A Second Chance at Eden nd-7

by Peter F. Hamilton

  «Yes, I see your problem,» he said. «Your children won't leave, your wife can't stay. And you love them both. It's a pretty fix you've got yourself in, my son, and no mistake.»

  «So what do you think? Should I keep on trying to persuade Jocelyn to have an implant? Or could you do it, convince her that the symbionts are harmless, that they don't violate the Pope's declaration?»

  «Alas, I'm not sure about that, my son,» he said regretfully. «Not at all. Perhaps the Pope was wrong to concentrate on the affinity gene itself rather than the whole concept. I came here with the first batch of people to live in the habitat, five years ago. I've seen how they've changed thanks to this communal affinity. It almost abrogates my role entirely. They don't need to confide in me any more, they have each other, and they are totally honest about their feelings, affinity allows that.»

  «You don't like it because it's putting you out of a job?» I asked, annoyed at him for what seemed almost like conceit. I wanted my problem solved, not his regrets about falling service attendance.

  «They are not turning from me, my son, rather what I represent. The Church. And not just Christians either; there is a small Muslim community in Eden as well, they too are turning from their teachings, and as a rule of thumb they tend to be even more devout than the old Catholics. No, affinity is taking people from God, from faith. Affinity is making them psychologically strong together.»

  «Surely that's good?

  «I wish it were so, my son. But to have so much self-faith borders on hubris. The absolute denial of God. I cannot endorse what I see happening here. I urge you with all my heart to talk with your children again, try and convince them how ultimately shallow their lives would be if they were to spend them here.»

  I stared at him for a long minute, too shocked to speak. What the hell could he know about affinity? What gave him the right to pass judgement? All my misgivings about the Church and its blind dogma were beginning to surface again. «I'm not sure I can do that, Father,» I said levelly.

  «I know, my son. I'll pray that you are given guidance in this matter. But I genuinely feel that Eden is being emptied of divine spirit. In His wisdom our Lord gave man a multitude of weaknesses so we might know humility. Now these people are hardening their souls.» For a second his face showed an immense burden of regret, then he mustered his usual placid smile. «Now, before you go, do you have anything to confess, my son?»

  I stood, putting on a front of steely politeness. Why is it that you can never manage to be rude to men of the cloth? «No, Father, I have nothing to confess.»

  • • •

  Did you hear all that?i asked eden when i was back in the jeep.

  I did.

  The intimation of immense calmness behind the thought mollified me. Slightly. What do you think? Are we all using you and affinity like some kind of cephalic valium?

  What can I say, Chief Parfitt? I believe the priest is wrong, yet he is a decent man who means well.

  Yeah, and God preserve us from them.

  What do you intend to do about your family?

  Christ, I don't know. I suppose you saw me and Hoi Yin?

  Yes. Your association registered with my sensitive cells.

  Association, i mused. I don't think I've ever heard it called that before.

  Wing-Tsit Chong explained that there are some human subjects which should be approached with extreme caution. Sex is one of them.

  He's certainly right about that.i turned the jeep onto the road leading to the police station. there was a locker room there, i could have a shower, wash the smell of her away. that was probably what clued father cooke in. nothing i could do about the messed up uniform, though. unless i sent a servitor chimp sneaking into my bedroom.

  Almost without conscious thought I could see the house. Jocelyn was in the lounge, watching the cloudscoop lowering on the newscable. Two servitor chimps were cleaning the street pavements a hundred metres away from the front garden. Sending one in unnoticed would be easy. My three spare uniforms were hanging up in a closet—memory of yesterday: Jocelyn hanging them up, taking care not to crease them.

  No.

  I wasn't going to resort to that. But I wasn't going to confess, either.

  That wasn't the answer.

  Boss?shannon called.

  Hello, and i think i conveyed just a bit too much boisterous relief in my response. there was a slight recoil.

  Er, I've cracked Maowkavitz's remaining files, boss.

  Great, what's in them?

  I think you ought to come out to the house and have a look for yourself.

  On my way.there was a suppressed excitement in her thought. i did a u-turn, and sent the jeep racing towards the plush residential sector on the edge of town.

  Davis Caldarola greeted me when I came in through the front door. He was wearing very dark sunglasses, every move measured and delicate. Classic hangover case.

  Sorry about yesterday, he said humbly. I'm not like that normally.

  Don't worry about it. In my job I meet too many bereaved people. You were remarkably restrained, believe me.

  Thanks.

  Where's Officer Kershaw?

  In the study.

  Shannon was lounging indolently in the big scarlet chair, a very smug expression in place. Three screens were illuminated on the top of the console, each displaying a vast amount of fine blue text.

  Have you been here all night?i asked.

  Almost. Someone was pretty insistent about wanting to know what was in her files, remember?

  OK, enjoy your moment of glory. What have you found?

  According to her access log record, the last fifty-two files she was working on contained Cybernetics Division records. They're pretty comprehensive, too. She's been downloading them from their computer for the last six weeks.

  I don't get it.i gave davis caldarola a puzzled glance, meeting equal bafflement. Did she tell you she was working on this?i asked him.

