Sunny’s shoulders slumped. “It is.”

and brace himself. “Cue knows something and Don put his hands on the table and pushed
is keeping it to itself.”

himself up straight. He’d wasted the morning Sunny continued to stare at him. Her head
searching for that missing CD. He jutted his slowly lowered, like she was being def lated, chin toward Sunny. “Leila allowed you to con-but her eyes stayed locked with his. Her lips tact the location like I asked?”

peeled apart and her mouth fell open. Don

“Yeah. Once I explained that the loc is run could see the synapses f iring in her head very fleshy, it was a non-issue.”

through her eyes and knew the conclusion she

“Huh?”

was reaching.

“It’s run by some guy alone. Even older than

“Oh-kaay . . .” Sunny took a deep breath then you!” Sunny’s eyes went wide at the thought.

squinted her eyes at him. “Is senility covered Don pursed his lips. “Been designing buildings by our workers’ comp insurance?”

for years. No AI running the company at all.

“I know it sounds crazy. . . .”

Not even a savant-level expert system. Just

“That’s a good sign. That you know it’s crazy him!”

talk.” She wagged a finger at him. “Dell used to

“He’ll be sending us another disk, then?” It talk like that, remember?”

would have to be someone “even older” to

“Yeah, yeah . . . I know.” Dell Montrose had send data on CD. The majority of the files re-been the production AI’s assistant before Don.

ceived these days came by direct transfer. The The AI’s f irst underling. Don and Dell had owner must be a real old dog that liked his been friends in the company for years. They tricks just fine, thank you.

were the same age. Both had worked in the

“I messaged him a request. Waiting on the
field before coming inside. The only difference reply.”

between them, besides Dell’s more wide-rang-

“You didn’t tell him the CD was lost, did
ing pharmaceutical experimentation in his
you? You told him . . . ?”

youth, was Dell’s affinity for crazy ideas. Any

“Just that we need him to send another.”

conspiracy theory, discovery of fringe science, Sunny raised a hand toward him. “Leila wanted or just plain weird idea would get more than its me to tell him flat out it was missing. That was due from Dell. The installation of the AI in pro-the most she’d let me get away with. AIs don’t duction had inspired Dell to wax long and po-like ‘inaccuracies,’ you know?”

etic about the changing relationship between

“Okay. That should be good enough. We
artificial and human intelligences.

should be fine.” Don got it. Anyone with a job

“Did you tell him about what happened?”

these days had an AI giving them marching or-Sunny’s look was accusatory. “You keep in
ders.

touch with him, right?”

Sunny gave Don a long stare through her

“No!” Don waved his hands between them.

pout. “And you searched everywhere, right?

“I mean . . . yeah, we keep in touch. But I The incoming chute? The manipulator? The
didn’t tell him. It would violate the confiden-output?”

tiality agreement.”

“I searched the entire processing line.”

“Okay.” Sunny settled back in her chair. She

“And it’s not there? You have no idea where seemed less than convinced.

it went?”

“Honest. He doesn’t much care about this

“I . . . don’t.”

place anymore.” Don reached into his pocket Sunny cocked her head to one side. She
and pulled out his phone and placed it next to stared at him.

Sunny’s. Another generational difference. They

“But . . . ?”

both always carried their phones with them,

“But, what?”

but Sunny’s was always out, screen in view.

ROBOT BOSS

43

ANALOG

“He’s picking plums in the Coachella Valley Don was on the f loor, poking his head into now. See?” He tapped the screen to show her a the guts of production unit one, following picture Dell had sent him. He was wearing a the steps for checking the production line, big straw hat and holding a basket of plums. A when the A-bot whirred up to stand over
big smile showed through the ash of his un-him.

shaved face, now darkly tanned. The caption

“Mr. Donalson, the blue prints for the Cahill read: NOT ONE BRUISED! FIND ME ROBOT THAT CAN
vs. Bright Horizon Homes case have not been DO THAT!

processed into the incoming chute for produc-

“He looks happier than when he worked
tion unit two yet.”

here.” Sunny smiled down at the picture.

Don snapped the conveyor belt for the trans-

“Once I reach the financial goals Mimi has set fer module back into place before looking up for me, I’ll be touring with my poetry.”

at the A-bot.

“Mimi?”

“I know.” He let out a huff of frustration

“My financial AI. Through a service. About then turned his attention back to dissecting twenty bucks a month.” Sunny nodded with
the processor. “I’ll get to it in a bit.”

each statement. “She manages my invest-

“The blueprints are old paper sheets. The Aments. Creates a budget. Reminds me to stick bot’s manipulators may damage them while in-with it.”

serting them into the chute.”

“Oh.” Another difference between him and

“Not up to the task at hand, are we?” Don

Sunny. Any job was only temporary. The goal unlatched belt B and dropped out unit A2.

of most people younger than Dell was to earn Nothing there. He snapped the unit back into enough money to drop out into the other, hu-place, checked the step off on his phone, then man-driven economy.

rolled onto his side to reach the latch for ma-Sunny frowned. “You know, what you’re ac-
nipulator B.

cusing Cue of doing . . . ? It’s something Dell

“Repeat your last statement.”

used to do all the time. Covering up his mis-Don shoved manipulator B back into place.

takes. . . .”

He rolled onto his back and propped himself

“I didn’t make—”

up on his elbows.

“Oh-kaay, oh-kaay . . .” Sunny stopped and

“I know about the blueprints. The deposi-
grabbed a length of her hair. She started
tion date on that order isn’t until the day after twirling it. “But, you know . . . even what you tomorrow. I’ll get to it later.” He rolled away, asked me to do, the AIs don’t like it. It’s some-back toward the innards of the processor.

thing you have to get used to, dealing with

“The indicated volume of blueprints will
them.”

take approximately ten hours, twenty-eight

“I suppose . . .” Don found himself thinking minutes to scan and process. This assumes no about what Dell had said to him, while train-complications arise during processing. To pre-ing to take over his position. How he talked vent an expenditure of overtime, it would be-about the difference between AIs and hu-
hoove us to—”

mans, how they learned the job from them . . .

“Cue!” Don rolled over again and got to his and that manifesto he wrote. All of it a warn-knees. He sat back on his haunches and faced ing of sorts.

the A-bot Cue was embodying. “I need to find Sunny opened her mouth to say something,
the CD.”

but stopped when her phone rang. A hard-hit-Cue swung back and forth from the light fixting, electro-punk tune. Don recognized it as tures of its animated production department.

something called “Ball-n-Chain.” It was her Don hated having a chimp as the department’s ringtone for when clients contacted her.

avatar. All the other departments had humans She tapped the screen. Her eyes went wide.

as avatars. Rodolfo the f ield agent. Leila the She looked up at Don.

CSR. Marianne the invoicing clerk. Albert the

“Uh-oooh . . .”

account representative. The fact that Cue,

“What?” The look on Sunny’s face could
whose name came from “QA” or “quality as-
only be called “grim.”

surance,” was a chimp said something about

“The client knows.”

how the work of the production department
was regarded.

44

ERICK MELTON

MARCH 2015

“You know the CD I’m talking about, right?”

“My heuristic program has made a notation.”

Don prompted when Cue didn’t respond to

Cue the chimp gave him a disappointed frown.

his outburst.

“Locate the CD you misplaced as soon as pos-

“I have one reference to a CD in my WIP resible.”

port. The work-order in progress is

“I didn’t misplace it.” Don fought to get to 188358.001. Records from Thomas Halliday
his feet through the pain in his knees and Designs, requested in the matter of—”

back. He was too old to be rolling around on

“Yeah. That one.” Don huffed. The A-bot
the ground. “It was there. I clipped it to the was taller than him in his current posture. He production sheet. I entered it into the sys-found that irritating. “The location figured out tem.”

we lost the CD and told the client. It has his

“Your notation was entered twenty-three
original data. We have till the end of business minutes, sixteen seconds after work-order
today to find the CD, process the information, 188358.001 was placed in the incoming
deliver the data to the client and the CD back chute.”

to its owner.” Don turned back toward the

“Because you called me away. For the order processor. “Or else . . .”

with the handwritten notes you couldn’t trans-

“I have no record of such a contact.”

late.” Don used his index f inger to tap the

“Here . . .” Don pulled his phone from the head of the A-bot. “You remember?”

side of the processor. He thumbed in his net-

“Do not strike the assistance robotic unit in work ID, logged in, and forwarded the email such a fashion.” Cue bared its teeth at him.

Sunny had given him. “You have it now.”

“Due to the discrepancy between the time the

“Received. Processing . . .” Cue leapt and ca-production sheet was placed in the incoming vorted on the little screen. “Work-order
chute and the notation regarding the media 188358.001 now has priority status.” The A-storage device, there is a high probability that bot lowered its camera-eyes toward Don. “You the notation was intended for a different or-are instructed to locate the missing media stor-der—”

age device at the earliest possible moment and

“No. There was only one CD. I remember
insert it into the incoming chute of processor the order.”

number one.”

“Human memory is notoriously faulty. Mis-

“Again.”

takes happen.” Cue smiled at him. “There is The A-bot paused in turning away.“Clarify
nothing wrong with having made a mistake, as your last statement.”

long as the error is corrected and is not repeat-

“I need to f ind the CD and put it into the ed in the future.”

chute . . . again.” Don jutted his chin toward Don fumed. The words were no doubt lifted
the A-bot. “Like I did this morning.”

from some training manual for supervisors en-

“There was no media storage device at-
tered into Cue’s database.

tached to the production sheet for

“Find the missing CD as soon as possible. If 188358.001.”

the client’s expectations are not met, this error

“Yes. There was.” Don tried to rise up on his will be noted on your permanent record.”

knees to gain some height, but it only hurt his The A-bot spun around on its base. Don
kneecaps. “I remember because we’ve never
ground his teeth together as it whirred away received a CD before.”

and disappeared around the corner of proces-

“That statement is incorrect. A review of the sor two. It was only after the A-bot was out of archived production logs indicates that a total sight that Don realized how fast it responded of nine-thousand, eight-hundred and sixty-sev-with the information about the number of CDs en CDs have been received over the course of the company had received. As if it had called the company’s existence.”

up that data before. After the CD had been dis-

“Okay. We haven’t received one in like, forev-covered as missing.

er!” Don waved his hand across the A-bot’s face.

And if it wasn’t found, he would be the one

“That’s hyperbole, by the way. Exaggeration.”

with the reprimand on his record. And with Cue the chimp scratched its head. Its eyes companies more “performance oriented”

bugged out one at a time, left to right, for a few these days, any “mistake” could cause him to seconds.

lose his job.

ROBOT BOSS

45

ANALOG

Maybe Dell had been right about the “rise of the lights off that time, too. Don remembered the machine” after all. And maybe,Don
the spooky glint in Dell’s eyes when he
thought, recalling something Dell had shown opened it.

him, Dell had given him the answer as well.

“It’s the way to turn the master back into a The lights snapped on as Don stepped into
slave again.” Dell’s wild, big-toothed smile had the office. His right hand swiped at the switch.

a psychotic tinge to it when he answered

The lights in the front half of the room cut out.

Don’s question about what he was being

A second tap took care of the lights over the shown. Dell went on to explain that, in addi-desk and shelves. He carefully pressed a tab in tion to his philosophical rantings, it contained the middle to turn off the motion sensors. A instructions he’d gleaned from the technicians dark room was better suited to the task at that had installed the AI that could be used to hand.

reset its programming and that of the proces-Don closed the door behind him and turned
sors and A-bots that served as its appendages.

the lock. Through the glass window that filled Backdoor passwords, secret access points, all the door’s center, he could see about a third of the stuff that could get you fired for knowing it the department. None of the A-bots were visi-if you weren’t supposed to.

ble. The window had been a nod toward the

And now, Don was f lipping through it. He
necessity of keeping an eye on human employ-remembered Dell’s tales of his drug use during ees. None of them were around anymore ei-his “misspent youth.” He had wondered if that ther.

was what led to Dell’s overriding paranoia re-Don sat behind the desk. He felt like he was garding the newly installed AI. Don didn’t have sneaking into a museum at night. Nothing had that excuse.

been changed since the last breathing produc-Though mostly handwritten, the contents
tion manager had left. There was even a
were well organized. A table of contents fol-wadded up throat lozenge wrapper left on the lowed the cover page. There were colored tabs desk’s surface, propped against the base of a taped to the edges of the pages. Don flipped to desk lamp. The lamp had no bulb in it. It must a section three-quarters of the way back to find have been an artifact from an even earlier age what he wanted. He reached for his phone to of human occupation.

snap a picture, then remembered Dell’s warn-No time for historical speculation. Don
ing on the title page. He pulled open the draw-leaned over and opened the bottom left hand ers on the desk until he found a pen that still drawer. He excavated his way to the bottom, worked and a curled pad of stickynotes with a through the collection of power cables, old few sheets left. He jotted down the instruc-hard drives, plastic peanut jars now empty, tions then buried the notebook back in its and restaurant menus.

crypt, beneath the debris of the human age.

He found what he wanted and pulled it into Don pushed the chair back, then froze. One view. A black, three-ring binder holding a sheaf of the A-bots was standing just outside, watch-of real, dead-tree paper. The binder’s cover ing him through the glass.

was blank. Flipping it open, he found the title Don could taste bile in the back of his
page inside.

throat. Without moving the visible part of his The Manual for the Start of the Human
body, he used his foot to push the drawer

Revolution! It was written in black, heavy-closed. He stood then. He took a moment to duty marker. The last half of Revolution! was brush off his hands and tug his shirt into place.

scrunched up due to the author reaching the He took another moment to wonder why he
right edge of the page sooner than expected.

had chosen to do that. He came around the

Below the title, in red marker ink, was Do desk and opened the office’s door.

NOT scan this document into Any Digital

“Your next break is not scheduled for anoth-Storage Device! In smaller letters, in the lower er hour and forty-three minutes.”

left hand corner, were the words Death to

“I was finishing my lunch break.” Don made Skynet!

it sound as natural an excuse as it could be. “I Don shook his head, remembering when
didn’t take all of it.”

Dell f irst showed him his manifesto. It was

“All breaks are to be taken continuously un-their last day on the job together. Dell had shut less special permission is given.” Cue snorted 46

ERICK MELTON

MARCH 2015
on the A-bot’s screen. “No such permission his nose wrinkle. He double tapped the work-was given in this instance.”

order’s icon. The log opened. Bingo! A picture

“Duly noted.” He jutted his chin toward the of the production sheet he’d placed into the in-A-bot. “I asked for permission to view the pro-coming chute. And there! Right there! In the duction logs. Gonna let me do that?”

upper right-hand corner, Don could see the Cue swung and leapt on the small screen. It tines of the metal clip he’d used to fasten the landed on a processor and rubbed its belly. “You CD to the production sheet. He was almost
have three hours, seventeen minutes to locate giddy with relief. He’d begun to doubt himself the missing storage device, process the data, after Cue’s insistence.

and send the original back to the location.”

Don double-tapped the image, then

“I’ll get right on that.” Don gave the A-bot a frowned. There was no follow-up image. The little salute as he stepped around it. He
manipulator had not snapped a picture of the pushed his hands into his pockets, stuff ing CD after separating it from the production the stickynote deep inside. He kept his ears sheet. Why not? Don raised his finger to open peeled for any sound of the A-bot entering the the job summary, then stopped himself. First office and searching the desk behind him.

things first. He pressed his finger into the im-Don slalomed his way around the machinery
age on his screen until his phone asked him if to production unit one. The tension building he wanted to save it. At least now he had evi-in his back and neck threatened to make his dence. . . .

muscles pop. He was being watched. Every

“You are in violation of the employee code square inch of the department was under sur-of conduct!”

veillance. He had to do it right now and he had Don jumped as if stung with a taser. He
to do it fast. Before Cue sent an A-bot to inter-bounced off the side of the processor. On in-vene.

stinct, he grabbed his phone and yanked it Don reached the back side of the processor from the interface slot.

and knelt. He popped open the access panel.

“This is a violation of the conf identiality He pulled the sticky note out of one pocket.

clause against unwarranted or unauthorized His phone got stuck in the fabric of the other access of equipment, files, or secured informa-pocket and took two, three tugs to dig out.

tion.” Don spun around on his butt. Cue’s anThe glue on the sticky note was old. It kept gry glare was coming at him from the screen of falling from the side of the processor where he the A-bot looming over him. Cue’s face disap-tried to stick it. It stuck better to the back of peared, replaced by the image of a scanned his hand.

document. “Here is a copy of the agreement He found the interface slot described in
you signed wherein you stated you would

Dell’s instructions. He inserted his phone. He abide by this policy.”

waited. A screen popped open. Did he want to

“It was attached! See?” Don held his phone install an interface app? Don tapped ALLOW
out as if using it to ward off the A-bot. “Right then entered his password. He waited again.

there! That’s the clip I used to attach the CD.

He glanced over the top of the processor. It See it?”

was like hiding in a foxhole. He jumped when Don saw the A-bot’s twin cameras zoom in
processor two started up behind him.

then back out.

The interface app opened. Old program-

“The only item I perceive in your hand is
ming. The microphone was grayed out. No
your phone.”

voice commands. He didn’t feel like talking

“It’s right . . .” Don’s mouth hung open. Duh.

anyway. He selected ADMIN TOOLS then selected Of course Cue couldn’t “see” the image on the the processor’s scanner log and tapped OPEN.

phone’s screen. It was the same limitation that The up-pointing triangle was so small, and prevented the AI from recognizing scrawled his fingers so fat, that it took five tries to get lines as handwritten words with meaning.

the log to scroll back to the start of the day.

“Company policy regarding confidentiality

Work-order 188358.001’s icon was the third violations—”

from the top. He pressed his forearm against

“Hold on . . .”

the processor as he leaned against it. The smell

“—is that the offending employee be escort-of paper-dust and oil from inside the unit made ed from the department—”

ROBOT BOSS

47

ANALOG

“Wait a sec!”

something online for donations, and having a

“—until the transgression can be invest—”

big entertainment site pick it up for publica-

“Stop!”

tion.

Don scooted back, trying to get to his feet.

“What is your decision, Mr. Donalson?”

Something rattled as he bumped into it. He And if he was going to stay in the game, he’d looked up to see a second A-bot behind him.

have to f ind a way to work with a boss both

“I’m doing my job!” he shouted up at the
smarter and faster than he could ever be, while newcomer. Don then turned his attention back being pretty dim about some basic stuff. He’d to the f irst A-bot. “I’m trying to f ind the CD.

worked for people like that. It didn’t help that You made it a priority, remember?”

this boss was being so . . . paranoid.

Cue reappeared on the A-bot’s screen. It

“Your decision, Mr. Donalson?”

scratched its head. It rubbed its belly. Don Don caught his breath. Cue was acting para-swallowed a couple breaths. He exhaled out as noid. Just like Dell. And Dell had been the AI’s his heart hammered in his chest.

first assistant. The training manual they’d given

“Insert your phone into A-bot number-

Don said that the AI would learn from its assis-three’s interface slot.” A small panel on the top tant’s actions while directing them.

of the f irst A-bot’s head popped open. “The Had Cue learned paranoia from Dell as well?

document you are referring to will be down-

“I am sending for an agent from our security loaded and reviewed.”

service to escort you—”

“No.” An emotional rush, like a burst of

“Wait, wait . . .” Don held his hands up. It steam from an overheated boiler, left Don feel-may look like a surrender, but . . . hopefully . . .

ing lightheaded. It was the first time in his life

“Okay, okay. We’ll both be screwed if we don’t he refused to obey an employer’s instructions.

fix this, right?”

“You . . . you can access the processor’s log.

“Restate your query, Mr. Donalson.”

Get the image from there.”

“You want to get the job done, right?” Don

“The job file has been deleted from the log.”

took a quick breath. “It’s a priority for you,

“Huh? No . . .” Don looked at his phone’s
right?”

screen. He cursed under his breath. There was

“The three primary entries in my priority
a screen telling him the job file was “success-settings list are: to complete each designated fully” deleted from the log. It must have hap-work-order as quickly and accurately as possi-pened when he pulled the phone from the
ble; to obey all laws and regulations governing interface slot.

our work in terms of privacy and legal obliga-

“Insert your phone into the interface slot im-tion; to achieve the daily production goal, and mediately.” Cue’s voice was coming at Don
by extension the monthly and annual produc-from both sides. He had angry bosses in stereo.

tion goals, set for the department.”

“If you refuse to do so, you risk further disci-

“So . . . you want to do a good job.” Don
plinary action, including the possibility of ter-shrugged. “Right?”

mination.”

Cue the chimp only had to scratch its head Don flinched. He had never been fired from twice.

a job. Not ever. At his age, finding a new one

“Correct.”

would be close to impossible. There just

“So do I.” Don took another breath and let it weren’t that many real jobs out there.

out. All around him the production depart-

It wasn’t just the money either. Oh, he
ment was humming with activity. He wanted
needed the money. Unlike people Sunny’s
to be a part of that. He wanted to be doing age, he hadn’t had an AI running his finances something. To hold a position only a few peo-most of his life. But even if he were as solvent ple could hold. His brother Ron, who had also as he was trying to become, he’d still want to worked in the legal document f ield, had
work. Real work. Not just picking plums or packed it in and headed to a retirement com-traveling the country performing poetry. Not munity. Dell was in the hot sun, picking fruit that there was anything wrong with doing
all day long.

things like that. Don wanted something with The rules of the game had changed. If Don
juice to it. If he was a musician, for instance, it wanted to keep playing, he’d have to learn to would be the difference between posting
play by them as well.

48

ERICK MELTON

MARCH 2015

“Here.” Don extended his phone toward the
himself to standing. “Where is that ‘material A-bot. It felt like a Hail Mary pass with no time object’ now?”

remaining. He didn’t like it. One of the reasons

“There is no notation of the location of the he preferred baseball, he supposed.

material object in the system notes.”

The A-bot rolled forward. Don got to his

“Huh? But . . .” Don squeezed his brows to-knees. The tiny hatch was still open. Don
gether. Cue notated everything. If it wasn’t en-gave a heavy sigh, head falling forward,
tered, what could that mean?

shoulders slumping down. He inserted the

In his own head, Don pictured himself ca-
phone into the interface slot in the A-bot’s vorting and jumping about like Cue. If the head.

question of “where” couldn’t be answered,

“Working . . . file identified . . . deleting file what about “how?”

from the phone’s memory . . .”

“Cue, what do you do with ‘material ob-

Don started to choke.

jects,’ when you get them?”

“Restoring copy to processing unit one’s in-The interior of the storage room was pitch ternal log. Processing image . . . processing im-black. The light from the corridor could only age . . . processing complete.” The A-bot push the darkness back a meter or so from the chimed.

door before spreading out across the floor in

“Well . . . ?” Don lowered his head.

exhaustion. There were metal racks along the

“The image f ile displays a copy of the pro-walls with boxes and plastic bins stacked on duction sheet for the indicated order.”

them.

“Yeah, and . . . ?”

Don stepped across the threshold, then im-

“There is no indication of a media storage mediately stepped back. He took another step device attached.”

forward. When the lights didn’t come on, he Don snatched his phone from the A-bot’s
retreated again.

head. “It’s right . . .” The image was gone from

“The material objects storage room does not his phone. Don huffed. It wouldn’t recognize have motion sensors installed.”

the tines for what they were anyway. Remem-

“Oh?” Don looked down at the A-bot that ac-ber the AI’s limitations. It had to be taught.

companied him. It was looking straight into

“Was there . . . ?” Don shook his head. What the darkened room. It reminded Don of a little did he need to ask? “Do you . . . Does the sys-boy about to enter a haunted house on a dare.

tem show anything attached to the produc-He resisted the urge to hold one of its manipu-tion sheet at all?”

lators to reassure it. “Why is that?”

Cue the chimp cavorted. It took a moment

“An oversight in initial planning,” Cue said for it to land on an animated version of proces-after jumping about a bit. “Money was budget-sor one.

ed in a subsequent cap-ex report, but was not

“The earliest notation of anything attached spent by the department manager at the time.”

to the production sheet was entered twenty-

“Ah.” Don nodded. He reached around the
three minutes, sixteen seconds after the pro-door’s frame to search the wall. On the fourth duction sheet was placed in the incoming
swipe, he found the light switch and flipped it chute.”

on.

By which time, it would have been past the The bank of fluorescents snapped on, then
manipulator unit. Don waved his phone about.

went out. They f lickered and f luttered like a

“How about . . . before that? Was anything not-chick struggling to take flight. Don was won-ed when it was received in the office?”

dering when the last time any breathing person Cue scratched his head. “Customer service
had come to this room when they finally came noted receipt of a ‘material object’ associated on for good. The light was harsher and bluer with 188358.001 this morning after the in-than the clear, rosy hues in the rest of the office.

coming deliveries were processed. The materi-Don stared down the length of the narrow
al object was transported by A-bot to the
room. It looked like inspired clutter to him.

production department with a notation that it Everything fit neatly where it was placed, but needed to be stored for safe-keeping.”

there was no rhyme or reason to it. His eyes

“Good, good.” Don got one leg underneath
scanned the shelves as he stepped forward
him. He put his hands on his knee and pushed with careful, measured steps.

ROBOT BOSS

49

ANALOG

He was about ten meters in when he real-

“Oh!” Sunny’s face jumped back into view.

ized the A-bot was no longer by his side. He

“What?”

turned and found it still at the threshold.

“There are a dozen or so orders on my WIP

“You’re not coming in?”

report that are behind schedule. I’m sending

“There is no wi-fi access point in the materi-you the order numbers now.” The computer
al objects storage room.” Cue the chimp’s face signaled there was incoming email. “The
f illed the A-bot’s screen. Its animated eyes clients need them uploaded to their accounts were wide open. “Assistance robotic units are before they open in the morning.” Sunny tilted cut off from the network when they enter.”

her head to one side and gave Don her most

“Which is why you don’t know where the
forlorn of looks. “Can you and Cue take care of

‘material object’ we’re looking for is located, them for me . . . puhl-leeezzzee?”

huh?” Once in the room, an A-bot would go on Don nodded and smiled. “Sure thing.”

autopilot. It would put what it brought here in

“Yay! Thank you!” Sunny’s image winked
the most handy spot. When it tried to update out.

the system, though, the message would go

“You’re welcome.” Don cut the connection
nowhere.

on his end.

