Moving Mars (28 page)

Next flight, five minutes, a sepulchral voice announced. Cartoonish faces popped out of the walls, leering at uslurid villains from a pop LitVid.

Abso brain neg, Shrug commented. I was hoping for a challenge.

Ive been here twice, said a woman with skin of flexible coppery plates. Its strong inside.

Orianna glanced at me, Okay?

I nodded, but I was not happy. Kite, I noticed, had assumed a blank air, neither expectant nor bored. After a five-minute wait, the faces on the walls looked sad and vanished, a door opened, and we entered a wide, open dance floor, already covered with patrons.

Projectors in the ceiling and floor created a hall of mirrors. The floor controller decided Kite and I were a couple and isolated us between our own reflections. We could not see Shrug or Orianna or any of the other patrons, though I heard them faintly. Kite grinned at me. Maybe this replaces murder, he said.

I had no idea what he meant. I felt more than a little apprehensive.

But that, I decidedand I squared my shoulders to physically strengthen my resolvewas simple backwater fright. This was nothing more than a mental roller coaster.

A slender golden man appeared on a stage a few steps away. Friends, I need your help, he said earnestly. A million years from now, something will go drastically wrong, and the human race will be extinguished. What you do here and now can save the planet and the Solar System against forces too vast to precisely describe. Will you accompany me into the near future?

Sure, Kite said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

The golden man and the hall of mirrors vanished. We floated in starry space. The golden mans voice preceded us. Please prepare for transit.

Kite let go of my shoulder and took my hand. The stars zipped past in the expected way, and Earth rastered into view in front of us. Background information flooded into my head.

In this future, all instrumentality is controlled by deep molecular Chakras, beings installed in every human at birth as guardians and teachers. Your first Chakra is a good friend, but there has been a malicious erroran evolvon has been loosed in the child-treatment centers. A malicious Chakra has invaded an entire generation. You have been isolated from your high birthright, cut loose of energy and nutrition. A generation lives in the midst of plenty, yet starves. You must now find a Natural Rebirth Clinic on an Earth filled with menace, eliminate all Chakras, find the roots of your new soul, and prevent those controlled by their Evil Masters from forcing the sun to go super-nova.

Sounds pretty lame, I whispered to Kite.

Wait a bit, he said.

I learned more about this future Earth than I wanted to. There were no cities, as suchexpanses of wilderness covered the continents. This, I knew, was because I could not call forth my Chakra of instrumentality.

Somewhere is your teacher, in the Natural Rebirth Clinic. You do not know what he or she or it looks likeit might even be a flower or a tree. But it contains your clue to regaining control

I could hardly have been more bored. I wanted to smile at Kite and reassure him, this was nothing, not even so bad as Oriannas potboiler sim.

Then my mind jerked. I filled with fear and deep loathingfor the evil Chakra, for loss of my birthright, for the impending end of everything. And mixed with the fear was a primal urge to join forces in every way possiblewith Kite, with whoever might be present.

Hack plot, to say the least, but I had never experienced such vivid washes of imposed emotion, even in Oriannas sim. They played my mind like a keyboard.

I think I know whats going to happen next, Kite said.

Oh?

Everyone on the Circus Mind floor appeared around us, floating in space.

Its very drive, Kite assured me.

The golden man faded into view, in the center of our empyrean of several hundred souls. At last, we have all arrived, and we have a sufficiency, he said. Teams must join and become families, and trust implicitly. Are we prepared?

Everybody gave their assent, including me. I had been expertly preparedmy nerves sang with excitement and anticipation.

Let us join as families.

The golden man encircled groups of twenty with broad glowing red halos. Our clothes vanished. Transforms reshaped to their natural forms, or at least what the controllera thinker, I presumed, with considerable resources imagined their natural forms might be. Other than being naked, Kite and I did not change.

We linked arms, floating in a circle, skydivers in freefall.

The first step, the golden man said, is to unite. And the best way to do that is to dance, to join your natural energies, your natural sexualities.

It was an orgy.

