A Second Chance at Eden nd-7

by Peter F. Hamilton

  Boston gained an ardent new supporter.

  That was a long time ago, lynette mendelson said.

  It certainly was. And I'm willing to overlook it, i told her magnanimously. But how do you think your Boston friends will react to knowing you've been supplying the Police Department, and indirectly the JSKP, with the names of their members, and information on their activities for the last two years? Eden has already had its first murder, so I suppose a lynching is inevitable at some point.

  You bastard!

  You knew perfectly well what you agreed to, Lynette; being a police informer is the same as paying taxes and becoming one of the undead, it lasts for ever.

  Zimmels was paying me.

  I doubt it.

  Well, go ahead and blow me to Boston, then. Fat lot of use I'll be to you then.

  Fat lot of use you are if I'm not kept regularly updated.i paused; in this game you have to know when to allow a little slack. i'd run enough informers in my own time. But I do have a small discretionary fund available.

  You'd better not be shitting me.

  Would I?

  All right; but I want real money, not some poxy taxi-driver tip. I'm taking risks for you.

  Thank you, Lynette. I want to know about the argument on the timing of when Eden should declare independence. Just how heated was it?

  It wasn't heated at all, not on the surface. These people are born-again politicians, everything they say is smooth and righteous. Policy discussions are all very civilized.

  But there was some objection to declaring independence right after the cloudscoop is lowered. Parkinson wanted to wait, I know, he told me. According to him, you wouldn't have enough money from a single cloud-scoop's revenue to fund the buyout.

  That was Bob's big justification, yes. Penny's argument was that everything is relative. If today's operation can buy out today's shares, she said, then it makes no sense to wait a decade until the profits go up, because the equity base will increase proportionally. If anything, it makes the situation worse, because investors will be far more reluctant to let go of a sizeable ultra-stable successful He3 mining operation, which is what JSKP will be with more cloudscoops and the Callisto mass driver. By waiting you're just adding to the complexity of the leveraged buyout. But if Boston launched its buyout now, they'll still be able to attract investment for all the planned expansion projects, because the bankers don't care who's calling the shots as long as revenue keeps coming in. The whole point of the Boston takeover is to ensure the He3 mining doesn't become invalid, they can't afford to do without it. If you ask me, the whole timing issue was a clash of personalities between Penny and Bob. They got on pretty well before, then she started accusing him of only joining Boston to help JSKP delay independence, maybe even postpone it indefinitely. That he was a straight company man.

  Have they taken a vote yet?

  No. It's all been pushed off until after the cloudscoop lowering is complete. Parkinson, Harwood, and a few other big guns from Boston's council are down on the anchor asteroid for the next few weeks supervising the mission. If it's successful they'll start the debate for real.

  I see. Tell me, do you know if Boston ever tried to recruit Wallace Steinbauer?

  He was asked. But Snecma offered him a good position back in the O'Neill Halo. Eden and the JSKP are just opportunities for him, he's exploiting his success with the Cybernetics Division to put himself way ahead of his contemporaries on the corporate ladder. He's an ambitious little bastard. Everyone knows that. So he turned Boston down flat; frightened he'd be tarred with the brush of the revolution. That would kill his promotion chances stone dead. Snecma have a seven per cent stake in JSKP, he's one of their most senior people here.

  OK, thanks for your help. I'll be in touch.

  Can't wait.

  • • •

  My watch said it was gone five when Nyberg drove me over to the hospital. Not that I could tell, the day-long noon of the light-tube was dousing the town and parkland in the same glaring corona as it always did. Corrine hadn't been exactly enthusiastic about my visit, but I'd come over all official, so she acquiesced with a minimum of fuss.

  Bicycles filled the streets again. Everyone on their way home. Affinity allowed me to soak up the general buzz of expectation they radiated. When I asked Nyberg if that was always how it was, she told me people were optimistic about the cloudscoop lowering, eager for it to begin. I suppose I hadn't really been paying attention to the impending mission and what it meant. But of course, to Eden's population it was the dawn of a whole new era. Almost as if the habitat was coming of age. Boston or no Boston, this was what they were here to achieve.

