“What about Mac?”
“Mac didn’t want to talk about it. I think he was afraid of hurting the kid’s feelings. Which tells me the answer to your question.” She put the glass down and leaned back. “When do I leave?”
“Can you be ready to go by Thursday?”
“You’re giving me a day off?”
“Maintenance needs time with the ship.”
“Okay. I’ll be there.”
“One other thing, Valya. I’m trying to raid Union’s supply of air tanks. I’m going to put as many of them on board as I can get my hands on.”
“Why?”
“Worst-case scenario. In case there’s a rock inbound, and it’s too close to mount a rescue. You won’t have enough to save everybody, but you’ll be able to get a few.”
“Hutch, aren’t you overreacting a little bit?”
“Sure. And I won’t mind listening to the jokes if they’re not needed.”
The Blueprint experiment holds out hope that we may for the first time be able to start piecing together the events that led to the Big Bang. Until the construction of the Origins Project, scientists had been unable to accelerate sufficiently massive particles to achieve the desired results. Now, however, we can create black holes of an adequate size to produce, as they dissipate, sufficient levels of energy to reveal the character of the dimensions that our senses do not perceive, but which account for quantum action. In plain English, we may finally break through the ultimate singularity and discover how it all happened.
— Tuesday, May 5
VATICAN ISSUES STATEMENT REAFFIRMING
REALITY OF HELL
Pope: “Forewarned Is Forearmed”
— Los Angeles Times, May 5
chapter 34
People tend to think well of their fellow humans. We see them as, for the most part, generous, noble, brave. We admire their tenacity in desperate times, their willingness to sacrifice themselves for the common good, their kindness to those in need. These perceptions generally result from another human trait: our failure to pay attention.
— Gregory MacAllister, “Down the Slippery Slope”
Wednesday was MacAllister’s first full day home. He planned to do little except lie around. He’d held a brief morning conference with Wolfie and left him to get the current issue of The National up and running. There were several calls requesting interviews and asking him to make guest appearances. He accepted a few, agreed to do the interviews that evening, and was about to climb onto his sofa when Tilly announced a call from Jason Glock.
He’d forgotten about the Beemer trial.
“Starts tomorrow,” said Glock. He was extremely tall, a head higher than MacAllister, who checked in at over six feet. Blond hair, impeccably dressed, eyes that looked right through you.
“How do we stand, Jason?”
Glock always gave the impression everything was under control. “I’m not optimistic,” he said. “The issue clearly flies in the face of the First Amendment. People have a right to tell kids whatever they want about religion.”
“Do they have a right to push human sacrifice?”
“Of course not, Mac. But this isn’t human sacrifice. It’s just a church school.”
“I’m not sure the effect isn’t similar.”
“Whatever, we’ll never persuade a judge.”
“What are we claiming? Temporary insanity?”
“We’re going to argue that the damage done to Henry’s psyche was so severe that when he encountered the preacher he lost his judgment.”
“Why not insanity?”
“The judge wouldn’t buy it, take my word. I’ve done the research. But he is open to the argument that a justifiable anger drove our client to take matters into his own hands. He’ll still be guilty, but I think we can get clear with a minimum penalty. Probably a fine.”
“Do that, and the church schools will continue to poison kids’ minds.”
“Mac, my responsibility is to take care of my client. Not put the churches out of business.”
“What actually happened, Jason? How’d the assault take place?”
Glock was seated behind a table littered with papers. “Henry was in the store. He was waiting in line to pay for several novels, one of which was Connecticut Yankee. The Reverend Pullman came in. Beemer saw him and, after a few moments, left the line and followed the preacher to the back. There, in the self-help section, they engaged in a loud dispute that rapidly devolved into pushing and shoving. When Pullman tried to walk away, Henry took one of the books, put the others down, and went after him. The preacher heard him coming and turned just in time to get whacked with the Mark Twain.” He couldn’t restrain a laugh.
“Fortunately, there were no serious injuries. The store manager and his security officer pulled Henry away from Pullman. Pullman was visibly bruised, but he declined medical assistance. Police arrived and arrested Henry. As they dragged him out of the store he was screaming that Pullman had ruined his life.
“The guy will never be sure,” said Glock, “that he’s not going to hell.”
“What kind of person is he?” asked MacAllister. “I mean, is he violating the Commandments on a regular basis?”
The lawyer smiled. “Not as far as I can tell. Probably no more than the rest of us. But he’s lost the conviction that the Bible is literally true. And Pullman made it pretty clear during the classes what the penalty was for that.”
The trial would start at nine. A seat had been reserved for MacAllister.
HE DECIDED HE’D skip the trial, at least on the first day. If he went, he wouldn’t get back in time to have dinner with Valya.
He switched on the news. The Black Cat was running a clip of Charlie Dryden, who was saying that, by God, Orion Tours wasn’t going to be scared off. “You can bet there’ll be another Galactic. We’ve decided, though, that Capella may not have been the best place for it.”
“It’s going to be somewhere else?” asked the interviewer.
“We were always divided about the site. There was a lot to recommend Capella, but we’ve come to feel that people would prefer a world where they can see some animals. So we’re going to build at Terranova.”
That fitted exactly with MacAllister’s notion. He personally preferred a quiet world. But he’d always known most people would want animals. Something they could throw bread crumbs to.
So they would build another Galactic. Something stirred in his memory. The comments of Karim and the others after the Salvator had rescued them. Three or four months behind.
Never had the people to do the job right.
The way things turned out, it was just as well.
MacAllister didn’t think of himself as cynical. Realistic was closer to an accurate description. It was remarkable, though, a tribute to his character, that he wasn’t a cynic. As a working journalist, he’d seen constant abuse of power and authority, too much greed, too much hypocrisy. The current surge of interest in building an armed fleet, in expanding the interstellar presence, would be of enormous benefit to Orion, which owned and operated three of the six deep-space stations. Other giants would benefit, as well. Monogram would get prime contracts for building warships. Half a dozen companies would profit from designing weapons systems. Much of the software would be created and installed by MicroTech. And then there were outfits like Kosmik, that had been forced out of the terraforming business when the desire to colonize never really materialized. Kosmik would love an opportunity to help establish naval bases around the Orion Arm.
Trillions would be involved if the World Council took the moonrider threat seriously.