I had been prepared so welland part of me truly did want to couple, especially with Kitethat I did not object. The controller played on our sexual instincts expertly, and this time the sexunlike what I had experienced in Oriannas simfelt real. My body believed I was having sex, although a disclaimerdiscreetly making itself known to my inner selfinformed me I was not actually having sex.

The experience grew into something larger, all of our minds working together. The sim prompted us to move our bodies on the floor in a dance that echoed our emotions. While deeply involved in the alternate reality, we were at once aware of the dance, and of our own personal artistry responding. Ive never considered myself a dancer, but that didnt matterI fit. The dance felt lovely.

All of us pooled the resources of our assumed characters looked down on the Earth, so fragile and threatenedand we loved it with an intensity I had never felt even for family, a dreamlike rush of awed emotion and dependency. I was ready to do anything, sacrifice anything, to save it

Throughout the entire experience, a distant tiny harbor of my individuality wondered idly if this was what Earth wished to do to Marsuse us. Join in a vast, insignificant orgy to save the future. This backwater self tapped its foot impatiently, and suspected the overblown love of Earth to be a kind of propaganda

But it was effective propaganda, and I enjoyed myself hugely. As the group sim drew to a conclusion, and our dance slowedas the illusion began to break up, and we returned to full body awarenessI felt contented and very tired.

We had saved the future, saved the Earth and the sun, defeated the evil evolvon Chakras, and coincidentally, I had bonded with all my partners. I knew their names, their individual characters, if not the intimate details of their daily lives. We smiled and laughed and hugged on the large floor.

The lights rose and music played, abstract projections suggested by the music swirling around us.

We had been through a lot together. I had no doubt that if I stayed on Earth long enough, I would be welcome in each of their homes, as if we had been lifelong friends, lovers, there wasnt really an appropriate wordmore even than husbands and wives. Mates in group sim.

Kite and I rejoined Shrug and Orianna on the street. Reality seemed pale and gray against what we had just experienced. A gentle drizzle softened the night air. Orianna seemed concerned. Was that okay? she asked. I thought too late it might be more than you wanted

It was interesting, I said.

They call them amity sims. Theyre bright fresh, Kite said. The next drive. More people in sim than ever before all proprietary tech, but Im sure there are some major thinkers involved.

Shrug looked dazed. His path along the street wavered, a step this way, a step the other. He grinned over his shoulder at us. Touchy getting used to the real.

That was really nice, Kite said, putting an arm around me. No jealousy, just friendship and affectionand no anxiety, until we met the bad Chakras. I looked up at Kite. We had not been loversnot physicallybut I felt extremely close to him, more than I had to Charles. That bothered me.

I dont think Ive ever been so scared, Shrug said.

Really social, Orianna said. Everybody knows everybody else. Could bond all of Earth if it maxes.

Indeed, I thought, it could. I need to rest, I said. Get back to Washington.

Its been wonderful, spending the day together, Orianna said. Youre a good partner, a good friend, and

I stopped her with a tight embrace. Enough, I said, smiling. Youll puncture my Martian reserve.

Wouldnt want you to leak reserve, Shrug said, standing apart, arms folded, fingers tapping elbows.

Well walk to Penn Station. You can track to DC from there.

We said little as we navigated the crowds and adwalls. The glow of Circus Mind faded. Orianna became sad and a little withdrawn. She turned to me as we neared the station. I wanted to show you so much, Casseia. You have to know Earth. Thats your job now. She spoke almost sternly.

Right, I said. Already a deep sense of embarrassment had set ina reaction to the unearned intimacy of the Circus, I presumed. Martian reserve leaking.

Id like to get together again. Will there be time?

I dont know, I answered honestly. If there is, Ill call.

Do, she said. Dont let the sim shade what weve earned. Her use of that word, echoing my own thoughts, startled me. Orianna could be spookily intuitive.

Thank you, Kite said, and kissed me. I held back on that kissEarth kissing Mars, not all that proper, perhaps, considering.

I entered the station. They stayed outside, waving, farewells as old as time.

