by Gian Bordin
"I will tell you later. Was it good? Were you happy there?"
"Yes. I was. I think that was the happiest time of my life."
"I admired your charcoal drawings, particularly the one of Mai."
"You saw them? … Yes the one of Mai I think is one of my best."
"Why don’t you take it up again?"
"You ask me? Because I’m a Young and bound to this firm."
"No, you’re not. You have a choice. Grandfather only has power over you if you let him have it."
"These are strong words. I thought you honored your grandfather."
"I do, but he also knows that he cannot rule me, and he has accepted it. Uncle, is there any reason why you have to continue a work that you do not enjoy, rather than pursue the passion you denied yourself for almost thirty years."
"Sometimes, I wish I could."
"Why do you think you cannot? … Because you owe too much money for the shares you bought from me?"
"Yes, you tricked me."
"I have the power to untrick you," she said smiling. "UniCom can guarantee the loan and you pay it off from the dividends."
"But will there be dividends?"
"There will. There still needs to be a lot of research done before instantcom replaces HST and then its profit will keep UniCom healthy."
"You are always a step ahead of me, aren’t you? I have misjudged you from the first moment I saw you."
"Only you can answer this… Uncle, will you now give me an answer to my question? Why won’t you pursue your passion and be happy while you paint? You want me to tell grandfather?"
He remained quiet for a while. "No, I will tell him myself."
"Does that mean that you resign from your duties at UniCom?"
"Do I really have a choice?"
"One always has a choice, one may just not like the consequences."
He nodded.
"I still would like that I can come to you for advice and that you make yourself available to look over the shoulder of the person I may appoint to your position."
A hint of a smile lit up his eyes. "You can count on that. I guess it should go to one of the young Deng people, possibly Cor."
"Under my leadership, the position will go to the most capable person. There will be no favoritism. And Cor is no longer on our staff. I dismissed him this morning."
He looked at her alarmed. "Why?"
"He tapped Atun’s and my comunits and placed a listening device in Atun’s office." She could not quite suppress an amused smile at the irony.
"Was that not rather precipitous? Xi Deng will not accept it."
"When a decision is right, there is no point to delay it, and Xi Deng has no choice but to accept it." She briefly paused. "Uncle, unfortunately, I have another thing that I’m afraid will hurt you."
"I know, you suspect that Pat is behind the crash of the shuttle."
"It is not suspicion any longer. I have proof that points the finger firmly at him, but I don’t want a scandal or involve the police. It would be best for everybody if he resigned, and it would be less humiliating for him, if you told him to do it rather than I or grandfather. You don’t have to tell him that this request comes from me."
"Why do you spare him when you were so ruthless with Cor?"
"Somebody had to be made an example of, and Cor is arrogant and cunning. Pat was dragged into this and fell victim to his hatred for me."
"Dragged into it? By whom?"
"I won’t answer that question… Please, talk to Pat. Make him see that this is the best for him and the Young family. There must be plenty of positions in the Foundation for a young man of one of the most respectable families."
"I will try." He seemed to hesitate.
"You want to ask me something."
"Yuen-mong, I heard you say that ‘they will either respect me or fear me, like the savages did on Aros.’ What did you mean by that?"
"The savages on Aros tried to capture me while I was still a child, to subdue and abuse me. The only way to stop them was to make them fear me."
"And how did you make them fear you?"
"By killing their leaders whenever they tried."
"You just got your first few here," he said bitterly.
"Uncle, you are not fair to me. I did not kill you, not even figuratively speaking. I offered you choices."
"You are right. It is a choice that I should have taken when I was your age. But then I didn’t have your courage, and I would not have had the courage now if you had not come along… Will you forgive me?"
"You are forgiven, and I am sure that Mai will rejoice in your decision. Only a few weeks ago she said she wished you would take up painting again."
She stood up.
"Bee mentioned that you would like her to help you. Did she understand that correctly?"
"Yes, I offered her a part-time position for setting up a psychological screening program."
"It is against Foundation custom."
"The Foundation must either adapt to the 25th century or be doomed. I will make a determined effort to get more women into managerial positions, and I would like Bee to be the first one."
"There is already one," he said, smiling openly for the first time.
"Uncle, encourage her to say yes."
* * *
After lunch in the cafeteria where they joined a group of young scientists from the research section who quickly overcame their reserve, she called Syd Twan. She had agreed with Atun that she needed to confront him alone, that only then would she be able to probe his mind without interference.
Syd seemed to be pleased by her willingness to have dinner with him. He met her after work and she sensed his hopeful spirits while he drove her to the Lake Terrace Bar. The waiter ushered them to a reserved, secluded table at the water’s edge. Syd ordered champagne.
"We have to celebrate. This is our first social outing, and it was not for lack of trying on my part."
"Syd, I haven’t said yes."
"But I take it as a good omen that you agreed to let me spoil you a bit as only a man like me can."
"You know that if I want to be spoiled, I can do that myself. Tell me a bit about you and my mother."
