"All our computers have gone down. Only the nuclear hardened systems are rebooting."
"Can you still fly the ship?"
"Yes. We could see sparks in the backs of our eyes. What was that?"
"Their brain cells being killed," murmured the general. "It was a warning shot. I am aborting the mission, have them redirect to the orbital shipyard for repairs and medical examination."
Daryl Spektorov, VI
"I'm glad it's you they picked to negotiate, and not some State Department prick."
Herrera’s image on the screen, laughed. "Why would it be State? It's only you who think you're in another country over there."
"Only me. Only me, and the Chinese."
Herrera said nothing for a moment. "I heard you got your ass beat by a one-armed woman, is that correct?"
"She had help from a few dozen robots. But that's all water under the bridge, if you’re prepared to make a deal."
"So what are you offering?"
"We continue our Von Neumann research. However, international monitors get to make sure we’re not trying to weaponize it."
"You want the world to accept Von Neumann technology?"
"They don't have a choice do they?"
Herrera didn’t reply.
"Herrera, does anyone actually still think it’s better to send people to space, than take care of them there on Earth? Tell those idiots they need to beat 200,000."
"What’s that number?"
"The planet’s population growth rate. Per day. And even if you try to take care of them on Earth, you still can't afford it. Now, how about the real problem? Climate change. Centuries of excess carbon dioxide and methane to clean up. How can you, when you're too busy saving all the Shitfuckistans from collapsing?"
"It's far too late to stop climate change."
"When you get an infection, do you wait a week, or do you take antibiotics, immediately? This century ends either in a dark age, or better than it began. I've decided - for everyone - to make it end better. All you need to do is make them feel good about that. Put lipstick on the pig and tell them to pucker up."
"I thought you wanted to make a deal, Spektorov."
"I've got plenty of lipstick for you. You know my real interest in this, is Pathfinder."
"I haven’t forgotten."
"We grossly underestimated our needs. We can’t build a large enough antimatter factory, on our own. I want the bulk of America and China’s orbital shipyard output."
"For how long?"
"Years, unless they want to go back to making stupid habitats. I get to expand my antimatter factory. In exchange, I share with them all our Von Neumann research. They can send more researchers here, we can expand into a full-on, international, Manhattan-style project. I welcome Europe, Russia, and India to join in. The same deal, orbital capacity they don’t really use, for a slice of the pie. However, America and China decide if they get to join or not. So you get to maintain control of the technology."
"But we would be forced to include them. If not, they would see your little asteroid as our convenient, legal loophole. That will lead to the proliferation of more Von Neumann research centers."
"Then fucking share the technology, Herrera. I don't care, it's not my job. And if you're worried about proliferation, ask yourself how effective that was at E2. The genie is out of the lamp. You may as well wish for something good."
Jansen Henrikson, VII
The Netherlands, three weeks later
"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been two years since my last confession. I accuse myself of - of lying."
"Please go on."
"It is a big lie, it is a conspiracy," said Henrikson. "It is a lie being made to the whole world, and I, by keeping silent, am party to it."
"Then yours is the sin of silence. Why do you keep party to it?"
"I stand to gain greatly by it. And if I tell people what's going on, I will lose. And something I believe in, will fail completely. This is my greater fear."
"What harm is this causing?"
"The hopes and dreams of many, are being misapplied. They are being used."
"That is defrauding the Laborer of his wages. It is a sins that cries to Heaven for vengeance. Have you considered speaking the truth?"
"I have, but I think it would cause greater damage. I do not feel like I should decide between such things. It is easier to be a coward, and say nothing."
"It is."
"For this and all the sins of my past life, I am heartily sorry, beg pardon of God, and absolution of you, Father."
Abdul Kareem Al-Rashid, V
"What you did was a great crime against fellow Moslems."
Kareem looked out the window. The stars were beginning to elbow each other for room in the rural sky. A guard patrolled the compound, a night vision scope held up to his eye.
Inside the room, three men sat around a low table. On the far wall, a muted newscast showed a shredding fireball that had once been a space station.
"Nonsense," said a man dressed as a goat herder. He wore a holster that carried a Chinese-made pistol. The screens on his spectacle were back lit. "You reached out to volunteers, who made a sacrifice. The others who died were cowards, or infidels."
"A thousand people don’t matter to you," said Faisal, his eyes narrowing at the goat herder. "Is that too trivial a sum to the ISI? What’s you’re cutoff?"
The Inter-Services Intelligence[lxxi] agent smiled. "How many suicide bombers did you sacrifice against the drones, escaping from Yemen? We’re they really volunteers? Don't act like you haven't done things like this before."
"We haven't done things like this before," said Wahlid. "This was an atrocity. Those men trusted us."
"Atrocity," Kareem snorted, turning around from the window. "What are you? Some Western news anchor? Not that it much matters, but I expected that you two of all people, would realize what happened on E2."
"What happened on E2?" said Faisal. "In your mind?"
"We became untouchable. Yemen can never happen to us again."
"Yemen will happen again, tomorrow."