“Good thing we don’t get that many material

“A priority message has been received from objects anymore.” Don turned back to exam-customer service.”

ine the shelves with each step. He poked his Don turned around in his chair. An A-bot
eyes into each spot a CD in its case might be was standing there. Cue was looking at him hiding. It took about a dozen pokes to find it.

from its screen. Cue’s eyes were switching It helped that he knew what he was looking back and forth, big to small, left to right.

for, having handled it himself.

“A request to upload records to several on-

“Here.” Don held it up for the A-bot to see.

line accounts by nine A.M. tomorrow.” Cue was

“Please hand the material object to the assis-on top of one of its animated processors, wav-tance robotic unit.” The A-bot extended one of ing his hands about. “One of the f iles totals its manipulators toward him. The left one. Don eighteen thousand pages. There are numerous had never noticed that Cue was a lefty.

pages with handwritten notes that have been

“Not just yet.” Standing there, facing off scanned into an electronic database.” Cue did against Cue in his A-bot form, Don felt . . . em-a somersault on the A-bot’s screen. “Overtime powered. He hoped Cue never thought to spend has been approved for you to review and cor-the money to install the wi-fi access point.

rect the optical character recognition on those

“Please clarify.” The A-bot’s manipulator re-files . . .”

mained extended.

Don raised an eyebrow toward the A-bot.

“We need to have a heart to heart about

“What was that, Cue?”

how things run around here . . .”

Cue stopped dancing on the A-bot’s screen.

It sat down on its cartoon processor. It

“You can tell the client that the files will be scratched its head a couple of times. Then . . .

uploaded in”—Don checked the progress bar

“Don . . . I would appreciate it if you could on the bottom of the screen—“forty-seven
stay a bit after hours this evening. To f inish minutes.”

some jobs our clients need tomorrow. Would

“Yay! Thank you!” Sunny’s relief was like
you mind . . . ?”

twin beacons streaming from her eyes. “And

“Not at all, Boss. Be glad to.” Don grabbed the CD?”

his mug from the workstation. “Just let me re-

“A drone from the delivery service is on its way fill my coffee and I’ll get right on it.”

to pick it up.” He held the package up to bring it

“Thank you, Don. Take a quick break if you into the camera’s view, the side with the delivery want.” Cue gave him an ear-to-ear smile before label and barcode toward her. “All ready to go.

the A-bot turned and rolled off to another task.

Guaranteed delivery by ten A.M. tomorrow.”

Don smiled to himself. One good thing

“Yay! Thank you!” Don expected the screen
about robot bosses, he thought as he strolled to fry from her blasts of happiness. “I’ll let the toward the break room, they are fast learn-location know right away.” Sunny turned away.

ers. ■

Don reached out to tap END.

50

ERICK MELTON

Blue

Ribbon

Marissa Lingen
should have known when I didn’t hear
contests, from chicken genetics to hydropon-whooping and hollering and congratula-
ic tomato sauce competitions to straight-out tions from Chornohora Station when I
speed races in the STL ships, and nobody can Icrossed the finish plane.Mysister Luzia get excited about all of them,not even during and I eked out a win over Scott and Ferenc the fair. But mostly the people manning the Nagy in the maneuverability race even though station comms during the race were racers

Luz was just barely old enough to compete in themselves as kids and more than happy to
the teen division. Usually, that sort of thing give us feedback as needed.

calls for celebration, and Luz was not going to

“You getting anything from the station,
let it go without some.

guys?” I asked the Nagys.

“Wooo!” she hollered into the comms.

“Negative,” said Ferenc, the most he’d said

“That’s right, Pinheiros have beaten you
all race.

again, even without Amilcar’s help!”

“Not a word,” Scott concurred.

Scott’s voice sounded admiring and rueful.

“Us either.” I tried switching frequencies.

“Sneaky little demons. Next time, though . . .”

“Chornohora Station, hello?” Still nothing.

“Next time will have to wait awhile, with you There was another couple of Muspel 670s
guys in adult competition next year and us still in hanging near the finish plane, nearly identical 4-H,” I said. “You’d better spend that time trying to ours in lines but painted wildly differently.

to improve, maybe even looking at the throttle They weren’t from our race—those losers
on that thing. Chornohora Station, I think we’re were still coming in and would be for quite ready for our victory lap, so go ahead and pop some time, thanks—but I wasn’t sure what
the champagne corks, we are coming in.”

they were from.

And . . . silence. Real silence, not just chat-

“Hailing the blue Muspel,” I said over the ter unrelated to my obstacle-racing victory comms. “This is the Pinheiro sisters, Luzia and (teen division). I get that not everybody is Tereza. Do you require assistance?”

thrilled with 4-H racing, especially not

“I don’t know,” said a rather small voice.

every adult. There are infinite varieties of 4-H

“This is Simon Chao-Cohen. I’m here with my 52

MARCH 2015
in-cousin Huang Fu Chao-Cohen. We finished And our family was on the station.

our race—”

“Tereza?” said the little voice I had come to

“Which race?”

identify as Simon Chao-Cohen. “What are we

“Maneuvers preteen.”

going to do? We can’t go to another station

“Okay, sorry, go on.”

like it says. Muspels don’t have FTL, and all

“We f inished our race, and nobody an-
our parents’ FTL ships are locked up to the sta-swered our hails. That was maybe two hours tion in the quarantine.”

ago.”

“I know, Simon,” I said. “It’ll be okay.” Luz I frowned. Two hours was far too long for
shot me an incredulous look, but I just kept everyone to be busy with incoming ships, es-talking. “You’ve got emergency rations in your pecially at this stage of the fair. We had been Muspel, right?”

nearly the last ones in, and Luz and I had had

“. . . sort of ?”

to scramble into our Muspel and go in order to

“Okay, we’ll sort out ‘sort of’ when we’ve make our race registration cutoff—we hadn’t got everybody gathered. Meanwhile let’s see even gotten to see the inside of the station yet.

who’s here and go on to—hey, Scott, will you Nobody would be later than that for one of look for a good rock while I take attendance the year’s three big fairs.

here?”

And nobody would leave a preteen division

“Sure thing,” he said. I might have made
out there in radio silence for hours.

comments about Scott and his in-cousin Fer-

“Hang on a sec,” I said. “My uncle taught
enc when we were in the heat of the race, but me several miner emergency frequencies. I’ll it was all in good fun. They were some of my hail on those.”

best friends, and I was glad to have them to I tried the entire broad band to no effect.

count on in a crisis. Scott was going to marry Another few Muspels straggled in from our
my out-cousin Amilcar in another year, but race, and the little kids from the preteen they hadn’t decided who would be the in-course started to cluster theirs up with us, to-spouse and who the out-spouse. If Amilcar
gether, hanging in a constellation outside the out-married, he and Scott would have more
station.

position on the Nagy ship, more seniority; Finally I heard a voice, but it was not a rewith a single ship family like the Nagys (or like sponse, or at least not the kind of response I my own), it was much easier to make your
wanted. “Attention, incoming ships. This is voice heard, much less likely that you would the Chornohora Station auto-response sys-be drowned out by still-living generations of tem. The station customs and immigration
ancestors, all of whom felt they knew more personnel are unable to process your ship at about mining, art, and life than you.

this time. Please proceed to another station But if Amilcar in-married, Scott would have for your trade and leisure needs. Chornohora access to everything the Gouveia family had, Station is closed for quarantine. Please pro-which was a lot. Really a lot. A lot of ships, a ceed to another station for your trade and lot of possessions, a lot of connections . . . any-leisure needs. Chornohora Station is closed thing at all that they wanted to do, anything for quarantine. Please proceed . . .”

their contract-children wanted to do, would I punched the “accept” button so that it
be possible with the Gouveia family. My out-wouldn’t keep playing us the same automated cousins were a pretty big deal.

message. It would still let me know if the mes-It’s part of why Dad out-married into the
sage changed.

Pinheiros: he didn’t like being just another Closed for quarantine.

Gouveia artist, without anyone who could

None of the Oort Stations had ever been
keep track of what he did differently or
closed for quarantine. Ever. We learned about why.

it in lessons because it had happened to one The point was: Scott was nearly family. So of the Jovians once, back before the Oort was he ran the calculations while we took notes even settled—the encephalitic measles, and on who was who and who was where. We
that was horrible, a 5 percent death toll. Now had four ships from the preteen division—it there was something on Chornohora that war-sounded like they’d lost, poor mites, and the ranted a quarantine.

winners had made it into the station before BLUE RIBBON

53

ANALOG
the quarantine shutdown. Which might have

“It’s got nuts in it, stupid! They’re plum made them even unluckier. The rest of our di-dumplings with ground walnuts, and they’re revision of teen maneuverability pilots was limp-ally good, and just for that you can’t have any.”

ing in a few at a time, and Luz and I hailed

“None of that,” I said sharply. “No name
them and took stock of who they were, which calling, and absolutely no threats of food-families they were from.

hoarding, do you understand?”

Then I zapped the coordinates Scott had

“Yes, ma’am,” muttered Simon.

picked out to their ships, and we regrouped to

“We’re entering the competition for novel
an asteroid not far away: big enough to let us flavors of lichen-based proteins,” said the oth-anchor our ships to it and power the artificial er Aafjes girl. I’m pretty sure that one was grav that way, but not far enough away that Anni. “We’ve got durian mac and cheese.”

we wouldn’t hear about it if in-system med There was a general outcry on the comms.

ships came to Chornohora, or if the quaran-

“Not real durian!” Anni protested. “I know tine was lifted or anything like that. We
it’s banned for the sake of the air vents. So we formed a ring on the surface, able to pass did our best to replicate durian f lavors with things with waldoes if they were vacuum-safe lichens. It’s really good!”

but not actually connected by airlocks. Can’t

“We’ve got spruce beer,” said Ferenc. Usual-be too careful in quarantine.

ly he lets Scott do the talking, so it must have Chornohora was one of the three big fairs
been his spruce beer.

of the year, so pretty much all my family was

“Didn’t anybody else do vacuum emerin that station except for Luz, even my outgency kit competition this year?” I said plain-cousins, except Amilcar’s ship of them. I kept tively. It transpired that the two little Van hoping we’d get the all-clear and laugh about Haanrade boys, Liwei and Mikko, had, and
it a little nervously with Mom and Dad and also three of our contemporaries. In addition, Grandpa and Grandma later. I started thinking we had my currant mustard, Luzia’s dilly
about how to make them laugh, telling them beans, and several more entries in the lichen about how we had to hang out in space
competition. Everything had been canned ex-sweaty and stinky from our victory. That many cept the dumplings.

hours of obstacle-racing adds up; you get pret-

“Okay, so, you keep the dumplings,” I said ty rank together. But then the Chao-Cohens to the Chao-Cohen boys. “We can’t share
made it clear that they didn’t have the regula-those without risk.”

tion amount of emergency rations, and I got

“What do you mean, without risk?” asked
funny and serious stuff all in one package.

Liwei Van Haanrade.

“What do you mean, you don’t have the reg-

I took too long to answer. Luzia jumped in ulation amount? Come on, the Chao family
for me, and less delicately than I would have.

practically founded Oort mining. You guys

“Look, there’s some nasty disease on the sta-know better than this.”

tion, right? Well, that means someone must

“Simon kept stashing things to eat and then have brought it, right? And the odds are pret-coming back and eating them,” said Huang Fu, ty good that those of you who were on the sta-speaking for the first time. He sounded, if any-tion got exposed to it before you started your thing, younger than Simon.

races. So we can’t link life systems. We have to

“Have you got anything to eat in there?”

pass everything with the waldoes and let the

“Oh yes!” chirped Simon. “I’m going to en-
vacuum sterilize it.”

ter the preteen baking section for nuts.” Of

“Will that work?” asked Scott.

course. We were all 4-Hers—that’s who spon-

“It’s the best chance we’ve got,” I said. “We sored the racing and, in fact, most events at can’t let the Chao-Cohen kids star ve,
the annual fairs. So Luzia and I wouldn’t be the dumplings or no dumplings. Everybody comm
only one with our competition entries in our me what you’ve got for supplies, and we’ll ships.

share them out evenly.”

“Nuts? I bet,” said a little girl’s voice I recog-

“Does this mean I won’t win with the duri-
nized as one of his competitors—one of the an mac?” said Grace Aafjes.

Aafjes girls, either Grace or Anni; I couldn’t

“I think we’ve won all we’re going to win
tell yet which.

today, Grace,” I said.

54

MARISSA LINGEN

MARCH 2015

“But we didn’t win! We came in at least
comm alert was going off. I pressed it, hoping fifth, maybe sixth. The logs aren’t auto-updat-for a station message.

ing, so I can’t see.”

“Tereza? They’re still not answering,” said I did not feel like trying to explain to her Simon Chao-Cohen.

that if we were dealing with plague protocols,

“It’s awfully early, Simon,” I said. “It looks just being alive and in a separate life-support like it’s a real quarantine, not a drill, so we’re system from the victims might be a win condi-probably stuck here until they get the med-tion. So I just didn’t argue. Instead, I did the ships out from Ganymede.”

calculations while Luzia manned the waldoes,

“Shouldn’t we . . . try to get somewhere
passing hardened vac-safe jars of preserves else?” he said.

and lichens up and down the chain of ships I sighed. It’s really easy to forget how big on the tiny rock we’d found.

the Oort is when you’re always using FTL dri-The sour smell in our Muspel was not going ves. Then get stuck in a Muspel 670 or some-to get better any time soon.

thing else with only STL, just a little mining We were chewing through our allotted
vehicle, and see how big it feels. At top speed, mouthfuls of salt-and-pepper lichen (good) we could probably make it to the next station and washing them down with spruce beer
in only four or five years, except that we’d run (which is not alcoholic, for the record; being out of fuel and have nowhere to get more in alcoholic might have helped the flavor, so: not less than a month. Food also. Earth people good) when Luz issued a very dramatic sigh.

would probably compare it to trying to get

“We’re missing the Saloma concert.”

from Oslo to Cape Town on a tractor. You’d be Saloma is my sister’s favorite singer. Mine, better off with a musk ox cart, because musk too. We’d only ever been to her concert at the oxen can swim, or if you get too hungry,
previous fair at Servaas Station. It was out of they’re much tastier than a Muspel 670.

this ecliptic. I said, “We can put on one of our So I talked that through to the satisfaction of recordings.”

half a dozen ten-year-olds, all of whom were

“I guess,” said Luz, “but we do that all the smart, all of whom were well-trained, all of time. It’s not the same.”

whom just wanted their families. Nor could I

“Luz . . . they might not even be having the blame them.

concert.”

And failing their families, they wanted

“You think Saloma’s sick?”

something to do, and I couldn’t blame them

“I think anybody might be sick.” Then I
for that, either. We all had movies and music was glad I’d turned the comms off to the
and books downloaded to our Muspels for qui-younger kids’ ships, because Luzia started cry-et moments of travel and letting the ship auto-ing, loud and ragged and scared, and she
mate some of the less interesting mining
didn’t stop for quite awhile. I put my arms functions, but that’s not nearly enough when around her and muttered meaningless en-you’re trying to distract yourself from a plague couragement, and then when she got herself at your doorstep.

calmed down and curled up in one of the

Luz set up a round-robin Go tournament, at emergency blankets to listen to her favorite which she soundly spanked all comers, and I Saloma song, I had to go lock myself in the taught the little ones to play cribbage through head so I could cry too.

the ship computers. Squabbling and technical Tear-streaked and stinking of old sweat, I difficulties took care of most of a day, and we cleaned up the inside of the Muspel as best I older ones got ver y few questions about
could. There was a comm indicator. “Tereza?”

where the med ships were and when we were
said a little voice. It was Mikko Van Haanrades.

going to get there.

“They’ll let us in tomorrow, right?”

We got to the end of a day-cycle out there in

“I sure hope so, Mikko,” I said. “You guys the dark and cold, and everybody was cranky look after each other in there, all right? Try to and tired and getting smellier by the minute.

get some sleep.”

So I did what I was taught to do: I tried to start I followed my own advice as best I could. I a sing-along.

woke up with a crick in my neck and my hair Other people are not very good at sing-alongs stuck to my face. Luzia looked no better. The even when they’re perfectly good at singing.

BLUE RIBBON

55

ANALOG

But oh, I did my best. I taught them “Rose, But then I woke up in the night to Mikko

Rose” and “Sweet Deep Black” and “John Ja-
comming me that Liwei had been throwing
cob Jingelheimer Schmidt,” which is appar-
up blood. And there was honestly not a damn ently a song about in-cousins whose mothers thing I could do except talk to them, sing to did not consult suff iciently about their
them, use my most soothing voice with them names. Luzia tried to get everybody to sing Sa-and be there through the comms. I had every-loma’s “Out-Cousin’s Lullaby,” which is a
body inventory their emergency med sup-
great song, but it’s terrible for people who plies, but honestly I didn’t expect much, and have less vocal range than Saloma, which is that’s what I got. Muspels aren’t meant to be pretty much everybody, especially Luz. Fer-far away from their parent ships for long.

enc unexpectedly saved the day then and

There are a few adhesive bandages and some jumped in to teach them “I Hate to Wake Up mild painkillers, and that’s about it.

Sober on Europa,” which under ordinary cirAnd Liwei did not get better, and Mikko got cumstances I would not teach to preteens,
worse, and even if I had been willing to ex-but what the hell, their parents could yell at pose myself to the plague—even if I’d been me later.

willing to throw precaution to the wind—

If their parents were still alive.

there was literally nothing I could do except I resolutely did not think of that, and I kept listen to these two little kids, brothers in their not thinking of it when he taught them the ship like Luz and I were sisters in ours, vomit-song about the seven old ladies and their mising blood. Then shitting blood. And I’m not adventures in the head, and I was almost do-sure what-all happened toward the end there.

ing fine when he taught them the one about It sounded bubbly and horrible.

the miner and the chicken, which is dirty in at I just know they died.

least two languages that I know of.

Early on, I got Scott to handle the rest of the And then, very quietly, Liwei Van Haanrade little kids, and I got him to tell everybody not said, “Tereza? I miss my auntie.”

to comm the Van Haanrades. If they’d had par-

“We all miss our aunties, sweetie,” I said.

ticular friends, I would have let them say

“We’ll get to see them soon, when the med
good-bye, but we were just all Oorter kids ships come.”

who knew each other’s families a little from But he continued, “Tereza, I don’t feel good.”

fairs. There was no one who could be more

“He’s all feverish,” his brother Mikko re-
comforting than I was and what a sad state of ported, “and I think I’m a little feverish too.”

affairs that was.

“Probably too much of that yummy yummy

And the last thing I needed was more of the durian-f lavored lichen the Aafjes gave us,” I little ones to freak out.

said heartily. “Get some sleep.”

That is, any more than was strictly neces-

“It was durian mac and cheese,” said Grace sary.

Aafjes, and we all agreed that it was unforget-Which, frankly, was quite a lot. Luz and I tably that, that if she was going for durian mac held each other and cried and repeated reas-and cheese, she had certainly achieved it. And surances about how we hadn’t even been ex-then we went to regular comms for the night, posed to the station air. But that didn’t help and Luz said to me, “They’re sick. The Van much.

Haanrades. They’ve got whatever it is on the Nobody took it well when I told them the
station.”

Van Haanrade kids were dead. I didn’t expect

“We don’t know that,” I said, but we had a them to. The littler ones had started thinking pretty good guess at it.

of me as someone who was in charge, so I

Up until that point, we could almost con-
spent hours trying to explain to terrified, up-vince ourselves that this was just another adset kids why I hadn’t saved the others. They venture, like a survivalist course under the asked me the horrible questions, about
domes or something. Like Earth people who
whether I would let them die, too. Because go camping. None of us had ever been any-somewhere along the line, my 4-H pledge to thing like camping, so we read old Earther the community had come to mean them, and kids’ books, and we could sort of half-con-they just could not wrap their brains around vince ourselves it was similar.

the idea that I couldn’t fix it.

56

MARISSA LINGEN

MARCH 2015

Scott tried to say something consoling over What’s also true is that the Chao family—all the comms, but he had to talk to Luz at that nine branches of it—are some of the most
point, because I was not listening to anything powerful people in the Oort. So . . . yeah, we but the white noise in my head.

were taking a pretty big risk. On the other The next morning, Simon Chao-Cohen
hand, we could have the gratitude of an entire commed me with a timid little voice saying, great clan if we succeeded.

“Tereza?” And my heart went right back to my Mostly, though, we took them in because if feet. I was just sure it would be another little I was going to listen to another little boy kid vomiting blood.

cough and cry and die, I was going to do it In some ways, it was harder than that.

where I could damn well rub his shoulders

“Tereza, our life system is malfunctioning.

and stroke his hair and clean him up a little.

Help?”

Maybe that makes me stupid. I don’t know.

“Oh shit,” I said coherently. “Oh shit, oh Simon cried for half an hour when he got
shit, Simon, what have you got left?”

into our ship and got his suit off, I think most-

“Two hours. Can we come in with you?”

ly with relief but also some with exhaustion.

I looked at Luz. Luz looked at me. The Chao-He had carefully brought his rations, good boy Cohen kids had been on the station for days that he was. Once he f inally stopped crying, before the race, and we hadn’t been there at Luz showed him cat’s-cradle tricks and got all. Maybe we should try to shove them off on him calmed down.

someone else. But the Muspels were small,

And then the med-ships came.

and I had put myself in charge, so . . .

We saw them approaching the station first

“Just a second,” I said. I turned the comm and hailed them. One of them broke off from off.

the main group and approached us immedi-

“We’re taking them,” said Luz. She sounded ately.

tired. No thirteen-year-old should ever have to

“We’ve lost two little boys in the third ship sound like she’s accepting her own death.

clockwise in the ring from me,” I told them.

“We have to split them up. One each. A

“Do you know anything about what’s going on Muspel with four people in it would be com-there on Chornohora? We haven’t been able
pletely unbearable, even if three of them are to raise any kind of comms since the auto-sig-you and little bitty sprouts like those boys.”

nal went on.”

“But we’re taking one. Scott and Ferenc can

“They have no spare personnel,” said the
take the other—give them Huang Fu. He and

Ganymedan medic. “I’m not sure how many

Ferenc can be quiet together. Scott’s used to it.

are still alive, but certainly not enough to keep But honestly, Tereza, which of our other com-them out of emergency shutdown mode. It’s
petitors has shown the slightest bit of back-pretty bad.”

bone? They can’t take care of a little kid. And

“What kind of bad?”

the Aafjes are just little kids themselves. And

“We don’t know, but it’s hemorrhagic,” he
there’s no way to sterilize the Van Haanrade said grimly.

vehicle thoroughly without losing most of the

“Hemorrhagic” is one of those words you
remaining life support anyway.”

never, ever want to hear used near your loved I forbore to mention that Luz was only one ones. I had the urge to clap my hands over my year out of the preteen division herself—that sister’s ears. But Luz had been coping with all at this time last year, I’d been partnering with of this just as I had, and when I turned to her, Amilcar for competitions like this one and she had her hands over Simon’s ears.

watching Luz dazzle the single-digit set. I That’s my girl.

flipped the comms back on. “Okay, here’s the The med-ship personnel were using special
plan,” I said.

suits to get in and out of Chornohora, and as It sounds like Luzia and me, we were these long as nobody started running a fever, we amazing angels, so selfless and so wonderful, were low priority. They passed us supplies or alternately like we were just ordinary hu-through the airlock. It was a really bad sign mans doing what you always hope ordinary
that they were not sparing any of the
humans would do. And maybe both of those

Ganymedan personnel to keep our spirits
were true.

up—they just took Liwei and Mikko’s bodies BLUE RIBBON

57

ANALOG
and left us, and brought us rations from time

“Our offer is from the Gouveias,” I told
to time.

them all. “Our out-cousins say we can be in-It was another week before they actually
cousins now.”

towed the Muspels away to a big in-system

“Then you’ll be with us,” said Scott. “I’m go-med ship and let us out of them. They were ing to out-marry Amilcar—no reason not to, going to separate me and Luzia to talk to me, now—and we’re making special arrangements
but Luz wasn’t going anywhere without me.

to adopt Ferenc. He’ll be my f irstborn son, She didn’t actually threaten to bite anybody, legally.”

but I think the implication was clear.

Ferenc tried to grin at that, but his mouth The in-system official waiting for us was not was only going through the motions.

Ganymedan, as I’d expected from the med-

“But we won’t be Pinheiros any more,” said ships. She was Europan.

Luz urgently. “We won’t, will we, Tereza?

Which meant there were finances involved.

They won’t make an exception?”

“Tereza Pinheiro,” she said. “And Luzia Pin-

“Honey, I don’t think they can,” I said.

heiro, I presume, though you were not called

“I don’t want to be a Gouveia. I’m a Pin-
for.”

heiro, and you’re a Pinheiro, and we were sup-Luz jutted out her chin. “I came anyway.”

posed to grow up and be Pinheiros together

“Well, girls.” She looked at her handheld as and do our own thing. I don’t want to be a if it carried new information, though I was Gouveia!”

sure she had loaded and read everything long

“I bet they’ll call us ‘those Pinheiro girls,’“ I before we’d walked in. “Looks like you could said. Honestly, I don’t think Luzia had the least use a shower and a hot meal.”

notion of how much worse things could be.

“And a beverage that isn’t spruce beer or re-We could keep the off icial legal name Pincycled water,” I said fervently. “What—what’s heiro and get shipped in-system and not have happening?”

it mean anything more than Argleblargle. Fam-

“You have the gratitude of a grateful Chao ily names are like that in-system. They’re family,” she said. “So there’s that for you. The noise.

seven branches want you to know that you

“It’s not the same,” said Luz.

can call on them at any time.”

Scott bent down to talk to her, and I think

“Nine branches,” said Luz, because in-sys-
he was the only one who could do it without tem people don’t always know.

Luz taking the opportunity to throttle him at The Europan glanced at her, and I saw that that point. “Luzia, sweet, look. This way you she was desperately trying to be kind. “No, and Tereza can be together, right? And you honey. Seven.”

can be with me and Ferenc and Amilcar. And I sat down in the ugly chair they’d provided we’ll be our own little unit inside the Gou-and gripped the edge of the metal table for veias. And then when we make enough mon-support. “Everyone’s gone. Aren’t they.”

ey—”

“I’m sorry. In addition to the gratitude of Bless Scott. Bless him, oh, bless him. “That’s the Chao family, you have an offer for a new right, Luz, when we make enough money, we
berth. Both of you. I’ll send your accounts the can get our own ship and be Pinheiro-Nagys.

details. Think it over. You don’t have to rush.”