  It was only people like me who were mired in the mundane.

  Corrine was sitting working at her desk, with a pile of bubble cubes beside her terminal. «Be with you in a minute,» she said, without looking up.

  Fine.

  She grinned wolfishly, and slipped another cube into the terminal's slot. Your session with Chong went well, then?

  Yes. Quite a remarkable man. Makes me feel glad I threw my rank about; someone like me doesn't often get the chance to talk to a living legend.

  Make the most of it.

  What's that supposed to mean?

  Corrine held her hand up, concentrating hard on the terminal's holographic screen. Then she let out a satisfied grunt, and flicked the terminal off. The bubble cube was ejected from its slot. Amazing. The kids born up here just don't have psychological problems. I'm going to have to recommend we release two of our paediatric psychiatrists from their contracts and send them back to Earth. They're just wasting their time in Eden.

  Yes, you told me before, the kids who grow up with affinity are better adjusted.

  So I did. But the degree to which they've involved themselves in this consensus mentality is astounding. You'd normally expect one or two unable to cope, but we haven't found one single case. Maybe I should keep the psychiatrists on after all, they make a fascinating study.

  Sure. You were talking about Wing-Tsit Chong.

  She gave a miscreant smile. No. It's you who's interested.

  Corrine!

  OK. Spare me the third degree. You saw how frail he was?

  Yeah.i felt a sudden chill. Not another terminal illness?

  Not exactly an illness, just something we all suffer from eventually: old age. He is over ninety, after all. I could keep him alive for several more years, maybe even stretch it out for over a decade. We have the appropriate life-support techniques nowadays, especially for someone as important as him. But he turned down all my offers. I can hardly insist; and he's quite happy doing what he does, sitting and thinking all day long. I hope I go like that when it's my turn; out there in the clean air watching the swans paddle about, rather than in a hospital bed smothering in machinery.

  How long has he got?

  Sorry, detective, that's something I can't give you a precise answer to. I'd say anything up to a couple of years, providing he doesn't overtax himself. Fortunately Hoi Yin makes sure he doesn't.

  Yes,i said emphatically, so I noticed. Do you know how the two of them met?

  She's his student, so she always told me. They were both already here when I arrived four years ago. And in all that time she's never been involved with anyone. Surprisingly, because enough have tried. Was that what you came over to ask me about? Gossip on Hoi Yin? There's no need to turn up in person, that's what affinity is for. Bloody marvellous faculty, isn't it? You'll have to practise using it. A lot of people experiment once they've had their symbionts implanted. Sex is a popular field of exploration with the teenagers, and the teenagers at heart.

  Sex?

  Yes. Affinity is the only true way to find out what it really feels like from the other side.

  Christ. As Chief of Police I think it's my duty to access your record; how you were ever granted a practitioner's licence to minister to the sick is beyond me.

  Dear oh dear, I do believe our hardened criminologist is blushing
. Aren't you the remotest bit curious?

  No.

  Liar. I was. It's . . . interesting. Knowing exactly how to please your partner.

  I'll take your word for it.the damnedest thing was, now she had mentioned it the notion seemed to have lodged in my mind. curiosity is a terrifying weapon.

  So if it isn't sex, and it isn't how to meet the divine Miss Hoi Yin socially, what did you come here for?

  I went to the window wall behind her, and shut the louvre blinds. Silver-grey light cast dusky shadows across the office.

  What are you doing?corrine asked.

  Eden, can you perceive the inside of this office?

  It is difficult, Chief Parfitt. I see the silhouette of someone standing behind the blinds, that is all.

  Thank you."what about hearing? can you hear what's being said in here?»

  The question was met with mental silence.

  Corrine was giving me a speculative look.

  I backed away from the window. «There's a question I've wanted to ask you. I don't know if I'm being paranoid, or if I'm misunderstanding affinity, but I'd value your opinion on this.»

  «Go on.»