"And who would dare?" Kareem held his hands out, open. "What defense is there against this? A kilo of Black Fire dust could shut down a country. Our delivery mechanism is their own postal service. If a man has an address, we can kill him."
"Father, why did you do this?" asked Wahlid.
"Retaliation for Yemen. And also, because it was time to put Black Fire to the test. A real test. And now, it is going to change this whole war. Don't you see? Before, we were just doing our part. One group of many, contributing how we could.
"Now? We’ve spent years identifying the key actors working to ameliorate the effects of climate change on Islamic populations. The engineers, the start ups, the people who turn deserts green again. We could mail Black Fire to every one of them, tomorrow. Can you imagine what that would do? China and the West would retreat, their client states would collapse. Islamic alliances will replace them. The Caliphate will emerge again."
"People declare Caliphates every day," said Faisal.
"And they are destroyed. Black Fire will guarantee the next one. A real, united, Islamic State. We have not seen one since the Ottomans."[lxxii]
"So, you want to do this monstrous, insane thing tomorrow?" asked Faisal. "Will you not wait till Monday, when the Post Office is open again? DHL is so expensive."
Kareem turned back to the window.
"Kareem and I have spoken about this," said the ISI agent. "One more test ‘in the wild’ is needed."
"So nice that he has these chats with you," said Wahlid, "was it you who asked him to kill our brothers on E2?"
"And not to breathe a word of it to us, you Pakistani shit?" spat Faisal.
"We need a test to show how Black Fire manages in a large, open environment," the agent smiled them down like a politician, "an environment with indeterminate quantities and responses."
"What the fuck does that mean?"
&
nbsp; "He means a city," said Faisal. "Don’t you?"
"Chennai," said Kareem, still facing out the window.
"Are you insane!" Faisal stood up.
"India will destroy us," said Wahlid.
"India will do nothing," said the ISI agent. "India never does anything. We coach and fund attacks against them, all the time."
"The risk of mutation in an uncontrolled environment like Chennai, is too high," said Faisal. "How can we trust our kill switch sequence? Each reproduction cycle, increases the risk of it not working. Black Fire is meant to be an exponential threat. And it will be."
"If it doesn’t run a bit wild, what’s the point of it?" said the agent. "That will be India’s problem. They’re a super power, they will figure something out. You can study what responses they make, and improve Black Fire accordingly."
"Father, why Chennai? Is this still about Rao?" asked Wahlid. "She was a nonsense target, picked out of a hat to throw off the Chinese AIs. That failed. Lakshmi Rao has no further value as a target."
"Except," the ISI wagged his finger, "That your organization named her as a target. If you say one thing and do another, what happens to your credibility? Who wants to work with someone who cannot stick to a plan? Especially, their own?"
"The ISI is testing us?" Faisal’s lip curled.
The agent smiled and leaned back.
"Father, Black Fire is horrific. Your team aren’t proud you did this, we’re worried."
"Yes, I'm all too aware of that."
"Then take it seriously. Chennai is 16 million people.[lxxiii] A tenth of them are Moslems. What happens if you can’t turn it off, and it goes exponential? Do you need high body counts?"
Kareem kept staring out the window.
"Do you remember when we talked about this, when I asked if I could go to India with Hisham?"
"Yes," he nodded. "I do."
"You said people are pathetic creatures. That they will sell out their freedom and futures to anyone who can bribe bully them. That Moslems are no different from anyone else."
"Yes. And they’re not. The ecological travails of this century, correlate directly with its passion for Jihad. The only arguments that everyday Moslems have heard, are their hunger and thirst. This century is gives us a real chance for an Islamic state, made possible by the misery of our own people."
"And you said all that suffering is for nothing if we do not win."
"Yes. But what is your point?"
"Nowhere have you said that the Moslem people - or any people - are the enemy. Their suffering matters only because it gives them drive to overthrow their corrupt and vicious governments. Aren’t those governments, of Moslem countries, the real enemy? Not the Big Five, or the Western states?"
Kareem turned and regarded his son.
Something passed between them.
"Do this," said the ISI agent quickly, "And it will establish your leadership, more soundly than 9/11 did Osama Bin Laden’s. You will be able to shape the world that comes next, the making of the new, Islamic State. You can - "
"I’ve heard a lot just now," said Kareem, "of what people want me to do. I will make my decision, tomorrow. I’m going to get some sleep, and I suggest the rest of you do too. It may be a real luxury in the days ahead." and with that he left the room.
The morning climbed over the mountains, to meet freezing old women feeding their chickens. The ISI agent yawned and felt around for the jug of water - empty. He got up, picked up the plastic jug, and went to the door -
- It slammed open, bashing the jug across the room. Faisal brought the club down on him as the agent tried to block. The two men grappled, four others rushed in and forced the agent to the ground. He curled and guarded his face and head as they kicked and stomped on him.
Bleeding and dazed, they picked him by his arms and dragged him out. A woman in the hallway, stepped aside quietly, a bag of rice in her arms. They took him outside, past the stinking outhouse. A pair of goats bleated and ran aside.
The cold, mountain air stirred him.
"You'll pay for this," blood-spit drooled. "Kareem will punish you."