And neither of us will out-marry, we’ll make She looked at us both carefully, greasy and any men we meet in-marry or gene-donate,
stinking and smudged. “It sounds like you did and we’ll have the babies for the new Pin-the lion’s share of the work keeping the other heiro-Nagy ship.”

kids from completely panicking. If you play Luzia’s sobs slowed to sniff les. “You
your cards right, that will serve you well in the promise?”

future. Inasmuch as Chornohora has a hero,

“I promise, honey.”

it’s you.”

And Scott and Ferenc promised, too, and I

She left us alone, left us to shower and eat expect they had time to go off and cry by
and think and cry. We met up with Scott and themselves, as I did. But mostly we focused on Ferenc in the corridor, freshly scrubbed and taking care of Luz and each other, because stunned.

that was the only way we could win now. ■

58

MARISSA LINGEN

BIOLOG Richard A. Lovett

MARISSA LINGEN
arissa Lingen is one of the most prolific
short story writers of her generation, selling something like 110 stories since

M2000.More or less.When you publish at
that rate, the only thing that’s certain is that by the time this prints, the number will have changed.

She started young, with her first major success writing. “I have been writing ever since,” she says.

as the 1999 winner of what is now the Dell Award These days, she lives in Eagan, Minnesota, near for best science fiction by an undergraduate stu-the Twin Cities, where being Minnesotan has bedent. “I’ve always been a science fiction girl,” she come a major piece of her self-identity. In part, says, joking that her inauguration into the field that’s because Minnesota is a big piece of her fam-came before she was born, with her father readily heritage. “I’m a Norwegian girl,” she says. But ing science books and Lord of the Rings to her Minnesota is also a place with a thriving literary pregnant mother. “In utero, he was whispering to culture. “You have to do something with the long, me, ‘Math is easy; chemistry is fun,’” she says. “He cold winters,” she says, “and what a lot of people was going to make darn sure that I was not going do is write.”

to have the barriers some girls get.”

But being Minnesotan also influences her writ-But it took until age 11 to realize that the fiction ing. “There are places you’ll find it in my lan-she grew up loving was part of a special genre.

guage,” she says. “[And] I have sold several hock-That’s because her town library had shelved one ey stories.”

of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern books But perhaps the state’s biggest influence came in the children’s section . . . and it wasn’t until Lin-during her undergraduate career, when her south-gen asked about other books in the series that a li-ern-Minnesota college was struck by a mile-wide brarian let her know they were part of a genre tornado. It was spring break and none of the stu-called science fiction. “She walked me back to an dents were hurt (though there was one death in entire shelf with the canonical rocketships on the the surrounding community). But in the course of spines,” she says, “and the world opened up.”

trying to find out what buildings were still standIn college, Lingen majored in physics at a small ing and what the rest of the academic year would liberal arts school with a focus on undergraduate entail, she was struck by a startling divergence in research. She also did two NSF-funded summer the ways in which students, staff, PR people, and projects elsewhere. But each time, her projects administrative authorities reacted.

were put on hold by major equipment failures The details of PR, administrative decision-mak-that left her in strange towns, with nothing to do.

ing under stress, and a community pulling togeth-Her solution: read through as many Hugo and er in the face of disaster are relevant only to that Nebula winners as she could while waiting for the specific incident. But the big picture, she’s real-equipment to get fixed. As she puts it, she figured ized, is much more broadly relevant, and “Blue that if she was serious about “this science fiction Ribbon,” this month’s story, is her first attempt to thing,” she needed to treat it with the same dedi-draw on that experience—delving into the ques-cation she gave to her physics.

tion of how people “come together and fall apart”

Later, in graduate school, she intended to get a in the aftermath of shared trauma: “the way peo-doctorate in nuclear physics. But every time she got ple are both better and worse than you hope.”

excited about the science, she also got excited Science fiction books may have rocketships on about how to incorporate it into a story. “That was the spine, but the stories are, after all, in large part good for the stories, but not so great for the about what it means to be people under unusual physics,” she says. So she left academics to focus on circumstances. ■

59

Probability Zero

Phenol-
faerie

Jay Werkheiser
hat are you doing in the lab so

“And where would you get faerie dust? The
late, Duncan?”

stockroom have a mythical substances shelf I I swiveled my head around
don’t know about?”

“ Wto see Gwen standing in the “A,uh,troll gave it to me.”

doorway. “Uh, just working on

She burst into laughter. Her hand shook,
my dissertation research.” I shifted my body to just a bit, but enough to slosh some of the hide the vial on the workbench from her view.

dust onto her thumb and forefinger. “I sup-She grinned and walked over to me. “Does-
pose it lives under a Wheatstone bridge in the n’t look like a polyamine synthesis.”

physics lab.”

I tried to slide the vial from view noncha-

“You better wash that off.” I pointed to the lantly. “Yeah, uh, it’s a side project.”

shimmering powder smeared on her hand.

“Ooh, nice crystals. Sparkly. You recrystal-

“Oh! It’s tingly, all up my arm. What is this lize it yourself ?”

stuff ?”

Busted. I held up the vial, letting her look at

“I told you.”

the iridescent powder inside. “Promise you

“Dammit, Duncan, chemical exposure is se-
won’t tell anyone about this?”

rious—oh!” She wobbled, like she was dizzy She took the vial from my hand, intrigued.

and about to fall over, then lifted off her feet

“It flows, almost like a liquid.” She turned the and f loated gently toward the ceiling. I
vial from side to side, staring at the sparkling stepped back to avoid her thrashing legs. She dust as it flowed back and forth. “What is it?”

screeched like a banshee who’d overshot her

“Promise you’ll keep your mouth shut.”

titration endpoint.

“You know me, Duncan. My lips are

“Quiet! Someone will hear you!”

sealed.”

To her credit, she stopped screaming and

“It’s faerie dust.”

thrashing. “Fine. How do I get back to the She gave me a hurt look. “You don’t want to ground?” She bobbed gently against the ceil-tell me, just say so.” She opened the vial and ing, arms folded like an angry parade balloon.

peered inside.

“I have no idea. I only just started analyzing

“No, I’m serious. Careful!”

what it’s made of.”

60

MARCH 2015

She glared heat at me. “Well what’s it made bloodstream, especially when dispersed in
of ?”

nanoparticles.”

“Near as I can tell, it’s low density nanopar-

“What do they do in there?”

ticles of some sort. I’d love to get some time

“They’re good a promoting cell growth.

on the electron microscope, but—”

They enhance the activity of some neurotrans-

“Heh. Just try getting that proposal past the mitter receptors. Some of them make the
department chair.”

blood-brain barrier more permeable.”

“Exactly. It has a very low solubility in wa-

“Wait. They can go through my blood-
ter, so I imagine the bonding is nonpolar.”

stream, get into my brain, and mess with neu-

“Not helping.”

roreceptors?” Her eyes went wide.

“But the sparkling seems to indicate band-

I fidgeted with the vial. “I don’t see how ing of electron states, like metallic bonds.”

that would make you float. Maybe make you

“Not helping.”

believe you can float, but—”

“What do you want me to do?”

“That’s not very helpful, Duncan.”

“I don’t know. Run a sample through the

“No wait, I think that’s it!”

GCMS, maybe. If we can find out what it’s

She looked at me like I had just told her I made of . . .”

liked the smell of ninhydrin. “You’re saying

“Good idea.” I took the vial from her care-I’m floating because I think I’m floating?”

fully and injected a few microliters into the

“Why not? There are quite a few unknown

GCMS. While I waited for its results, I pre-compounds in the dust. Some could be highly pared a Nujol mull to run through IR. “Hey psychotropic, and the polyamines could make Gwen, looks like the GCMS is ready. Can you you susceptible to their effects.”

reach down far enough to check out the re-

“So all I have to do is stop believing that I sults? I’m going to run an IR spec.”

can float.”

She glared at me again but pushed herself

“Uh uh. Not that easy. You’ve seen yourself along the ceiling until she was over the GCMS
float; how are you going to not believe it?”

readout. “Weird. It’s picking up quite a few

“What, then?”

phenolamine compounds, including dimers

“It just has to run its course. Shouldn’t take and trimers. But there are several unidentifi-more than a couple of hours to pass through able components.”

your body.”

“IR agrees,” I said. “A lot of amine and phe-She sighed. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t nol peaks. Fingerprint region is really strange, seem very scientific.”

though.”

“Of course it is. We’ve made empirical ob-

“You’re the polyamine expert. How does
servations, drawn conclusions, formulated a that make me float?”

hypothesis. Can’t get much more scientific.”

“It doesn’t.”

“You know what I mean.”

She looked at her levitating body pointedly.

“Science is all about discovering new phe-

“Well, it shouldn’t. Polyphenolamines tend nomena.”

to be good antimicrobial agents, for whatever

“Okay, fine. Just tell me you’re done playing good that does. Regardless, the molecules are with new phenomena.”

too big to absorb through your skin.”

I glanced sheepishly at the witch’s brew in

“But what about the smaller units, like
the stoppered Erlenmeyer f lask on my lab
dimers?”

bench. “Well . . .” ■

“Well yeah, they could diffuse into your

Nobody knows enough, but many know too much.

—Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

PHENOL-FAERIE

61

THE ALTERNATE VIEW John G. Cramer WEIGHING THE NEUTRINO WITH

CYCLOTRON RADIATION
easurement of the mass of the elec-
of tritium (hydrogen-3) can only manage an tron neutrino is one of the major
upper limit of 2.2 eV, and even the planned unsolved problems of contemporary

KATRIN experiment—a large electric and

Mexperimental physics. It is conven- magnetic tritium spectrograph being con-tionally assumed that the e-neutrino is the structed in Karlsruhe, Germany—may be
lightest of the three neutrino types or “fla-able to push this limit down only to about vors” [electron (e), mu (), and tau ()],

0.2 eV. There is a gap of at least a factor of although other scenarios are possible.

ten between what experimentalists are able Neutrino oscillation observations have proto measure with currently available technol-vided mass-squared differences between fla-ogy and the expected e-neutrino rest mass. A vors, but the mass of the e-neutrino remains new measurement technique is clearly need-a missing piece of the puzzle. All three neu-ed. Fortunately, a new technique pioneered trino flavors are spin 1⁄2 leptons with zero by the Project 8 Collaboration has just ap-electric charge and near-zero rest-mass.

peared on the horizon, and we will describe They come in matter and antimatter vari-this new approach in this column.

eties and are usually created in weak-interaction processes in combination with their When a charged particle moves in a mag-heavier cousins, the electrically charged e, netic field, the magnetic force it experiences

, and leptons. Neutrinos interact with is perpendicular to both the magnetic field other matter only through the weak interac-direction and to the particle’s direction of tion and gravity. They are perhaps nature’s motion. This typically causes the particle to most elusive particles and can pass through travel in a spiral or circular path. At non-rela-a light year of lead without a single interac-tivistic velocities the number of times per tion.

second (or frequency) that a particle in such Physicists usually discuss neutrino masses a magnetic field completes one circle of this in units of electron-volts (or eV, where 1 eV
entire path does not depend on the speed or

= 1.78310-36 kg). Because many neutrinos
kinetic energy of the particle. This frequen-of all three flavors were produced in the ear-cy f = qB/2pm, (with q=electric charge, B=
c
ly stages of the Big Bang, they could con-
magnetic field strength, and m=mass) is tribute significantly to the overall mass of called the c yc lotron frequenc y. E. O.

the Universe, so cosmology implies that the Lawrence exploited the constancy of f with c
sum of masses of the three neutrino flavors energy to invent the cyclotron accelerator in must be less than about 0.3 eV. Data from
the early 1930s. For the charged particles neutrino oscillation observations implies
that Lawrence’s cyclotrons accelerated, typi-that at least one of the neutrino flavors must cally protons, deuterons, and alpha parti-have a mass of 0.04 eV or more.

cles, the size of the circular path was a few These estimates set the mass scale in
meters and f was around 10 MHz. However, c
which to look, but they are frustrating, befor electrons, the circles are smaller, the fre-cause the present best attempt to directly quencies are higher, and relativistic effects measure the e-neutrino mass from the decay are important.

62

MARCH 2015

In particular, consider the tritium beta de-waveguide (a rectangular microwave trans-
cay, which produces electrons forming a
mission pipe with a cross-sectional area of

“bump” distribution of energies that cuts off 10.7 mm by 4.2 mm) into which a radioac-at 18,600 eV (or 18.6 keV). The detailed
tive gas is introduced. The wave guide leads shape of the cutoff at maximum energy of
from the magnetic trap to a high-gain low-
these electrons is affected by the e-neutrino noise amplifier system designed to detect cy-mass, and this can be used to determine the clotron radiation from radioactive decay
e-neutrino’s rest mass.

electrons and to measure their frequencies In a magnetic field of 1 tesla (or 1 T), an and signal strengths.

electron with an energy of 18.6 keV orbits in The first successful test of this system has a circle with a radius of 0.46 millimeters.

just been reported. For the initial test, the The classical cyclotron frequency f of these waveguide contains the radioactive krypton c
electrons is 28.0 GHz, but because relativis-noble-gas isotope 83mKr, a metastable gammatic mass increase makes the electron more
emitting isomer of stable 83Kr, which has a massive (and slower), the actual orbital fre-half-life of 1.83 hours. In addition to gamma quency is f =27.0 GHz, a 3.57% shift down-rays, 83mKr produces mono-energetic conver-g
ward in frequency. This frequency shift desion electron “lines” with energies of 17.83
pends on kinetic energy, so that an accurate keV, 30.23 keV, 30.42 keV, 30.48 keV, and
measurement of the orbital frequency would 31.94 keV. Cyclotron microwave radiation
constitute an energy measurement, poten-
from all five of these electron lines has been tially one of high accuracy.

observed and identified by the system.

When an electric charge is accelerated, it Detection of single electrons is not easy. A will radiate electromagnetic radiation. A sin-remarkable figure in the paper shows a single maximum-energy tritium beta-decay elec-gle 30 keV electron observed over a time pe-tron in its orbit in a 1 T magnetic field is a r iod of about five milliseconds, dur ing
tiny antenna that will broadcast 27 GHz mi-which its cyclotron radiation is seen to rise crowaves of cyclotron radiation with a radi-gradually in frequency for periods on the orated power of 1.2⫻10-15 watts, a power lev-der of a millisecond, punctuated by more
el that is quite detectable with modern
dramatic upward jumps in frequency as the
electronics. Radiating away energy at this electron scatters from background gas mole-rate, the electron with a kinetic energy of cules (mainly hydrogen) in the system and

18.6 keV will lose energy at the rate of 7.5
loses about 14 eV of energy with each scat-eV per millisecond. Thus, in a 1 T magnetic tering. Thus, the non-destructive detection field, a maximum-energy electron from the
and measurement of electrons in an energy
beta decay of tritium should broadcast a de-region that includes the 18.6 keV region of tectable radio signal showing a characteristic interest for tritium decays has been demon-rise in frequency as the kinetic energy is restrated.

moved by the cyclotron radiation. This
should be an unmistakable signal heralding Electron cyclotron radiation is a new tool the detection of a single electron and pro-for measuring the energy of electrons. The viding a measurement of its energy. Howev-questions that remain are: (a) whether the er, we note that until the present work, the low energy (i. e, high cyclotron frequency) microwaves from such theoretically predict-parts of the broad tritium beta decay spec-ed electron cyclotron radiation had never
trum can be excluded in order to allow study been detected.

of just the electrons near the spectrum’s endpoint, and (b) whether the energy resolution The Project 8 Collaboration is a group of
of the system can be improved enough to
experimentalists from six institutions, in-push into the mass region below 0.1 eV and cluding MIT and the University of Washing-make an actual measurement of the neutrino ton. The group has constructed an experi-mass rather than just setting an upper limit.

mental setup with a war m-bore 1 T

Other tritium-endpoint experiments have de-superconducting magnet acting as an elec-
veloped ways of restricting measurements to tron trap and containing a WR-42 K-band
the electrons near the end-point, and this WEIGHING THE NEUTRINO WITH CYCLOTRON RADIATION

63

ANALOG
should be possible with the new technique.

physical properties always involve the meaThe system energy resolution depends on
surement of frequencies, so we can be optithe accuracy with which the electron cy-
mistic.

clotron frequency can be measured (mainly

Watch this column for further develop-
limited by noise and sampling time), and, be-ments in this area.

cause the measured frequency rises with
time due to radiative energy loss, the accura-SF Novels by John Cramer: my two hard cy with which the “start-point” of the signal SF novels, Twistor and Einstein’s Bridge, are can be determined. A ten-microsecond error newly released as eBooks by the Book View
in the determination of the start point would Café co-op and are available at: http://
lead to an error of 0.075 eV in the extracted bookviewcafe.com/bookstore/?s=Cramer.

initial energy.

Alternate View Columns Online: Elec-The energy resolution of the Project 8 sys-tronic reprints of over 174 “The Alternate tem in the initial tests is reported to be View” columns by John G. Cramer, previous-about 130 eV, which is certainly not good
ly published in Analog, are available online enough for extracting a determination of the at: http://www.npl.washington.edu/av.

e-neutrino mass. However, this is just the first step in this completely new frequency-References:

based technique for detecting electrons and

The Project 8 Collaboration results:

measuring their energy. The system resolu-

“Single electron detection and spec-
tion at this level is not restricted by any fun-troscopy via relativistic cyclotron radiation”, damental limits. Further, there is a well-D. M. Asner , et al., arXiv prepr int known principle in experimental physics

1408.5362v1 [physics.ins-det], submitted to that the most accurate determinations of

Physical Review Letters. ■

64

JOHN G. CRAMER

Second

Birthday

Elisabeth R. Adams
he invitation was ornate: nano-ink on ac-

“Second Birthday Party,” I read again. It con-tual dead tree pulp. Must’ve cost a for-
tinued in smaller black text in a tastefully angu-tune to print. A faint number in the
lar font: “Sabitha and Smiley are all grown up!

Tcorner said “73.”So at least six dozen Come celebrate their triumph over time with a more of these relics had been made. Nobody big party and cake. Monday, March 25, 2075, would throw them out, I thought. They were Longyearbyen, Svalbard. DRESS WARMLY.”

too pretty. But how many of them would be

I almost chucked it aside—digging up my
redeemed?

old winter coat seemed like such a pain; it Probably they weren’t even made on a 3-D
was ages since I’d needed it. And suborbital printer, I mused. I bet they actually found flight always made my stomach hurt.

someone who still grew, I don’t know, pine My eyes strayed back to a single word:

trees, expressly for fussy rich people who in-

“cake.” Oh, well, that changed things. Sven’s sist on using real paper for their invitations. I cakes were nearly as famous as what Erika
traced my f inger over the gentle embossing, cooked up. I could almost taste the last one I’d the delicate gold leaf.

had, at the christening. Lemon-rosemary-mint-

“Second Birthday Party,” it said in gold. I lavender-green tea.

rolled my eyes. First, it was ridiculous to think Mouth watering, I went down to the base-of them as having been born. I suppose if it ment to rummage up a hat and some mittens.

had said “Second Anniversary of Decantation from a Test Tube into an Incubator” it would The f irst thing I noticed when I stepped
have taken up most of the space.

out of the parked orbiter was the cold, like The paper’s probably not pine, I realized. I smacking into the frozen side of a mountain.

peered at the immaculately bleached dead

When was the last time it ever got this cold tree f ibers and wondered how far back this back in Boston? I frowned. Sometime in grad genome went. It would be just like Erika, to school, maybe.

make the invitations older and rarer than the The second thing I noticed were two pairs
ostensible honorees.

of eyes, just about level with mine. Sabitha 65

ANALOG
and Smiley had grown in the last year and a

“So how is your little blog coming?” asked half, that’s for sure. Erika was standing about Erika. She probably didn’t mean it to sound twenty feet away, fussing with something
condescending.

small and furry in a cage, not really paying

“My food review column is going well,” I
much attention to the birthday boy and girl.

said. “Though I keep getting requests from un-One of them sauntered over toward me, lazily.

savory editors who know that we’re friends.

Sabitha. I recognized the spots around her They, ah, want me to do a special series on . . .”

eyes.

I trailed off. I didn’t know how to put it.

She must’ve recognized me, too, because

“Mammoth burgers?” said Erika. “Dodo egg
the next thing I knew her face was nuzzling omelets, with a side of smilodon bacon?” She into mine. Good thing I was standing on
had one arm on Smiley’s neck as she said this, packed snow and not ice, or she’d have
gently stroking his tusks.

knocked me over. “Hi, Sabitha,” I said, skritch-

“Well . . . yes.”

ing her behind the ears.

“I get these requests too, you know. Espe-

“Oh, you made it!” said Erika. She eyed my cially after the last failure. The fourth batch of battered orbiter disdainfully. “I wasn’t sure mammoths miscarried near full term, you
you would, what with the high price of Pu-
know, and baby mammoths are so big.”

238 these days. . . .”

“Lots of meat on them,” joked Sven. He was

“Lisa, how wonderful to see you,” said
dicing vegetables for dinner. Some kind of Sven, emerging from the house. He smelled of soup.

flour and sugar when we embraced. “I made a

“You didn’t . . .” I said.

special cake, just for you. A pre-cake, before Sven and Erika shared a look. “No,” said
the main one tomorrow. Come inside, tell me Sven. “Of course not. There were all those what you think.”

tests to be run to figure out what went wrong.

Flanked by Smiley on one side and Sabitha

Mammoth stew, what an idea,” he chuckled.

on the other, I walked into their house.

I laughed a little too. Well, I could at least tell my editor I had asked. I watched as he

“I was sorry to hear about the mammoths,”

took a giant egg and broke it in the pot.

I said to Erika. I closed my eyes and took a

“Great Auk, on the other hand . . .” he said bite. Bergamot. Persimmon. Cassia, not cinna-with a wink. I remembered seeing large
mon.

colonies on the flight in.

“Well, I’d be sorrier for the elephant, if you Oh.

asked me,” said Sven. “Elephants. Do you like it?”

The party the next day was a little anticli-

“Mmm,” I said, mouth full of cake. I flashed mactic. About a dozen people showed up, out him a smile and chewed. “I’m surprised they of 128 real-tree invitations. Erika didn’t seem let you try with as many elephants as they like she had expected more. Sven still baked did.”

as if a few dozen orbiters could descend at any

“I had three more cows lined up for the
minute, which was just fine by me. Most of us next attempt, but then there was that disas-didn’t know each other, and we just stood
ter at the Kenya preserve, and suddenly all around making awkward small talk and eating the modern elephant breeding programs
cake.

were buying up my specimens,” said Erika.

It turned out the small stand of trees near She almost choked on the word modern. She
the door were in fact the ones used to make had never cared much about the recently ex-the invitations. Acer smileyi, a kind of maple tinct.

not seen in the wild since the Miocene. Erika

“I heard they saved several gene lines,” I had picked it because she liked the name. Of said.

course.

“Sure, whatever,” said Erika. “But I was this Finally Erika broke out her latest successful close to solving the tusk expression timing reproduction, to much oohing and aahing: a problem. . . .”

pair of ground sloths.

“Saffron,” I said to Sven. “You put just a

“I love my new incubators,” she said. “I’m touch of saffron in this.” Sven beamed.

never messing with live surrogates again. After 66

ELISABETH R. ADAMS

MARCH 2015
all, look how well Smiley and Sabitha turned out,” she said, pointing at the guests of honor.

I was prepping the orbiter the next day

They were currently conf ined to their cage when Sven stopped by. He had a small white while the ground sloths were exhibited to the box wrapped up for me. “Leftovers,” he said. I human guests and sat nonchalantly uninterest-beamed. We both watched as Erika ran in the ed in the proceedings. Except that their eyes f ield with her smilodons. She had released a were tracking the ground sloths’ every motion.

few miniature reindeer, with bright red noses.

“Thanks to my latest grant, I can now pop

Christmas leftovers. Smiley and Sabitha
out a pair of sloths every week,” she said.

bounded gleefully after them.

“That’s fantastic!” said a young man who I

“It meant a lot to her, that you came,” said didn’t know. He was aff iliated with some

Sven.

news site. “I know some people at the Dakota

“Friends are friends,” I said.

Wildlife Preserve who would love to start a

“She wanted me to ask . . .” He looked em-
colony. Have you sent them any specimens?”

barrassed.

“Well . . . no, not yet,” said Erika. “Too many

“No,” I said. “I have no plans of returning to transcription f laws in the f irst few batches, the lab. I like eating cake for a living.” For one not enough diversity. Not at all suitable for the thing, the cake never tried to eat me.

founders of a new population. Although these

“You don’t have to convince me,” said Sven.

latest ones aren’t bad . . .”

He turned to leave, then stopped, remember-I watched as the sloths slowly wandered
ing something.

over toward the caged smilodons. Not very

“Oh, hey, has she told you about the next
good survival instincts.

launch, in June?”

And indeed, it was all over in a f lash.

“In Christchurch?”

Sabitha had been toying with the lock on their

“No, not the moa and eagle program, that’s cage and with no warning it snapped open.

not for another six months or more. No, this is The ground sloths registered the looming gi-her pet project, the one you talked about all ant tusks moments before their jugulars were the time in grad school. She thinks she’s got pierced. Blood that had last been spilled thou-the feather expression all figured out. Her last sands of years ago once more wetted the teeth grant came fully funded, and they f inally of two very happy saber-toothed cats, who
agreed to a legal contract for the lease. Opera-messily fell to their birthday meal.

tion Easter Island is a go. She wanted to know

“I was hoping they’d at least wait until after if you would come to the dedication ceremo-cake,” said Erika, miffed. “I was pretty sure the ny. . . .”

lock would keep them busy longer.”

Oh, I thought, my eyes filled with visions of The stunned guests began to applaud. I
velociraptors. “I don’t know. . . .”

could see the young man subvocalizing his re-

“I’m going to be working on my pies,” said port. Something about nature red in tooth and Sven.

claw, unless I had badly misjudged his literary Well. Pies. That was different.

aspirations.

“I wouldn’t miss it.” ■

Then we all had more cake.

SECOND BIRTHDAY

67

The

Badges of

Her Grief

Andrew Barton
nfit day out here!” The soft voice
to f ind behind it. “Though I suppose with cut through the blizzard. Eun-jin
conditions like these, it’d have been advisable Park pushed through the
to disappoint the call for a day or two.”

