Part 73 (1/2)

But Harad brought down the gavel again. ”Councillor Lao.”

”The question is . . .” Thank G.o.d it was Lao's turn next. Uncle Giraud was put, because of conflict of interest. Harad of State was out because he was presiding. ”. . . very simply, why a quarantine?”

”They're unpredictable, Councillor. That's the whole thing. We have huge computers that run sociology projections, when we work with psych-sets: we try to balance populations so they end up with wide enough genepools and we check out the psychsets we use to make sure that we haven't put something together that's going to turn up social problems when everybody becomes CIT. This thing-this whole planet-is completely wild and it's all artificial, it's got no relation at all to Terran history-it's just Gehennan. We don't know what it is. That's what made Ari nervous. These azi-sets could have been under G.o.d-knows-what interventions while they still had kat and they knew they were in trouble; G.o.d knows what their Supervisors decided to tell them; or even if there were Supervisors at the last-” Tell them that, that, get them off the question about predictive sociology. ”Take these people into the Alliance or into Union and they're get them off the question about predictive sociology. ”Take these people into the Alliance or into Union and they're there there from now on, and they're from now on, and they're different. different. Ari didn't say you should never do it. She said there's a period after which it's a lot better to let Gehenna alone and let it grow up, so you can see what it's going to do when it comes into the mainstream culture. Maybe it never will get along with us. Maybe it'll be something very good. We just don't know at this point.” Ari didn't say you should never do it. She said there's a period after which it's a lot better to let Gehenna alone and let it grow up, so you can see what it's going to do when it comes into the mainstream culture. Maybe it never will get along with us. Maybe it'll be something very good. We just don't know at this point.”

”How will will you know? Didn't she run those checks?” you know? Didn't she run those checks?”

”It changes with every generation. It relates to all those psychsets. It relates to the whole mix. Our sociology programs are always improving. Ari ran it every ten years or so until she died. But her data was all just the initial stuff; she was just testing it against the new Sociology programs. We've got to set up to run with the new data. We have to do all the sets with the master-program and then we have to integrate them-that's Sociology does that. Reseune is transferring data over right now to run it. But it's huge; it takes a lot of computer time. And we need up-to-date stats. We can tell Council a lot. But we can't do it overnight and there's nothing, sera, absolutely nothing that laymen can do with that kind of stuff, either, the only computers that can run it are ours. So the best thing, the thing Reseune wants, is to keep that planet exactly the way Alliance wants to-just as little contact as possible while we do the data-collecting. It's like trying to get a good level measure with somebody bouncing the instruments, if people keep meddling there. We have to input all the influences-because just the discovery team landing there had to have done something.”

”This is not,” Khalid said, ”a playground for the Science Bureau.”

”Nor for Defense, ser,” Lao said sharply. The gavel came down.

She lay flat on the bed in the hotel, limp, while Florian and Catlin rubbed the kinks out, and she went to sleep that way, unexpectedly, just out, pop, She woke up under the covers and Florian and Catlin had the light down very low, Catlin was stretched out on the other bed, and Florian was sitting in the chair in the corner.

”G.o.d,” she said, which woke Catlin instantly. ”Get to sleep. sleep. There's battalions of Security in the hall, aren't there?” There's battalions of Security in the hall, aren't there?”

”Yes, sera,” Florian said. Catlin said: ”There are twenty-seven on duty.”

”Well, go to sleep.” go to sleep.”

Which was short, for people who loved her enough to stay awake after a day like this one, but she was still falling-over tired, and she did, just grabbed the pillow with her arm, tucked her head down and burrowed until she had a dark place.

Florian turned out the lights anyway; and she heard him cross the room and sit down on the other bed and start undressing.

She headed out again, then, a slow drift. Tomorrow morning was uncle Giraud's turn to testify. Then Secretary Lynch, of Science; Secretary Vinelli of Defense; Adm. Khalid-O G.o.d, Khalid, then her again, as soon as they got through. She hoped Giraud and Lynch did all right. But when Vinelli got up there, and Khalid, Giraud could cross-examine like everybody else.

