Moving Mars (42 page)

All the hidden variables, nothing but, Nehemiah Royce said. Charles lifted his hand: no interruptions.

What else can you alter? I asked. Descriptors for momentum, angular momentum, spin, charge I waved my hand. All of it. What else can you change or control?

Not all descriptors are amenable to tweaking, Charles said.

Yet, Nehemiah Royce said.

Charles barely tilted his head in acknowledgment. But youre correct, and its interesting you mention seven league boots.

The hollow in my stomach expanded.

Your enhancement tells you more than you can consciously express, I suspect, Charles said. Others with enhancements have the same problem. Its a design flaw, I think. Maybe theyll get better at it soon.

Please, I said.

We can reach into a particle and tweak the descriptor for its position in space-time. We can change the descriptor and move the particle.

Move it where? I asked.

Anywhere we want. Theres a problem, however. We havent actually moved anything. The fact is He looked down at the table. We cant move anything small. We dont understand why, but the Bell Continuum ties a lot of position descriptors together. It has to do with scaling, with the rules that result in conservation of energy. We cant separate them out, so we cant access descriptors individuallyor in smaller groupsfor insignificant objects. Charles licked his lips and stared at me directly. But we know how to tweak large numbers of descriptors simultaneously. Right now, we cant use our theory to move this bowl of rice, he said, shifting the bowl before him a few centimeters with his fingertip, but most of us here think we can move a large object, if were so inclined.

How large? I asked.

The parameters are determined by size and density. The minimum we might move is an object of unit density, twenty kilometers in average diameter.

Were ready to try an experiment, Leander said. The rooms atmosphere had become charged with a wicked kind of excitement. Phobos is about the smallest local object we can move. Its major axis is twenty-eight kilometers, and its density is two grams per cubic centimeter. We suggest taking a trip on Phobos.

I stared blankly. Charles leaned his head to one side and lifted an eyebrow, as if to prompt me. Where? I asked.

To Triton, actually, Charles said. Around Neptune. Nobody claims Triton. Its sufficient in size

Why Triton?

Charles pointed upward. Volatiles. We could move it and mine it. It could supply Mars for millions of years.

We could put it in orbit, Maspero-Gambacorta said, and shave ice from itlet the flakes drift into Marss atmosphere. In time, the atmosphere would thicken

Leander broke in. Or we could use it as a vehicle and explore.

Why not both? Royce said, looking at his colleagues with an expression of boyish speculation.

Youve all been thinking about this a lot, I said. Why didnt you tell us earlier?

Royce spoke first. We havent actually done an experiment, of course, he said. Until we know for suremoving somethingits hard to accept. You understand that.

I nodded slowly, more dazed than ever. Then there really is no such thing as distance. Space and time.

Danny Pincher laughed abruptly. Ive been working on the time tweak, he said. In theory, of course. The descriptors are tightly bound, co-respondent, as we say. They keep a shell of causality in place. The whole system of descriptor logic is surprisingly classical. But the total bookkeeping leads to enormous complications if you only observe macroscopic nature. Only in the descriptor realm does the whole become simpler.

Ultimately, Charles said, we may be able to reduce our knowledge of the universe to one brief equation.

Completing physics, Leander said, nodding as if this were already certain.

But moving a moon Where does the energy come from? I asked. Even with my enhancement, I could not draw a clear answer from the equations in their papers.

Energy and vector descriptors governing conservation are linked across greater and greater scales, Charles said. If we transfer a large object, we draw from an even larger system. If we move Phobos, for example, automatic bookkeeping in the Bell Continuum would adjust descriptors for all particles moving within the galaxy, deducting a tiny amount of their total momentum, angular momentum, and kinetic energy. The net result would be a reduction in the corresponding quantities for the entire galaxy. Nobody would notice.

Not for millions of years, anyway, Royce said. Wed have to ship thousands of stars back and forth all over the place to make any big difference.

It sounds so smooth, I said. Could we actually move stars?

No, Leander said. We think theres an upper limit.