  «You told me that the children share their thoughts quite openly. So that set me to thinking, is it possible for the servitor chimps to develop a communal intelligence?»

  «Is it . . . ?» Corrine trailed off in shock, then gave a nervous little laugh. «Are you serious?»

  «Very. I was thinking of an insect hive mind. Individually the chimps are always subsentient, but what if all those minds are linked up by affinity and act in tandem? That's a lot of brain power, Corrine. Could it happen?»

  She was still staring at me, thunderstruck. «I . . . I don't know. No. No, I'm sure that couldn't happen.» She was trying to sound forceful, as if her own conviction would make it certain. «Intelligence doesn't work like that. There are several marques of hypercube computers which have far more processing power than the human brain, yet they don't achieve sentience when you switch them on. You can run Turing AI programs in them, but that's basically just clever response software.»

  «But these are living brains. Quantum wire processors can't have original thoughts, inspiration and intuition; but flesh and blood can. And it's only brain size which is the barrier to achieving full sentience. Doesn't affinity provide the chimps with a perfect method of breaking that barrier? And worse, a secret method.»

  «Jesus.» She shook her head in consternation. «Harvey, I can't think of a rational argument to refute it, not straight off the top of my head. But I just can't bring myself to believe it. Let me go through it logically. If the chimps developed intelligence, then why not tell us?»

  «Because we'd stop them.»

  «You are paranoid. Why would we put a stop to it?»

  «Because they are servitors. If we acknowledge their intelligence they stop working for us and start competing against us.»

  «What's so terrible about that? And even if the current generation were to stop performing the habitat's manual labour, people like Penny would just design new ones incapable of reaching . . . Oh shit, you think they killed her.»

  «She created them; a race born into slavery.»

  «No. I said people like her. Penny didn't create them; Pacific Nugene has nothing to do with the servitors. Bringing them to Eden was all Wing-Tsit Chong's idea. It's the Soyana company which supplies JSKP with servitors, they clone the chimps up here, along with all the other affinity capable servitor creatures. Soyana and Chong are responsible for them living in servitude, not Penny.»

  «Oh. I should check my facts more thoroughly. Sorry.»

  «Hell, Harvey, you frightened me. Don't do things like that.»

  I managed a weak smile. «See, people would be afraid if the chimps developed intelligence. There's a healthy xenophobic streak running through all of us.»

  «No, you don't. That wasn't xenophobia. Shock, maybe. Once the initial surprise wore off, people would welcome another sentient species. And only someone with a nasty suspicious mind like yours would immediately assume that the chimps would resort to vengeance and murder. You judge too much by your own standards, Harvey.»

  «Probably.»

  «You know you're completely shattering my illusions about policemen. I thought you were all humourless and unimaginative. God, sentient chimps!»

  «It's my job to explore every avenue of possibility.»

  «I take it this means you don't have a human suspect yet?»

  «I have a lot of people hotly protesting their innocence. Although the way everyone keeps claiming they overlooked Penny Maowkavitz's infamous Attitude because of who she was is beginning to ring hollow. Several individuals had some quite serious altercations with her.»

  Corrine's face brightened in anticipation. «Like who?»

  «Now, Doctor, the medical profession has its confidentiality; we humble police have our sub judice.»

  «You mean you don't have a clue.»

  «Correct.»

  • • •

  I wasn't back in the house thirty seconds when the twins cornered me.

  «We need you to authorize our implants,» Nicolette said. She held up a hospital administration bubble cube. Her face was guileless and expectant. Nathaniel wasn't much different.

  Fathers have very little defence against their children, especially when they expect you to be a combination knight hero and Santa Claus.

  I glanced nervously at the kitchen, where I could hear Jocelyn moving about. «I said, next week,» I told Nicolette in a low voice. «This is too soon.»

  «You had one,» Nathaniel said.

  «I had to have one, it's my job.»

  «We need them,» Nicolette insisted. «For school, for talking with our friends. We'll be ostracized again if we're not affinity-capable. Is that what you want?»

  «No, of course not.»

