Moving Mars (27 page)

The interior of the building was equally impressive. An atrium rose twenty meters above a short walkway. The walkway ended on an elevator shaft that rose to the apex of the atrium, and sank below us through a glittering black pool. Nano stone walls, floors isolated from the walls by several dozen centimeters, sprung-shocked and field-loaded to withstand external stressand damage repair stations in each corner. Conservative and solid.

Above us are the apartments, Orianna said. About ten thousand occupants. One hundred apartments are full-size, for those folks who want to log in and out every few weeks. The uncommitted, you might say. The rest are cubicles for warm sleep.

They spend their time dreaming?

Custom sims and remote sensing. Omphalos has androids and arbeiters all over the Earth with human-resolution senses. Omphalos can access any of them at any time, and there you arethey are. The occupants can be anywhere they want. Some of the arbeiters can project full images of the occupant, fake youre talking to someone in person. If you just want to retire and relax, Omphalos employs the very finest sim designers. Overdrive arts and lit fantasies.

From my reading, and from Oriannas description on Tuamotu, I knew that most of Omphaloss residents stayed in long-term warm sleep, their bodies bathed in medical nano. Technically speaking, they were not Eloithey could not walk around, occupy a new citizens space or employment opportunitiesbut their projected life spans were unknown. Omphalos served as refuge for the very wealthy and very powerful who did not want to be voided to the Belt or Mars, yet wanted to live longer. Medical treatment that cleansed and purified and exercised and toned and kept body and mind healthy and fitmedical treatment unendingslipped through a legal loophole.

This Omphalos, and the forty-two structures like it around the world, were not beloved by the general population. But they had woven their legal protections deep into the Earths governments.

Why wouldnt you want to come here? The guard called it Heaven.

Orianna had skipped ahead of me. She hunched her shoulders. Gives me the willies, she said. She called the elevator, which arrived immediately.

The elevator stopped. Orianna took my hand and led me down a hallway that might have belonged in a plush hotel, retro early twentieth. Flowers filled cloisonnases on wooden tables; we walked on non-metabolic carpet, probably real wool, deep green with white floral insets.

Orianna found the door she wanted. She knocked lightly and the door opened. We entered a small white room with three Empire chairs and a table. The room smelled of roses. The wall before the chairs brightened. A high-res virtual image presented itself to us, as if we looked through glass at a scene beyond. A black-haired, severely handsome woman of late middle years sat on a white cast-iron chair in the middle of a beautiful garden, trees shading her, rows of bushes covered with lovely roses red and blue and yellow marching in perspective off to a grand Victorian greenhouse. Tall clouds billowed on the horizon. It looked like a hot, humid, thundery day.

Hello, Miss Muir, Orianna greeted the woman. She looked familiar, but I couldnt place her face.

Hello, Ori! How nice to have visitors. She smiled sunnily.

Miss Muir, this is my friend, Casseia Majumdar of Mars.

Pleased to meet you, the woman said.

Do you know Miss Muir, Casseia?

Im sorry, no.

Orianna shook her head and pursed her lips. No enhancements. Always leaves you at a disadvantage. This is President Danielle Muir.

That name I had heard.

President of the United States? I asked, my face betraying how impressed I was.

Forty years ago, Muir said, cocking her head to one side. Practically forgotten, except by friends, and by my goddaughter. How are you, Ori?

Im high pleased, maam. I apologize for not coming sooner You know weve been away.

To Mars. You returned on the same ship with Miss Majumdar?

I did. And I confess Ive come here with a motive.

Something interesting, I hope.

Casseias being jammed, maam. Im too ignorant to speck whats happening.

Ex-President Muir leaned forward. Do tell.

Orianna raised her hand. May I?

Certainly, Muir said. A port thrust from the wall, and Orianna touched her finger to the pad, transferring information to Muir.

I specked the former President lying in warm sleep behind the screen, bathed in swirling currents of red and white medical nano like strawberry juice and cream.

Muir smiled and adjusted her chair to face us. The effect startled meeven ambient sound told us we were with her, outdoors. The walls of the cubicle gradually faded into scenery. Soon we, too, were in the shade of the large tree, surrounded by warm moist air. I smelled roses, fresh-cut grass, and something that raised the hair on my arms. Electricity thunderstorms.