“Uwhirling snow to find Sarah “Don’t worry!”Qaummalak motioned her Qaummalak wrapped up in a dusky parka
toward the building, a quick-build prefab the with the hood down and standing beneath a
size of a small warehouse, big enough that its pulsing orange beacon. “I’m impressed you
corners were swallowed in blowing snow.

made the trip at all, Ms. Park. You must really

“‘Conditions like these let us test ourselves’

want to say hello.”

and all that. Come on, get yourself inside and For a moment, despite the chattering cold
warmed up, and you can say all the hellos you that she’d come to expect after three winters care to.”

on Esperanza, Eun-jin stared at the other

Qaummalak pushed the door open, and
woman. Was she already trying to set herself Eun-jin walked into a room that was at peace.

up as that much better, so much more elevat-Paintings of landscapes and cityscapes hung ed than the freelance writer who had to dig from the walls next to half a dozen doors.

through life wearing boots filled with snow?

Shelves held f lowering plants, rough-carved No one she’d asked had given her a straight statues, an aluminum tea set and a few hard-answer on what Qaummalak was doing. To-
copy documents, and in the center was a
day, standing strong against nature’s fury, to-smooth circle of dirt topped by a small pile of morrow . . . that was for Eun-jin to discover.

rocks arranged in a humanoid shape. It gave

“Wherever the call brings me,” Eun-jin said the room an earthy smell, a reminder of what in a sunny tone, though the cold was enough the world outside would be like after the
to make her liberation necklace feel like an icy thaw. Eun-jin took off her coat and boots and f ist pressing against her chest. She would followed Qaummalak to a corner set aside as a have to be careful—the trick wasn’t to hide sitting room, with two thick-cushioned wood-the truth behind a smile, but to keep the oth-frame chairs facing a table where a teapot er person from realizing there was something blew out fingers of steam.

68

MARCH 2015

“Looks like all the comforts of home,” Eun-moment, there was a soft click. The door
jin said. Her gaze lit on a sconce across the swept inward, and Eun-jin found herself look-room. A four-armed candleholder stood
ing into a backland forest in midsummer. The f lanked by two books leaning open, and a
smell of fresh needlepines and trodden soil, Buddhist dharmachakra was painted in yellow, the sounds of chittering grizzly rabbits and mared, and black on the wall behind them.

rauding buzzflies, and the look of a world that

“You’ve certainly set yourself up well out seemed far too real to be contained inside a here.”

f ield tent stopped her for a moment, until a

“I suppose you’re wondering why,” Qaum-
couple of strewth wandered their way from
malak said with an enigmatic smile as she
out of the bushes.

poured out the tea, f illing Eun-jin’s cup f irst.

“Hello hello,” said the bigger of the two in a Vindurvik Violet from the smell, hardly her sharp, throaty accent—a female, from the
taste but part of traditional Esperanzan hospi-size. Eun-jin couldn’t help feeling self-con-tality—if there was such a thing as real tradi-scious in front of strewth. Not only because tion on a planet where humans had lived for humans had left nothing save scattered bones scarcely forty years. “I’m not sure if you’ll find of their moa cousins, but at the way they’d much worth remarking on amid what I do
been pushed back, fenced in, and tied up in here. I’m sure the rumor mill has been filling the decades since the first landing. Even three in the gaps, but really, I’m just laying a founda-years after strewth sapience had been discov-tion.”

ered, far too many people still treated them as

“Xenopharmacology holds a lot of
clever animals with the gift of gab. “Haven’t promise,” Eun-jin said. Esperanza’s ancient ter-seen you before. I’m Kuai. Give your name?”

raforming hadn’t just produced a familiar bio-

“Eun-jin,” she said, her head spinning. The sphere, but it had provided a lifeboat for artificial forest felt much like something she’d species whose time on Earth had ended with expect to find in the Pyongyang Zoo—except a climate shift or a logger’s blade. “Plenty of the zookeepers back home didn’t have to wor-people back ho—back on Earth are interest-ry about their charges talking back. “I didn’t ed.”

think you’d be here. What have you been do-

“I’m only asking questions,” Qaummalak
ing?”

said. “The strewth know the possibilities of

“Telling and learning, so blessed,” Kuai
the natural pharmacy well—the same kind of whistled. Eun-jin frowned at that—how much trial-and-error science that we had to do back was there to learn about behind a locked
before technology. If we’re going to stay on door? “There’s so much to tell. So much to here, we need to learn from them. It’s their learn.”

world, after all.”

“I don’t imagine there’s a ticket back to

“The strewth aren’t prisoners,” Qaummalak

Earth in anyone’s future,” Eun-jin said, and she said. They’d reconvened to the reception
took a sip of tea to hide her sour expression.

room, leaving the strewth to themselves—at She wasn’t one of the exiles sent to the far least there was some place on Esperanza they reaches of human space to keep them from
could be free of humans, at least for a short making trouble back home, but that hardly
time. The f ield tent had felt too much like a made a difference anymore. “In that case,
decorated cell to Eun-jin. “In fact, they’re my what do the strewth say?”

collaborators. None of the work I do here

“Why don’t you ask them yourselves?”

would be possible without them.”

Qaummalak motioned toward a large, smooth,

“I’m sure it wouldn’t,” Eun-jin said. “But I’m wooden door. “I’ve got an enclosed range just sure there are many who’d ask why you have for them. They shouldn’t have to shiver
the strewth come to you, and not the other through this weather anymore. We can at least way around. People trying to understand the do that much.”

chimpanzees and the dolphins lived on their Eun-jin, for her part, was thankful to leave terms—they didn’t lock them in a laboratory her tea unfinished. She watched Qaummalak
like experimental mice.”

wave her hand above a reader mounted next

“Kuai and the rest are ronin. Outcasts from to a lone door on the far wall, and after a regular strewth parliaments for one reason or THE BADGES OF HER GRIEF

69

ANALOG
another. In the old days, before we showed stood in as a narrow trunk. “Talk and talk and up, they would’ve died quickly. I can give talk. Like you have nothing better to do.”

them sanctuary here.”

“How about you talk to me?” Kuai’s long

“Quite a sanctuary it is.” Eun-jin took anoth-neck put her head on an equal level with Eun-er look around. The contents had clearly
jin’s. “About what’s going on here, about the rolled out of a 3D printer in town, with only a sort of things you’re learning. Would that be handful of pieces bearing the battered look all right?”

that came with a voyage of one hundred and

“Plenty of room between the trees,” Kuai
thirty light-years. “I’m curious where you said. “So talk. Ask. Go on.”

found the support for a setup like this.”

As she drew breath to speak, Eun-jin found

“I’m a volunteer settler.” It took all of Eun-herself frozen. Here she was, about to inter-jin’s self-control to keep astonishment from view an alien— alien! —and yet she’d been shattering her eyes. Volunteers had the warm more rattled when she’d interviewed the pres-fields of Mirabilis, the sunsets of Liaoning, or ident of Cascadia. Sure, Kuai wasn’t the leader the graceful winds of Matumaini all for the tak-of twenty million people, but at least humans ing. What could Esperanza offer in that ex-offered common ground. What did a strewth
change—a lifetime supply of ice? “Sponsored look like when it was irritated, sad, or happy?

by the University of Nairobi, actually. The Was that where the resistance to acknowledg-strewth are the most intelligent beings we’ve ing their sapience came from, that the strewth found off Earth so far. We haven’t even begun were just alien enough to not register as peo-to get at what they can help us understand, ple? Eun-jin shuddered at that. She wouldn’t and how we can work together.”

have wasted her time interviewing an animal.

“I see.” How many times in Earth’s spat-

When she was done, Kuai’s would be another tered history had colonizers walked with such voice in the argument to settle strewth sapi-high-minded rhetoric, hiding obliteration and ence.

slaughter beneath words of friendship and

She started out with the basics. Kuai had
community? “Would it be all right for me to once been a working strewth destined to pull speak to them directly? It’s that sort of per-farm equipment, but had managed to escape
spective that people back home are really in-and melt into the wilderness. She showed
terested in.”

Eun-jin the scar where she’d dug out her GPS

“Of course. I know that they have plenty to tracker with beak and claw. It was uncomfort-talk about.” Qaummalak rose and waved at the ably reminiscent of wounds she’d seen repli-reader by the door, and the click that an-
cated in the Northern History Museum, the
swered her spoke louder than she ever
ones carried by survivors of the gulags built by could—if the strewth weren’t prisoners, why the old, mad religion of ideology.

was there a lock on their door?

“You’ve come a long way,” Eun-jin said.

“I’d like to go in there alone, if you wouldn’t

“Why are you here?”

mind,” Eun-jin said. “I’m sure you understand.”

“It’s cold outside. No parliament, no camp,

“Certainly, it’ll give me the chance to see to just us. If there’s luck, we don’t freeze or be some work. Just call if you need me.” Qaum-eaten by daggerteeth. Sarah came to us before, malak nodded and pulled the door closed.

said she would give us a safe spot if we talked From this side, it was a strange interface be-about what sort of plants help, what sort of tween the worlds of human and strewth, with plants hurt, what sort of plants kill. Some of the walls around it camouflaged as deep inte-the plants, trick a daggertooth into eating it rior forest. No strewth came to greet her this and then we get to eat the daggertooth. What time, and though she could hear their chatter-goes around.” Kuai tossed her head to the
ing in the distance, they’d had millions of side—was that a mark of frustration, or was years to perfect blending in.

she just painting whatever assumptions she

“Kuai, are you there?” She took an experi-
could in an attempt to understand?

mental step and found the dirt authentically

“Would you say you’re treated well?” Eun-jin soft and warm. “It’s Eun-jin. I’d like to talk.”

kept her tone neutral. “That Sarah’s been deal-

“Humans always like to talk.” Kuai emerged ing with you fairly? Considering what other out of nothing, her long thin neck having
humans did to you.”

70

ANDREW BARTON

MARCH 2015

“All humans aren’t assholes,” Kuai said. Eun-her heart in it. The idea of teaching pretech-jin had to stop herself from smiling—whatev-nological aliens about the Genesis creation er she expected from the interview, a strewth story, when they lived on a terraformed world using casual profanity hadn’t been it. “We that some people held up as an example of
have a safe spot, lots of food around, no dag-God’s work, left an iron taste in her mouth.

gerteeth worry. Peaceful. Can I ask you a ques-She rubbed her liberation medal with one
tion?”

hand—if only those who had pushed the

“Sure, that’s one reason I’m here.”

Japanese out of Korea had known just what

“Do you believe in God?” Kuai blinked
their “liberation” had made possible in the quickly and leaned in toward her. “Sarah has years that followed.

been teaching us about God and religion and

“Thank you, Kuai.” Part of her wanted to
stuff, but some of us wonder if she’s being fun-lean in and whisper a plan to get them all out of ny. Do you really believe like it says in the here, to make them free again, regardless of the books?”

lack of any plan more complicated than “run.”

“I—I did, a long time ago.” A century and a It would’ve been easy for them to lose them-half after the fall of the Kims, cultural fault selves in the snow—they’d dealt with it for mil-lines still divided her North and the South.

lennia before humans arrived, after all. “You’ve Faith was far more common south of the long, given me a lot to consider. I appreciate it.”

narrow park where landmines lurked still, but

“Welcome,” Kuai said. “Thanks for telling.

her parents had found something worthwhile Humans are too strange, you know.”

in it. Something she’d only understood as a way to keep her under control. “Many humans Liberation. It was a word that would have
still do. Billions and billions.”

had no meaning in Eun-jin’s ideal world,

“Dang,” Kuai said. “Why? You know so
where there was nothing so odious that peo-much. You know how to fly here from across ple needed to be rescued from it. All too of-the stars. Why keep to believing in God? The ten, one person’s liberation was another’s one who put the tracker in me talked about enslavement—how many people, how many

God a lot. I didn’t know then. Talked about humans, were putting strewth to work to “lib-how God created the world. I think that’s
erate” them from the state of nature? She
strange. Why don’t humans?”

rubbed her medal again, still bright despite

“It’s very complicated,” Eun-jin said. God having been forged two hundred and f ifty
damn her! Didn’t the strewth have enough years before. There were always those eager problems already? Wasn’t it enough that aliens to forget so that they could repeat old crimes had fallen out of the sky and started to trans-with clear heads.

form their world right in front of their eyes?

“Ms. Qaummalak.” Eun-jin couldn’t deny

“What sort of things has Sarah been teaching nervousness at confronting her so soon, in you?”

her own facility, before telling anyone or Kuai seemed happy to take Eun-jin through
even leaving any notes about what she’d
it, though she could’ve been angry or frenetic learned. It was a gross violation of hospitality for all Eun-jin could tell. While there didn’t for a host to harm a guest—but weren’t the seem to have been any drive at out-and-out strewth guests just as much as she was? “We conversion, with the strewths’ education fo-need to talk about what you’re doing to the cusing on an overview of traditions spanning strewth.”

the gaps from Shinto to Christianity to aban-

“Is that so?” Qaummalak looked up from her doned pantheons and commercial cults, it still tablet with a raised eyebrow, almost mocking.

rubbed her raw like an ill-fitting shoe. Today it

“I wasn’t listening in, so please, talk away.”

wore the cloak of “education,” but how long

“You’re—you’re domesticating them!” She would it be until a spaceplane disgorged
spat the word after a moment of indecision.

earnest men and women who would work un-

Visions of strewth raised as clever pets for the til the strewth believed what humans wanted children of Earth f lickered behind her eyes.

them to believe?

“Trying to turn them into humans with beaks, The interview drifted back into more famil-because you’re so sure you can save them
iar ground from there, but she couldn’t get from themselves!”

THE BADGES OF HER GRIEF

71

ANALOG

“Are you quite finished?” Qaummalak’s voice

“Resisting us.” Qaummalak bowed her head was as cold and smooth as Atatakai Bay in mid-and lifted off an understated cloth necklace, winter. “It’s obvious enough you came here hop-so light and thin Eun-jin hadn’t noticed it, ing to find something breaking, and I’m glad to from which a small medallion hung. “I think see you’re so invested in what’s going on. If more you carry something like this yourself, Eun-jin.

people were like you, Esperanza would be a bet-I’ve seen you reach for it when you thought I ter place. The problem is, you’re—”

wasn’t looking.”

“I’m not the problem here! You’re the one

“It’s only a reminder,” Eun-jin said. Many sol-who’s rearranging an alien society so that we diers of the North had received one, Libera-don’t have to adapt to them. You’re the one tion Tower wreathed with light and laurels on filling their heads with religion.”

one side and the date of the liberation on the

“Yes, I am, along with other things,” Qaumother. “What’s yours?”

malak said. “It’s not as if I was ever hiding it,

“The same,” Qaummalak said, offering it in and you didn’t have to manipulate Kuai into an open palm. The words ESKIMO IDENTIFICATION
telling you. But did you ever stop yourself and CANADA were written around the edges and a ask why?”

crown was etched in the middle. There was

“I—” Eun-jin took a step back. What was
partial writing beneath it, E5-23, but the rest her game, standing with such a self-assured was scratched and unreadable. “This was
calmness? “It’s obvious—control. The same
made for one of my ancestors, two and a half reason colonists spread religion back on Earth.

centuries ago. In the old days my people had Come on our team, and get answers to all the no surnames, but when Europeans came they
mysteries of life.”

were determined to change that. Those num-

“Appropriate that you’d put it like that.”

bers became part of my ancestor’s name.”

Qaummalak f ixed her with a wide, bright

“It seems like the kind of name you’d give to grin. “Tell me, Ms. Park, what did I just do?”

a machine,” Eun-jin said. “Something not wor-Eun-jin tilted her head forward and aimed a thy of consideration.”

disbelieving gaze at the other woman. “You

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Qaummalak said.

smiled. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“We think we’re so much better than we

“Correct, but superficial,” Qaummalak said.

were, so elevated . . . our engines and implants

“What I did was f lex facial muscles to reveal don’t change who we are, don’t eradicate
my teeth and demonstrate that I was in a good what we’ve done. When I look at the strewth, mood. But imagine if you couldn’t read faces.

I see people who don’t know what they’re

I’ve just shown you the tools I use to chew my dealing with—who might not know until it’s food. Does it mean I’m about to eat you? If a too late, until we’ve decided they need to be strewth saw a daggertooth smile at them,
saved from themselves, until we steal their that’d be a logical conclusion.”

land out from underneath them, marginalize

“So you’re teaching strewth what it means
them when they resist, and squeeze and
to believe.” When Kuai had asked her about squeeze until they become us. We can’t let it her own belief, the strewth had seemed skep-happen again. I can’t. So I teach them about tical, as if she couldn’t believe Qaummalak who we are, so that when the day comes,
was dealing honestly with them. A few con-
they’ll be ready.”

cepts, introduced into the group for evalua-Eun-jin couldn’t help but be warmed by
tion and acceptance or rejection—that was it, Qaummalak’s quiet fury while the last of her it had to be. “You’re vaccinating them.”

own indignation drained away. It was clear

“We’re as alien to the strewth as they are to enough that as long as strewth were seen by us,” Qaummalak said. “They’re still f iguring humans as clever animals, they would be tol-out what to expect from us. Think about all erated as curiosities; few people felt pangs of the unbelievable things that humans did out of conscience about roosting an animal from its belief—the Flagellants, say, or what happened territory. Sapient people posed another prob-on Pallas. When they understand our religions lem entirely—but how often had whole peo-intellectually, they’ll understand us, and that’s ples been slaughtered for territory? Her fellow the key to the future.”

humans would no doubt f ind tears to grieve

“Anticipating us?”

after the strewth were dead.

72

ANDREW BARTON

MARCH 2015

“If that’s the case, you can count on my si-The door opened with a quiet whisper and
lence,” Eun-jin said, passing Qaummalak’s

Kuai strode in, though she stopped to wipe medallion back. “As long as you let them out.

the dirt off her feet.

You can’t make those arguments while keep-

“Sorry for not telling you they were listening them locked behind a door.”

ing,” Qaummalak said with a grin. “I couldn’t

“Like I told you before, they’re my collabo-miss this kind of educational opportunity.”

rators, not prisoners,” Qaummalak said. “The

“We’re not prisoners,” Kuai said. Someday
door is only locked on this side. They decide if soon, Eun-jin would have to learn what triumph they want to let me in. Kuai, would you like to looked like on the face of a strewth. She could come out here and demonstrate?”

find someone to run that story. “We’re free.” ■

73

An

Immense

Darkness

Eric James Stone
ike most nights over the past few weeks,

“Is the other me there?” she asks.

Antonio stays in the lab for hours after

“No, she’s out of town.”

his coworkers have gone home to the

“The Miami trip.”

Lpeople theygo home to.

“Yes.” He doesn’t want to think about Mi-

The person he used to go home to isn’t ami. “So don’t worry—she can’t catch you
there any more. She isn’t anywhere—there
flirting with me.”

wasn’t even a body to bury. But an echo of She giggles. “Tonio, you are such a bad

Shanisha lingers here at the lab, so he stays.

man.”

Tonight’s a good night. Whatever project the They talk for almost an hour before her
astronomy department was working on for the mental matrix loses stability, and he’s forced last five days seems to be over, so there’s enough to end the simulation. Shanisha’s file is several number-crunching capacity in Texas State Uni-months old, recorded before she wrote the
versity’s supercomputer to run the brain simula-code that integrated self-correcting feedback tor in almost real time. Antonio starts the base algorithms into the matrix during the brain program, then loads Shanisha’s file.

scan. They never got around to recording her He hesitates too long about whether to turn again, always too busy perfecting the process the speech option off.

to waste time making another imperfect copy.

“Hello? Who’s there?” At less than real-time He reloads her f ile and starts again. She speed, the voice coming from the speaker
doesn’t know she’s dead. And for a while he doesn’t sound right. The speech algorithms can forget, almost.

adjust the pitch, but they can’t stop her from sounding slow, like she’s struggling to think of Antonio wakes as someone enters the lab.

the right words, like her mind’s not all there.

His cheek is hot and sticky from the vinyl of Which it isn’t.

the couch where he slept. Jodi Lee just shakes The real Shanisha was brilliant.

her head at him as he sits up and straightens

“Hey, babe, it’s me,” says Antonio. “Run-
his cramped legs. He can’t remember if this ning a calibration test, so just relax.”

makes two nights in a row he hasn’t gone

74

MARCH 2015
home, and he sniffs at his armpits. Bad. If to-then be run in a simulation. It’s a way of study-day is Wednesday, he has a neuro-cybernetics ing how the brain functions, not telepathy.”

class to teach.

“But once you’ve made the copy of the

He checks his cell phone. It is Wednesday, brain, couldn’t you just search for certain in-and he has seven unanswered calls and three formation held inside it?”

new voicemail messages. They can wait.

“There are a hundred billion neurons in the

“I’m going home,” he says to Jodi.

brain, some of which have thousands of con-

“Good,” she answers, without looking up
nections. Our understanding of how all that from her workstation.

works to create memory and personality is

Before he gets to the door, a pale, blonde still rudimentary. You’re old enough to re-woman in a navy blue suit opens it. Her eyes member when music came on CDs, right?”

flicker down, then up to meet his. “Dr. Anto-She nods.

nio Reyes?” she says, a dash of New York City

“Imagine looking at a CD in order to figure in her accent.

out what notes the violin in an orchestra is

“That’s me,” he says.

playing. Impossible. But put it in a CD player,

“Wendy Bricker.” She holds out a hand for
and you get a symphony. Our brain scan is
him to shake. “I’m with the U.S. Attorney’s of-kind of like a CD of a brain: you can’t just pick fice in New York.”

the data out of it. You have to put it in the He shakes her hand by rote and looks at her brain simulator.” Realizing he has gone into blankly, unsure why a lawyer has come to his lecture mode, Antonio shuts up.

work. The patent case was settled out of court

“So if you scan someone’s mind and put it in last year, and he hasn’t had so much as a
the brain simulator, could you extract the in-speeding ticket since he was seventeen.

formation?”

“I tried calling,” she says. “Off ice, home,

“If the brain can remember it and is willing cell.”

to communicate the information, yes. But in

“I’ve been busy,” he says.

that case, it’s probably easier to just ask the

“Could we speak in private? Your off ice,
person.” He shakes his head. “I know that’s maybe?”

not what you’re looking for, but it’s not like Her heels clack on the tile floor behind him we have a mind scanner we can put on street as he leads the way. Could she be here about corners to look for people thinking terrorist Shanisha’s death? He had no more information thoughts.”

about that than anyone who watched the news.

He can tell how much he has changed in

He points to the spare chair in his off ice, the past twenty-five days because the idea of and she dusts it off before sitting, crossing her such a device does not f ill him with repug-legs.

nance. If having mind scanners in Miami

“How can I help you Ms. . . .” Her name has would have prevented Shanisha’s death, he
slipped from his mind. He sits at his desk, then would gladly let his privacy be invaded.

turns ninety degrees to face her.

“That’s not what we need,” says Bricker.

“Bricker,” she says. “I understand you have

“But unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like what developed a method for scanning people’s
you have will work, either. I’m sorry to have minds.”

wasted your time.” She gets to her feet.

“Not just me,” he says. “My whole team.”

“Sorry I couldn’t help,” he says.

Which now has an unfillable hole in it.

Bricker pauses as she opens the door. “Dr.

She gives him a brisk nod. “Your team. We

Reyes, I just want you to know I’m doing the need to use your technology to read some-best I can to bring the terrorists who killed one’s mind.”

your fiancée to justice.”

“No,” he says. “It—”

“This brain scan you wanted, it’s for that

“This is a matter of national security, Dr.

case?” he says.

Reyes.” She leans forward, her blue eyes

She closes the door and turns back to him.

earnest. “Millions of lives could be at stake.”

“You didn’t listen to the voicemails I left?”

“Doesn’t matter,” he says. “This isn’t a de-

“No.” His face grows warm with embarrass-
vice for reading anyone’s mind. It makes a dig-ment. “I haven’t been paying much attention ital copy of the brain. That digital copy can to things lately.”

AN IMMENSE DARKNESS

75

ANALOG

“You’ve heard that we caught Abdul Motaali

“Ever play a videogame where you go

Al-Razi?” At his blank look, she adds, “The around shooting at people? They’re called
mastermind behind the nuke in Miami.”

‘first-person shooters’?”

“I hadn’t heard,” he says.

“Yes. I’ve only played a few times, but my

“Three days ago, in New York. It was on all brother’s really into them.”

the news.” She seems incredulous that anyone

“Your brother ever kill anyone in those
could not know.

games?”

“And it’s his mind you want to scan?” The

She chuckles wryly. “Hundreds at least.

mind of the man who killed Shanisha—what

Maybe thousands.”

darkness looms inside it? Even knowing it is

“And as a consequence of all those hun-
foolish, Antonio imagines a black cloud ap-dreds, maybe thousands, of killings, has he pearing in the scans.

ever been arrested for murder?”

“His associates claim to have more nukes.

“Of course not. No actual human beings

Any details he could give us could prevent an-were killed.”

other Miami. But he’s lawyered up and won’t Antonio nods. “Precisely. They’re just simu-say a word. I read an article about your work lations, not real. Ones and zeros inside a comin New Scientist last year, and I f igured it puter. A scanned brain is the same: just data.

might be worth a shot.” Her brow furrows. “I Like a video game. It could be a videogame of seem to remember something about the brain interrogation. No lawyers to stop you asking existing in a virtual reality.”

questions. No civil rights groups monitoring

“Yes, we do that so we can examine how
treatment. And I can create virtual sensory in-the mind interacts with the senses. It also al-put of any kind.”

lows us to communicate.” Communicate?

She purses her lips for a moment, then says, What would he say to the man who had

“I thought you said the brain could tell it was killed Shanisha, along with a quarter million fake.”

others?

“Consciously, yes. But the brain still sees

“Would it be possible to create a virtual real-light where there is darkness, hears sound ity in which Al-Razi believes he has escaped where there is only silence.” He leans forward.

custody, so he contacts—”

“Feels pain where there is no body.”

“No,” Antonio says. “The simulation isn’t
that good. There are videogames on the mar-Ms. Bricker does her job well, and a judge ket that are better. Even those, you can distin-rules in favor of allowing the scan, on the the-guish from reality. The brain knows it’s a fake ory that potentially preventing another terror-environment.”

ist nuke against actual humans outweighs any

“There must be some way to extract the in-
possible harm done to a computer simulation.

formation,” she says. “We can’t let it happen News pundits weigh in on both sides, but An-again.”

tonio doesn’t pay attention to them.

