“Protection,” said Christian calmly. “What we have always offered our clients.”
“How?”
Willy put his coffee to his mouth and sipped slowly. He placed the cup down carefully. “You need allies Akash. It was a clever strategy to hide away in Bhutan but now the Russians, Chinese and Americans have started making inquiries. These inquiries have so far been frustrated. You have protected your corporation well from industrial espionage, hardly surprising given your mastery of cybertech. They know you have developed a tight network in Bhutan and that makes them suspicious that you are up to something important, so now they will lean on Bhutan.”
“And how will they lean on Bhutan?”
Willy sighed, impatient that he needed to explain it. “The usual way: first they will squeeze her finances, seek to bribe, threaten, even assassinate, then if that fails, they will concoct a pretext for an invasion. If it is China, then directly. If it Russia, then by proxy using India. The world will not care. Look at Tibet. Do you want that for your friends in Bhutan?”
“Are you threatening me?”
Willy seemed surprised by his accusation. “No, I’m not threatening you. I am explaining how the game proceeds from here. I am acting on behalf of a European consortium that hopes to out manoeuvre the Americans, British, Russians and Chinese. They understand that we are giving birth to new technologies that will make their current business models redundant: genetic engineering will reduce the need for pharmaceuticals, fusion will reduce the need for fossil fuels, robotics is changing manufacturing and logistics. Combined, they all have an impact on the business of warfare. You either adapt or you die. This consortium has the covert support of several European governments, especially Germany and France. It therefore has the support of NATO. What army do you have to protect Bhutan?”
He was well aware that as his operation grew larger, he would need some form of protection, especially to guarantee the safety of a staged emigration program. If the UN hadn’t been so compromised they might have been a natural candidate. Switzerland under the protection of NATO seemed to be the next best option, and with the European Union’s investment in CERN, and with the ESA, it seemed an obvious ally. “Can you guarantee NATO?”
“Only if it is worth their while… You have to choose a side Akash. Neutrality is no longer an option, that’s just the way it is.”
“And this is what you told Tatiana?”
“Amongst other things. The US government is planning an anti-trust suite against Shunyata. Their military industrial network wants total access. They are losing the technological advantage. Just about the only thing they have is force of arms, but even that is being eroded. They are getting desperate. This tension with Canada is just an excuse. They want to declare martial law so they can basically walk in and take what they want. An external war can be a very useful way to wage a covert civil war and to get rid of internal opponents and rivals. Tatiana is Russian; Jing is Chinese. Need I say more? They can be declared enemy aliens. Now if Shunyata’s technology gives them a military advantage… Well, you can imagine… They will seize all of Shunyata’s assets and data.”
“I see, just as the Nazis did to some of your clients during the war?”
“Yes, their factories were commandeered. Some resisted and were dealt with, not just our Jewish friends, but progressive Germans as well. Fortunes were ruined, many lives lost…”
“But if I shift assets to, say, Switzerland…”
“Where US law has limited jurisdiction…”
“And international mechanisms…”
“Can be frustrated…”
“And what is it you expect I can offer?”
Willy nodded to Christian and he left the room.
“I know this is distressing. I am sure that when you were a boy your head was filled with the excitement of invention and discovery. You weren’t thinking of the consequences. It is a problem all innovators face, that their work is so easily misunderstood or misused. There is always some ignorant thief or fanatical ideologue ready to tear down everything you have built or to put it to some sinister end. It is a wonder civilisation survives at all.”
“Perhaps not everything is worth saving?”
Willy frowned. “Who decides? A Savonarola or a Hitler with their bonfires?”
At that point Christian returned with Angelika (she was wearing tight, black spandex gym shorts and one of her t-shirts, this one featuring an equation by Heisenberg). She walked directly over to Akash, gave him an affectionate kiss on the cheek and sat beside him on the couch.
“Actually you can blame Angel for alerting us to Shunyata. Care to tell him liebling?”
“Oh yes, of course, sorry Akash. It’s the infinite energy thing. Obviously it has important implications for industry. It will wipe out the need for fossil fuels and also for fission. We are talking a technological revolution. So obviously anyone who controls that kind of energy will control a good deal of wealth. That got papa interested immediately…”
“But it was the other thing, remember?” Willy reminded her.
Angel scowled. “Of course I do, but the good news before the bad papa.” She turned back to Akash. “It follows that if you can teleport energy, you can perhaps teleport a large burst, an explosive burst. You wouldn’t need a missile delivery system. It would be instantaneous, so you understand what is at stake, why we had to get you here? If you know how to do this you are perhaps the most dangerous man on Earth, and if that’s the case, we want you close to us.”
“I can assure you I’m not working on any such thing,” he said unconvincingly.
She placed her hand on his knee. “You know, you said something interesting last night. Or should I say, you didn’t say something interesting. It’s been running through my head all night. I haven’t slept at all.”
He shook his head, confused by the apparent contradiction. “What I didn’t say?”