  No. Never. Penny never showed the slightest interest in the Cybernetics Division, certainly not after Wallace Steinbauer took over a couple of years ago. It was one of her jokes that ultimately she could replace all the mechanical systems inside the habitat with biological equivalents, and put the whole division out of work. She said they were a temporarily necessary anachronism. She always resented using the jeeps and the funicular railways.

  I studied the screens again. The tabulated data was simply list after list of mechanical components and domestic items which the factories had manufactured, each one with an index cataloguing the date, time, material composition, energy consumption, quality control inspections, what it was used for, who requested it . . . «What did she want it all for?» I mumbled. And more importantly, why didn't Wallace Steinbauer tell me she had been downloading all his division's files? He claimed there was very little contact between him and Maowkavitz.

  Because he didn't know?shannon suggested sagely.

  Good point. The Cybernetics Division computer system was poorly managed. Could Maowkavitz download these records without anyone in the Cybernetics Division knowing?

  Shannon pouted. I certainly could. And Maowkavitz probably knew the system management command codes; she was a JSKP director, after all. Hacking in would be very simple for her.

  OK. So tell me, Shannon, what is the point of acquiring this much data on anything? What can you actually do with it?

  Data? Two things, sell it or search it.

  Penny wouldn't sell it, davis caldarola said emphatically.

  There's nothing here to sell anyway, shannon said. The actual assembly bay control programs use a form of flexible fuzzy logic which is quite sophisticated, they might be reasonably valuable to a rival manufacturing company, but they're hardly exclusive. And in any case,she waved an arm at the console, they're not here. These files are just manufacturing records.

  Which leaves us with a search, i said.

  You got it, boss.

  OK, genius, search it for what?

 
; She flashed a smile, and started typing rapidly on a keyboard. Her programs don't have restricted access, only the files. So let's see.the data on the screens began to change as she called up various system menus. her head swivelled round like a vigilant owl as she checked the ever-changing display formats. «gotcha!» a sharply pointed fingernail tapped one of the screens. This is the one. According to the log record she was using it the day before she died.long columns of purple and green numbers fell down the screen. shannon blinked, and peered forwards eagerly. Holy shit. Boss, it's a tracer program which looks for gold.

  Gold?i queried.

  Davis Caldarola gave a small start. I only just caught it out of the corner of my eye. And he covered fast, turning it into a perplexed scowl. Interesting.

  Yes, shannon said. It's a fairly basic routine; it just runs through the files and pulls any reference for gold.

  And Penny Maowkavitz was using it to search the Cybernetics Division files? Which file has the same log-on time as the search program?

  Way ahead of you, boss.the screens were running through menu displays again, too fast for the data to be anything other than a fluorescent smear.

  In my own mind I was starting to assemble a theory, segments of the puzzle manoeuvring round each other, slotting together. There was a strong sense of conviction rising, buoying up my flagging confidence. Progress was coming too fast for it to be mere coincidence. Eden.

  Yes, Chief Parfitt.

  Tell me about the asteroid rock you digest; does it contain gold?

  Yes.

  And other precious metals?

  Yes. Silver and platinum are also present in small quantities.

  «But everything is relative,» I whispered. Eden digests over two hundred thousand of tonnes of rock each year, that's what Wallace Steinbauer told me. And had been doing so ever since it was germinated.

  Davis Caldarola had turned even paler. Do you separate these precious metals out and store them in the silos in the southern endcap?i asked.

  Yes.

  What is the current quantity stockpiled in the silos?

  I am holding one thousand seven hundred and eighty tonnes of silver; one thousand two hundred and thirty tonnes of gold, and eight hundred and ninety tonnes of platinum.

  «I never knew that,» Shannon said. She had stopped typing to look at me in astonishment.

  Me neither, i said. It wasn't in any briefing I received. In fact, I doubt the JKSP board even knows about it. I expect the information that Eden could extract precious metals as well as ordinary ones was hidden away in some technical appendix that nobody ever looked at, that's if Maowkavitz ever bothered to mention it at all.

  Why?shannon demanded.

  Well, Davis?i said heavily. Why don't you tell us?

  I didn't know, he blurted.

  I don't believe you, Davis. It was an extremely subtle deception; and one which must have been planned right from the very start. In other words, it was Penny Maowkavitz's idea.

  His jaw worked silently, then he slowly lowered his head into his hands. «Oh God, you've got this all wrong.»

  So put us straight, i said.

  It was never for personal gain. It was all for Boston, everything she did was for us.

  She was going to reveal the existence of the precious metal stockpile after independence,i said. Then it could be used for Boston's buyout of JSKP shares.

  You know?he asked in surprise.

  It seems logical.

  Yes. It was all so beautifully simple. Only Penny could be this elegant. Nobody has ever attempted to extract precious metals from asteroid rock before. Sure, precious metals are present in the O'Neill Halo asteroids, but the quantities simply aren't large enough to warrant building specialist extraction units on to the existing furnaces. Given the mass of ore involved, it isn't cost-effective. But in Eden's case it costs nothing for the digestive organs to extract them from the ore. Like you said, she never told the JSKP board the metals were being automatically refined; and nobody ever thought in those terms. The board never expected to receive gold from Jupiter.