You work for a big financial Binding Multiple. Rather, youre part of the family, right, Casseia? Her voice, colored by a melodious southern accent, drifted warm and concerned in the thick air.

Yes, maam, I said.

Youre under pressure Youve been summoned to testify before Congress, but for one reason or another, youve been shunted to another rail.

Yes, maam, I said.

Why?

I looked at Ori. I really cant reveal family matters here, maam. OriOrianna brought me here without telling me why. Im honored to meet you, but I trailed off, embarrassed.

Muir tilted her head back. Someone in the alliances has decided Mars is an irritant, and I cant guess why. You simply dont mean that much to the United States, or to GEWA or GSHA or Eurocom or any of the other alliances.

Orianna frowned at me and looked back at Muirs image. My father says there isnt a politician on Earth you can trust, except Danielle Muir, Orianna said.

My level of skepticism rose enormously; Ive always bristled when people ask for, much less demand, trust. Face to face with a ghost, an illusory representative of someone I had never met in person, I simply would not let myself bestow trust it was not my right or station to give.

On the other hand, much of what we were doing was public knowledgeand there was no reason not to carry on a conversation at that level.

Martians have stood apart from Solar System unification, I said.

Good for you, Muir said, smiling foxily. Not everybody should knuckle under to the alliances.

Well, its not entirely good, I said. Were not sure we know how to unify. Earth expects full participation from coherent partners. We seem to be unable to meet their expectations.

The Big Push, Muir said.

Right, Orianna said.

That seems to be part of it.

Muir shook her head sadly. My experience with Martians when I was President was that Mars had great potential. But this Big Push could get along nicely without you. Youd hardly be missed.

I felt another burn. We think we might have a lot to contribute, actually.

Unwilling to participate, but proud to be asked, proud to have pressure applied, is that it? Muir said.

Not exactly, maam, I said.

Her facethe face of her imagehardened almost imperceptibly. Despite her warm tone and friendly demeanor, I sensed a chill of negative judgment.

Casseia, Ori tells me youre very smart, very capable, but youre missing something. Your raw materials and economic force count for little in any Big Push. Mars is small in the Solar System scheme of things. What can you contribute, that would be worth the effort Earth seems to be willing to expend on you?

I was at a loss for an answer. Bithras, I remembered, had been wary of this explanation, but I had swallowed it uncritically.

Maybe you know something you cant tell me, and I dont expect you to tell me, considering your responsibilities and loyalties. But take it from an old, old politician, who helped plantmuch to my regretsome of the trees now bearing ripe fruit. The much-ballyhooed Big Push is only a cover. Earth is deeply concerned about something you have, or can do, or might be able to do. Since you cant mount an effective military operation, and your economic strength is negligible, what could Mars possibly have, Casseia, that Earth might fear?

I dont know, I said.

Something the small and weak can do as well as the large and the strong, something that will mean strategic changes.

Surely you can think of what that might be. How could Mars possibly threaten Earth?

We cant, I said. As youve told me, were weak, insignificant.

Do you think politics is a clean, fair game played by rational humans?

At its best, I said lamely.

But in your experience

Martian politics has been pretty primitive, I admitted.

Your uncle Bithras Is he politically sophisticated?

I think so, I said.

You mean, compared to you, he seems to be.

My discomfort ramped. I did not like being grilled, even by my social superiors. I suppose, I said.

Well, politics is not all muck, and not always corrupting, but it is never easy. Getting even rational people from similar backgrounds to agree is difficult. Getting planets to agree, with separate histories, widely different perspectives, is a political nightmare. I would hesitate to accept the task, and yet your uncle seems to have jumped in with both feet.

Hes cautious, I said.

Hes a child playing in the big leagues, Muir said.

I disagree, I said.

Muir smiled. What does he think is really going on here?

For the moment, we accept that Earth needs Mars prepared for some large-scale operation. The Big Push seems as likely as anything.

You truly believe that?

I cant think of any other reason.