“Izzy asked you if we would ever get to the stars. Instead of dismissing her out of hand like I did, you asked her what she thought. When I explained why it wasn’t possible you were pretty quiet about it. It just didn’t add up. I kept thinking that maybe you actually believe we will travel to the stars and the only way that would be possible is through large-scale teleportation and that requires considerable energy, perhaps energy retrieved from the ether? So I did a search for papers on teleportation and came across a paper by Hikaru Watanabe on Einstein-Rosen bridges, wormholes. To be perfectly honest I haven’t been much interested in cosmology. My focus has been on the quantum level, but you know, as I read Watanabe’s paper, I couldn’t escape the physical sensation, the gut feeling, that, you know…”
He was feeling sick and he was sure they could see the expression on his face.
“That at the level of the implicate universe, everything is entangled. How could it not be? It all arose from the singularity. It is all the one thing, entangled at the beginning of spacetime. You don’t travel through spacetime, you bypass spacetime, like slipping into the shadows.”
“Interesting…”
Angelika gripped his knee and stared deep into his eyes. At that moment he knew that she had made the necessary conceptual leap. “How long have you known?” she whispered with a conspiratorial smile.
Checkmate.
“So what happens now?” he asked Willy, although he already knew the answer.
“You talk to your lawyers; we talk to ours. They negotiate and eventually we reach an agreement. I don’t expect it’ll be anything you and I need to get too personally involved with. You’ll be free to continue your research with additional resources plus the protection of NATO. In return the consortium shares in the profits of any new technology that arises from the research.” Willy smiled and offered his hand. “So we have the beginnings of a deal?”
Akash shook his hand. There was still a long way to go and he wasn’t about to reveal his full hand (nor, he suspected, would they).
“You were flying out in the morning?�
� asked Willy.
“Yes, nine.”
“Good, then we have time to relax, do you play tennis?”
“Badly, although I did play a little bit of badminton at university.”
Willy looked at both Christian and Angelika to indicate that they should set up the net and they left the room.
“I gather that by now you have worked out that we are rather relaxed about nudity. My grandfather Friedrich Wilhelm was an advocate of friekorporkultur. We believe that the beauty of human body should be celebrated, like the ancient Greeks. It was very big in the twenties and thirties in Germany. We continue the tradition.” Willy walked over to bookcase, pulled out a photo album and began to regale Akash with stories of Sommerland’s past. Willy explained who some of the people in the photos were but he only recognised a few names: Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Hedy Lamarr, Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier, Bridget Bardot and members of the Chaplin family (who owned a nearby mansion on the lake), but he was not impressed. It simply reminded him that some people were lucky to lead extraordinary lives.
The mood of the household lifted almost immediately. Willy and Greta were pleased, no doubt because Willy would earn a substantial commission, and everyone else seemed relieved, no longer needing to pretend, especially when he and Willy appeared naked.
He found them to be delightful company, people who knew how to relax and have fun. They also proved to be an affectionate family unafraid of physical contact. They played badminton, had a light lunch and engaged him in entertaining conversations. In the heat of afternoon they retired to the pool and Willy served cocktails. He could only imagine the types of conversations and seductions that had happened around this very pool in the past.
When Willy disappeared with Greta into the kitchen to prepare dinner and Christian and Izzy went off to talk quietly, he was left with just Karolin and Angelika. Karolin had warmed to him once she realised he wasn’t the threat she thought he was. She was stretched out on a towel catching the last rays of the afternoon sun. He had dozed only for a moment, finally surrendering to relaxation, when Angelika nudged him to make room for her on the substantial white, wooden deckchair. It was a tight fit but she seemed unconcerned that this put her naked flesh into contact, side by side, with his.
“I’m glad you came Akash. It’s been very stimulating. I rarely get to meet people who think on the same wavelength. There are so few us it gets lonely.”
He did not think she was trying to seduce him. Instead he felt almost brotherly and he placed his arm around her, which she accepted readily. “I know. I had a lonely childhood, few friends. I used to wonder if evolution had a purpose in creating a group of people whose IQs outmatched most other people.”
“So humanity would survive, a successful evolutionary strategy,” she replied confidently.
“Do you think it’s that simple?”
“Nothing’s simple but think about it. Everything that has ever uplifted humanity has been created by the small percentage in the gifted range, by people who dared to think outside convention. Even the simple breakthroughs. I’ve often wondered who first thought of knitting and weaving, a woman no doubt…”
“Of course…”
“They are quite complex operations, especially when you consider the elaborate patterns in some carpets and laces. Yes, it can be learned by rote, but to invent the process; that is something else. The average mind tends to accept things the way they are; they don’t question, they don’t think things through, they don’t invent. I like to think that all the major technological advances are the product of the gifted. Without those individuals we’d still be hunting and gathering, or maybe we would have become extinct. I mean, who first thought about grinding wheat to make flour and then baking it to make bread? Where would we be without bread: picking lice and eating them like chimps? And despite this, the prols still resent us. But of course, that is the way they think. They watch their TVs, drive their cars and use their smart phones, without ever really understanding how these technologies came into being. Perhaps they think they just turn up in shops? They are suspicious of the new which is why they never invent anything, they just take what they are given as if it appears by some kind of magic.”