Not saying, of course, that Khalid wouldn't go over uncle Giraud and Secretary Lynch the way he had headed at her.

It was going to be a long week.

Or two. We're going to win about the quarantine, Giraud had predicted at the outset. There's no way Union can do anything like move in on Gehenna without bringing in wars.h.i.+ps, and there's no way we're going to go to war with the Alliance to get access to Gehenna. What we can lose is what position Union takes about those people on Gehenna-whether they regard them as Union citizens and use that as a lever with the Alliance; or whether they negotiate a joint protectorate with the Alliance; and the hawks have a real stake in that: it's Khalid's political clout that's at issue here- The Centrist and the Expansionist coalitions were exactly that: coalitions. The hawks were trying to pull something different together by breaking oft bits of both, that that was what had surfaced in Khalid's rise. They were too high-up in the government to call them eetee-fringes. They were was what had surfaced in Khalid's rise. They were too high-up in the government to call them eetee-fringes. They were real, real, the whole thing that Ari senior had been worried about had come true, the old Earth territorial craziness had found itself an issue and a time to surface-And here she was holding Ari senior's argument in both hands behind her back- the whole thing that Ari senior had been worried about had come true, the old Earth territorial craziness had found itself an issue and a time to surface-And here she was holding Ari senior's argument in both hands behind her back- You know what it would do to Union if they found out what I've done, You know what it would do to Union if they found out what I've done, Ari senior had said. So she couldn't tell them: she couldn't get the things about Sociology even Sociology didn't know they had done-for Ari senior. She couldn't tell Council about the deep-set work Ari had done, or the fact that Ari had been planning-and installing-imperatives in the azi work crews, in the military, in a whole lot of places-including the deep-sets of the Gehenna azi. Ari senior had said. So she couldn't tell them: she couldn't get the things about Sociology even Sociology didn't know they had done-for Ari senior. She couldn't tell Council about the deep-set work Ari had done, or the fact that Ari had been planning-and installing-imperatives in the azi work crews, in the military, in a whole lot of places-including the deep-sets of the Gehenna azi.

The thing was already going on. By design, thirty percent of the azi Ari senior had designed and turned out of Reseune, and thirty percent of all the azi everywhere who used Reseune tape, would have kids and teach them, all across Union. A certain number of those azi had gotten their CIT papers as early as 2384, on Fargone, then in other places. A lot of them were in Science, a whole lot were in Defense: the Defense azi couldn't get CIT papers till they retired-but they were mostly male and they could still have kids or bring tank-kids up. A lot would do that, because that that was in the deep-sets. The rest of those azi were scattered out through the electorates, heavy in Industry and Citizens, just exactly where the Centrists were strongest-a mindset that was biased right in its deep-sets, toward Ari senior's way of things. was in the deep-sets. The rest of those azi were scattered out through the electorates, heavy in Industry and Citizens, just exactly where the Centrists were strongest-a mindset that was biased right in its deep-sets, toward Ari senior's way of things.

And even other psych people wouldn't likely see what she had done-unless they were onto it-or unless they were as good as Ari senior, simply because what she did was a very accepted kind of program, a very basic kind of azi mindset. She had showed showed Council, she had even told them the program-and they couldn't see what it did with all those military psychsets, because the connections were so wide and so abstract-except when a living azi mind integrated them and ran with them in the social matrix. Council, she had even told them the program-and they couldn't see what it did with all those military psychsets, because the connections were so wide and so abstract-except when a living azi mind integrated them and ran with them in the social matrix.

That was what had scared Ari senior so bad.

There were thousands and thousands by now: not a whole lot yet proportionate to all of Union, but the program was running, and those tapes were still turning out azi. Even out of Bucherlabs and Lifefarms, in the simpler, gentle types they trained-there were att.i.tudes designed to mesh with the psychsets of Reseune azi in very special ways.

Look up the word pogrom, Ari had said, in her notes to her. pogrom, Ari had said, in her notes to her. And see why I am afraid for the azi if people find out too soon what I have done. And see why I am afraid for the azi if people find out too soon what I have done.