  «It's Mum, isn't it?» she asked, sorrowfully.

  «No. Your mother and I both agree on this.»

  «That's not fair,» Nathaniel blurted hotly. «We didn't want to come here. OK, we were wrong. Bringing us to Eden was the greatest thing you've ever done for us. People live here, really live, not like in the arcologies. Now we want to belong, we want to be a part of what's going on here, and you won't let us. Well, just what do you want us to do, Dad? What do you want from us?»

  «I simply want you to take a little time to think it through, that's all.»

  «What's to think? Affinity isn't a drug, we're not dropping out of school, the Pope's an idiot. So why can't we have the symbiont implants? Just give us one logical reason.»

  «Because I don't know if we're staying here,» I bellowed. «I don't know if we're going to be allowed to stay here. Got that?»

  I couldn't remember the last time I'd raised my voice to them—years ago, if I ever had.

  They both shrank back. The shame from watching them do that was excruciating. My own kids, fearful. Christ.

  Nathaniel rallied first, his expression hardening. «I'm not leaving Eden,» he snapped. «You can't make me. I'll divorce you if I have to. But I'm staying.» He very deliberately put his bubble cube down on a small table, then turned round and stalked off to his room.

  «Oh, Daddy,» Nicolette said. It was a rebuke that was almost unbearable.

  «I did ask you to wait. Was one week so difficult?»

  «I know,» she said forlornly. «But there's a girl; Nat met her at the water sports centre.»

  «Great. Just great.»

  «She's lovely, Dad. Really pretty, and she's older than him. Sixteen.»

  «Pension age.»

  «Don't you see? She doesn't mind that he's a few months younger, that he's not as sophisticated as she is, she still likes him. That never happened to him before. It couldn't happen to him, not back on Earth.»

  Sex, the one subject every parent dreads. I could see Corrine's face, leering knowingly. Eden teenagers use affinity to experiment. Thoroughly.

  I must have groaned, because Nicole
tte was resting her hand on my arm, concern sculpted into her features.

  «Dad, are you all right?»

  «Bad day at the office, dear. And what about you? Is there a boy at the sports centre?»

  Her smile became all sheepish and demure. «Some of them are quite nice, yes. No one special, not yet.»

  «Don't worry, they won't leave you alone.»

  She blushed, and looked at her feet. «Will you speak to Mum about the symbionts? Please, Dad?»

  «I'll speak to her.»

  Nicolette stood on tiptoes, and kissed me. «Thanks, Dad. And don't worry about Nat, his hormones are surging, that's all. Time of the month.» She put her bubble cube on the table next to Nathaniel's, and skipped off down the hall to her room.

  Why is it that children, the most perfect gift we can ever be given, can hurt more than any physical pain?

  I picked the two bubble cubes up and weighed them in my palm. Sex. Oh, Christ.

  When I turned round, Jocelyn was standing in the kitchen doorway. «Did you hear all that?»

  Her lips quirked in sympathy. «Poor Harvey. Yes, I heard.»

  «Divorced by my own son. I wonder if he'll expect alimony?»

  «I think you could do with a drink.»

  «Do we have any?»

  «Yes.»

  «Thank Christ for that.»

  I flopped down in the lounge's big mock-leather settee, and Jocelyn poured me a glass of white wine. The patio doors were open wide, letting in a balmy breeze which set the big potted angel-trumpet plants swaying.

  «Now just relax,» Jocelyn said, and fixed me with a stern look. «I'll get you something to eat later.»

  I tasted the wine—sweet but pleasant. Shrugged out of my uniform jacket, and undid my shirt collar. Another sip of the wine.

  I fished about in the jacket for my PNC wafer, and accessed the JSKP's personnel file on Hoi Yin, or Chong's bimbo, as Caldarola had called her. I'd been curious about that ever since.

  Surprisingly, my authority code rating was only just sufficient to retrieve her file from the company memory core; its security classification was actually higher than Fasholé Nocord's. And there I was thinking my troubles couldn't possibly get any worse.