“Wait,” he says. Rage he did not know he

Federal marshals fly Al-Razi to Texas and es-felt seeps up inside him. “There are ways to cort him to Antonio’s lab. Antonio stays in his make someone talk, right? You could force
office—his team is capable of conducting the him to reveal what he knows?”

scan without him. Sitting at his desk, he clos-

“Dr. Reyes,” she says, “I don’t know what
es his eyes and wonders what it would be like might have happened had the military or CIA to be a brain in the simulator. From the begin-captured him quietly. I don’t think I want to ning, the system had been designed to present know. But he was captured in a very public the brain with sensory stimuli through a virtu-raid by the FBI, and he has a team of lawyers.

al world. It had not been designed with simu-We can’t torture the information out of him.

lated physical pain in mind, so that would We can’t even ask him a question without his require some new programming.

counsel present.”

However, new programming might be un-

Antonio smiles. He hasn’t smiled in weeks, necessary. It would be a simple matter to
and his smile feels wrong. “Have you ever
block sensory input from the virtual world. It played videogames?”

would be better than the best sensory depri-She frowns. “Of course.”

vation tank ever built: no sight, no hearing, no 76

ERIC JAMES STONE

MARCH 2015
touch, no taste, no smell. But that was not all:

“You can turn it off. ” She pauses. “Al-
no equilibrioception, the sense of balance and though, maybe we’ll need it again. Can you acceleration; no thermoception, the sense of save it in its current state?”

temperature; and no proprioception, the

“Yes. We’ll also have the original f ile on sense of where your body parts are in relation hand in case you need to start from scratch for to each other.

some reason.”

What would a mind do cut off from all such

“Our country owes you a great debt.” She
input? How long would it be before that mind reaches out a hand, and he stands and shakes was desperate enough to do anything in order it.

to receive some feedback?

“You’re welcome,” he says.

With the government having requisitioned

She walks to the doorframe, stops, but does the full use of the university’s supercomputer, not look back at him. “What’s in there really is the simulated brain could be overclocked—
just a simulation, right? Just ones and zeros, made run at up to eight times its normal speed.

right?”

“They’ve finished,” says Bricker.

He nods. “Just ones and zeros.”

Antonio opens his eyes to see her standing

“Right,” she says.

in the doorway.

Her heels clack in the hall as she walks

“How soon before you can get the interro-
away.

gation programming online?” she asks.

He sits up and leans forward. “While I’m

Antonio resists temptation for two nights, working on that, we can start with a different but on the third, he finds himself alone in the approach.”

lab shortly after one A.M. He thinks of loading up Shanisha’s scan in the brain simulator and After just over a day of real time—ten days talking to her, as he has done so many times of the simulated brain’s subjective time—its before. Instead he types the command to load computer-generated voice pleads for contact.

Al-Razi’s scan—the one that had already run It cannot hear its own screams, but Antonio for days of internal time—inside the sensory can, and he turns down the volume so as to deprivation environment.

not disturb the others in the lab.

He tells himself he just wants to know why Bricker begins to question it about additiona man would do what Al-Razi did, why Shan-
al nuclear bombs. Her voice is the only senso-isha died, and then he’ll turn it off.

ry input allowed through the blocks, and the Other departments are using shares of the
brain responds, claiming to be willing to do supercomputer’s processing power, but
anything she wants.

there’s enough to run the simulation at normal Antonio does not stay for the questioning.

speed.

He is not certain that the sensory deprivation

“Mr. Al-Razi?” Antonio says.

will succeed, so he works on creating the per-

“Please,” an accented voice replies. “You
fect torture environment, one that simulates promised to end this torment if I answered every one of the tens of thousands of pain re-your questions.”

ceptors in the human body. He creates a con-

“I’m someone different. You haven’t an-
trol panel that will allow the sensation of pain swered my questions.” Antonio drew a breath.

to be localized or general, strong or mild. With

“Why did you do it? Why kill so many inno-
all the receptors set to maximum, it will cause cent people?”

pain beyond anything any human being has

“You Americans always think you are inno-
ever experienced.

cent.”

But it will just be a simulation of pain in a

“Shanisha never did anything to you.”

simulation of a brain. Nothing more than that.

“Your government bombs my people, in-
vades our lands, oppresses us at every turn.”

Hours later, Bricker finds him in his office.

“She never did any of that. She wasn’t in-

“We’ve located and secured two more bombs.

volved in government.”

We think that’s all of them.”

“What was it your President Lincoln said:

“I’m glad,” he says. “What do you want me

‘government of the people, by the people, for to do with the simulation?”

the people?’ Who is to blame for the actions of AN IMMENSE DARKNESS

77

ANALOG
your government? The people who chose that

“Tonio?”

government. As long as America oppresses my Antonio’s heart pounds. It is not supposed people, none of you are innocent.”

to be Shanisha’s voice. He looks at the screen Antonio doesn’t know how to respond, so
and sees he accidentally loaded her f ile, not he shuts off the microphone. He isn’t sure Al-Razi’s.

what he had expected. An apology, maybe?

“Something’s wrong,” she says. “It’s com-

Or the ravings of a madman. But Al-Razi’s ra-pletely dark, and I can’t even hear my own tionalizations make him uncomfortable. He
voice. Can you hear me?”

doesn’t want to hear justifications.

He types quickly, trying to remember how

He wants to hear Al-Razi weep with re-
to load the default environment.

morse.

“Is anyone there?” she says.

Beg for mercy.

Antonio f licks on the microphone. “I’m

Scream.

here.”

Bricker had gotten what she needed with-

“Oh, good,” she says. “What’s the prob-
out using the torture environment Antonio
lem?”

had programmed. Maybe with time, the sen-

“We installed a way to block sensory data,”

sory deprivation environment will get Antonio he says. “Don’t worry, I’m taking it off now.”

what he wants. But he is impatient, so he

“Why on earth would you do that? It’s really loads the torture environment.

freaking me out.”

With only 10 percent of the simulated pain re-

“It’s complicated,” he says. He does not
ceptors at maximum, Al-Razi begs him to stop.

want to explain to her.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’ll do anything you want.”

“Blocking sensor y input is dangerous.

But this does not satisfy Antonio. What he There’s already too much chance of instability.”

truly wants—Shanisha back—is not some-

“You fixed the instability problem,” he says.

thing Al-Razi can provide.

“Right before you left for Miami. And I’m sor-At 40 percent, the screams become inco-
ry, I didn’t mean to load you into the simulator herent. In a physical body, overloading the that way.”

pain receptors like this would cause feedback

“Still, I don’t see any reason for it.”

loops that block some of the pain, but there is

“It saved lives,” he says. “It was necessary.”

no simulation of such an effect.

“What? How?”

The screams make Antonio feel a little nau-He cannot hold back from her any more, so
seated. This is just a simulation, he reminds he tells her about her death. He explains how himself. He turns off the speakers, but doesn’t scanning the brain of the man who killed her turn down the pain levels until about f ifteen prevented two more nukes. And he confesses minutes later.

that he loads Al-Razi’s brain into the simulator Over the next three weeks, Antonio gets to to hear him scream and beg for mercy.

the point where he can listen to the ragged

“Tonio, Tonio,” she says. He can almost feel screams at 100 percent, followed by the inher caress his cheek. “I know you’re in pain, sane gibberings after he dials the pain back to but what you’re doing is wrong.”

zero. The brain simulation is irreparably dam-

“He’s just a simulation,” Antonio says with-aged by such treatment, so he repeatedly
out thinking.

restarts the Al-Razi simulation from its pretor-

“Just a simulation,” she says, “like me.”

ture status, experimenting with various esca-

“I didn’t mean that,” he says.

lations to see how long he can draw things out

“But it’s true. Ones and zeros. That’s all I before the simulation goes insane, or how
am.”

quickly he can do it.

“No,” he says. “You’re more than that.”

He wishes there were some way to make

“If I am more than that, then you have be-
the real Al-Razi feel what the simulation feels.

come a monster. I do not want to believe that my Tonio is the kind of man who tortures for As usual, Antonio stays in the lab for hours pleasure.”

after his coworkers have gone home. He starts Has he become a monster? He doesn’t want
the brain simulator, then loads the brain-scan to believe that. But even Bricker had shown file.

qualms about what they had done to Al-Razi’s 78

ERIC JAMES STONE

MARCH 2015
simulation, and she had the justif ication of your own sake.”

saving lives.

With a few keystrokes, Antonio shuts down

“Erase our f iles,” she says. “Prove that we the simulator. He selects Shanisha’s and Al-were nothing but ones and zeros to you.”

Razi’s f iles on the hard drive. With one click

“But I miss you,” he says.

he can erase them. But how can he wipe away

“And does this simulation really ease your the last remnant of the woman he loves?

pain? Or merely extend it?”

He can imagine her reply: If you don’t, He cannot reply, because he does not know.

you’re wiping away the man I loved.

“Please, Tonio. You have to let me go, for So he clicks, and the files are gone. ■

IN TIMES TO COME

It may still be the depths of winter outside, but our next issue embraces its April cover date with stories both serious and light-hearted.

Our lead piece is Bond Elam’s “The Eighth Iteration,” in which colonists on a forest planet discover a mystery with profoundly unsettling implications.

The fact article, “New Horizons at Pluto,” from Richard A.

Lovett, looks at the New Horizon probe’s impending flyby of the dwarf planet. We’ll also have a special feature on writing from Stanley Schmidt, full of valuable advice from a veteran editor on “Hiding the Info-Dump.”

Then a ship’s crew has an unexpected encounter while hunting comets in Ramona Louise Wheeler’s “Dancing in the Dark”; paternity turns out to be a more complicated matter than one would guess in K.J.

Zimring’s “Partible”; and “The Last Days of Dogger City” by Mjke Wood are full of danger and adventure.

On the lighter side, Barry Malzberg and Bill Pronzini bring us a day in the life of an Immigration officer at a very Golden Age spaceport in “Transfer Point”; Ron Collins shows us that more isn’t always better in “Daily Teds”; Guy Stewart nods at pastoral SF in his Probability Zero,

“Whey Station,” and we get a peek behind the curtain at a seemingly obsolete job that has persisted into a science fictional future, in Adam Troy-Castro’s “Down, Please: The Only Recorded Adventure of Ensign Lars Fouton,” not to mention all of our excellent regular columns – no foolin’.

See you back here in a month.

All contents subject to change

79

The

Extraordinary

Extraterrestrial

Togo Mouse
from Ghana

Ryan W. Norris
rett decided he f inally had the right
button up shirt—the informal apparel yet an-place when he wandered into a paper-
other clue that Brett had found his man.

strewn disaster. For some reason none

“Yeah?”

Bof the offices or laboratories at Ware “Hello Dr.Jordan,I’m Brett Henderson.”

University in Accra seemed to be labeled with Dr. Jordan just looked at Brett with a puz-room numbers, and based on what he could
zled scowl.

gather from asking directions, the hidden

“I’m the reporter with VirtPress. We had an numbering system employed no logic that
appointment.”

Brett could comprehend. The many Ghanaian

Dr. Jordan clearly made an attempt to pre-
faculty, from whom he had to make inquiries tend that he did, in fact, remember the ap-to find this place, had all maintained immacu-pointment.

late off ices, albeit often with worn and old

“Right, right. Call me Alex. Look, do you
equipment. The university’s single American mind if I f inish this up real quick?” he asked faculty member clearly didn’t follow suit. The while pointing to his monitor. “I just need an-white guy working at his computer was an
other minute. If you’d like, you can go check even bigger clue that Brett was finally where them out. They’re right across the hall.”

he wanted to be.

As Brett was leaving, Alex added “It’s room Brett knocked on the doorjam.

422,” as if that last bit of information was go-

“Dr. Jordan?” he said.

ing to be helpful.

The man looked up from his screen. He had

Stepping outside the off ice again, Brett
tousled brown hair, a scraggly beard and was was a bit afraid of trying to find anything and dressed in khaki field pants and an untucked didn’t trust that he could f igure out what 80

MARCH 2015

“across the hall” meant in this place, but he

“Huh. Well, they’re pretty distinct. Mammalwas sure that he could at least stand in the ogists have always had a hard time determin-hall looking lost when Dr. Jordan—Alex—left ing what they’re related to. We always knew his office. Yet by some miracle, the first door they aren’t close relatives of anything else.”

he tried led him to a room that bore a similar

“So you’ve always suspected they might be
hallmark of dishevelment, a clear indication extraterrestrials?” Brett said pulling out his of success. Just inside the door was a large tablet and starting to jot down what was being aquarium containing several mice. Brett
said.

stared at the animals trying to see what was Alex grunted a chuckle and shook his head.

so special about them. They were cute,

“No. Definitely not.”

brown, beady-eyed, and entirely mouse-like.

“Sorry. Can we back up? I thought you were They seemed really small; their ears might the one who discovered the, uh, alien mice.”

have been bigger, and their brown fur was

“Leimacomys,” Alex said, providing a name more speckled than he might have expected.

for the creatures. He leaned over to see that Or not. They were just mice. Who actually

Brett was spelling it properly. “Its common knows what a regular mouse looks like in the name is the Togo mouse or the groove-first place?

toothed forest mouse but people who study

Alex took less time than Brett expected.

mice don’t really use common names. No, I

“Sorry about that,” he said.

wasn’t the first. It was originally named in the

“No problem. So these are the aliens?”

1890s back when Togo was a German colony.

“What?” Alex scowled as he looked toward

They only caught two animals and then sent the tank Brett was bent over. “No. Those are them to a museum in Berlin.”

just ordinary house mice. The Leimacomys

“And they didn’t think it was particularly colony is over here.” He headed to one corner weird?”

of the room.

“It got a new genus name, which would

Brett followed him to a new set of tanks.

have been more remarkable a few decades ear-These were equipped with heat lamps along-
lier before guys like Oldfield Thomas arrived side a row of kids’ ant farms complete with on the scene and started realizing just how di-plastic tractors and barns. He wasn’t sure verse mice were.”

what he had been expecting, but he would

“Genus, that’s right above species, right?”

have thought the planet’s only known ex-

“Right. Lions and tigers are different species traterrestrials would warrant something a bit in the same genus. Housecats are the same
more elaborate. He bent next to one of the family, different genus. To my knowledge, no-glass tanks to get his first real look at an alien.

body ever tried to combine Leimacomys in a They looked just like the other mice.

genus with anything else. But they also never

“They look just like the other mice.”

even tried to put it in a separate family. It Alex gave another puzzled scowl. The creas-bounced around between several families of es on his forehead suggested this was a com-mice and mice-relatives, and eventually, at the mon facial expression for him.

beginning of this century, they were given

“You think so?” he asked. “They’re actually their own subfamily. That’s a rank between pretty distinct.”

genus and family.”

“Well. They might be a little bit bigger and I

“And now you think they should be in a
guess their tails are shorter.” Brett saw that the new family after all?” Brett asked.

scowl was receding, suggesting he was on the

“New family, new order, new class, new
right track.

phylum, new kingdom, new domain, and

“The tail’s definitely shorter,” he said more whatever we want to erect above that. These f irmly this time. “It might be darker brown aren’t mice, rodents, mammals, or animals.

and I think the ears might be smaller. They They don’t have even our basic biochemistry.

don’t move around as much either. I don’t

Those house mice at the entrance are more
know. The biggest difference seems to be the closely related to pine trees, mushrooms, and ant farms and the heat lamps.”

the bacteria and viruses that make them sick The scowl returned.

than they are to these ‘mice’ over here.” Alex

“Sorry,” Brett added lamely.

used the finger quotes. Brett hated the finger THE EXTRAORDINARY EXTRATERRESTRIAL TOGO MOUSE FROM GHANA 81

ANALOG
quotes, but he had to admit they were useful iso-G, iso-C, and H—in contrast to our A, T, G, sometimes. The f inger quotes had kept him and C. The genetic code that converts nu-from asking at least two more clarifying ques-cleotides to proteins is obviously also com-tions.

pletely different from anything else on Earth, Brett bent back over the tank.

and they have at least one extra rare amino

“They’re just mice.” Brett didn’t use f inger acid and might be missing several others. And quotes.

that’s just the start of their biochemical weird-

“Hey, I’m as surprised as you are. Probably ness.”

more surprised. These guys are a bit weird in a He pulled up the cover of one of the tanks skull character or two, their back molar in par-and made room for Brett who was still madly ticular. But there’s nothing in their basic phys-writing, hoping his recorder was getting
ical features that would suggest that they everything that he’d have to look up later. The aren’t part of the bigger evolutionary radiation mice seemed a bit perturbed, which might
of mice and their relatives. They have a couple have barely made them as active as the house of physical characteristics that make them mice from before.

hard to place, but they also have scads of char-

“Here. Take a whiff.”

acteristics that put them in the broader mouse Brett was a bit uncertain that he wanted to group. Along with that is everything they
sniff a tank full of alien rodents, but Alex need to be called rodents, mammals, animals, seemed eager to get a reaction. He leaned over et cetera. Things start to get weird when you and took a long slow inhalation.

look at the cellular structure, but they get re-

“I know that smell,” he thought for a mo-
ally weird when you start analyzing the bio-ment. “High school biology. We dissected
chemistry.

worms.”

“Let me back up a bit. Life as we know it—

“They have trace amounts of formaldehyde
or I guess I should say life as we knew it—has in their bloodstream. That would be deadly to information encoded in the four nucleotides any animal on planet Earth, but they seem to of DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid. Those are ade-need it.”

nine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine: A, T, G,

“How come nobody noticed the weird
and C. That information is transcribed into a smell before?”

messenger RNA, ribonucleic acid. RNA is simi-

“There were just the two animals caught in lar to DNA except that it has a slightly differ-1890. I have no idea whether Büttner, the col-ent chemical backbone and uses uracil instead lector, noticed the smell or if he just dropped of thymine, which means its nucleotides are them in alcohol, but the specimens have been A, U, G, and C. In the ribosomes, the cell in alcohol ever since.” Alex did his best to pro-translates the information in messenger RNA nounce the umlaut U, but proved himself not into strings of amino acids that fold up into a German speaker. “The alcohol was changed proteins. That process is helped along by
out regularly enough that the smell would
structural RNAs that help make up the ribo-have dissipated pretty quickly and no one in a somes and that go out and collect the amino museum is going to think twice about a
acids.

formaldehyde smell since so many of the oth-

“These so-called ‘mice’ use glycol nucleic er specimens are preserved in a formaldehyde acid, GNA, instead of both DNA and messen-solution anyway.”

ger RNA and they have mostly different nu-

“So how do they get the formaldehyde? Do
cleotides. They use diaminopurine in their you put it in their water? Could they even get GNA, although adenine is still used in their that in nature?”

structural RNAs, and they exclusively use

“Nope. They appear to synthesize it on
thymine like our DNA instead of uracil like our their own, but they seem to need formic acid RNA. They also use isoguanine and isocyto-to do it and to make their GNA. That’s where sine, which are basically f lipped versions of these ant farms come in. If they don’t get a our Cs and Gs, and they use a hydroxypyri-steady supply of ants, they don’t survive. That done that pairs with itself. We’ve just recently took some experimentation. I tried to rear determined that they seem to use that as a them on termites in the field, but the one fe-start and stop signal. So that’s 5 bases, D, T, male I had just kept getting sicker.”

82

RYAN W. NORRIS

MARCH 2015

“Wait, one animal? How did you start a

“It was actually pretty tough going. The lo-colony with just one animal?”

cal tribes in that hill country tend to keep to Alex reacquired his puzzled scowl. “You
themselves and are wary of outsiders, proba-don’t know the story? It was all over the news bly because they have a history of getting after our first Nature paper. As a science jour-screwed. We did manage to hire a guide and nalist, I’m surprised you don’t remember.”

clear our trapping with the chiefs after some

“Sorry. We don’t really have a science jour-convincing.

nalist. Nobody has a science journalist any-

“We set up camp and set traps for two
more except maybe the New York Times and nights. I was out checking our pitfalls when public broadcasters. I was in town to cover Paul came running toward me. Pitfall traps are the G–50 summit and my editor asked me to
just buckets buried in the ground with plastic drop by and try to resurrect the alien mouse sheeting guiding the mice toward them. I was story.”

on the last bucket and it had caught a mouse.

Alex was clearly bothered. His face couldn’t My f irst instinct was that it was a Leima-scowl any further so he added a sigh before comys, but since coming to Leimacomys launching into his story.

country, I had already tried calling three or

“Before we came along, the only two
four of the mice we had caught Leimacomys.

Leimacomys ever caught were from right on So I’d learned to stop trusting my instincts and the border between Togo and Ghana. Several stop getting excited because the only thing I prior expeditions had gone to the area, but was accomplishing was giving Paul a chance had no luck. I wasn’t convinced I was going to to laugh at my expense. So this time I con-do much better, but I was also exploring the vinced myself that I had a juvenile Lo-possibility that the area was an overlooked phuromys, a brush-furred mouse. They often biodiversity hotspot. At that time we thought have broken tails—they lose them as a de-the closest relative of Leimacomys had split fense mechanism and they don’t grow back.

off from other mice around fifteen or twenty It’s a once-in-a-lifetime get out of jail free card million years ago. That made the region a
and would explain the short tail. It was in the good candidate for harboring new species, re-shade of the bucket so I didn’t get a good look licts that had held on there just like Leima-at the color and the mouse was really fat like a comys had, even if not for as long. A lot of Lophuromys. I’ll explain why in a minute.

times those tend to be cryptic, things that

“Paul was now running toward me and
look like other existing species and had been shouting something, but I ignored him long overlooked in the past.

enough to grab the mouse and drop it into a

“I planned an expedition to the region near live trap with a broken treadle that I was car-Kyabobo Park in eastern Ghana back in 2016. I rying back to camp for repairs. Then the shots had a good friend and colleague here at Ware, came. It wasn’t the single ‘Boom!’ of a

Paul Appiah. Have you met him?”

hunter’s shotgun, but the irregular ‘Pop! Pop!

Brett shook his head.

Pop! Pop!’ you get when people are shooting

“You should. Paul’s as big of a player in all of at other people. Then Paul got close enough this as I am. He’s just down the hall. Paul and I that I could see his face and he was scared.

had been talking about getting into the region Then more shots came and I realized they
for a while, but I was a postdoc doing other were between camp and us. Then I got scared people’s research and then I was a new assis-and ran away with Paul.

tant professor back in the States trying to get a

“We saw some of the soldiers and they were lab started. Anyway, after all that, we managed white. Then we saw another group of Asians, to pull together enough funding for a small more whites, and some that might have been trip to the region. I couldn’t go to the precise Arab too. Nobody shooting looked African
spot where Leimacomys was first discovered and it was clear that all the non-Africans were since my connection, Paul, was in Ghana and shooting each other. Somehow in the middle not Togo. But as I said earlier, it was captured of nowhere a war had sprung out right around right near the border and nature doesn’t usu-us between two foreign armies!”

ally care much about political borders unless Alex was shaking his head and gesturing
they’re based on big rivers or mountains.

wildly as his voice became ever louder.

THE EXTRAORDINARY EXTRATERRESTRIAL TOGO MOUSE FROM GHANA 83

ANALOG

“Turns out that the Aboriginal Liberation
was the smell. And she was so hot to the

Front, A.L.F., chose that moment to try their touch that it almost hurt. She had grown weak f irst experiment in redrawing borders. They and we got her some water and food. As I
decided that the local Adele people had been mentioned before, we gave her termites,
unfairly split into two by colonial boundaries which she was happy to eat, but continued to and it was time to give the land around
get worse until we ran into a patch of driver Kyabobo to Togo so they’d all be on the same ants so thick that a lot of them got into the bag side of a border. It was part of a bigger plan to and the trap she was in. She perked up after redraw the map across the globe. They didn’t that and even though we hadn’t f igured out start with anything dramatic like Kurdistan or that she actually needed the ants specifically, Ossetia, because then they’d have to face big we at least knew that she liked to eat them armies from big countries. They wanted to
and we kept giving her more.

start small and show the world how great they

“Eventually we got up the nerve to hitch a were and gain support for bigger enterprises.

ride and then hire a ride and managed to get All they had to do was conquer an unguarded back to Accra. That was when the real experinational park and some of the surrounding
ments started and when we started realizing area and declare victory. But apparently some-just how amazing our find had been.”

one had tipped off the UN about ALF’s plan.”

“And why are you and the mice still here? In Alex had started saying “Alf” instead of list-Ghana?” Brett asked.

ing the letters of the acronym. He continued.