Or too late.

I don't know what I have done. But the Sociology computers in my time can't see beyond twenty of our generations. I do. I've tried to devise logarithmic systems-but I don't trust them. The holes in my thinking could be the holes in the paradigms. Field Too Large is what the d.a.m.ned thing spits back on my wide runs.

I'm becoming emotional about those words.

I'll tell you: if anyone threatens to access these files but you-there is a program that will move them and re-key them in such ways that they will look like a whole lot of different kinds of records and and continually lie about file sizes and other data so that searchers will play hob finding them. continually lie about file sizes and other data so that searchers will play hob finding them.

But for G.o.d's sake don't use it until they're breaking the door down: it's terribly dangerous. It has defensive aspects.

I will give you the keywords now to disorganize the System.

It has three parts.

First keyword: the year of your birth.

Second keyword: the year of mine.

Third keyword: annihilate.

Then it will ask you for a keyword to re-integrate Base One. Have one in mind and don't panic.

It was a little comfort, knowing that was in there. Knowing she could hide what was going on.

But she she wouldn't have had just one answer in the computer, to protect something that important. wouldn't have had just one answer in the computer, to protect something that important.

She didn't think Ari had.

She tossed over on her other side and burrowed again.

And finally she said: ”Florian. . . .”

vii Ari stepped off the plane and into the safeway, and walked the long weary way to the terminal, to get her baggage. Just the briefcase and her carry-bag, that Florian and Catlin had.

Night-flight again, with the escort. Which was a news story unto itself, but all Giraud would say was 'precautions.'

And all the public got was: 'quarantine justified.'

There were people going to be filming here, too-Reseune Information gave a live feed to Cyteen Station, and the station distributed it everywhere. s.h.i.+ps were on their way, the whole of Cyteen commerce was moving again, and the world took a collective breath.

Not knowing all of it, but feeling things were steadier. They were. The markets were up on bargain-hunting and in some ways healthier, because there had been a lot of built-up war-scare that just burst like a bubble, Defense stocks were taking a beating, but diversifieds were doing fine, s.h.i.+pping stocks were soaring again, the futures market was s.h.i.+fting: the Cyteen market believed in peace again after a bad scare, and there was a lot of anti-hawk feeling coming to the surface in the Information polls, which encouraged the shyer voices to speak up and dragged the undecideds back to the peace camp.

After three bad weeks, you could say you wanted peace with the Alliance and sound like a responsible moderate-not a Universalist-eetee, who wanted all the human governments to build a capital in the Hinder Stars-never mind that Earth had over five thousand governments at last count; or a Pax agitator, the sort that had bombed a rush-hour subway car and killed thirty-two people last week in Novgorod.

The police were afraid there was some kind of a pipeline from the Rocher Abolitionists to the Paxers. They might have gotten the explosives from mine-camp pilferage or maybe just making the stuff: there were possible crime connections, everything from the illicit tape-trade to illegal drugs to the body trade, and a lot of the ones the police could get at were z-cases, just wipe-outs the real criminals used to do the work and take the hits.

The familiar walk from the plane to the safeway doors, the quiet, beige cord-carpet, the sight of Reseune Security guards talking talking with each other in more than coded monosyllables and moving easily, like there was more than a synapse-jump between a sudden noise and hosing-down the room-made her want to melt down on the spot and just sleep for a week, right there, right then, knowing she was safe. with each other in more than coded monosyllables and moving easily, like there was more than a synapse-jump between a sudden noise and hosing-down the room-made her want to melt down on the spot and just sleep for a week, right there, right then, knowing she was safe.

But cameras met her at the exit into the terminal, Security reacted, the few reporters who had gotten pa.s.ses shoved mikes at her and asked why Giraud had stayed-”He's still got some clean-up,” she said. ”Office things.”

Some secret meetings, staff with staff, Secretary Lynch's staff with Chavez's staff, which was a pipeline from Corain, but that was, G.o.d knew, not for the reporters.

”Do you feel confidence in the decision?”