Trust me, he wished the captains still in power. Believe me.
God, he hoped no one had spotted Banichi’s move.
“Cl,” he said, “we’d like Kaplan to escort the Mospheiran delegation here, if I can arrange a dinner meeting at 1800 hours.” He held his breath. “Will that be a problem?”
Cl answered somewhat abstractedly, “ Kaplan, sir. Shouldn’t be.”
“I don’t suppose Jase can join us.” It was part of the long-established pattern. He never let it up.
“No, sir, Jase Graham is still committed to meetings.”
“What about Captain Sabin? Any chance of resuming that appointment? We could perfectly well set a place for the captain, if she wishes.”
“ I’ll relay that, sir,” Cl said, and a few minutes later replied, “ The captains are all in meetings, sir. She did relay regrets and asks for the 18 th.”
The day of the shuttle launch, ship-calendar. It was an outright question.
“Tell her I’d be delighted. We’ll arrange a special dinner.”
Sabin wasn’t the only one who could miss an appointment. He had no hesitation in that small lie, and was only minimally tempted to believe Sabin was oblivious to that date.
Was he leaving? Would he be aboard? Sabin very much wanted to know that, in her relayed question.
And dared he tell the truth to Kroger in time to let Kroger get aboard?
Certainly it would not be prudent to tell Kroger everything he knew.
Chapter 20
“I propose to go down to the planet for a few days,” Bren said, over the main course, and after a rambling appetizer conversation that had taken them from skiing on Mt. Adams to the better bars on the north shore. “I’m disappointed in the degree of cooperation we’ve gotten. Either we meet with the captains, or we don’t. I suppose that I’m coming back on the next flight, but I might not. We’ve got to fly that test cargo sooner or later.”
That occasioned raised brows. It was the same arrangement as last time, Kroger and Lund at the formal table, Kaplan and Ben with Tano to keep them distracted, and to get out of them whatever information Tano could obtain.
“You’re breaking off negotiations?” Kroger asked. “Or retiring to consult.”
“Retiring to consult. I fully plan to be back. It’s quite open, as to whether we return on this shuttle rotation or not. I have administrative duties back on the mainland… and a family crisis on the island.” He used that fact shamelessly to convey personal reasons which ought not to make a difference, but which reasonably could. “I think a month’s stand down to let the captains think and analyzemight not be a bad thing.”
Kroger had not quite ceased eating, but the utensils moved more slowly for a moment. “We came prepared to stay longer.”
“My staff will remain here to work. If the cuisine on the station is as bad as I hear, you’re perfectly welcome to dine here while I’m gone. My staff will by no means be sorry to have guests to exercise their talents. And Ben and Kate of course can practice their skills.”
There was a small moment of silence, and the utensils came to a slow stop as Kroger tried to consider the possibilities…
even the chance, perhaps, that the staff might know enough Mosphei’ to be a problem to them.
And the reality, too, it might be, that atevi were here to stay.
“The aiji could waive the cost of a ticket down and back,” Bren said, “if you wished to come down and make your own representations to him.”
“I haven’t that authority,” Kroger said, clearly disturbed. “You have to talk to the State Department for that.”
Interesting choice of words. Very interesting, to an ear attuned to language. The insiders to the various departments tended, though not infallibly, to shorten that down to State… you have to talk to State. You have to talk to Science. It gave Kroger credibility as an outsider, that expression, someone chosen for a mission, but not an insider, not ordinarily a negotiator: a robotics expert, chosen to come up here and see what the state of the machinery or the science might be.
Because thatwould govern how willing human beings might be to undertake the work.
The mind went zipping from point to point in mid-smile. “I will seek someone to do that,” he said. “I think we ought to firm up the agreements we have.”
“Sounds like a good idea,” Lund said. Lund had stopped eating, and paid thorough attention. “I, on the other hand, wouldn’t mind the trip. I’ve been curious about the mainland. And I might have something to say to the aiji, if I can get you to translate.”
Kroger’s brows knit, but she didn’t say a word in objection.
Interestingpower structure in this Mospheiran committee. One could discount Lund, but he wasCommerce, and he did have, Bren suspected off and on, a certain authority in his own realm: trade, commerce, and business representations.
And indeed, it made a certain sense, as he’d set the matter forth to them. It was a good solution to the dilemma of how much to tell the Mospheirans about what could become a dicey situation, particularly for his own delegation.
At least he wouldn’t have failed to advise them he was leaving. He could get his hands on Lund, figure him out within the context of Tabini’s court, get on his good side.
“I’d advise you don’t need to dismantle the mission,” Bren said. “Just pack a bag, clothes, that sort of thing. The aiji can arrange flights to the island if you like, strongly supposing you’ll need to consult while you’re down there. The shuttle goes up again in a month, and you’re guaranteed space.”
“Two days,” Kroger mused, the very short interval for preparation. “I don’t know, Tom.”
“You can always make it a last-minute decision,” Bren said. “Unfortunately the shuttle goes down unloaded. Which is a situation we should fix. It’s terribly expensive to do that.”
“Get some manufacturing going up here,” Tom said. “There’s an archive full of things we could be manufacturing; there are dozens of abandoned facilities up at the core, in microgravity. Medicines, for God’s sake. Metals. Ceramics.”
“First we need to get enough atevi crew up here working to establish these areas as safe,” Bren said. “I plan to bring a few technical people myself on the next trip up.” Not to mention increased security, but a few atevi manufacturing experts, who understood the machines that built the vehicles and stamped and pressed and drilled. Robots. That new word, for a class of machines that had never been perceived to verge on intelligence.
The ones Kroger proposed were far more independent, capable of decision-making, and required, he suspected, more computer science than Science had ever admitted existed.
And it must, by what he suspected. Science hadn’t told State, not at his level, but it must; and now atevi had to become privy to that knowledge as well, in computers, an area where atevi innovations had scared hell out of human planners… the one area of human endeavor besides security technology where atevi had simply taken the information provided, gone off on their own and come back with major new developments.
Humans had become very nervous about atevi and computers.
“Might we arrange the same?” Kroger asked. “Free passage?”
“I think I can arrange a suspension of the charges,” Bren said. “On a one-time basis. This is to the benefit of both.”
“Two days,” Kroger lamented a second time. “Damned short notice.”
“Busy month,” Bren said, “on the ground. But every trip, the shuttle should bring a few people. We can arrange to carry a certain number free of charge, where they’re filling up space.”