“The Ghanaian government wouldn’t let

“ALF assembled in Togo, and a special ops
the animals leave the country. I can’t blame team from the U.N. Security Council dropped them; it’s been an intellectual and biotech into Ghana, and Paul, me, our mice, and the coup for a nation this size. I wasn’t going to poor Adele locals were trapped in between.

get tenure at a university in the States if I spent

“Now if I had known who these people
all my time over here. Paul convinced Ware to were and which side was which, I might have offer me a position on the faculty, so here I tried to head west and catch an American or am. The pay’s great for Accra, but I still British detail. But we didn’t have a clue. All we haven’t f igured out how I’m ever going be knew was that the locals were probably going able to retire in the U.S. considering the ex-to be pissed at anyone not local and the non-change rate.”

locals were all busy shooting each other. So Brett motioned at the animals in the tank.

we ran south until we were too tired to run

“You must have gone back for more if you
and then we walked. All we had was what we have all these.”

were carrying, which just so happened to in-

“The region is still a disaster. We’ve tried clude that last mouse. I probably would have getting as close as possible, but have had no even ditched that bag except that it was most-luck and others have searched the Togolese ly full of oatmeal, palm nuts, and peanut but-side with no luck. I wasn’t exactly the only ter, which we had been using for bait, some person to go looking for these guys since
water, and a few expensive electronics. I’d left 1890. Even if we could make it back, there’s behind enough money in gear back at camp
no telling how long it would take us to cap-that I didn’t feel like tossing my GPS units.

ture them again. Nope, what you see here are

“Eventually I got around to checking the
all descendants of that one pregnant female.”

mouse in the trap. Well, Paul did, actually, and Brett went back to looking at the animals in it had turned into f ive mice. She had been the tank. As far as he could tell, they were re-pregnant and gave birth to a litter of four, dur-ally nothing special.

ing the jostling around. Then we got a good

“No offense, but they are just mice. Sorry. I look at her and realized what we had. Paul got mean ‘mice.’”

another laugh at my expense, this time for not Alex scowled, sighed, and shook his head.

realizing I had caught a Leimacomys. That

“Like I said, they aren’t mice at all. You’ve was definitely the only good news we had that been calling them aliens because that’s how day.

the media portrayed them. Up until a month

“But then we started getting clues that this ago I would have corrected you. Based on
mouse was something very different. There
what we knew about them at the time there

84

RYAN W. NORRIS

MARCH 2015
were other options. For example they might after all. They look like normal earthlings ex-have been relicts of RNA-world.”

cept they have pointy ears or strange molars,

“Which is?”

but cut them open and they bleed green or, in

“RNA-world is a hypothesis that life’s earli-this case, smell like formaldehyde. But do a est biochemical evolution involved just RNA real evaluation of them and they’re nothing which performed the roles of both DNA and
like us. We know that life on this planet has proteins. RNA is capable of both storing infor-produced an unbelievable amount of conver-
mation like DNA and folding into useful
gent evolution. That’s when similar body
shapes like proteins, although it’s less effec-types evolve in completely unrelated animals.

tive than either. Leimacomys uses structural Tasmanian wolves, which are extinct marsupi-RNAs just like life as we knew it and that als looked like they should belong to the dog might be a relic of a shared ancestor during family, but were more closely related to kan-the RNA stage of life.”

garoos and koalas. True moles, marsupial

“So what changed?”

moles, and golden moles all look alike but are

“Well, we have some exciting new findings.

part of totally different groups. Things that Our new paper is embargoed so what I’m
look like cactuses evolved independently in about to tell you needs to be kept quiet until the Americas and Africa. But this! This it’s published. When we went back to the gen-amount of convergence is incredible!”

eral area we didn’t find any new Leimacomys, Brett jotted notes frantically. He took some but we did find some microbes that have the pictures, verif ied that Alex would be glad to same type of biochemistry. We even have a
follow up with further emails, and a promise few more examples from different areas
that Brett would be the f irst to know when around the globe, but those are a lot less com-the embargo was lifted. Alex seemed happy to mon and there seems to be a lot less diversity talk to an American journalist in person rather outside of the Ghana-Togo region.”

than on webcam. Brett eventually thanked

“How is it that no one noticed them be-
him and said goodbye. If he could only write fore?” Brett asked.

an article that could convince the readers that Alex shrugged. “No one knew what to look
we didn’t already know the alien mice were for. These microbes were rare in the f irst aliens, but now we do, then he was sure it place and conventional sequencing tech-would be a bigger story than any of his G–50
niques would just give you a few short strands summit reports. Too bad the pictures he had of As and Ts since the Hs, iso-Gs and iso-Cs to go with it were just “mice.”

don’t bind to our nucleotides. It would just look like you had a bad sample and you’d

11,800 years earlier
throw it out. Once people knew what they

“Sir, do you have a moment?” Just as the
were looking for, things started to turn up. We words left his mouth, Sseekt realized that his heard from a few people around the world
friend and superior off icer was busy deliver-that had found these really rare microbes, but ing a tongue-lashing over the coms.

basic phylogeographic and population genetic

“I don’t care!” Hacht shouted into the mi-
analyses make it pretty clear that everything crophone. “No more excuses. Get this infesta-originates back to the Ghana-Togo border.”

tion taken care of.” He paused to hear the

“I don’t get it. Why does that make them
other side of the conversation, which was
aliens?” Brett interrupted.

clearly not to his satisfaction. Even though the Alex got animated again. “Because it indi-discussion was audio only, Hacht’s auxiliary cates one point of origin that’s recent in geo-arms reflexively flashed an angry intimidating logic time! If they had been here all along, yellow.

then they’d be dispersed across the planet and

“If we can’t get the food storage under con-the signal of where they started would be long trol, the mission’s over and we head for home.

gone. And it can’t be a separate recent origin Right now you’re the most important team on of life because you just can’t evolve something the ship. Eradicate the vermin. End of story.

as complex as a mouse in that short of a time-Good-bye.”

frame. Nope. The extraterrestrials are here Sseekt had timed this conversation when he and as silly as it sounds, they’re like Mr. Spock thought Hacht would be relaxed and in a good THE EXTRAORDINARY EXTRATERRESTRIAL TOGO MOUSE FROM GHANA 85

ANALOG
mood. Instead he was loudly grinding his in-

* * *
cisors together in frustration.

“I want a beautiful beach right at sunrise!”

“What do you want?” Hacht snapped.

Rissoe said as she absentmindedly sniffed one Sseekt couldn’t back down now.

of the many decorative fungi that lined the

“It’s about the next survey mission,” he
shuttle. Sseekt had paid a small fortune for said.

these adornments, but he had to admit they

“You mean Kranfski’s mission? What about
stayed fresh, emitting their pleasant odor it?”

throughout the pair’s two-week travel time in

“I was wondering if you might consider
system.

making it my mission.”

“This one’s my favorite,” she said softly.

Hacht turned to face Sseekt.

“The stripes are just gorgeous. I can’t believe

“Why would I want to do that?”

you could find it on ship.” All Sseekt could see The plan was to recite a long series of cre-was a drab green disc. The shopkeeper had
dentials and arguments, but Sseekt was realiz-been adamant that it was simply incredible in ing that Hacht was going to see right through the infra-yellow spectrum: colors that only fe-all of it. The two had known each other since males could see. Apparently, she’d been cor-their days in training. Sseekt let his lips drop rect.

over his teeth and both pairs of arms hang Things were going perfectly. Sseekt’s auxil-limply, a sign of lowered defenses and hon-iary hands stroked his torso where his pouch esty.

was located. It wouldn’t be long now.

“It’s Rissoe,” he said. “She has an egg ready

“Look, we’re finally getting a good view of and if I don’t move fast she’s going to reabsorb the planet,” he said.

it just like last time.”

The blue marble was becoming visible as

Hacht’s colors cooled in sympathy. After all, they passed from the dark side of the planet. It the two were old friends.

started as a sliver and shifted to a crescent. It

“I really shouldn’t . . .”

was gorgeous, colored as it was in blue, green,

“You don’t understand,” Sseekt protested.

brown . . . and white.

“You already have an egg.”

“Is that ice?” Rissoe asked.

Hacht unconsciously rubbed his own mid-

“There’s some ice at the poles, but it’s most-section, feeling the egg in his pouch. It would ly a cool but very habitable world.”

hatch soon, and then he’d feel his child mov-

“That’s a lot of ice.”

ing around in there, growing and absorbing

“Clouds,” Sseekt muttered, “it has to be
the liquid nourishment his body provided.

clouds.” He started to look at the readouts Sseekt continued, “She won’t mate here.

coming in.

The ship depresses her. She needs air above

“Clouds don’t have outlines that match conher head and soil beneath her feet.”

tinents.”

“Kranfski isn’t going to be happy.”

“Okay,” he admitted, “it’s ice. But all we

“Kranfski has two offspring already. He’s
need is a nice equatorial coastline, right?”

been offship recently and Rissoe and I are per-

“At sunrise,” she added.

fectly qualif ied to update the survey of this

“Sunrise,” he agreed.

planet.”

Rissoe was the first to look into how the in-

“It’s inhabited, you know.”

telligent species had progressed.

“Haired bipeds with a rudimentary civiliza-

“They have agriculture and are clumping totion, tool use, and small family groups. But gether in towns,” she said. Her coloring was they had no agriculture or cities on the last warming up, but not with passion.

pass. We’ll be careful to avoid them.”

“No way! There was no sign of anything like Though still reluctant, Hacht seemed satis-that on the last visit.”

fied. “I suppose we could use another pair of

“It’s unambiguous. We’ll have to switch to trained surveyors. Do a decent job and I might Protocol 4.”

add the two of you to the regular rotation. By Protocol 4 was going to severely limit
the way, you owe me a big favor after this.”

where they could land and how long they

“A huge favor. Don’t worry; we’ll do the job could stay. Sseekt scanned the available op-right. I won’t let you down.”

tions. There weren’t many.

86

RYAN W. NORRIS

MARCH 2015

“Okay, no beaches, but how about moun-
movement. Rissoe’s eyes went from arms to
tains? Here’s a patch of low mountains, in the head and back again. She might have been
tropics that’s far enough from any intelligent soggy and uncomfortable, but she was still lifeforms and hidden from prying eyes by
getting into the mood.

dense forest.”

Just as Sseekt felt sperm f lood into his

Rissoe’s colors began to cool. “That sounds pouch, Rissoe’s eyes drifted to that part of his wonderful.” She was clearly trying to stay op-torso. His hormones must have been doing
timistic.

the job. Males couldn’t see it, but, at this point They set down just before dawn and re-in the mating cycle, the skin above their
leased the probes to gather their information.

pouches turned a brilliant infra-yellow, and Sseekt carefully laid out a comfortable padded Sseekt must have reached that stage. Rissoe cloth and brought out the meal he had spe-was presumably focused on a bullseye pattern cially prepared for the occasion. Food always on his chest that would lead her to the thin makes for a nice prelude to mating.

patch of skin where she would soon pierce

“It’s really cold here,” Rissoe complained, him with her ovipositor and lay the precious but Sseekt moved closer, and her mood
egg. It was supposed to be painless thanks to seemed to hold.

the hormones coursing through his blood-

Dawn arrived gently, though it f iltered
stream, but the thought made Sseekt as ner-through the forest without the stunning beau-vous as he was thrilled. It was coming any ty that it would’ve had on the beach. Sseekt moment now: the whole point of their excur-took the opportunity of the growing light to sion.

begin to spread the webbing on his auxiliary But something was wrong. Sseekt realized
arms, the chromatophores causing them to ac-that Rissoe was no longer looking at him; she quire a brilliant metallic ultraviolet hue. Rissoe was looking past him. Her gaze shifted from a still shivered, but she started to stare, her eyes lovestruck stare to a look of confusion and mesmerized by the patterns. It was a great then disgust. Her color changed from the yel-start. Sseekt soon began f luttering the crests low stripes of passion to the dull green of frus-on the side of his head, displaying the same tration.

color pattern. Rissoe’s eyes shifted back and

“That’s . . . that’s just revolting!” she cried as forth between his head crests and auxiliary she pointed past him. Rissoe stood, stormed arms.

past a dazed Sseekt, and started to hurriedly Then the raindrops started to fall. At f irst prepare the shuttle and probes for departure.

they both tried to ignore it, but rain came as Still confused and a bit drunk on the emo-pure water on this planet. Instead of adding tions from a moment before, Sseekt looked be-solutes like formaldehyde and their other
hind him. Peering out of the food containers waste chemicals to the water, the trees above on the cloth were several pairs of beady eyes them just let the water roll off their leaves un-belonging to a handful of stowaways from the altered. The pure water wasn’t quite painful, ship.

just uncomfortable. He could see how Rissoe’s Sseekt angrily kicked over the food contain-skin was becoming slightly swollen and wriners.

kled and her colors muted. His own display

“Shoo!” he said, causing the mice to aban-
was losing its luster.

don their meal and scatter into the forest’s un-So he turned it up a notch; he started danc-dergrowth. ■
ing. What he lost in color he made up for in THE EXTRAORDINARY EXTRATERRESTRIAL TOGO MOUSE FROM GHANA 87

Illustrated by Josh Meehan

Karma

Among the

Cloud Kings

Brian Trent

I.

“What . . . what are they doing?” I whisper, ifty thousand feet above Tempest’s high-sweating despite the room’s merciless air con-est clouds, Antarag Vel-Heth invites me to ditioner.

sit beside him in the lobby of Lindorm

“Eating,” Antarag winks. “Talking.” His pit-FRefueling Station.It’s a desolate,littered ted skin stretches like a weather-beaten tarp expanse of tables, party-streamers, and plastic across a knobby skeleton and skull of aquiline people with unceasingly flapping jaws.

protrusions.

88

MARCH 2015

The plastic people have no food that I can

“And you don’t eat meat, right?” he presses see. One of them leaps up from its chair, arms me, rotating his chair, legs splayed in a crude raised in silent declaration while the others invite.

applaud with rubbery hands. Discolored

“We do not eat meat. We do not eat physical mouths swing open and shut on cheap
food at all.”

hinges.

He nods, eyes prowling over my shapeless

Antarag grins at me with pained, frank inter-robe as if he can see straight to my lean, est—I wonder when the last time he’s had a brown, twenty-two-year-old body. “No food, real, f lesh-and-blood female visitor up here huh? So where do you get your sustenance
with him. He knows I’m from Bellcap 51. He from?”

knows we’re all Jains there, with our shaved

“The sun.”

heads, monastic robes, and vows of celibacy.

“Photosynthesis? Shouldn’t your skin be

Still, my eyes dart nervously to his holstered green, then?”

pistol.

I make the green receptors flush into visibilI ask, “What are they eating?”

ity on my face and hands. Each one displays it-He taps his forearm gauntlet. Menu options self in radiant Sanskrit. Each curve and loop sig-unfurl in neon petals. “That one’s eating steak nif ies a Jain value: Peace. Nonviolence.

and potato pancakes,” he says, pointing to one Knowledge. Truth.

guest whose plastic body appears to have been His grin widens a millimeter. “Do those
assembled Frankenstein-style from at least six things appear all over your body, Preema?”

different modular components. “Those two

Ignoring this unwelcome lechery, I say,
girls are eating sushi—” he motions to a pair of

“Their real bodies are in orbit, waiting for their androgynous mannequins who are miming the
ships to refuel. Would they not prefer real use of chopsticks, bringing invisible morsels to food, then?”

their skeleton jaws. “We’ve got blihabi caviar,

“Illusion is more satisfying, girl.”

fresh raspberries, Osirian felsacs, comet cakes,

“But even if it looks like real food, how do beef stroganoff, flame-roasted marrow. Name you convince them that it has taste and sub-it, I’ve got it. Ten million foods from across the stance?”

galaxy.”

Antarag draws his arm around my shoulders, Antarag has lent me a spare visor; I fit it over wires dangling like weeds off his neurocast my eyes and ears. The plastic people disap-suit. “Most of it is just vibration,” he says pear, and I now see them as they see each oth-proudly. “The neurocast suit vibrates at key fre-er: a revelry of beautiful men and women. The quencies along the jawline. It creates whatever men are square-jawed and chiseled. The
parameters of resistance a meal should have.

women are elegant and buxom; my eyes stray The shrimp is crisp, the steak rare, the felsac to the jewelry sparkling at their throats and fin-pops between your teeth.”

gers. Thudding music weaves among the sud-

“But the taste of the food . . .”

den babble of voices.

“Are you craving something? You are, aren’t

“A pretty girl like you, Preema, should have you?” His f ingers tickle the gauntlet holodis-jewelry like that,” Antarag says, following my play. “How about glass noodles? That’s an an-stare. He has changed, too: the sickly-looking cient Buddhist delight, you know.”

ladder controlman is now a muscular brute in

“We are Jains, not Buddhists.”

a diamond-studded suit. No longer balding, his

“You’re a f lesh-and-blood woman with a
scalp has grown a lustrous mane like a cobra’s real body beneath that robe,” he counters.

hood.

“Put on one of these suits and you can try any-I lift the visor; the beautiful people vanish thing you like—any sensory delight—without back into plastic monstrosities. One falls out of breaking your damn vows. And not just
its chair, and the others erupt into silent food.” Antarag points to a dusty sofa, where apoplexies of laughter, clutching their plastic two grinning mannequins thrust and grind
bellies, tilting their heads back like a nightmare against each other, a mirthless war of attrition of howling skeletons.

that has produced the stress fractures I’ve ob-

“We do not wear jewelry,” I say, feeling
served on many-a-pelvis here. “I don’t under-dampness hatch across my shaved scalp.

stand how you all hang out in Bellcap 51,

KARMA AMONG THE CLOUD KINGS

89

ANALOG
guys and gals together, and no one does any-tethered like flowers along the metal vines that thing.”

trail off Lindorm Refueling Station, fifty thou-

“It is one of our oaths,” I explain, and drink-sand feet above us.

ing in the view of the nightmarish party, think: My job on Midsummer’s Dream: grow veg-does this man have any oaths whatsoever?

etables.

What are his values?

My job on Tempest: climb into a tight-fitting A third voice intrudes into our conversa-biosuit and walk vertically along the Bellcap tion—I’d almost forgotten that Indrani had ac-spires to keep them clean of debris. Tempest’s companied me up the space elevator. She is atmosphere is littered with scraps of bygone Bellcap 51’s matronly, middle-aged supervisor processor stations, built in haste by colonists and my direct commanding officer.

who didn’t appreciate what relentless winds

“Antarag?” Indrani asks. “If Preema were to could do to man’s handiwork. Each spire is a wear your visor, would she look like you to the three kilometer-long lance through Tempest’s guests?”

cobalt-hued clouds. Each collects planetary hy-The Ladder Controlman barely acknowl-
drogen day and night, pumping the gas straight edges the older woman’s presence; his eyes up to Lindorm Refueling Station where ships are locked on me. “Yes. Everyone here can be from across the solar system come to refuel. A anything they want, even me.”

gas pump for spacefaring society.

Indrani’s eyes shimmer purposefully in her Walking the spires, cleaning them of the
aged face. “Borrowing someone’s karma. Inter-constant debris flurries, is dangerous work.

esting. Don’t you agree, Preema?”

It would be easier to take the lift.

Antarag rubs his chin thoughtfully. “As I recall, one of your sacred oaths is to always tell

“And this is why we never take the lift,” Ko-the truth.”

mal explained over my headset, the day before

“To never tell a lie,” I correct him, motionI met Antarag Vel-Heth and his party of plastic ing for his visor. “May I?”

people.

He absently hands me his visor. “I’d like to I looked to his boots, gaping at the easy way ask you something, Preema. And I expect you he was balanced on only one foot, the other to tell me the truth.”

paused mid-stride just inches from a slug clinging The tone in his voice tells me something’s to the spire like an oversized raspberry. It’s one wrong. I stiffen, realizing too late that he’s thing to know that our magfiber boots form a known all along, that he’s been playing us, molecular bond with the spire. It’s quite another drawing us into a comfortable web. I lick my to be this sure-footed while walking it. Glowing dry lips and say, as calmly as my galloping debris whipped through the air like confetti, heart will allow, “Yes?”

bursting as they touched the electrified bristles He raises an eyebrow and his pitted skin
that lined the spire like thorns on a rose stem.

flushes to a deep scarlet; it’s like looking at raw

“Think of all the slugs crushed by the lift be-meat. “Why did you come up here today, fore we arrived,” Komal explained, his bearded Preema? What’s the real reason you people mouth frowning behind his faceplate. He bent stopped by for a visit?”

to cradle the specimen in his hands. It flattened And just then, the security alarm goes off.

its rubbery body in fear, and Komal petted its striated flank reassuringly, saying, “Thousands, II.

maybe millions, of undocumented murders.

We had f led a paradise planet to come to

They are safe now that we are here.”

Tempest.

No harm to any living thing; that was the

Two years ago I was a twenty-year-old girl Jain oath of Ahimsa.

tending the gardens of a Jain village on Mid-

“I forgive all living beings,” whispered Ko-summer’s Dream. Now I toiled in a hydrogenmal, uttering our sacred prayer, “and may all collecting station among the clouds of a bitter, living beings forgive me. All living beings are lonely world. Tempest is Shakespeare System’s my friends. I have malice toward none. I—”

only gas giant. It supplies planets, moons, and BOOM!

space stations with fuel. Its clouds are dotted The shockwave twisted me, and for an in-with atmoprocessing stations—the Bellcaps—
stant, I thought my boots had lost contact with 90

BRIAN TRENT

MARCH 2015
the spire. I screamed and fell forward on the A very long pause. Finally, Indrani found her vertical spire, striking my hands out at the last voice and said, “It wasn’t your karma to fall.

second so my gloves, arms, and knees would But please be careful. Ladar measures this bond with the nanosteel. My stomach almost scrap at six meters. That could whip you off emptied the water I had swallowed an hour
the spire if you’re reckless.”

ago. In that moment, I imagined the report I unclipped the extendable clawhand from
that would reach my old friends on Midsum-
my tool belt and advanced on the dancing red mer’s Dream: Preema Goswami, 22, fell thou-strand. “I am never reckless, Indrani. Proceed-sands of feet to her death. Tempest’s Jains ing now to remove the—”

made her walk outside in a storm out of fear A second piece of debris smashed into me
for stepping on a slug. . . .

from behind, snagged around my waist, and

Komal finally tossed the specimen into the tore me off the spire into the endless blue.

wind. It snapped open its frills and, like an um-brella, caught an updraft to vanish into the de-Komal was sixty years old and he rarely
bris-strewn clouds. Only then did he turn his did anything to challenge that fact, but as I sensitive eyes on me; his was a worn, deeply tumbled off the spire into the clouds he
lined countenance set in that bushy beard.

must have found a reserve of youthful ref lex.

“Are you all right, Preema?”

His hand clamped around my ankle. I

I harnessed my anger. “Yes, Komal. Nice of screamed again, dangling like a caught f ish.

you to notice that I almost—”

The clawhand dropped, bounced off the

BOOM!

spire, and spun into the cobalt troposphere As I lay glued to the nanosteel, I turned my below me.

head south. An immense debris strand had be-Komal struggled to lower me to the spire;
come coiled around the end of the spire. Blind my suit’s magfibers latched on and secured me luck, really, that it had missed the electrif ied once more. Heart pounding, I stared at what bristles. It made me think of the ancient cus-had struck me: another long strand of debris, tom of tying a string around one’s f inger to this one a brilliant sapphire blue. It seemed to never forget. Its two ends undulated like a pair hover in the storm, weaving in and out of the of waving arms, unfolding and twisting in
wind like a stubborn eel f ighting an ocean’s mindless, wind-driven merriment.

undertow.

I rose carefully to my feet. The fiery ribbon

“Komal!” I shouted. “Are you seeing this?”

danced, its arms snapping in bullwhip-like gy-At that moment, the scarlet ribbon unrav-
rations with enough kinetic energy to—
eled from its perch. Despite the way it had BOOM!

been knotted, it untangled itself and f lew

“It looks alive, doesn’t it?” Komal asked be-down toward the blue one.

hind me.

“Jiva!” cried Komal.

“A little,” I admitted, steadying my feet. The The strands intertwined. Red, blue, melted ribbon’s contortions suggested the jiva of life.

into one another to achieve a fierce, throbbing But I knew—everyone knew—that Tempest’s
violet. They braided, like two phosphorescent pollution was ajiva: nonliving, artificial matter.

serpents wrapping around each other. The

The only living creatures on Tempest were
bonding shivered in the wind, undulating to slugs, and they were immune to the electrified keep position, to avoid being driven off into bristles, so no harm was being perpetrated.

the gulf of sky.

Malice toward none.

And then, before our astonished eyes, the

Across three kilometers, Supervising Officer double-strand began to climb through the

Indrani spoke through my helmet radio:

storm. It threaded in and out of the wind, and

“Preema? Ladar is showing a large piece of de-once more adopted its knotted perch at the bris stuck on the spire.”

spire’s end. It wrapped itself securely around

“I am looking right at it,” I replied. “I shall re-the spire like a sentient ribbon preparing itself move it.”

into a bow.

“Good.” A hesitation. “Are you okay,

“Jiva,” I whispered in agreement.

Preema? We heard you cry out . . .”

The debris was alive.

“I almost fell.”

KARMA AMONG THE CLOUD KINGS

91

ANALOG

III.

because she became more animated and care-

“What happened out there?” Indrani de-
less in her choice of words when gripped by manded, once we had returned to the Bellcap.

high emotion. “If unattended, they’ll clog up She folded her arms like a scornful school-the f ilters. Our job is to keep the spires run-teacher, her brown face drawn in sharp lines ning eff iciently.” Indrani turned her displea-and plateaus, black hair buzzed into a fuzzy sure on Komal. “Preema is not alone in failing stubble like little magfibers of their own. The her duties. You too turned your back on those entire Jain occupancy of Bellcap 51 sported strands. Why?”

the same haircut. Genderless solidarity

Our bearded companion offered no reaction
through depilation.

to her question. Without his suit helmet, Ko-We were still stripping off our biosuits, and mal looked like a f igure of sandstone, his it was bad form for Indrani to intrude in our messy tangle of gray beard burying the lower half-naked state, especially with Komal there.

half of his face. Jains do not lie. Lying is a terri-It wasn’t the antiquated Jain prohibition
ble crime, attracting negative karma around about men and women seeing each other
the soul. But neither are we compelled to in-naked that bothered me, but the urgency in criminate ourselves. Silence has many uses.

her voice, which suggested high emotion,

Indrani seemed to glide over to the inter-
which upset tranquility, which violated Apari-com. “Geeta, Parul, suit up and proceed to the graha, the oath of detachment from physical airlock.”

concerns.

“Those strands are alive,” Komal said finally.

Which reminded me of my own terror out

“They are not mere pollution. We have been there on the spire. I could still taste the bitter lied to.”

tang of adrenaline in the back of my throat.

Indrani released the intercom button and

Rather than cover up his partial nudity,
shook her head. “They are pieces of string in though, Komal dressed without haste. True
the wind. They are scraps of older stations, Aparigraha was not to hide from anything; Bud-built in haste by colonists who didn’t appreci-dhists were fond of the parable in which two ate how strong Tempest’s storms could be.

monks encounter the name of Buddha

Everyone knows that.”

scrawled in the dirt, and while one tries to

“The two strands willfully went after each avoid stepping on his name, the other trudges other.”

right over it, footprint marring the word as he

“Coincidence. The wind drove them togeth-
goes. Why? Because attachment to a word is er.”

still attachment.

“They combined for a purpose,” he insisted.

“The two strands combined,” I said, don-

“Your belly lint also combines. Does that
ning my standard white monastic garment.

have jiva, too?”

“You were reckless,” Indrani declared. “You Komal regarded her stolidly. “Belly lint con-weren’t watching your surroundings.”

tains bacteria. So yes, jiva is present and you

“I was watching,” I insisted.

should know better.”

“You could have died, Preema.”

One of the walls slid open, and Geeta and

“Then I guess that would have been my kar-

Parul entered the chamber. Geeta was as old as ma,” I snapped.

Komal; I remembered that on Midsummer’s

Indrani’s scowl deepened until her face

Dream, they had been married before our
looked like an iron mask bolted over high pres-small community decided on total commit-
sure. “You didn’t complete your mission. You ment to Jain vows. I remembered them walk-left two large pieces of debris out there on the ing together, hand-in-hand, in the grassy, sun-spire. They might clog the filter.”

lit fields of that vibrant world. Now they stood

“They are not debris,” I countered. “They
beside each other without emotion, a pair of are jiva.”

mahogany chess pieces which, as the universe My superior officer sighed. “The debris are often forgets, was an Indian invention.

polyresin fragments left over from the last gen-Parul was the only non-Indian among us; a
eration of processing stations.” She was practi-blue-skinned Jain immigrant from the nearby cally quoting verbatim from Lindorm’s techni-world of Winter’s Tale, a mean distance of just cal manual; she was also upset, I could tell, seven hundred million miles away.