"What?" said Faisal, prodding him with his club. "I'm sorry, I thought you said I would pay for this, and Kareem will punish me."
They went around a low, mud-brick wall. On the other side a man was adjusting a twin-lens camera on a tripod. On the wall was a red flag with white verses and a crescent. Men with assault rifles stood by, smoking Chinese cigarettes. Sitting on a stool sipping Turkish coffee, was Kareem. Beside him was a wooden stump with a machete on it.
"What - what's wrong with you?" the agent squinted as blood trickled in his eye.
"I told you, said Kareem. I would have my decision in the morning. This is my decision."
"What have we done, that you would do this to us? What have I done?"
Kareem shook his head. "This isn't personal, don't make it that way. Last night my argumentative son reminded me of why I am doing all this."
Wahlid, helping the cameraman, looked up at his name and made a small smile.
"What are you going to do?"
"What does it look like? You think we're going to sing you happy birthday and give you a cake?"
Some of the men laughed at that.
"No, we're going to cut your head off. Then we're going to fill it with about a hundred grams of Black Fire starter, and a cell phone trigger device. Then we are going to deliver it to the ISI office in Islamabad."
"No. No. Don’t do this!"
"We're not interested in being manipulated by corrupt regimes that pit Moslem against Moslem. And like you said, we need to see how Black Fire manages in a large, open environment. One with indeterminate quantities and responses. If it doesn’t run a bit wild, what’s the point of it?"
They tied his hands behind his back, and forced him to kneel by the block. Faisal shoved his head down over it.
"May I?" he asked.
"Please," said Kareem, and walked away.
Lakshmi Rao, V
"Roshmita, have you finished your internship applications?"
"No Ama, I’ve decided I’m going to do drugs all summer, and live in the street under a plastic sheet."
The Shih Tzu lay on its back, wagging its tail. The teenage girl sitting on the floor next to him, scratched his belly and ate popcorn. On a wall-mounted TV, a Korean game show was all garish colors and embarrassed people with perfect teeth. Reading a tablet on the couch in sweatpants and a kurthi, was Lakshmi Rao.
"Do you have a preferred one yet?"
"The Space Camp program at ISRO."
"That's in Bangalore, yes?"
"Yes, Ama."
Her mother made a face. "Party town."
"Of course, that’s why I want to go there, right? Those nerdy Space Geek boys and their sexy BO! Think of all the comments! Is she fair under the fairing? Do you want to reentry with me? Can I show you my sounding rocket?"
The doorbell rang. The Shih Tzu jumped up and ran behind Roshmita, then barked after finding his courage there. She got up and went to the door.
"Someone to see you," Roshmita presented the visitor.
"Anjana!" Lakshmi’s smile raised her off the couch like helium.
"So good to see you!" one hand on the walking stick, she accepted the hug.
"What brings you this way?"
She held out a book, "I found this, you left it behind."
"Thank you so much, I thought I had lost it!"
"I knew it had to be yours. Not like anyone else in the office would have a first edition The Feminine Mystique."[lxxiv]
"Have you read it yet?"
"Sorry, no."
"Then keep it. Return it to me any time."
They sat down. The Korean game show was muted.
"How are things at work?" asked Lakshmi.
"They are still trying to fill your position. It looks like they are going to take a while."
"Of course they will."
"Everyone misses you."
&nbs
p; "And I miss them."
"Are you sure you won't come back?"
"Absolutely. If they won't take the refugee problem seriously, there's no reason for me to stay. I'm looking at programs I can do in the area, local efforts for Chennaites."
"You're going to stay in the city?"
"Of course. I like it here, and Roshmita is happy with her school. I came to Chennai to be closer to people who have to save their homes from rising waters. I may have the luxury of getting up and leaving whenever I get tired of that game, but I want to stay. When we all have the same problems as those at the bottom of society, that's when those problems get solved."
"There are other UNHCR refugee programs, Lakshmi."
"There is no interest in Geneva or New York in coming up with new solutions to replace the Orbital Program. They are all busy slapping themselves on the backs for canceling it, but no one has come up with anything else. And they are not going to, at least not for a while. They won’t approach the refugee problem in a structured, disciplined, manner. They never have. All this means, is more suffering by people who have no voice."
"You were that voice."
Lakshmi smiled a tired smile. " And who heard me?"
The two women said nothing for a while.
"So now, you are looking at local efforts and programs?"
"Yes, there is a great deal happening within the community. This city is taking care of itself. It seems a popular model these days. Why trust strangers when you have neighbors?"
"If you find anything - I'd love to quit and come and join you."
"That's the nicest thing a UN staffer has ever said to me. Of course! It would be wonderful to work with you again, Anjana."
The Korean game show gave way to a news flash. Smiling white men in suits shook hands for flashing cameras and signed documents.
Anjana glared. "That bastard. He gets away with everything."
"He might have done me a favor."
"How so?"
"I'm happier now, I spend more time with my annoying teenage daughter."
"Hey!" said the annoying teenage daughter.
"Remember when we went to Africa? That seems like such madness to me now."
The Hundred Gram Mission Page 27