  And what you don't know, you can't act upon, i said. Neat.

  She just wanted what was best, he insisted staunchly.

  How many other people knew?i asked.

  Only the four of us. Penny thought that it would be a very hard secret to keep. People would be tempted.

  I expect she's right. So you and she knew; who were the others?

  Antony Harwood and Eric McDonald.

  Not Bob Parkinson? He is Boston's leader now, after all.

  Davis Caldarola let out a contemptuous snort. No way! She said she didn't trust him any more. Not since this row over the timing. She said he was showing his true loyalties now the crunch was coming. I know she didn't want him as a trustee any more, she was going to replace him.

  OK, I know Harwood. Who's Eric McDonald?

  He used to be in charge of the Cybernetics Division, before JSKP brought in their management whiz-kid Steinbauer. Eric is still up here; he got shunted sideways into the cloudscoop operation, supervising the microgee industrial stations which produced the pipe.

  Steinbauer didn't know?

  No. Hell, he's not even a Boston member.

  I looked enquiringly at Shannon. I'd guess that Penny Maowkavitz has been checking up on Steinbauer. If anyone was likely to find out about the stockpile, it would be him. Blowing that subterfuge to the JSKP board really would guarantee his promotion.

  Most likely, yes, boss.

  So what was the last file Maowkavitz reviewed?

  She consulted one of the screens. Now that's a funny one; strictly speaking it isn't a Cybernetics Division file. It's the maintenance log for a Dornier SCA-4545B two-man engineering capsule. JSKP has about sixty of them up here, tending the industrial stations and the He3 operations. But, boss, this log hasn't got the UN Civil Spaceflight Authority codes; I'd say it was some kind of bootleg copy.

  The data on the screen didn't mean anything to me. Run the gold search program, i told her.

  Her finger stabbed down on the enter key.

  Bingo.

  • • •

  Can you actually see Steinbauer yourself?i asked rolf.

  Yes, sir; he's in his office, two down from the one I'm using.

  What's he doing?

  Using the computer, I think. He's sitting at the desk, anyway.

  OK, under no circumstances are you to approach him.i turned the jeep onto one of the main roads running the length of the habitat. at the back of my mind i was aware of eden clearing all other traffic from the road ahead of me, and diverting people away from the cyberfactory cavern where steinbauer had his office. i twisted the accelerator, pushing the jeep up to fifty kilometres an hour, top speed.

  Boss, shannon called, I make that over two hundred and twenty modifications to the capsule systems; he's been replacing everything from wiring to thermal foil.

  Have they all been substituted?

  Yes.

  OK, thanks, Shannon. Nyberg?

  Yes, sir.

  What's your ETA?

  We're leaving the station now, sir. We should be there in eight minutes.

  I saw a mirage of three police jeeps pulling out onto the street, each with five officers dressed in black lightweight flex-armour. The trouble was, people were huddled on the pavement watching the little convoy speed past. They would be telling their friends, who would tell their friends. The whole habitat would be blanketed with the news in a matter of minutes. Someone was bound to inform Steinbauer in all innocence. And there wasn't a thing I could do about it.

  What worried me was the kind of weapons the armed response team might be facing. Steinbauer could have built anything in that bloody factory, from a neutron beam rifle to a guided missile. We wouldn't know until he hit us with it.

  I toyed with the idea of just calling him and telling him we knew, point out that he couldn't escape. It might save lives, especially if he panicked when the team crashed into the office. But the
n again he might just use the time to prepare. Command decisions, what I get paid for.

  Eden.

  Yes, Chief Parfitt?

  Can you see anything which might be a weapon in Steinbauer's office, or anywhere else in the cyberfactory for that matter?

  No. But I'm still reviewing the mechanical objects whose function isn't immediately clear to me.

  Shunt the images straight to Rolf, he ought to be able to speed up the process.

  Sir, rolf said. Steinbauer has just asked me what's happening. I've told him it's just a readiness exercise.

  Shit. Is he buying it?

  He is asking me to confirm, eden said. Which I have done.

  I looked through the sensitive cells in Steinbauer's office, seeing him sitting at his desk, frowning out at the ranks of machinery in the cavern. He gave Rolf a concerned glance, then stood up.

  A wave of trepidation from Rolf flooded back to me. If he makes a move towards you, I'll tell him the response team will be issued with shoot to kill orders, i told him.

  Thanks, sir.

  Steinbauer was leaning over his desk, typing furiously on his computer console.

  Hey!rolf protested.

  What is it?

  The computer memory is erasing. God damn, he's wiping the whole Cybernetics Division system clean.

  Steinbauer picked up a small box, and left his office. Outside, the machines were coming to a halt in a crescendo of squealing metal. Red strobes began to flare in warning, turning the whole cavern into a lurid grotto of oscillating shadows. Trolleys braked suddenly, some of them spilling their loads. Alarm klaxons added to the din of abused machinery.