The upper limit seems to be two-thirds of an Earth mass, of any density, Royce said. That may not be more than a temporary problem.

Some of us think its a true limit, Chinjia Park Amoy said. Danny Pincher and Mitchell Maspero-Gambacorta raised their hands in agreement.

You could do this with the equipment you have now? I asked.

The Olympians looked to Charles to give a final answer.

Wed need to expand the thinker capacity, Charles said. Weve been working on that already. Well have new thinkers grown and ready at Tharsis in a few weeks. We could do it in a few weeks or months. If we can do it at all.

Can you? I persisted.

Theoretically, its no more difficult than converting matter to mirror matter, Charles said. But we cant do it remotely. We have to be sitting on the object to be moved.

Can you do it?

Yes, he answered, his tone sharp in response to my own.

You could move Phobos.

We could move Mars, if you tell us to, Charles said, and his look was a challenge.

What the Olympians had told me filtered down to my mental basement slowly during the next week, fed along the way by a constant stream of facts and interpretations provided by or encouraged by the enhancement. I began to understand while distracted by official dutiesall that the groups discoveries implied, the certainties, the probabilities, the possibilities the improbabilities.

Nothing seemed impossible.

At night, lying alone or on one occasion that week, lying beside Ilya after making love, I thought of a thousand things I wanted to say to Charles. First came angry statements of betrayal similar to what I had expressed beforeWhy now, why me? Why all this responsibility?

Then came horrible speculations. How would Earth react if it knew that Mars had advanced so far? Charles, you can drop moons on Earth. We can. Goofy immature unstable Mars. They dont trust us. If they knowif they learntheyll try to stop us. They may not even try to negotiate. They cant afford to be cautious and await our political maturity.

All of these possibilities had existed before, when only the matter/mirror matter discovery had played into the political equations. But now, the pressure became so much greater. Impossible pressure, impossible forces building to a head.

The plans for the election proceeded. The interim government implemented a black budgetfunds to be allocated purely at the discretion of the office of the President, hidden from all but a select committee in the legislature, not yet chosen. This was clearly beyond the bounds of the constitution, except in times of emergencyyet no emergency had been declared. I persuaded Ti Sandra of the necessity. From this budget came money to build a larger laboratory in Melas Dorsa, for research on constructing larger versions of tweaker mirror matter drives. Also, we would finance the conversion of a small, decrepit D-class freight vessel seized by the government for unpaid orbital fees.

The vessel became the pet project of the Olympians. They renamed it Mercury. It relied, after all, on the Bell Continuumthe pathways traveled by the messenger reserved for the gods.

When I met with Ti Sandra, four weeks before the election, and we began our campaign, she asked about the Mercury. We took a campaign shuttle from Syria to Icaria for a Grange campaign rally.

Your friends have a toy, she said when we had settled into the seats and accepted cups of tea from the arbeiter.

They do, I said. Its going on a test run soon.

And you understand how the toy works, she said. She had lost weight in the past month, and her face seemed less jovial. Her eyes rarely met mine as we talked.

Better than I did before, I said.

Are you satisfied with the arrangements? she asked. I really havent had time to look them over myself I trust you on that.

The arrangements are fine.

Security?

If Im any judge, its adequate.

Ti Sandra nodded. When you sent me the new briefing I wanted to withdraw from the campaign, she said.

Me, too, I said. I mean, thats how I felt.

But you didnt.

I shook my head.

The awful thing is, I dont believe any of this, not really. Do you?

I thought for a moment, to answer with complete honesty. Yes, I do believe it

Then you understand what theyre doing.

Much of it, I said.

I envy you that much. But Im not going to get an enhancement, unless you want me to Do you think I should?

Knowing Ti Sandra, I saw that an enhancement would endlessly irritate her. She operated less on clearly defined thought and more on instinct. It isnt necessary, I said.

Ill lean on you, she warned me. Youll be my walking stickmy cudgel and my shieldif theres trouble.

I understand.