"You would like to know?" surprise in his voice. "We knew each other from childhood. I think I fell in love with her when I was fourteen and she was ten. She was such a lively, inquisitive girl. There was a rebel in her already then. She always wanted to participate in the games boys played. I remember once another boy tried to have her excluded and she punched his nose. From them on, nobody dared to leave her out, and she was good. She was the strategist of our group, always coming up with the most hair raising and unexpected plans that utterly confused the opposition. You see, you are really your mother’s daughter. That was brilliant how you kept your opposition guessing and pounced when they least expected it."
"You think she loved you?"
"At that time, definitely. We spent most of our free time together all through our senior schooling years. You know, you would have expected that I was the one who helped her in her school studies. No, it was the other way round, especially in physics and chemistry and mathematics."
"That’s interesting. She taught me physics and chemistry, but never mathematics. It was always my father."
"Yes, he was a mathematical genius. But Zoshan wasn’t far behind him."
"What happened between you? Why didn’t you get married?"
"Oh, we did promise each other before she went to the Academy of Science on Palo. She only finished a year behind me, not four. She was just 16 when she went there." He paused. "But when she came back after a year for her summer vacation, she was a different person."
"How?"
"She was suddenly very critical of the Foundation and its rules. Sure, the rules and conventions are a bit old-fashioned in some respect —"
"— I would say archaic —"
"I bet you do, the way you’re flouting them so deliberately."
"Why
doesn’t the Foundation then try to haul me in?"
"May I let you in on a secret? … Because I told them that firstly they wouldn’t win and secondly they would just draw attention to it, that it was much wiser to simply ignore it."
You arrogant man, but her face revealed only an amused smile. "I see. I admit it makes life simpler."
"I knew you would appreciate it."
"So my mother …?"
"I think she didn’t have your humor. She rebelled inside against the Foundation and somehow that came between us. It was worse the year after."
She vaguely remembered her mother telling her that she discovered her empathic skills during her university studies. So she would have discovered Syd’s real person only then, and that could well have been a sobering disappointment.
"I also suspected that she had not been faithful to me and had gone against the covenant about remaining pure until marriage."
"And had you been faithful to her and lived according to the covenant?"
He laughed, but she felt that he was uncomfortable. "Why do you want to know?"
"Curiosity… To get to know you better."
"No, I had short affairs with several BD girls."
"But you didn’t admit that to my mother."
He laughed. "No."
"Tell me Syd, have you been faithful to me after you declared your love for me?"
"I have not looked at another woman. That’s the truth," he said, taking her hand, but she knew that he was lying.
"I didn’t ask for that, Syd. You are a free man. So what happened then between you and my mother?" She withdrew her hand.
"I asked her to marry me before going back for her third year. I even talked to Chen Young and he agreed, provided Zoshan agreed. I was even willing to let her finish her degree."
How generous of you!
"But she refused. She said she was too young to for such a big step."
"I can understand that. She was only 18. That’s how I feel myself."
"Oh, you are a much more mature woman than your mother was when she was twenty. She went back to Palo and did not return for her next two summer vacations. When she came back, she said that she couldn’t marry me, that she was very fond of me and that she would like me to be her friend for life, but that she loved another man."
"My father?"
"Yes, they met on Palo. He was a researcher at the institute of the Academy where she studied. I think she told your grandfather that either he gave his approval or she would resign from the Foundation. That’s when he offered your father a job in UniCom, where within two years he became their leading scientist. The interesting thing was that his condition for working for UniCom was that Zoshan would be allowed to be in his research unit against custom, but then he was not Foundation."
"You mean accepting that my mother would work?"
"Yes, and allowing it."
"Would you have allowed her to work?"
He pondered that a bit. "I guess I would have given in to her if she had insisted."
"You realize that I wouldn’t even ask."
"Oh yes, you are a different person. But I’m also confident that once you have children you would want to be with them."
"You know more than I do. Did my parents marry shortly after that?"
"I think about a year later. Zoshan already worked at UniCom. You see you are not the first one."
"And then?"
"What you mean ‘and then’?"
"Did you still see her after that?"
"Oh, yes. I liked your father. We became good friends. I was best man at their wedding."
It felt that he was speaking the truth, but she thought the time had come to shock him. "You know, Syd, I had you on my list of possible people who could have sent my parent to their death. You had a motive: jealousy." She saw him blanch.
"Oh, Yuen-mong, how could you? I loved your mother and I would never have harmed her." Again it felt true.
"I believe you now."
"I’m glad. You really shocked me." He again placed his hand on hers. "Was that the reason you didn’t say yes when I asked you to marry me?"
"No, it was not. It was because I wouldn’t be able to live up to your expectations."
"What you mean? I want you the way you are."
"No, Syd. You want to tame me, and I would soon be unhappy." Was that another reason why my mother withdrew from him? "Whereas Atun places no demands on me, and I know I will be happy with him."
