“All right, let’s discuss it. You think that Eversnow is still an asset. I frankly see it having serious problems.”
“I think it’s a safety factor. If there’s another war, Alliance will think twice. If we toss their merchanters out of that route, we can enforce a ban, and we can protect it. It’s a very narrow corridor.”
“No great abundance of jump points in the region?”
“Scarce. Just about what we’re developing as destinations, places we’ll be able to defend. That’s the word from Defense.”
That was certainly a point in favor. “How soon is your population burst at Fargone?”
“All right. This is getting to be in your need‑to‑know, one more reason why it’s not good for you and me to have a contest for power this year. There’s a station onworld, already. That’s all military and classified to the hilt: it’s been black‑budgeted for decades, since your predecessor’s time. We’ve kept its secrecy because we use its facilities pretty freely, but there’ve been some issues over the years, too.”
“That’s how you got the samples! It wasn’t a robot. You lied on that, too.”
“Well, it was a robot, but we have people down there, as we speak. Very cold, very lonely people, in company with a lot of cold, lonely Defense people, and not an azi in the lot. Defense has been damned worried we’d tamper–so they haven’t allowed azi down there. Just a nice little born‑man society.”
“What are we, for God’s sake? At war?”
“During the War, it was a lot friendlier. Lately it’s gotten political and full of rules and restrictions. The restrictions on our information‑gathering and on our flow of personnel to and from is one motive on our part. We very much need a Reseune presence down there, an expanding presence in our own facility before the whole planet becomes a military zone where they make the rules.”
“Hence Patil’s project. Hence this whole thing. Patil’s an excuse. Terraforming never was it. It’s the population burst. It’s a colony, never mind what the rest of the planet is like! they can sit on an iceball. Terraforming’s just what you’re paying to enlist Corain’s people.”
“Well, not altogether,” Yanni said, “because ultimately, we want that planet, we want to colonize freely there, and we don’t want Defense controlling that real estate. Terraforming’s the excuse we use to get a base of our own down there. Right now Defense has themselves a nice one‑thousand‑kilometer‑wide salt water puddle they’re using Beta Labs nanistics people to work with, long‑distance, which is no way to run a laboratory. We need to be self‑sufficient down there, we need to be on‑site and in charge of anything genetic. We’re going to need integrations on foundational sets for Eversnow residency and some CIT volunteers pretty quick. We have that in part: we have the orbiting station and the military has the onworld base, which gives us the capability to land, and it’s kept them moderately cooperative, because they need us for supply–rather than them having to build their own station. But right now we only have the kernel of a star station in orbit. It needs to grow. Fast. It needs the onworld lab. We keep the military from owning the whole planet, we boot them entirely out of nanistics research, and Union gets a highway to new stars. I’ve needed you, young lady; I’ve desperately needed you to get up to speed on integrations. We need azi that can face down military CITs and say no, ser, that’s Reseune territory. Keep out.”
“You’re doubling the size of Union. You’re handing us problems we don’t even imagine yet!”
“It’s not me that’s running that onworld presence. Not at the moment. The elder Ari died at an inconvenient time and I couldn’t get Giraud to move faster. Not to mention youate up a lot of budget, young lady–your new wing, hell, your budding township’s nothing against what you’ve already cost Reseune in lab time, in research, set‑up. But we’ve done our Eversnow research, in budget masked behind the Fargone lab we already have. We’ve surveyed stars down that strand. There’s no likelihood of sapience down that route unless it comes a long way to meet us. Several planeted stars. Resources. Jobs. Habitat. New genetics, at least at Eversnow, not likely much at the gas‑balls and ice moons we’ll be dealing with further along. A lot of advantages. And as you say–prime opportunity for a major population burst that would solve several problems, including the Citizens electorate, within the next two to three decades. That could be of incalculable value.”
“Look, I’m sorry for what I cost–”
“Don’t be.”
“But I’mgoing to argue with you. I’m looking at the population dynamic that results from this project, not just down that route, but all over Union. I’m looking at Cyteen and our own home territory becoming a stagnant backwater in a few hundred years, if Eversnow works. Because if it does, the center of gravity of all of Union shifts–considerably. Political interests, population dynamics, everything goes out there to what we call the edge of space right now. And if it doesn’t work, we’ll have spent a bigger budget than I ever was, ending up with no viable planet out there, just one more star station, and twice and three times the population sitting out at Fargone with no jobs, while Pan‑Paris falls apart out on an unused route and hates us, maybe for nothing.”
“It’s going to work. Even at the rate we’re going, Eversnow is about twenty years from a tipover point, after which the melt accelerates and goes on its own. You’ll know it in your lifetime.”
“I’m not done, Yanni. I’m also looking at a future in which we lose touch with Alliance, if we shift our center toward Fargone. We’re at a point where we stand a small chance of making a lasting peace. Alliance has already gone poking off in another direction themselves, and they’ve proven that’s dangerous. But once Alliance finds out we’re expanding in another direction–what are they going to do to expand, but either start putting enclaves on Downbelow, or throwing some colonial effort onto Gehenna, which is their one usable planet with one hell of a local problem. –Or they accelerate their push into the Hinder Stars, and get closer to Earth. Not to mention Eversnow moves our center away from the border we share with the Alliance and that lets them take the star stations weused to own…”
“Not very profitable ones, except Mariner. I’m afraid I’m not an optimist about the peace with the Alliance lasting through your tenure.”
“ Iam. I think we cankeep the peace if we’re sensible and get control of our own people bombing subways and talk to Alliance with some kind of notion how our own politics are going to run for ten years consecutive. You talk about integrations out there. I’m worried about integrations here. We have a disease in our own heart, Yanni. We have a serious problem in the Novgorod population, and I’m pretty sure it’s not an azi problem, it’s probably come down from the station, and I think it’s serious. I think it’s serious enough that before we start any future population burst of the size you describe, we need to know why we have Paxers, and what drives them. Is it the azi‑CIT mix, or is there something about us?”
Yanni was silent a moment, thinking about that, and at that moment Haze and Hiro carried dinner in, briskly served. It was chicken with herbs, in a delicate pastry crust, and it smelled good.
“Eat,” she said. “It’s Cook’s first formal dinner. They probably went crazy back there keeping it ready to serve. Don’t let it go to waste.”
He had a bite. “It’s good. This is really good.”
Ari looked at Haze and Hiro. “Tell Wyndham so. It really is.”
“Thank you, ser, sera,” Haze said, pleased, and quietly departed, and the door shut.
Two bites later: “I cantake over Admin,” she said, “when I want to. Don’t think Base Two can ever overpower Base One. It just won’t happen. That’s not a threat, Yanni. It’s a warning. Please don’t try me. Convince me. I’m willing to listen to your plans. I am listening.”