She looked out the window and for the first time that trip, her face relaxed and she let out a deep sigh. Jesus, Casseia We could make Mars a paradise. We could do anything we wanted to make life better, not just for Martians. We could all become gods.

Were still children, I said.

That is such a cliche! she said. Well always be children. There must be civilizations out there so much older and more advanced They know about these things. They could teach us how to use these tools wisely.

I shook my head dubiously.

You dont believe there are greater civilizations?

Its a nice kind of faith, I said. A few weeks ago, I might have agreed with her.

Why faith? Ti Sandra asked.

I cant imagine tens of thousands of civilizations knowing what we know, I said. The galaxy would look like a busy highway. In a hundred years, what will we be doing? Moving planets, changing stars?

Ti Sandra mused for a moment. So you think we really are alone.

It seems likely to me, I said.

Thats even more frightening, she said. But it means we cant think of ourselves as children. Were the best and the brightest.

The only, I added.

She smiled and shook her head. My dear running mate, you need to cheer me up, not walk over my future grave. What can we talk about thats cheerful?

I was about to describe the gardens being installed at Many Hills when she lifted a finger and pulled her slate from her pocket. First, I wanted to give you some answers about Cailetet. You passed on the news of their claims requests.

Yes?

Ive advised that every district deny them. No reason not to make Crown Niger squirm and worry hes going to be left out.

Would we actually isolate them from resources? I asked.

You want policy decisions and were not even elected?

Youve given it some thought, obviously.

Well, flat to the floor, after the elections, when everything stabilizesand if were elected, of coursewe treat the dissident BMs as foreign powers with their own territory. The government processes requests from Cailetet and the others, judges on the merits, and considers proper taxes and fees to levy. But no, we wont cut them off from anything they need.

They dont seem to need any of the claims theyve requested, I said.

Ti Sandra closed her eyes again and smiled grimly. The governors dont need our encouragement to be suspicious.

Maybe theyre testing our relations with the governors, I suggested.

Crown Niger has better ways of doing that.

So we dont know what hes really up to, I said.

I certainly dont, she said.

From my brother I had heard not a whisper for six weeks. To a Martian, raised in the peculiar etiquette of close-knit families and transfers to other BMs, to the mix of family loyalty and business secrets, this was nothing alarming: Cailetet was in dispute with a new and greater kind of family, the government. I didnt expect Stan to give me substantial help, and the best way to avoid an appearance of impropriety for Stan was silence.

But Stan had not spoken with Father, either. Stan was a very dutiful son, and got along better with Father than I. I knew Stan was healthy, and that no calamity had befallen either him or Jane, but that was all I knew.

The campaign consumed all of my attention now. I lived on the shuttle, or in hastily prepared inns or dorms, surrounded by Point One security and the wits and wizards of Martian politics, our advisors, who were catching on fast.

The head of my personal security detachment was an imposing man named Dandy Breaker. His name suited his physique. Bull shoulders, big thick-fingered hands, close-cut white-blond hair, Dandy seemed out of place in the company of governors and Republic officials. He was nearly always by my side. Fortunately, he and Ilya got along well. Dandy was always ready to ask some question about areology, and Ilya was always ready to answer.

Leander could not grow thinkers fast enough to provide the Republic with replacements for all of our Terrie-grown thinkers. We took the minimal risk, but kept all news of the tweaker projects away from the thinkers.

One of the thinkersAlice Two, loaned from Majumdar became our campaign coordinator. Working with Alice again was a pleasure. Ti Sandra and I spent hours talking with her on the endless flights from station to station.

Alice chose our scheduled appearances based on demographics and spot polls. We would drop into a little station at the extreme north, meet with sixty or seventy hard-bitten, dubious, and rather ingrown water harvesters, Ti Sandra would exert her tough yet motherly appeal, and wed be off in a few hours to skip through half a dozen prosperous lanthanide mines in Amazonis and Arcadia. The toughest sells of the late campaign were the small allied BMs in Terra Sirenum, firmly in the grasp of our chief opponents.