"Yuen-mong, don’t say that, don’t. You would be happy with me. I would spoil you every day."
"You see, that is exactly it. Atun has no pretensions of spoiling me. He puts no demands on me except comradeship, sharing parts of our lives… Syd, I thought I was in love with you. I don’t know anymore. And even if I did, I cannot forgive you for trying to kill Atun."
Although it was dark by then, she saw the blood drain from his face. "Me, trying to kill Atun. Where do you get such crazy ideas?"
"Syd, we traced Pat Young’s payment to Jack Hart to you."
"What nonsense it this?" She sensed that he was psyching himself up to show outrage. "I know of no Jack Hart."
"You may not know the man, but you arranged with Pat that Atun’s air shuttle would crash."
"I don’t know what you are talking about." But she knew he knew.
"Syd, I’m an empath, as my mother was. Like she I always know when somebody tells a lie; sometimes it’s like reading the person’s mind; that’s why I knew you told the truth about not having sought my father’s death. But now you’re lying. But don’t worry. I have no intention of doing anything about it. You must have done this in a state of folly or despair. Pat Young will resign from UniCom tomorrow or else I will fire him — no, don’t say anything right now — I hope that you now realize that the very act of trying to get rid of Atun means that you’ve lost me for good."
Both remained quiet. She sensed that his mind was in turmoil.
"Syd, if you want to remain friends with me there is one rule you have to follow: never lie; if you don’t want to reveal something, just say so. I will respect that."
She got up, briefly touched his hand, and said: "Thanks for telling me about my mother." Then she left.
* * *
Tuesday morning Atun had his first briefing with the planning group he had assembled from top people in Research and HST about the status of instantcom. He pointed out that as things stood at that point in time, it was mainly suitable for image and voice transmission over space, such as in conference sessions between small groups or even two individuals, news broadcasts and sports events. Currently its main advantage was that it was not dependent on fixed transmission links like HST, but could occur between any two points in space. Then he spelled out the research that was still needed to make it a serious competitor to HST for mass data transmission.
She liked watching him. Whenever their eyes met, she sent positive vibes to him. He handled questions well. He proposed that a small steering group be set up to develop a detailed plan of research priorities. In the meantime, the product development section of the Research Division would take over the production of a sufficient number of prototype models that could be used for trials, training of mediums, applied research, and trial market tests. His suggestion that the news broadcasting industry should be offered the first limited use was greeted enthusiastically. Instantcom would then start earning funds immediately, while only marginally competing with HST. The upcoming ice hockey match between the two top teams of Palo and Andromatis, to be held in Cherni in four weeks time would be an appropriate event for the galactic first. The HST member offered to arrange it, with Anouk to go to Palo for the event, accompanied by a research technician.
At the end of the meeting, she suggested that it might still be a good strategy to proceed with the further expansion of HST. That too met cautious approval.
After the meeting, she received the first set of profiles of potential replacements for Cor Deng. Of the five files sub
mitted, four were Young or Deng members by birth or through marriage, including Pat Young. She advised Mr. Ong-Deng that she wanted a wider choice, reiterating that the prime criteria were ability, experience, achievements and leadership potential, rather than blood or family kinship.
* * *
While she was sitting into Atun’s meeting, Bee had left a message that she wanted to see her, and Mrs. Oddell had slotted her in after lunch.
"What a small office you got," Bee exclaimed after being ushered in by her secretary.
"But it has the best view. See."
Bee joined her at the corner window. Mist was rising from the Sanctum bay of Lake Carda, obscuring the lower slopes of Mount Olympus. "Yes, I can see. Better than my father’s."
"I’m glad, Bee, you have decided to work with us."
"But I haven’t said yes yet." She was visibly taken aback.
"Bee, remember, I’m an empath. I knew the moment you entered that your answer was yes."
"It feels strange that you can read my mind. I don’t know whether I like that."
"Yes, it’s a matter of getting used to it, and I also want to be completely open with you. I will always know when somebody tells me a lie or hides something. So if you don’t want to tell me something, just say so. I won’t probe. You will actually find that this is freeing." She noticed that Bee blushed. "Bee, I haven’t caught you with a lie yet. In fact, one thing that I like about you is that you are so straight and open."
"Thank you."
"Bee, ask what’s on your mind."
Bee responded with a smile. "You know that too? … You said Ming had empathic abilities. Will she also know —"
"— when somebody lies to her? Yes, she will."
"Oh, Yuen-mong, thank you for warning me. It’s sometimes so tempting to tell small lies to a child." She paused and looked to the ground. "Are you willing to tell me what happened between you and my father … and Pat?"
"Yes to the first, no to the second. You must have known that your father’s dream has always been to paint and that he didn’t have his heart in UniCom. He did it because he knew that as a Young this was expected of him. The events over the last few weeks have made it even harder on him. I offered him a choice. I also told him that UniCom will guarantee the loans he took out for buying the shares I sold him. That removed his financial worry and he grabbed the opportunity."