“But if we could boost their IQ?”
“Of course, but that has its limits. We can perhaps do a ten to twenty point increase. That would certainly move the average to the moderately gifted, but it’s still nowhere near the highest, but then, wouldn’t you also offer to boost those already at a high level? So you see, the gap never goes away. It might be unfair, but that’s just the way it is. I’m not saying the gifted should rule. That would be tedious, like herding cats. I just think there should be a greater appreciation for what the gifted give society. Humanity is at its best when it supports its geniuses and creatives, and at its worst when it fears and persecutes them.”
At that moment Greta yelled out that dinner was ready. They attempted to stand at the same time but did so awkwardly and lost balance. Angelika laughed and gave him a boisterous shove. He pushed back and they wrestled, but she was surprisingly strong. A condition of his surrender was that he piggyback her up the stairs.
He decided they had an enviable life. Of course they were beautiful, wealthy and privileged, but they also knew what to do with that beauty, wealth and privilege. He had been to mansions before, mostly monuments to excess and poor taste. Despite being large, every room in this house had a specific function; every piece of furniture and artwork was a celebration of excellence; every piece handcrafted, helping to keep important skills alive. Nothing was mass-produced. Nothing was a cheap copy.
This was as good as it got on Earth. If the colonisation failed, maybe it would be best to raise Pema and the soon to be amongst people like these?
He felt a strange sense of sadness as entered the chauffeured car. Willy and Angelika had thrown on clothes and walked outside with him to say goodbye. He didn’t know them all that well, in fact he had initially been very wary, but he had come to like them all. In some ways Angelika felt like a precocious little sister, yet as she stood there waving, he was all too aware that she was poised to make a significant contribution to physics, so it was essential that he keep her close. If she had made the conceptual breakthrough how soon would it be before there were others?
113
Choejor
Choejor was blushing and Prax was feeling a little embarrassed himself. This had been an unexpected turn of events, but Tshentso had suggested it, and such a suggestion was rather more a command
“The Kumari has told me how things are on Eden. She believes I need to be better prepared. She says you have trained others…”
She was standing close to the entrance of the small room set aside for him. It was night and simple lamps lit the room, creating a dull orange glow and casting dark shadows on the walls. He had been meditating, trying to still his mind. Recent events had meant he had struggled to retain balance, ataraxia.
“And she intends for you to travel to Eden as part of an official delegation?”
Choejor nodded. “She says that on Eden I will be treated as a full citizen, with full rights. According to your custom I am not considered a child.”
“I see,” he said softly and with kindness. “I suppose Eden would be something of a shock. Our ways could be quite confronting to Terrans. You have no sexual experience?”
“No, I was destined to become a nun, to be celibate. I am fully aware of the facts of the matter and I have a vague memory of witnessing my parents, you know… We lived in a two-room house in a rural area known for it’s frank approach.”
“But it is theoretical. You have no practical, hands on experience, even as a curious child?”
Choejor blushed and bowed her head.
“I understand that Tshentso has reintroduced the tradition of the khandroma and the practice of yab-yum. I have been reading as much as I can, but I must admit the details still escape me. Perhaps Tshentso is being somewhat more cunning and she
actually intends for you to instruct me. Am I correct that she intends for you to be a, what is the term, nirman…?”
“Nirmanikaya khandroma – the doctrine of the trikaya, the three bodies: the body of bliss, the body of the imaginal and the physical body. The khandroma must master all three. The more conservative sects do not practice the physical aspects - yab-yum, or take consorts. They are celibate and meditate on imaginary deities in order to invoke their spiritual power and absorb their bliss bodies. I do not pretend to understand the reasons why, but the Kumari has explained that the yoga of the khandroma is very powerful and that men came to fear it. The female lineages were suppressed and weakened…”
“But never quite eliminated. This appears to be a contradiction. I have seen many sexually explicit images since I arrived, naked Dakini, phalli painted on walls…”
Choejor nodded. “The Kumari has explained that the tantric tradition was once very wide spread; even reaching far off lands, but there was a patriarchal resurgence sometime in the fifteenth century. This coincided with the strengthening of the Brahmins, to the detriment of both Buddhist and Hindu tantra. Perhaps because of its remoteness, the Himalayas escaped the full brunt. The Gelugpa and Sagyu sects arose in response to the threat and they de-emphasised the role of women, refusing to accept that the Lady Tsogyal was a fully realised Buddha.”
“So I understand,” he agreed. “The tradition survived by keeping a low profile. But you come from a lineage that attempted to restore these traditions? Did you not say you are the descendent of Drolma and Lars?”
“Not every lineage was able to succeed. It was never thought that all of them would. There were political pressures, arranged marriages to patriarchists, mishaps. The Kumari seeks to reinstate the matrilineages. In a sense you could say I was rescued, returned to the path. You see, my grandmother was married to a follower of the Gelugpa and he forbade her to practice what he considered witchcraft. The truth is, there are few suitable male consorts. Your arrival presents an opportunity…” She blushed a deeper red.
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