Four hours later, I sat in my room overlooking Arlington, the combs, the Potomac, and the distant Mall. Bithras had left the suite. Allen had not returned from Nepal. Alice was deep in broadband net research for Bithras and I did not disturb her.

I focused on the Washington Monument, like an ancient stone rocket ship, and tried to keep my head quiet so I could listen to the most important inner voices.

Mars had nothing that threatened the Earth. We were in every way Earths inferior. Younger, more divided, our strength lay in our weaknessin diversity of opinion, in foolish reserve that masqueraded as politeness, in the warmth and security of our enclosed spaces, our warrens. We were indeed rabbits.

The fading sim had left a strong impression of Earths passionate embrace. The patriotismplanetismfelt here was ages old, more than a match for our youthful Martian brand. I shivered.

Wolf Earth could gobble us in an instant. She needed no excuse but the urge.

We received our invitationsinstructions, actuallytwo days later. We would meet secretly with Senators Mendoza and Wang in neutral territory: Richmond, Virginia, away from the intense Beltway atmosphere.

The choice of city seemed meaningful. Richmond had been capitol of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, over three centuries before: a genteel, well-preserved town of three million, for nearly ninety years a center for optimized human design research.

Are we being sent any subtle messages? Allen asked as we gathered in the suites living room. A projection of the Richmond meeting place, the Thomas Jefferson Hotel, floated above the coffee table, severe gray stone and pseudo-Greek architecture.

Bithras regarded us dourly, eyes weary. He had been up all evening communicating with Mars; the travel time for each signal had been almost eight minutes, a total delay of almost sixteen minutes between sending and receiving a reply. He had not revealed any of the details of his conversations yet. What messages? he asked.

Allen nodded to me: you explain.

Richmond was once a symbol of the failed South, I said.

South America? Bithras asked.

Southern states. They tried to secede from the Union. The North was immensely more powerful. The South suffered for generations after losing a civil war.

Not a very clear message, Bithras said. I hope they havent chosen Richmond just for that reason.

Probably not, Allen said. What have you heard from Mars?

Bithras wrinkled his brow and shook his head. The limits to my discretion are clear. If the deal we agreed to is inadequate then we agree to nothing. We go home.

After coming all this way? I asked.

My dear Casseia, the first rule of politics, as in medicine, is Do no harm. I do not want to act on my own initiative; the Council tells me they will not tolerate any initiative; so, there will be no initiative.

Why summon us to Earth in the first place? I asked.

I dont know, Bithras said. If I didnt suspect strongly otherwise, I would call it gross incompetence. But when your adversarys incompetence puts you at a disadvantage, it is time to think again.

The Council will make some decisions and get back to me before we leave for Richmond. So, we have tomorrow to ourselves. I suggest we give Alice a break and set up an appointment with Jill.

We have a five-minute appointment at twenty-three this evening, broadband ex net, private and encrypted, Allen said. Alice and I made arrangements with Jill yesterday just in case.

Im glad somebody can show initiative, Bithras said.

I was as curious as anybody to find out what Alice and Jill would discuss.

Jill was the oldest thinking being on Earth, a fabulous figure, the first thinker to achieve bona fide self-awareness, as defined by the Atkins test.

Decades before Jill and Roger Atkins, Alan Turing had proposed the Turing test for equality between human and machine: if in a conversation limited to written communication, where the human could not directly view the correspondents, a person could not tell the difference between a machine and another human, then the machine was itself as intelligent as a human. This subtle and ingenious test neglected to take into account the limits of most humans, however; by the beginning of the twenty-first century, many computers, especially the class of neural net machines becoming known as thinkers, were fooling a great many humans, even experts, in such conversations. Only one expert consistently pierced the veil to see the limited machines behind: Roger Atkins of Stanford University.

Jill outlived Atkins, and became the model for all thinkers built after. Now, even an exported thinker such as Alice could outstrip Jill several times over, but for one crucial quality. Jill had acquired much of her knowledge through experience. She was one hundred and twenty-eight years old.