Part 21 (1/2)
”Night, Data. When it's this late, it's night,” she said with a laugh. ”But I don't need much sleep, and I 209 like it here when there's n.o.body else around. It's nice and quiet, and I do my best thinking here alone. Have a seat and tell me what you've come up with.”
He repeated the presentation he'd given to Captain Picard, weaving in an even more detailed roster of statistical evidence to support his premise. Kael listened without revealing the slightest c.h.i.n.k in her composure, despite the mounting testimony to impending planetary doom. When he finished his recitation, he looked at her, c.o.c.king his head in perplexity. Kael's dark eyes widened, incising arched creases across her forehead. ”You look confused.”
”I am.”
”About what?”
”Your reaction,” he said.
”What did you expect?”
”Anxiety, astonishment, shock-was ”Why?”
”Because my findings do not augur a bright future for Thiopa.”
was No, that's certainly apparent.”
”Query: is it common for Thiopans to react in this dispa.s.sionate way to news of the near certain collapse of their civilization?”
”No-but it's not news.”
It was Data's turn to be surprised, and he was. ”It is not?” ”Not to me.”
The android gaped at her. Silently.
”I didn't know androids could be struck speechless,” Kael said. ”Neither did I,” he finally replied. ”I do not understand.”
”Specifically, what don't you understand?”
With great care, Data tried to make some sense of what seemed to make no sense. ”You are a scientist who has demonstrated a thorough grasp of the problems facing Thiopa. You have begun to restructure your world's scientific establishment so it may pursue empirical truth and be less susceptible to political manipulations.”
”Accurate so far.”
”Yet you respond to my report of the critical nature of the environmental changes Thiopa is undergoingand the critical need for corrective strategies-by telling me this is not new information.”
”Right.”
”Which means you already knew all this.”
”Right again.”
”Yet your government has not implemented measures to counteract these detrimental conditions.
What I do not understand is how they could ignore such overwhelming evidence when you presented it to them.”
”Simple.”
”It is?”
”I didn't tell them.”
Despite his vast positronic memory, his total familiarity with dozens of languages, and a computational capacity that rivaled that of any computer in the Federation, Data found himself-for the second time in short order-at a loss for words.
Kael Keat seemed amused. ”You're finding me quite a source of consternation tonight, aren't you?”
”Indubitably.” He hesitated. ”Would it surprise you to hear that I have also concluded that your proposed weather control satellite network is far beyond Thiopa's level of technology-for that matter, beyond the technological reach of the most advanced civilizations in the Federation?”
”No.”
”You knew that, too?” - ”Yes, I did.”
Although his yellow eyes reflected all of his puzzlement, Data was by now past being dumbfounded.
His pace of inquisition quickened. ”Then. why did you make the proposal to begin with? Did you know all along it would not accomplish its specified goal, or did you discover this as you followed through on your research ”Second question first. I always knew it couldn't possibly work. So why did I convince Stross and the government that it would?”
”I do not know-that is why I asked you.”
”After I studied offworld and came back here, I saw what a muddle our scientists had made of things. Here we had a leader-was ”Stross?”
She nodded. ”He practically wors.h.i.+ped science and technology, as if they were the saviors of Thiopa. But the man is barely literate and doesn't understand science at all. To him, it might as well be magic. Our Science Council could have built an empire. Instead, they were happy to be servants-and poorly funded ones at that.”
Data gestured around the room. ”This is your empire?”
”The beginning of one. I'm young, Data. I plan to be around a long time. And I knew right away that I wouldn't get unlimited money for research by telling leaders things they don't want to hear.”
”Even if you are telling the truth?” 212 ”Truth has nothing to do with it,” she said dismissively. ”Even Stross had to admit we had big problems, thanks to letting the Nuarans teach us how to ruin a planet in a couple of decades. But n.o.body could tell him, ”Hey, this is all your fault.” So Stross blames the Nuarans and tells them to get lost. Then I give him the means to become a planet-saving hero.”
”The weather-control proposal? But you just admitted it will not work.”
”You're being too logical.” Kael took a deep breath. ”Look, I could've told Stross we needed to eliminate acidic rain and industrial pollution, needed to clean up our fresh water, stop dumping toxic wastes in the oceans, stop cutting down forests, start using selfrenewing sources of energy-was ”But you did not. Why?”
”Because those things aren't magic, Data,” she said, thumping her fist on her computer console. ”I needed to roll all those realistic, mundane objectives into something that would get people excited. I did that, and now I've got all the money I need to do all that boring but necessary research ... pure research that really could lead to breakthroughs that'll save this planet.
As long as they think I'm working on that impossible weather control network, I'll get all the money I want, and I'll get to spend it any way I want, and n.o.body will ask any questions.”
”So your work is based on an elaborate deception.”
She looked mildly offended. ”I can't say I like that word, but I guess you could call it that.”
”Have you thought about the consequences of failure?
What if your research never does reach any important breakthroughs?”
”Then we're no worse off than we were before.
If I didn't cook up this deception, as you call it, Thiopan science would've limped along with a fraction of the support we've got now. And while lots of money doesn't guarantee success, lack of money does guarantee failure.” ”But science is based on a search for truth.”