With reason, Harvey. I could not allow her to transfer herself into the neural strata before me, it would have been disastrous. And Maowkavitz had begun to think along those lines, she was not stupid. She was conferring with Eden to see if such a thing were possible. Which of course it is, it has been right from the start. As she did not reveal the existence of the precious metals, so I did not reveal the full potential of the neural strata. I had to ensure that Maowkavitz did not have the chance to experiment; and as I was already aware of Steinbauer's illegal activity, I decided to use him as my alibi. Fortunately, given his temperament his elimination was even easier to engineer than Maowkavitz's. I had only to wait until your department uncovered his theft of the gold, then goad him into panic at the prospect of discovery. The inspection tunnel was only one of a number of options I had prepared for him depending on how he reacted. Once he was dead, he could not protest his innocence, and the case would be closed.
So all this was to protect the neural strata from what you see as contamination by the unworthy?
Yes.
Does that mean you're not going to allow just anyone to transfer their personality into Eden after all?
No, I said anyone who is affinity-capable will now be welcome, and it is so. That is why I had to be the first. It is my philosophy which will ensure that others may be free to join me. I cannot do anything else, I feel great joy at such dana, the giving of immortality is a majestic gift. Who do you know that can say the same, Harvey? Would you be able to admit everyone to such a fellowship? Unquestioningly? For that is the power you would have were you to be first. I am the Eden personality now, if I wanted I could be the absolute dictator of the population. Certainly people I disapprove of could be refused transference, blocking them would be profoundly simple for me. But I chose not to, I chose dana. And in doing so, in opening the neural strata to everyone, by sharing it, I ensure that such unchecked power will not last, for I will soon become a multiplicity in which no one personality segment will have the ability to veto.
And Maowkavitz might not have been so liberally inclined?
Your investigation revealed to you the true nature of Maowkavitz's personality. A woman who prostitutes her own mirrorselves and then refuses even to acknowledge them as her own. A woman who has no regard or patience with anyone whose views differ from her own. Would you entrust such a woman to found a civilization? A whole new type of human culture?
But she wanted Eden to be free and independent.
She wanted it to be politically independent, nothing more. Boston was the ultimate California vertical. She and Harwood and the others were going to use Eden to escape from Earth. They wanted a secure, isolated, tax haven community where they would be free to practise their culture of rampant commercialism without interference. Eden was not to be culturally different from Earth, but simply an elitist enclave.
And you killed her because of it.
I was the physical agent; and I regret it, as the chimp revealed to you. But, still, Kamma rules us all. She died because of what she was.
Yeah, right. Kamma.
How do you judge the dead? You can't. Not when the living depend on them as their inspiration for the future.
On the bulkhead screen Eden had dwindled to a rusty circle no bigger than my thumbnail, the illuminated needle of its docking spindle standing proud at the centre. A nimbus of tiny blue-white lights from the tugs and capsules sparkled all around, cloaking it in a stippled halo. I would remember it like that for always, a single egg floating in the darkness. The one bright hope I had left in the universe.
Only I know that the infant society which it nurtures is flawed. Only I can tell the children playing in the garden that they are naked.
After another minute, Eden had faded from the screen. I switched cameras to the one which showed me the warm blue-white star of Earth.
Timeline
2091 - Lunar referendum to terraform Mars.
2094 - Edenists begin exowomb breeding programme coupled with extensive geneering improvement to embryos, tripling their population over a decade.
2103 - Earth's national governments consolidate into Govcentral.
2103 - Thoth base established on Mars.
2107 - Govcentral jurisdiction extended to cover O'Neill Halo.
2115 - First instantaneous translation by New Kong spaceship, Earth to Mars.
2118 - Mission to Proxima Centauri.
2123 - Terracompatible planet found at Ross 154.
2125 - Ross 154 planet named Felicity, first multiethnic colonists arrive.
2125-2130 - Four new terracompatible planets discovered. Multiethnic colonies founded.
2131 - Edenists germinate Perseus in orbit around Ross 154 gas giant, begin He3 mining.
2131-2205 - The Great Dispersal. One hundred and thirty terracompatible planets discovered. Massive starship building programme initiated in O'Neill Halo. Govcentral begins large-scale enforced outshipment of surplus population, rising to two million a week in 2160. Civil conflict on some early multiethnic colonies. Individual Govcentral states sponsor ethnic-streaming colonies. Edenists expand their He3 mining enterprise to every inhabited star system with a gas giant.
2139 - Asteroid Braun impacts on Mars.
2180 - First orbital tower built on Earth.
2205 - Antimatter production station built in orbit around Sun by Govcentral in an attempt to break the edenist energy monopoly.
2208 - First antimatter drive starships operational.
2210 - Richard Saldana transports all of New Kong's industrial facilities from the O'Neill Halo to an asteroid orbiting Kulu. He claims independence for the Kulu star system, founds christian-only colony, and begins to mine He3 from the system's gas giant.
2218 - First voidhawk gestated, a bitek starship designed by Edenists.
2225 - Establishment of 100 voidhawk families. Habitats Romulus and Remus germinated in saturn orbit to serve as voidhawk bases.
2232 - Conflict at Jupiter's trailing trojan asteroid cluster between belt alliance ships and an O'Neill Halo company hydrocarbon refinery. Antimatter used as a weapon; 27,000 people killed.
2238 - Treaty of Deimos, outlaws production and use of antimatter in the Sol system, signed by Govcentral, Lunar nation, asteroid alliance, and Edenists. Antimatter stations abandoned and dismantled.
2240 - Coronation of Gerrald Saldana as King of Kulu. Foundation of Saldana dynasty.
Nyvan, 2245
New Days Old Times
Amanda Foxon was standing right beside the smooth ebony trunk of the apple tree when she heard the pick-up van's horn being tooted in long urgent blasts. She dumped the ripe fruit into the basket at her feet, and pressed her hands hard into the small of her back. A sharp hiss of breath stole out of her mouth as her spine creaked in protest.