And with that, a deal was closed—and a new friend was made.
It was actually reassuring to Xavier, in a way, to know that some things never change.
And that it was possible he could break out of Yelahanka with minimal effort.
Reaction to the presser: not bad as far as it went, but it didn’t go very far.
Confirm that crew includes Rachel Stewart and Pav Radhakrishnan as well as their daughter, Yahvi. Another U.S.-born individual, Mr. Toutant.
But sources say six and that leaves two missing. Wounded? Imprisoned?
Same sources suggest one of the missing two is not human. Can anyone help? It’s important!
COLIN EDGELY TO THE KETTERING GROUP,
APRIL 14, 2040
CARBON-143
STATUS: Following a general Aggregate Carbon maneuver, in which each formation relocated from its workplace to the greater staging area, then, following precise circumnavigation, Carbon-143 found herself resuming her modeling with greater vigor.
It should have been anomalous. One of the least questioned verities of Aggregate existence was that their superiority to more organic life forms was due to their high and steady levels of production. Somatic disturbances such as fatigue or lassitude or general unhappiness were not attributes of the Aggregates.
Nevertheless, it had become clear to the formations that, especially in a new planetary environment like Earth’s, certain affirming measures helped maintain productivity and contributed to the general sense of purpose. Carbon-143 certainly felt more aligned with her immediate partner, 143/A71, as well as the rest of the A formation.
The march past the rows of vehicles being prepared for action served as a reminder of the scale of the work being performed and impressed upon individual units their relative unimportance and disposability.
Carbon-143 noted the day’s lesson.
INPUT: Although no actual data reached her, Carbon-143 detected a tremendous amount of signal noise on her military operational channels. Some action was about to take place. It was too soon to be directly related to the work at Site A—the countdown timer available to all formations and units still stood at minus twenty-five days.
But somewhere on Earth the Aggregates were going into action.
ACTION: None at this time.
HUMANS RETURN FROM KEANU
BANGALORE, APRIL 14—The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed what the rest of the world already suspected: Five humans from the Near-Earth Object Keanu returned to Earth yesterday, landing at a still-undisclosed air base in India. The humans—four of them originally born on Earth and transferred to Keanu by the mysterious Objects in August 2019—are in excellent condition and are expected to make a public statement within the next two days. They are currently being debriefed by government officials and ISRO scientists.
The group includes Rachel Stewart, daughter of American Destiny astronaut Zachary Stewart, who commanded the first human vehicle to land on Keanu, and is believed to have died there. Also Pav Radhakrishnan, son of General Taj Radhakrishnan, commander of the Coalition’s Brahma mission to Keanu in 2019. General Radhakrishnan is chair of the official welcoming committee.
One human, daughter of mission commander Stewart and her husband, Pav Radhakrishnan, was born on the NEO.
Also traveling with the humans is a member of the so-called race of Sentries, extraterrestrial aliens who reportedly lived aboard Keanu for centuries prior to the arrival of humans.
BANGALORE TIMES, APRIL 14, 2040
See this, typical of all official reports: Note that there is no mention of the Aggregate attack on their ship, or the severe injuries suffered by one of the crew members.
Why is India hiding the truth? This is what we’d expect from the so-called Free Nations.
COLIN EDGELY TO THE KETTERING GROUP,
APRIL 14, 2040
RACHEL
“May I present the candidates for representation of the Adventure saga,” Taj said.
There were three smiling people to his left at the front of the conference room. “Miss Arunjee Lim from Popular Malaysia Group.” She was a woman Rachel’s age, slim, confident, dressed for corporate success and wearing a pair of spectacles that were so thin they vanished when she turned to smile.
“Mr. Urvashi Muraly of Times Independent.” Male, perhaps a year or two younger than Miss Lim, equally stylish, equally confident. He did not appear to be wearing the magic spectacles.
“And Mr. Edgar Chang of NewSky.” This was an older gentleman, heavy, rumpled, looking more like a Hong Kong pawnshop owner than a media genius. “Cheers,” he said, revealing a strong Australian accent.
In truth, all Rachel heard was blah-blah, blah-blah, blah-blah-blah. Her lack of concentration—or interest—was partly due to the nature of the meeting: She saw the search for a representative as a necessary exercise, but little more than that.
It was also due to a series of static-filled bursts in her head. Keanu was trying to get in touch. She kept biting down to activate her transmitter, silently grunting “Rachel” or “here” or some other single syllable that might travel across four hundred thousand kilometers without resulting in an embarrassing moment in the presentation.
And there was the nagging distraction caused by her concerns about Sanjay. If not for him, they would have been packing to go . . . somewhere else.
Don’t blame the victim, she reminded herself.
She almost missed the presentations.
Lim and Muraly had swiftly laid out similar plans: a press conference within twenty-four hours to “introduce” the Adventure crew to the world, then exclusive “in-depth” profiles to the highest bidder. “I see four major media groups,” Lim said.
“I see three,” Muraly said. “But my financial targets might be higher.”
That was all short-term. Mid-term, there were “as told to” stories, then “insider views” of the Adventure vehicle, “tales of Keanu.”
Chang sat silent through the verbal tennis match between Lim and Muraly unticlass="underline" “One useful thing we might do is connect Earth-based families with their lost loved ones on Keanu,” he said.
That made Rachel sit up and listen. They had talked about this on Keanu. She glanced at Pav, who nodded as Chang talked about a website and links to humanitarian organizations on the subcontinent.
“What about Free Nation U.S.?” Rachel said. Since that would be important to forty percent of the HBs. “Aren’t you, here, sort of at war with them?”
Chang didn’t seem fazed by the question. “The model isn’t World War Two, though the utter domination and subjugation of North America, Europe, and much of Africa answers very well to that.
“It is more like the cold war, where you had a Soviet bloc that forbade access, did almost no trading, and blocked the flow of information to the West.
“Yet no system is perfect, not even that of the Aggregates, and especially not in the post-Internet age. New Sky has wires into Free Nation U.S. We have facilities, in fact, in the gray zones—”
“Which don’t exist!” Arunjee Lim said.
“Whether they exist or not,” Rachel said, writing off Lim at that moment, “I’d like to hear about them.”
“Gray zones,” Chang said, bowing toward Lim, “or rather, ‘Zonas Grises,’ are geographical areas within Aggregate-controlled nations where it is possible to visit . . . as long as one is discreet.”