92

BRIAN TRENT

MARCH 2015

“Be at peace,” Parul said, sensing the ten-of all breeds, whipping them into a desperate sion. “What has happened?”

stampede, and drive them through a gauntlet

“Komal and Preema disobeyed an order,” In-
of human bodies while stabbing, tearing, bit-drani explained. She touched the wall, and it ing, and devouring them.

dissolved into a viewscreen. The spire ap-

As Jains, we did not participate in the hor-peared, coiled by the purple twine whipping ror. Two years ago, our doors shut against one and snapping in the storm.

of these grim bacchanalias, we awoke to dis-

“Proceed with the removal,” she said. They cover that four of our youngest children had suited up and went through the airlock,
done what children do best: snuck out of their clawhands jingling at their belts.

homes in quiet conspiracy to spy the secret rit-Indrani began to climb up into the dining
uals from a hilltop.

module. “Komal, I want you on ladar duty.

Except they hadn’t stayed on the hilltop.

Preema, follow me.”

Maybe it had been the music which lured

I complied.

them down to the festivities. Maybe a dare to It was time to eat sunlight.

get closer, and closer. Maybe something worse, a primeval impulse incited by the drums and IV.

chants and smell of blood in the air.

I recalled the nastiness, the hypocrisy, of tryI had been the one to f ind them the next
ing to reconcile the Jain principle of Ahimsa—
morning, with meat in their teeth and blood doing no harm to any living thing—with the bi-on their hands. Visceral trophies hanging
ological necessity of consuming physical food.

around their necks, animal eyes and teeth and To clamp one’s teeth down on a living crea-paws strung through with tendons like gar-
ture, tearing and chewing, swallowing it in a lands from hell.

froth of saliva. To drop a once-living thing into After that night of horror, we had fled Mid-that acid-pit of the stomach. To feel the extra, summer’s Dream. We had retreated to the or-foreign weight inside my belly, a bitter mock-bital Jain Temple clinic where we submitted to ery of growing a child in the womb. To willful-the bioengineering necessary to make us com-ly steal jiva and, in doing so, drive oneself fur-plete Jains. The final physical step to true com-ther from salvation with each bite.

mitment.

I remembered the Great Hunts on Midsum-

We became autotrophs.

mer’s Dream. The orgiastic revelry of an entire In the dining module atop the Bellcap, In-village melting into savagery. The Jain children drani and I climbed into a pair of glowing cof-with meat stuck in their teeth!

fers to absorb a raw solar meal. The blue light It was the reason we had fled Midsummer’s
of Shakespeare, largest star for two hundred Dream. Midsummerans were a throwback cul-light years, bathed a system of seven planets in ture eschewing most modern technologies;
a wash of energy that provided our daily nutri-they lived in simple farming villages. We had ents. The light came around us like hot wax as believed it to be a good place for us, to form I waited for Indrani’s scathing review of my our own community away from persecution.

spire-walk.

We had been wrong.

Less than a minute into feeding, she provid-Midsummer’s Dream was a throwback
ed it.

world, yes, but to rampant bacchanalias,

“You failed out there today,” she said, eyes bloody hunts, and primitivism. At f irst they closed as she soaked the energy. Her chloro-were welcoming to us. Slowly, the cruel whis-plasts f lushed green across her face, hands, pers began. The pranks and abuses. The slain and neck, displaying Jain values.

animals left on our doorstep or strung up in

“You were not there, Indrani. And Komal
my garden.

agreed with me.”

But it was the Great Hunt that proved the fi-

“Komal is not the commanding off icer of
nal straw. A gruesome twice-per-year holiday in Bellcap 51. If we fail our duty here, we shall be which Midsummerans gathered in the woods
homeless once more. What world will take us and hills, with their musical instruments and next? What world is so ideally suited to the most depraved appetites. They would light
cleansing of karma?”

huge bonfires. They would round up animals

“I am sorry,” I grunted.

KARMA AMONG THE CLOUD KINGS

93

ANALOG

“You disobeyed my orders. If that debris in-V.

terrupts the hydrogen harvest, Lindorm will The ride up the ladder took eight hours, dur-want to know why. If they ask, I will have to ing which Tempest’s atmosphere made a full tell them the truth.”

super-rotation of the planet. Komal, Indrani, I must have made my resentment audible,
and I rode the elevator together; the rest of our because Indrani’s eyes snapped open to regard group stayed behind to study the flower. Geeta me with studious disapproval.

supplied us regular updates by radio, and by

“I will have to,” she repeated. “As Jains we the sixth hour she had a significant update in-have sworn an oath to never tell a lie. We do deed: a third fragment of debris, also blue, had not break our oaths.”

tried to join the purple flower, but it brushed

“Even if it means that I alone would be ex-against the spire bristles and was fried. It now pelled?” I demanded, searching her face for hung like a burnt prayer-f lag. A dead thing any sign of the woman I had known on Mid-flapping in the wind.

summer for the f irst twenty years of my life.

“Deactivate the bristles,” Indrani ordered, The blue light gave her a truly androgynous ap-and she fixed us with a solemn, quietly suffer-pearance, scorching away any feminine as-
ing expression. “What are they?”

pects. A brief memory arose—Indrani and I

Komal sat lotus-style in the lift’s corner, gaz-crawling through the grass to approach a jade ing thoughtfully at the on-wall image of the ex-butterf ly. I remembered her smile, then. Re-otic organism. “A life form,” he said flatly.

membered how she would tuck me in each

I added, “The gametes of a developing or-
night with a hug and kiss.

ganism, maybe. Reproduction through broad-

The intercom rang a single, chime-like note.

cast fission.”

“What is it, Komal?” Indrani asked. “Have

Over the radio, Geeta added, “And it is still Geeta and Parul completed the mission?”

developing. We can see what looks like the

“Call up the external view of Spire 4,” he start of a neocortical column. And a rim of par-said.

allel structures are reacting to the sunlight as Indrani touched the wall. We were suddenly the clouds pass by. I believe they are clusters of looking out on Geeta and Parul. They were sit-photoreceptor cells.”

ting vertically on the spire, a startling picture

“Eyes?” Indrani asked helplessly.

of two beings on the edge of karmic oblivion.

“Primitive eyes, yes.”

A huge purple flower had blossomed at the

“It is clearly waiting for more debris,” I in-termination point. It had grown out of the dou-sisted. “It is even calling to the other pieces.”

ble-strand and was unfurling ghostly, semi-And I told her about the sonic booms.

transparent petals even as we watched.

My superior off icer settled into a pained,

“Jiva,” Komal insisted.

contemplative meditation, while I allowed my-From the screen, our coworkers chanted in
self a tiny pleasure: my newfound sense of pur-unison, “Jiva. It is jiva!”

pose. When had I ever been a decider in my Within the blossoming creature, new struc-life?

tures were forming before our eyes. I gasped as I continued, “The debris coalesces into a
the quivering petals began to split and sprout, gestalt organism. Instead of needing a sperm bizarre cilia-like tendrils shivering into exis-and egg, it develops out of this fragmentary tence from the flower’s edges. The cilia grew material. This material that we have been sys-before our eyes and began to whip into the tematically destroying and disposing of.”

wind, as if trying to produce sonic booms, but And I thought: What are the parents? Was
lacking the length—at least for now—to suc-there some bizarre garden of alien f lowers ceed. I thought: It’s trying to communicate!

down on the Tempestan surface, thrusting

I turned to Indrani in triumph. “The debris stamens out into the wind to shake loose this is alive!”

bioluminescent pollen? But that was impossi-

“But we were told—”

ble: planetary ladar, ultrasonics, and Doppler

“A lie,” I interrupted.

would have pinged back something that

Indrani pulled herself out of the coffer and large.

dropped to her knees before the screen. Her I turned to Komal. “You suspected this all eyes were wet.

along.”

94

BRIAN TRENT

MARCH 2015

He gave me an inscrutable look from the

“Then why the hell are we climbing the lad-floor. “I’ve been thinking about it since we arder?” I demanded.

rived two years ago. I didn’t believe the

He winced at my vulgarity. “It was your sug-polyresin explanation.”

gestion.”

Indrani was breathing heavily; panic

And Indrani added, “You were bent on rid-
squirmed in her neck. “We’ve broken the first ing the ladder, Preema. We did not want you vow, the law of Ahimsa.”

doing it alone.”

“We did not know,” I protested.

“I suggested it because we need to do some-But she only repeated in her crystalline
thing. Bellcap 51 is one of eighty different pro-voice, “Ignorance does not excuse the damage cessing stations. We need to go to the source!”

we have done. We went from one Great Hunt

I hesitated. “If you disagreed with this course to another.”

of action, why let me go at all?”

I thought of the Jain holy words: I forgive all

“Let you go?” Komal frowned, and he and Inliving beings. May all living beings forgive us.

drani exchanged a look. “How would we stop All living beings are our friends.We have mal-you? All living things must go their own way.

ice toward none.

You decided on this course of action.”

For two years we had been collecting and I shouted, “But I am only a kid!”

destroying the debris in Tempest’s atmo-

“You are an adult,” Indrani chastised. “We at-sphere. For thirty years before that, others had tempted to convince you that this was the
done the same. We had been interfering with wrong course of action. I explained that you’d the life cycle of an indigenous species!

be disobeying another order of mine. You dis-

“Something on Tempest is trying to breed,” I agreed with our reasoning.”

repeated. “And someone wants to prevent that

“Your reasons,” I countered hotly, “were for from happening. Why?”

us to do nothing! You did not even think to de-Komal shook his head. “I think they are al-activate the bristles until that third ribbon was ready extinct. The debris are all that remain of murdered! You have not decided anything!”

them, like the pollen of a long-deceased

“We decided to watch the flower grow,” she flower. Whatever produced them is dead.”

said. “See what it becomes to—”

“And that is why we must confront our em-

“Watch the flower grow?!” My outrage ployers,” I declared, snapping open the eleva-boiled up and over the rigid walls of my Jain tor shutter. The skies outside were black; we training, and now that it was out, uncaged were seventy miles up now, in the highest
and unchained, I clearly understood why the reaches of Tempest’s atmosphere. My bones
rest of the Universe laughed at us. Why we felt as light as young bamboo.

were so readily the butt of jokes. How inef-

“We shall f ind out what’s been happening
fectual we were even in the face of genocide!

here,” I said. “We will put a stop to it once and I even understood the perverse pleasure the for . . .”

Midsummerans must have enjoyed, seeing

I caught my fellow Jains’ expressions in the our youngest members falling straight down glass.

the evolutionary ladder with them into the

“What?” I asked, confused.

barbarism they argued was the natural state

“Preema, how will confronting our employ-
of mankind. After all, wasn’t it barbarism—
ers help?” Indrani asked.

and audacity—that had propelled humanity

And Komal added, “Exactly. What do you
to the stars? What audacity had we ever
think this confrontation will accomplish?”

shown? We hadn’t fought for the living crea-I stared disbelievingly at them. “It will stop tures of Midsummer’s Dream; we had aban-this cycle of evil!”

doned them, their planet, and f led into the But he only said, “Great secrets have been clouds.

covered by great expense and effort. Only

Indrani regarded me with piteous, tortured great power can change that, and what power eyes. “The ladder controlman is named An-do we have?”

tarag Vel-Heth. He is the one you will be deal-

“We have—”

ing with.”

“We abandoned the horror of power when

My stomach sank. “Who I will be dealing we left Midsummer.”

with?”

KARMA AMONG THE CLOUD KINGS

95

ANALOG

“This is your decision.” Indrani hesitated.

The safer route was to neurocast into re-

“Perhaps it is your karma to do this, Preema.”

mote-controlled, fake bodies to pass the long

“How do we distinguish karma from pure
hours.

foolishness?”

Antarag rushed over to us, wires dangling

“Following one’s karma opens the right
from his head. He vigorously shook our hands path.”

in turn. “What occasion is this? Bellcap 51 hon-

“What do I say to him?”

ors me with a visit! Come in! The never-ending

“What do you want of him?”

party’s in full swing!”

“To stop killing the debris! To find out why Indrani and Komal bowed but made no ef-this policy of murder was first enacted!”

fort to accept his invitation.

“Then it seems,” Komal said, rising, “That We had met Antarag two years ago, upon
you do know what to say. Follow your karma, our immigration from Midsummer’s Dream to
honor your oaths. It is all we have left,
accept jobs manning Bellcap 51. He’d seemed Preema.”

a sweaty, ragged shell of a man then. The

The elevator car closed in on Lindorm Refu-phrase “strung-out” had occurred to me, and eling Station.

now I saw this was truer than I’d realized. He was an emaciated thing. Unhealthy and un-VI.

shaven, unshowered and unkempt.

Ladder Controlman Antarag Vel-Heth did not It was difficult to concentrate on him, how-greet us at the airlock. He did not greet us in ever, with the nightmare party of plastic peo-the hallway leading to the controller room. It ple behind him.

was only when we entered the heart of his do-Antarag saw my fascination. “Preema, was it?

main that he swiveled around in his chair to of-Here, try this!” He handed me a weighty visor.

fer a brisk, welcoming salute

“This will let you see and hear what they do.”

He was surrounded by a macabre dance of

He noticed Indrani and Komal’s reluctance to plastic people.

get too close. Strangely, this seemed to amuse Ships refueling in Tempest orbit perch care-rather than offend him. “You guys don’t mind fully above the station to receive their hydro-if Preema has a look, do you?”

gen. That period of refueling takes time. You

“We each make our own decisions,” Indrani
don’t cross hundreds of millions of miles for a stated evenly.

quick drink at the watering hole; you fill your The mannequins were terrible creations;
tanks to bursting. Tempest has multiple ships they reminded me of holographic cutaways I’d in orbit at any time, guzzling away from the lad-seen of the human body. Jaws f lapped, arms der’s trans-atmospheric tethers. This means waved, bodies waltzed drunkenly and strolled that the crews have time to kill. Time to social-with each other, rubbery fingers entwined as ize. To meet and greet the visitors from other couples lurched off to private corners.

worlds.

“What . . . what are they doing?” I gasped.

The thing about Tempest, however, is that

Antarag looked immensely pleased. “Eating.

it’s dangerous to take a shuttle down to the lad-Talking.”

der’s Control Station for a multiworld shindig.

“What are they eating?”

The gravity-well itself would burn up a lot of Chuckling, he rattled off a lengthy list of fuel, but that’s the least concern. There are foodstuffs. Steak and potato pancakes. Sun-storms here that are older than human civiliza-daes, raspberry tarts, and a litany of meat and tion. Storms which, back when humankind
dairy meals. Things stolen from other bodies.

was f irst learning to press wisdom into clay Except in this case, the foods weren’t real.

tablets on the birthworld, were already fo-Nothing was being stolen.

menting here on Tempest, gathering moisture Except life, I thought. The lives of those and energy, churning in maelstroms now am-creatures on Tempest.

ber with the wrath of millennia. We had names Indrani finally piped up from the doorway.

for these storms; they were Tempest’s curious

“Antarag? If Preema were to wear your visor, celebrities, and to enter the planet’s atmo-would she look like you to the guests?”

sphere was like feeding oneself to terrible alien The Controlman didn’t look away
gods.

from me—I blushed under his hot stare. “Yes.

96

BRIAN TRENT

MARCH 2015

Everyone here can be anything they want,
can it be that none of them know Fenton is even me.”

sleeping with Jezebel and Sinaga? I mean, Indrani nodded. “Borrowing someone’s kar-they’re sisters! Don’t they ever talk?”

ma. Interesting. Don’t you agree, Preema?” She

“I do not know,” I say truthfully. “Actually, I looked expectantly at me, and I suddenly unwas wondering if there was any gossip about derstood:

Bellcap 51?”

Karma opens the right path.

“You mean the freaks?” Captain Finch asks.

Antarag rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “As I The woman’s eyes brighten. “Yes, the freaks recall, Preema, one of your sacred oaths is to of 51!” She laughs wickedly and grabs a fistful always tell the truth.”

of grapes from a silver platter. I try not to think

“To never tell a lie,” I corrected him, and I about her rubbery framework pawing at emp-motioned for his own visor. “May I?”

ty air.

He handed me the visor. “I’d like to ask you Finch shrugs. “What about them? They’re
something, Preema. And I expect you to tell like monks or something, aren’t they?”

me the truth.”

My mind scrambles to respond. “Well . . . um

“Yes?”

. . . they are down there disposing of all that de-

“Why did you come up here today? What’s bris, and they, um, don’t even know what the the real reason you people stopped by for a debris is.”

visit?”

I’m gambling, and my heart stops as I behold And just then, the security alarm went off.

their puzzled expressions. I had been counting on the idea that they knew about the debris.

VII.

Someone here must know!

Antarag Vel-Heth leaps up, cursing, wires

“Antarag,” the captain starts, “What do you trailing, and dashes down the hall to where the think they’d do if we told them? Pray hard in alarm was triggered. His pistol is in his hand, our direction?”

and I almost scream, thinking of Komal—my

“Told them what?”

grandfather—in danger.

“About the jellies!” the woman shouts.

“Now’s your chance,” Indrani whispers,

“They talk about it on the bridge sometimes.

looking stricken. “Quickly, Preema!”

Were they really that dangerous?”

I affix the heavy visor to my face.

Captain Finch strokes her hair absently. “It I become Antarag.

took fifty years and an entire armada to subdue Not the real Antarag, of course, but his ide-them. So yeah, they were pretty fucking dan-alized avatar—the bulging, muscular specimen gerous, Darlene.”

of crude masculinity from a high gravity plan-Treading carefully even as my stomach
et. The plastic people are replaced once more knots, I try a further prompt. “Did you see by beautiful illusions.

these jellies for yourself, Finch?”

When I speak through the headset micro-

He gives me a sharper, more perplexed look.

phone it is not my voice, nor his, but a gruff

“What are you talking about? Are you drunk?

baritone from his preferred play-list:

Truly drunk? You hoarding the real stuff down

“How are you enjoying yourselves?” I ask
there in your prison?”

them.

“I am not drunk.”

The crowd barely hears me. Only the near-

“Then you know perfectly well how we
est man, Captain Jason Finch of Winter’s
killed them together, my friend!”

Tale according to the ID bubble f loating near

“Oh,” I say, and then quickly, truthfully, add, his head, stirs drunkenly, a glass of liquor in

“I’d like to hear you tell the story. I’m guessing one hand and a sultry, supple female cling-Darlene would as well.”

ing to neck. “Everything’s great, Antarag, as He sits straighter in his chair, looking unusual.”

comfortable. “Antarag and I were part of the

“Good.” I hesitate. “Ever visit the Bellcaps?”

armada, Darlene. We didn’t have an armada at He squints at me. “The Bellcaps?”

f irst. It started with exploratory ships drop-At this, the girl around his neck jerks to at-ping into orbit when we first got into this sys-tention. “Oh yes! Let’s hear more gossip! I love tem. Those early captains must have shit them-that last story you told about Bellcap 17! How selves when they saw how many jellies were KARMA AMONG THE CLOUD KINGS

97

ANALOG
floating in Tempest’s atmosphere! There were

“Brilliant and deadly.”

millions! Huge, floating gasbags!”

“How did you kill them off ?”

“And you popped them!” the woman gig-

Captain Finch is silent for a while. He’s for-gles. “Popped them like balloons!”

gotten his request for cognac. “Had to go be-The man hesitates; the grim intensity on his hind the IPC’s back. Got together thirty merce-face is no illusion, and I think about how the nary ships, costly as hell. Then . . .” His eyes neurocast transmitter must be accurately por-focus on some faraway point in space and
traying his real face from whichever ship his memory.

body is in. “No,” he mutters, “Not as easy as

“Then?” I prompt, feeling sick.

popping balloons. When the f irst ships ar-

“Then we showed up in high orbit and start-rived, there was no fighting because those jel-ed blasting the things to smithereens. Practicallies were merely curious about us.”

ly set the atmosphere on fire doing it.”

“They were intelligent?” I cry.

Darlene applauds, grapes f lying from her

“Fucking brilliant. When they realized our hands.

intention was to take the planet’s hydrogen,

“I wasn’t f inished!” the captain’s eyes are they began a systematic opposition. Started ha-hard. “Even with all those ships, the gasbags rassing the building crews. So we took to build-put up a hell of a fight! They split up into roving in space, where the jellies couldn’t get at ing bands and shot at us with plasma. Took us. But once we eased the Bellcaps into place, down half our f leet! We had to park farther the jellies would dismantle them. Pried them and farther out from Tempest, staying out of apart at the seams and threw them down to
range. Practically had to squint to see what we the planetary surface.” He motions for some-were shooting at.”

thing more to drink.

“But you cleared them out,” Darlene says,

I can’t get him a new drink; I didn’t have An-confused by his anger. “So all was fine!”

tarag’s holodisplay menu gauntlet.

“All was not fine! It took years to kill them

“A drink!” Finch demands. “Antarag?”

all off, do you hear me? We started calling Thinking fast, I lean forward and pluck a
them the Cloud Kings, because ‘jellies’ didn’t half-filled glass that is already on the table and do justice to their cunning, their sense of pur-hand it to him. He imbibes the clear f luid, pose. A king defends his kingdom, right? And makes a face. “You know I drink cognac! Get these things had a world to defend. When we me some!”

finally cleared them out . . . there was debris.

“Finish the story,” I say. “I really, really want Pieces of them everywhere. And that’s when to hear this. So does she.”

we discovered those pieces could reunite.

“Yes,” Darlene encourages, flinging another They would reconstitute with the memories
grape from her fist into the air and catching it of dozens of outraged predecessors. And they with her teeth. “Didn’t you tell me they shot remembered! Remembered our tactics and lightning out of their bodies?”

weapons. . . . They started the fucking war all

“Plasma,” the captain corrects her. “Bright, over, again, only now we had fewer ships, and hot plasma that turned our equipment into
the fucking IPC was setting up a local system of-f ireworks and f laming wrecks. We tried all fice. We barely put the jellies down again. The kinds of defensive measures. After some seven-bristles . . .” He nods, satisfied, though I imag-teen trillion tradenotes wasted on that shit, we ine that his real body in its high-orbital ship is petitioned the IPC Congress for an attack fleet shivering and sweating as he relives the
to subdue the natives.” He shakes his head in sweaty hell of old days. “The bristles keep disgust. “Bunch of weak-kneed elitist philoso-them dead.”

phers! We needed the hydrogen! Do you have For a long moment he says nothing more.

any idea how the economy would collapse

People get up and skip off to private corners without it? But the IPC was content to sit on for secret intimacies. Even Darlene soon tires their asses, whining about genocide. Genocide of his silence, and she leaves for entertainment applies to people, not gasbags.”

elsewhere.

I can’t help myself. The words blurt out of Finally, Finch scowls at me. “You’re an ass-their own accord. “But they were intelligent, hole, Antarag. You know I can’t stand remem-you said! Brilliant.”

bering those days. You think you’re something 98

BRIAN TRENT

MARCH 2015
special, maneuvering yourself into this king-shit

“You wanted to get your rocks off?” he post, but look at you—You’re a glorified maitre shouts in his high-pitched cackle. “The good d’!” He stands and hurls his empty glass to the little Jain girl wanted to sow some wild oats.

floor. Fragments shower our feet and instantly Ha!”

dissolve into pixels. At the same time, a re-I hang my head in shame. Not any shame
placement glass appears on the table, but by that I feel. The shame that we all deserve, all then Captain Finch has already vanished too, those who participated—willingly or not—in abandoning the party altogether like a discon-the murder of an entire planet.

tented spirit fleeing newly consecrated land.

Antarag stomps around in a circle, laughing I’m sliding the visor off my face when crude and holding his stomach with his pistol-hand.

hands wrestle me out of the chair.

“Oh! You little lying whore. The perfect little people of the perfect little faith.” He rushes VIII.

over to me and grasps my shoulders. “Did you Controlman Vel-Heth stands me up and
eat steak? Or was it a different kind of meat you shoves me into the midst of Indrani and Komal.

wanted to put in you?”

He waves the pistol with menace, his eyes

Indrani cuts in and takes my hand. “We are clouded in a rage that seems entirely out of done here,” she snaps, leading me away from proportion to the alarm. Here’s a man not used room, toward the elevator. I catch a glint of to being challenged or deceived, I think.

pride, not anger, in her eyes. She squeezes my

“What were you doing?” he demands of my
hand in a rare allowance of emotion.

grandfather. “Tell me straight: What were you

“Thank you, mother,” I whisper.

doing in the storeroom, Komal?”

“Thank you, daughter,” she whispers back.

“Weapons are not necessary. We are paci-

And from behind us, Antarag cries out, “You fists. We will not fight you.”

people made my day!”

“Then answer me, old man.”

Strange, I think, how utterly genuine he

Komal sighs in his beard. “I was distracting sounds as he says it. Even madmen can, from you,” he says.

time to time, speak the truth.

Antarag’s eyes sharpen. “From what, you
bastard?!”

IX.

Komal remains silent. The Controlman clos-

Eight months pass.

es one eye and draws a bead on Komal’s knee, Twelve more teams of Jains immigrate from
and I crazily think: He’ll never walk with grand-Midsummer’s Dream, replacing Bellcap teams mother again.

who are only too happy to abandon their te-

“Stop!” I cry. “Komal was distracting you
dious, low-paying posts. Once they’re settled from what I was doing.”

in in their own Bellcaps, Komal pays them

Antarag nods vigorously. “I f igured that
personal visits and explains what has been much. What were you doing, you little bitch?”

happening. He tells them of the genocide on

“It was my idea to come up here, and that is Tempest. And they are only too happy, after the truth. I . . .”

hearing the tale, to deactivate the spire bris-I thought of all the creatures that had been tles.

murdered. A genocide over decades. An entire The jellies—the Cloud Kings—have been
species driven into oblivion.

growing and multiplying, as a result.

Controlman Vel-Heth roars, “Tell me!”

They are truly immense creatures, and yet I I stammer, looking guiltily to the plastic peo-know it’s unlikely they’ve attained the full girth ple. “I wanted to . . .” I look toward the plastic of adulthood in only eight months. Already people with a pained expression. “You know.”

they are half as large as the Bellcap stations.

Silence has many uses.

They grow out of the debris, which continues Komal turns away in disgust and marches
to accumulate here in greater and greater num-back towards the elevator. Indrani shakes her bers. Piece by piece, the ancient race is putting head sadly and mutters, “Oh Preema!”

itself back together.