My dear, your planetyour culturemay depend on what happens in the next few years. You have a responsibility I dont envy.

Im doing my very best, I said.

Muir hooded her gray eyes. I realized that she had asked me questions as one politician to another, and I had given her inadequate answers.

Orianna regarded me sadly, as if she had also discovered the weaknesses of a friend.

I dont mean to offend, Muir said. I thought we were dealing with a political problem.

Im not offended, I lied. Orianna took me all over New York today, and Im a little stunned. I need to rest and absorb it all.

Of course, Muir said. Ori, give your mother and father my best wishes. Its grand to see you again. Good-bye. Abruptly, we sat facing the blank white wall.

Orianna stood: Her mouth was set in a firm line and her eyes were determined not to meet mine. Finally, she said, Everybody here acts a little abrupt at times. Its the way they experience time, I think. Casseia, we didnt come here to make you feel inferior. That was the farthest thing from my mind.

She chewed on me a little, dont you agree? I said quietly. Mars is not useless.

Please dont let patriotism blind you, Casseia.

I clamped my mouth shut. No eighteen-year-old Earth child was going to talk down to me that way.

Listen to what she was asking. Shes very sharp. You have to find out where you might be strong.

Our strength is so much more I cut myself off. Than Earth can imagine. Our spiritual strength. I was about to launch into a patriotic defense that even I did not believe. In truth, they were right.

Mars did not breed great politicians; it bred hateful little insects like Dauble and Connor, or silly headstrong youths like Sean and Gretyl. I hated having my face ground into the unpleasant truth. Mars was a petty world, a spiteful and grumbling world. How could it possibly be any danger to vigorous, wise, together Earth?

Orianna glanced at the blank wall and sighed. I didnt mean to make you uncomfortable. I should have talked to you about it first.

Its an honor, I said. I just wasnt prepared.

Lets find Kite and Shrug, she suggested. I cant imagine living here. She shivered delicately. But then, maybe Im old-fashioned.

We rejoined Kite and Shrug and spent several hours shopping in Old New York, real shops with nothing but real merchandise. I felt doubly old-fashioneddismayed and disoriented by a district that was itself supposed to be a historical recreation. Kite and Shrug entered an early twenty-one haberdashery, and we followed. An officious clerk placed them in sample booths, snapped their images with a quaint 3-D digitizer, then showed them how they might look in this seasons fashions. The clerk made noises of approval over several outfits. We can have them for you in ten minutes, if you care to wait.

Kite ordered a formal socializing suit and asked them to deliver it to a cover address. Shrug declined to purchase anything. We were heading out the door when the clerk called to us, Oh! Excuse meI almost forgot. Free tickets to Circus Mind for customers and their friends.

Kite accepted the tickets and handed them to us. He stuffed his in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Are we all going? he asked.

What is it? Orianna asked.

Ori doesnt know something! Shrug exclaimed, amused.

It must be really new, she said, irritated.

Oh, it is, the clerk said. Very drive.

Power live sim, Kite said. Its abso fresh. All free until it draws a nightly crowd. Would you like to try, Casseia?

It could be too much, Orianna cautioned.

I took that as a challenge. Although tired and a little depressed from my meeting with Muir, I wasnt about to look less than drivecertainly not to Kite.

Lets go, I said.

Kite handed us our tickets. I stared at mine. Chew, he said. Checks you out, sees if youre clear for the experience, and you print up a pass on the back of your hand.

I inserted the ticket slowly and chewed. It tasted like the scent of a sun-warmed flower garden, with a tickle in the nose. I sneezed.

The clerk smiled. Have fun, he said cheerfully.

Circus Mind occupied the fifth and sixth floors of a twentieth-century skyscraper, the Empire State Building. I consulted my slate and learned that I was not far from Penn Stationin case I wanted to escape and my friends were locked in their amusements. Kite took my arm and Orianna ran interference with a group of LitVid arbeiters looking for society interest. Kite projected a confusion around me multiple images, all false, as if four or five women accompanied himand we made it through to the front desk. A thin black woman over two and a half meters tall, her auburn hair brushing the star-patterned ceiling, checked our hands for passes and we entered the waiting area.