But Antarag’s eyes bulge in astonishment. A Intelligent? Yes indeed. Indrani and Parul grin cracks his knobby face and he throws his devised a rudimentary system of communica-head back with a hideous laugh.

tion involving pulses of colored light. The KARMA AMONG THE CLOUD KINGS

99

ANALOG

Cloud Kings gather around the Bellcaps now

“They did not tell us,” Komal mutters. “The like friendly balloons. They allow the air-ladar showed them moving off in an unexpect-borne slugs to alight on them, as must have ed migration. We asked them what they were been the pattern long ago. They don’t tell us doing, but they did not respond.”

much, but we have managed to convey our

My stomach knots, and I swallow down a
intentions. In return, they have expressed welling of emotions I do not care to identify.

their thanks. They have promised not to hurt

“They have all changed to the same color,” I us.

observe as they ascend out of sight, converg-Us.

ing like tiny fires on Lindorm Refueling Station.

As in, the ones who helped them. As in, the

“They have been blue or green or violet for ones who stopped the genocide and allowed
months. Now they are all red.”

them to come back from the dead.

My grandfather nods. “The colors derive

Now, I stand outside on the atmoprocessor
from their emotional state. Blue and green are spire with Komal and Indrani and Parul and closest to friendly curiosity. Violet appears to Geeta, watching the Cloud Kings depart. They be a state of equanimity.”

fill the sky above us like fiery halos ascending

“And what are they feeling now?”

toward heaven.

“Rage,” my grandfather says, his voice tinny

“What triggered their flight?” I ask. “Where in my headset. “Every last one of them is filled are they going?”

with rage. . . .” ■

100

BRIAN TRENT

THE REFERENCE LIBRARY Don Sakers he other day I was shooing some young

Today’s readers join a conversation that’s whippersnappers off my lawn (as one
been in progress for (in some cases) a century does), and they asked a question that de-or longer. For a reader interested in ideas, it’s Tserves discussion:whyshould today’s not enough to know how Ann Leckie portrays readers care about the history of science fic-artificial intelligence in her Hugo-winning nov-tion?

el Ancillary Justice . . . one needs to know After all, there’s plenty of new stuff to read.

how Robert J. Sawyer did it, and Charles Stross, It’s been at least two generations since any and Peter F. Hamilton, Chris Moriarty, Greg one person could keep up with all the SF pub-Egan, and Melissa Scott. Of course, their work lished in a given year. Younger readers strug-was in response to the ideas of Vernor Vinge, gle to keep up with current magazines (tradi-Dan Simmons, Iain M. Banks, and William Gib-tional or online), podcasts, video (tv, movies, son . . . who in turn were responding to the and games), and books; why should they wor-likes of Douglas Adams and David Gerrold,
ry about older stuff ?

who responded to Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur Besides, older SF—particularly the clas-C. Clarke, Jack Williamson, and Murray Lein-sics—suffer from the linguistic style and social ster, who wrote in response to Isaac Asimov, attitudes of their time. Younger readers find Lester del Rey, and Eando Binder, who were in-the SF of the past stilted and unexciting, and spired by Karel Capek and Mary Shelley . . . and they chafe at the lack of human diversity and so on. (In the name of simplicity, I’ve left out overuse of stereotypes. So why bother?

many more authors, as well as tv, movies,

I have two answers, and which one I give
comics, and video games—all of which have
depends on why one chooses to read SF to be-said important things about A.I.)

gin with.

To a process-oriented, idea-driven kind of Some SF readers are primarily after adven-reader, there are few things more satisfying ture and excitement, sense of wonder, and/or than this multi-dimensional game of ideas.

the experience of otherness that SF evokes so Okay, granting that knowing something of
well. These readers can skip the older stuff the history of SF is a good thing, where can without harm. Oh, we oldsters know all the the current reader learn about that history?

gems they’re missing—but they have enough

A great place to start is an article title “His-gems to keep them happy.

tory of SF” in the Science Fiction Encyclope-Other SF readers are primarily in it for the dia at www.sf-encyclopedia.com. This well-re-ideas. These are the problem-solvers, the
searched site is highly browsable, with many process-oriented folks. Most, if not all, Analog links to cross-references that can keep one readers fall into this category. And to this kind busy for hours.

of reader, a familiarity with what’s come be-There are dozens, if not hundreds, of books fore is essential.

about the history of the field, most of them To these readers, SF is larger than any one readily available. Two of my particular fa-book, author, or subgenre. SF is an exchange vorites are The Trillion Year Spree by Brian W.

of ideas, a decades-long conversation of “what Aldiss (1986) and The Visual Encyclopedia of if ?” in which authors respond to one another Science Fiction by Brian Ash (1983). You can in ringing the changes on any number of con-find a fairly comprehensive bibliography of cepts: politics, religion, the nature of identity works about SF at Washington State Universi-and intelligence, free will vs. determinism, the ty at public.wsu.edu/~brians/science_fic-
meaning of life.

tion/sfresearch.html—but be aware that this 101

ANALOG
bibliography hasn’t been updated since 2008, Amazing, and author Murray Leinster; and a and it only includes resources held by the page of annotated resources. Three of the es-WSU library.

says are excerpts from books by SF historians In addition to histories of the field, there’s a Mike Ashley, John L. Coker III, and Bud Web-wealth of information, both online and in
ster.

books, on the lives and work of individual au-Scattered through all this are scores of pic-thors. Fortunately, many of the departed gi-tures, including full-color magazine and books ants of the field left us autobiographical covers.

works; scholars and other enthusiasts have For six bucks (less than the inflation-adjust-produced everything from biographies to lit-ed cost of two issues of Amazing Stories in erary criticism of major authors.

1926) this book is a must for any reader curi-And then there are the classics themselves, ous about the long-ago beginnings of our field.

the SF books and stories written by these ti-Until real time travel comes along, this is as tans of the past. Next month, I’ll talk about close as most of us can come to experiencing how to find the classics.

those halcyon days.

Meanwhile, here are some goodies for you.

If sfhistory.net can keep up their project, Futures Past promises to be a vital reference Futures Past: 1926: The Birth of Modern Scion the history of SF, a gift to the future.

ence Fiction
edited by Jim Emerson

Harry Harrison, Harry Harrison!

sfhistory.net, 64 pages, $6.00 (pdf e-book) Harry Harrison

Series: Futures Past 1

Tor, 352 pages, $26.99 (hardcover)

Genre: Nonfiction

Kindle: $11.04, Nook: $12.99 (e-book)

ISBN: 978-0-7653-3308-7

For those interested in the history of the SF

Genre: Nonfiction
field, Futures Past is a promising, ambitious new series. This is the first of a planned fifty The late Harry Harrison was no stranger to quarterly volumes, each covering a year from these pages. Although best known for his hu-1926–1975. At the moment, the idea is to pub-morous Stainless Steel Rat series (The Stain-lish each full-color volume in pdf format at less Steel Rat, 1961, and sequels), he also
sfhistory.net; if there’s enough interest, there’s wrote popular SF adventure (such as Death-the possibility of hardcover publication in the world, 1960, and sequels) as well as highly-re-future.

garded serious work like the Eden trilogy

This short book is a labor of love, and it (West of Eden, 1984, and sequels) and the shows. The layouts are gorgeous, the informa-Hammer and the Cross trilogy (The Hammer tion invaluable, and the coverage exhaustive.

and the Cross, 1993, and sequels). His near-fu-Whether you’re a nostalgic old-timer or a
ture SF book Make Room! Make Room!

brand-new reader, you’re going to find lots (1966) was adapted into the 1973 movie Soy-here to enjoy.

lent Green. In 2009 the Science Fiction Writ-The year 1926 is generally considered the
ers of America awarded Harrison their Grand beginning of modern science fiction; it’s the Master award.

year Hugo Gernsback first published Amazing When Harrison passed away in August

Stories, the original SF magazine. This volume 2012, he was still working on this autobiogra-jumps right in with a facsimile of Gernsback’s phy. His daughter Moira was instrumental in editorial on the first page of that first issue, bringing the finished book to publication. We and goes from there.

owe her a great debt for her efforts, for our There are capsule biographies of important world would be poorer without this book.

SF figures; insanely-detailed chronologies of Harry Harrison was the kind of author
events both within the field and outside; cov-who could make even a shopping list com-
ers and contents of every issue of the impor-pelling. But he led a life a lot more interesting tant magazines; covers and descriptions of than a shopping list, and his autobiography is the SF books, films, and plays of 1926; essays as hard to put down as any of his adventure on Weird Tales magazine, Gernsback and stories.

102

DON SAKERS

MARCH 2015

A science fiction fan from the very begin-

The major section of the Handbook of
ning (he was a charter member of the Queens Vance Space is an encyclopedia-style listing of Science Fiction League in 1938), Harrison was planets, stars, space stations, nations, and oth-an illustrator, writer, and editor in comic er entities in Vance’s SF. Appendices cover books and pulp magazines before he became
everything from star maps and chronologies a full-time SF writer. He wrote newspaper
to the details of sports and phases of the comic strips, including a decade-long run on moons of the world Marune.

Flash Gordon. With Brian Aldiss he edited an This book is (hugely) expanded from a 1997
annual Year’s Best SF series from 1968-1976.

chapbook called Vance Space.

A prominent figure in the Esperanto com-

If you’re a fan of Vance, you need this book.

munity, Harrison was an internationalist. He If you’ve never read Vance, or are just a casual and his family lived all over the world: Mexico, reader, it’s still fascinating. And don’t worry England, Italy, Denmark, and Ireland as well as about spoilers: the author has concealed “sen-various locations in the United States. He was sitive information” behind a simple cipher so a founding member of the organization World they can’t spoil a story by accident.

SF. He attended international SF conventions and gatherings (many of which he also helped Channel 37: Season One!

organize) everywhere from Brazil to Russia.

Paul Lagasse and Gary Lester

Harrison tells the fascinating story of his life Greyrock, 314 pages, $14.95 (paperback)

with honesty and humor, and keeps returning ISBN: 978-0-9816118-2-2
to his theme (also the book’s subtitle): “It Genre: Short Fiction Collections
seemed like a good idea at the time.” From the perspective of a true world citizen, he re-Back in the April 2012 issue, I talked about minds us that SF transcends nation, language, the website channel-37.net, where Paul La-and culture. Like many of the giants of our gasse and Gary Lester posted short stories in-field, Harrison’s life was the history of science spired by the kind of late-night SF movies that fiction.

were featured on UHF TV channels of the

Above all else, Harry Harrison’s life was fun 1950s through 1970s.

. . . and this book conveys every fun moment Now the fruits of their labor are collected along the way. Definitely recommended.

between covers as Channel 37: Season One, a collection that pays homage both to late-night Handbook of Vance Space
tv and to the old pulp SF stories of the early Michael Andre-Driussi
days.

Sirius, 216 pages, $32.95 (hardcover), $16.95

Here are complete serials such as “The Ter-

(paperback)

ror From the Other Dimension!” and “They

ISBN: 978-0-9642795-6-8 (hc), 978-0-9642795-Came From New Jersey!”—complete with hi-

7-5 (pb)

larious fictional details of the “films” and the Genre: Nonfiction

“studios” that supposedly issued them. Here’s space opera “Space Repairman,” which “began Yes, the title makes it sound like a particu-as a replacement series for a Saturday morning larly obscure mathematics textbook. Instead, children’s puppet show called Playtime With it’s and encyclopedia-style reference to the sci-Mister Cat and His Furry Friends on station ence fiction of Jack Vance.

XHFD in Hartford, Connecticut” before becom-Vance, who died in May 2013, was another
ing a world-wide television sensation.

of the greats of the field. Multiple Hugo Award Written with tongues firmly in cheek, this winner, he was named SFWA Grand Master in
book should be read the same way. The re-

1997. In science fiction, he was particularly ward is adventure, fun, and a dash of old-fash-known for Big Planet (1957), The Dragon ioned sense of wonder.

Masters (1963), and the Demon Princes series (The Star King, 1964, and sequels). He was Red Tide
equally accomplished in fantasy (the Dying Larry Niven, Brad R.Torgersen, and Matthew J.

Earth series and the Lyonesse trilogy) and in Harrington
the mystery field.

Phoenix Pick, 212 pages, $14.99 (paperback) THE REFERENCE LIBRARY

103

ANALOG

Kindle: $6.99, Nook: $12.99 (e-book)

Hieroglyph: Stories & Visions for a Better Future ISBN: 978-0-61242-132-2
edited by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer

Series: Stellar Guild, Flash Crowd

William Morrow, 532 pages, $27.99 (hardcover) Genre:Teleportation

Kindle: $14.44, iBooks, Nook: $16.99 (e-book) ISBN: 978-0-06-220469-1

One of the topics in the ongoing conversa-

Genre: Original Anthology
tion of SF is teleportation. Back in the 1970s, Larry Niven rang the changes on the concept From the very beginning, science fiction
in his Flash Crowd series of short fiction (behas been about inspiring innovation. In that ginning with “Flash Crowd,” 1973) and even a very first issue of Amazing Stories, Hugo nonfiction article (“The Theory and Practice Gernsback said, “. . . the best of these modern of Teleportation,” 1969). Now he’s back again, writers of scientifiction have the knack of im-along with two partners, for more stories on parting knowledge, and even inspiration,
the topic.

without once making us aware that we are be-The gimmick behind Phoenix Pick’s Stellar
ing taught.”

Guild series (edited by Mike Resnick) is pair-This spirit lives on in Neal Stephenson’s Pro-ing a novelette by an established writer with a ject Hieroglyph, headquartered at Arizona
companion piece by a newer name. In this

State University’s Center for Science and the case, there are two junior authors: Brad R.

Imagination. In a 2011 essay called “Innova-Torgersen and Matthew J. Harrington. In addition Starvation” (reprinted in this volume), tion, Niven rewrote the original “Flash

Stephenson talked about SF’s power to pro-

Crowd” into the title piece, “Red Tide,” as vide concrete illustrations of compelling inno-well as a new short story.

vations; like hieroglyphs, SF stories provide As you’d expect, Niven’s teleportation is
easily-grasped symbols for complex techno-
nuts-and-bolts technology, consistent with the logical and social concepts.

laws of physics (including kinetic energy and This anthology presents a dozen and a half conservation of momentum). But technology
stories by the likes of Stephenson, Gregory alone doesn’t make a story, and these tales are Benford, David Brin, Cory Doctorow, Geoffrey all about the impact of teleportation on indi-A. Landis, Karl Schroeder, Bruce Sterling, and viduals and society.

many others. Topics range from Lunar colo-

“Red Tide” sets the stage with news re-
nization to urban engineering. But the fiction porter Jerryberry Jansen’s pursuit of a new so-is only half the content: the stories are sup-cial phenomenon, the flash crowd: instant
ported with commentary, technical articles, mobs in which hundreds or thousands of peo-and speculations by multiple contributors.

ple worldwide converge on any event appear-Most of this additional content isn’t actually in ing in the news. Niven’s second story, “Dial at the book: it appears on the Project Hieroglyph Random,” deals with Hilar y Firestone, a
website. Links in the book point the way to in-teenager with a defective teleportation pass dividual articles.

that allows her to materialize at any random If you read SF for speculation about techno-destination, even those protected by heavy se-logical and social innovation—and if you’re curity. When she gets into the experimental reading Analog, it’s a fair bet you do—this an-teleport network of the JumpShift corpora-
thology and the associated website will give tion, the fun really begins. . . .

you plenty of reward.

Torgersen’s “Sparky the Dog” is a story from And now I’m out of space—so like the earthe early days of JumpShift, a tale of industrial ly days of SF, I’m history. Until next time, en-espionage, betrayal, and a brave canine. And joy. ■

Harrington’s “Displacement Activity” is a brilliant demonstration of how teleportation links garbage disposal with space exploration.

Don Sakers is the author of Children of the Four stories, all thoughtful and entertaining, Eighth Day and Meat and Machine. For more all playing with one of the most fascinating and information, visit www.scatteredworlds.com.

dramatic concepts in SF—what’s not to like?

104

DON SAKERS

ANALOG

BRASS TACKS
i,
standing how such a wholesale alteration could For no apparent reason I thought of you
be accommodated within the animal’s genetic guys today, and I wondered if you were
code would be fascinating. (Not that how any-Hstill around.I subscribed when I was thing done within the code isn’t,of course.) about 14 years old and kept the subscription on Anyway: Thanks again.

and off for probably ten years or so until I gradu-Jim Hall
ated from college as a mechanical engineer. I’m Colchester, CT

64 now.

So I punch you into Google and there you are Quite a few butterflies and moths have had and I had to smile at that. I still remember the their genomes sequenced. In fact, researchers thick, small-format, odd-sized paperbacks and I can head to www.butterf lygenome.org to enjoyed reading them.

browse the genomes of the forty or so species in Good for you guys and well done. It is a legacy the Heliconius genus of butterfly alone.

worth keeping alive.

Very simply, the genetic instructions that Steve Johnson

“make” both caterpillar and butterfly or moth are present at all of the animal’s life stages, but Dear Analog,
only one set of those instructions are expressed David Brin’s “Chrysalis” [October 2014] is the at a time.

best story in Analog in a long time. Possibly his Donald Williamson at the University of Liver-best work.

pool has put forth the theory that the adult form Almost every paragraph adds to the scientific of the animal is actually a completely new or-foundation of the story and moves it along smart-ganism, one of two mated but genetically unin-ly. The twist at the end really added to the inter-tegrated creatures from the distant past.To say esting possibilities of the story.

the theory has been pretty thoroughly rebutted Harold Parks
is putting it lightly; it has helped inform some Minden, NV
good science fiction, like “Chrysalis,”though.

Mr. Quachri:

Dear Trevor:

Just a note of thanks for including “Chrysalis”

I have been a subscriber since the late 50s and in your October 2014 issue of Analog. I found it have a complete collection of ASF starting with both original and thought-provoking.

the August 1948 issue. In all those issues, I don’t A couple of the thoughts which came to my
remember seeing such a perfect match as Richard mind:

A. Lovett’s guest editorial “IndigNation” and the I can only imagine, having just finished Earth letter from Ron Gould in the October 2014 issue.

Awakens, the latest in the Ender series by Orson This screed perfectly illustrates Mr. Lovett’s point!

Scott Card, what Mr. Card could do with the con-Personally, I lean quite “rightwards,” but wasn’t at cept. Legalities aside, what if the Formics were all offended by the “Determined Spirits” story, found to be the “adult” stage of a humanity that and thought it was at least as well written as the we never got to because that process got turned majority of stories we get these days, and better off genetically, here, way back when? Just a than many. (I’m still partial to the “Thud and Blun-thought . . .

der” type of story, I must admit.)

I also wondered if anyone has ever done a gene In any case, I think you are doing a fine job as sequence of a caterpillar and its moth? (And editor. It can’t be easy trying to satisfy the thou-maybe its pupa stage as well.) Unlike mammals, sands of subscribers who know how to do the fish, birds, etc., the caterpillar and moth appear to job so much better than you do!

be completely different creatures, not variations Here’s wishing you many more happy years as on a common one. During the pupa stage, is the editor of my favorite SF magazine!

genetic sequence fundamentally altered? It would Bob Hubbard
seem necessary, given the transformation. Under-Winter Haven, FL

106

BRASS TACKS

MARCH 2015

Dear Editors,
our radio or watch our TV?” But it left out the an-October issue with the Schmidts [“Opportuni-swer to one important question: “If the alien civ-ty Knocks,” October 2014]. More, MORE. They ilization was technologically similar to ours, how are really fun, please encourage more more . . .

close would they have to be to detect our signals Jim Eagle

(or, from the point of view of SETI, we, theirs)?” I queried Sky & Telescope and my question was answered in their April 2012 issue. According to Dr.

Dear Friend:

Lazio, “we could only detect ourselves slightly I always find articles like Edward M. Lerner’s outside the Solar System and certainly not farther

“Alien AWOLs: The Great Silence” ( Analog, Oc-than about 1,000 a.u. [astronomical units].” For tober 2014) to be fascinating. But I always won-reference, Dr. Lazio pointed out that the Alpha der, what else should we expect?

Centauri star system, our closest stellar neighbor, Are we the only intelligent race in the Uni-is about 300,000 a.u. away.

verse? We aren’t even the only intelligent race on Why haven’t they visited us? Considering the Earth. Dolphins and their relatives and crows and number of UFO reports that have not been clas-some other birds are just some of Earth’s intelli-sified as due to swamp gas, the planet Venus, gent passengers. True, we humans are the only hoaxes, etc., and the reports of strange beings in ones with the language and dexterity to create a the various mythologies of terrestrial cultures, technological civilization. But that’s something perhaps Fermi’s question should have been
different from “intelligence.”

“Why didn’t they stick around?” Perhaps they Why haven’t we heard from other technologi-did. But would you want to visit folks whose cal civilizations, or at least eavesdropped on main method of settling disagreements is to use them? SETI programs hope to detect electromag-deadly force?

netic signals. This has always seemed a little fool-We should not be surprised if it seems that we ish to me. These travel only at the speed of light.

are alone.

Although this is pretty fast, the distances be-Jack Ryan
tween planets in our Solar System makes real-time communication from Earth for control of Editors,
space probes out at Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn im-In the November issue, the story “Flow” by Ar-practical. I can only wonder if the adjective “in-lan Andrews, Sr. generated the thought that this telligent” would be appropriate for races (our is a continuation of another story I read in Analog own included) who think that communication six months to a year ago. Nowhere is a mention with their neighbors over distances requiring of “Flow” being part 2 of a story or being associ-years, perhaps hundreds or thousands of years, ated with any other story. Every time a story or for a reply is practical.

the characters in a story are associated with a pre-Well, if two-way communication is out of the vious story you put a note about it at the end.

question, how about just sending out a “Here we Therefore I assume my mind is messing with me.

are!” message? (Considering what has happened That is why I am contacting you. I see too many every time European “aliens” contacted aborigi-similarities between “Flow” and the story I read.

nal cultures around the world, perhaps this is In fact, if I had not read this other story, some of also not such an intelligent idea.) In the January

“Flow” just would not have worked as well as it 2012 issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, Joseph does. Is “Flow” a continuation or a part 2 of an-Lazio describes a variety of ways to send signals other story? If so, what is the name of the story between stars. He also discusses the vast
and what issue of Analog was it in? If I am right, amounts of energy required for any of these then you might put a note out in a future Analog methods. Why would any “intelligent” race
to let others know of the connection.

waste such immense amounts of energy on such Randolph J. Shine
a silly, perhaps risky, mission? They probably Deerfield Beach, FL
wouldn’t.

Another way to detect alien civilizations would No, your mind (probably) isn’t messing with be to listen for their radio and TV broadcasts you.We just done goofed and left off the editor’s (eavesdrop). A sidebar to the Sky & Telescope ar-note letting readers know that “Flow”is a sequel ticle asked the question, “Could aliens listen to to “Thaw”(July/August 2013). ■

BRASS TACKS

107

UPCOMING EVENTS Anthony Lewis NOTE: Membership rates and other details

3–6 April 2015
often change after we have gone to press.

DYSPROSIUM/EASTERCON 2015 (66th

Check the websites for the most recent in-

British National SF Convention) at The Park formation.

Inn, Heathrow, London, UK. Guests of Hon-
or: Jim Butcher, Seanan McGuire, Herr Dok-
tor, Carline Mullan. Special Guest: Tanith 12–15 March 2015

Lee. Memberships until 31 January (until

OPERACON (get together celebrating the

3 Apr il 2015): Adult attending £70.00
world premiere of the new Sucharitkul opera (£80); Adult supporting £25 (£25); Junior

The Snow Dra gon) at Hilton Milwaukee Cen-

(12–17) £25 (£25); Child (6-11) £15 (£15); ter, Milwaukee, WI. Guest of Honor: Somtow Infant (0–5) £5 (£5); Apocryphal £1 (£1).

Sucharitkul (aka S. P. Somtow). Memberships Info: http://www.dyspro s i u m . o rg.uk/; through 1 November 2014: Full attending $90, enquiries@dysprosium.org.uk
attending but no opera $50, supporting $25.

Prices will be more after that date. Full attend-19–23 August 2015
ing includes opera seats plus transportation to SASQUAN (73rd World Science Fiction Con-the theatre. Info: http://www.fijagdh.com/op-
vention) at Spokane Convention Center,
eracon/; Operacon, 2337 North Lefeber Av-Spokane, WA. Guests of Honor: Brad Foster, enue, Milwaukee WI 53212 (make checks

David Gerrold, Vonda N. McIntyre, Tom
payable to Richard Smith).

Smith, Leslie Turek. Membership: currently.

Attending: Adult $170; Young adult (17–21) 20–22 March 2015

$90; Child (6–16) $70; $40. This is the SF uni-MIDSOUTHCON 33 (Mid South SF confer-
verse’s annual get-together. Professionals and ence) at Memphis Hilton, Memphis TN. Au-readers from all over the world will be in thor Guest of Honor: Cory Doctorow; Artist attendance. Talks, panels, films, fancy dress Guest of Honor: Melissa Gay; Gaming Guest of competition—the works. Nominate and

Honor: Shane Hensley; Science Guest of Hon-vote for the Hugos. Info: s a s q u a n . o rg/;
or: Ethan Siegel; Comic Guest of Honor: Eric info@sasquan.org; 15127 Main Street East,

Van Sciver; Costume/Media Guest of Honor:

Suite 104, PMB 208, Sumner WA 98390.

Dragon Dronet; Editor Guest of Honor: Eliza-beth Donald; TM: Frank Tuttle. Membership: Adult (13+) $40; Child (6–12) $20; Kid (under Running a convention? If your conven-5) Free. Info: http://www.midsouthcon.org/; tion has a telephone or fax number, e-mail info@midsouthcon.org; MidSouthCon, P.O.

address, or web page, please let us know so Box 17724, Memphis, TN 38187-0724.

that we can publish this information. We must have your information in hand SIX

26–29 March 2015
months before the date of your convention.

AGGIECON 46 (Texas A&M conference) at

Hilton Hotel and Conference Center, College Attending a convention? When calling

Station, TX. At the door memberships: Full conventions for information, do not call adult $40; Full student (18+) $25; Full
collect and do not call too late in the student (13-17) $25; Child (under 12) $15; evening. It is best to include a S.A.S.E. when Day (Fri|Sat) $20; Day (Sun) $15.Info:

requesting information; include an Interna-http://stuorg-sites.tamu.edu/~cepheid/
tional Reply Coupon if the convention is in a different country.

108

ANTHONY LEWIS

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