“Yeah.”
Winterfelt grinned crookedly. “And I suppose this is a pretty good argument for an increased budget for the Ministry of Science,” he said dryly.
“Ordinarily, I’d tell you to go fuck yourself for making a pitch like that at a time like this,” Royce said. “But you happen to be right, and I’m sure we can push through a resolution earmarking all the proceeds from selling what we do have on the Web for the research budget of the Pacifican Institute.” He smirked sardonically. “Which, of course, will only increase the political pressure on you to produce results fast. Needless to say, we will not make this an issue in the current campaign.”
“Needless to say,” Winterfelt grunted uneasily. He laughed mirthlessly. “Now if we could bribe a ranking Heisenberg scientist into defecting, that would be money well spent,” he said. “That would make it a whole new game. Know any takers?”
“Maybe I should take it up with Falkenstein,” Royce said sourly. “Maybe I could offer him your job.”
“Very funny.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” Royce said dryly.“Even if one of those bastards was corrupt enough to sell out for money, he could make a lot more of it selling what he knew directly on the Web. No, Hari, it looks like you're the man in the scientific hot-seat for as long as your ass can stand it.”
“Words cannot express how thrilled and relieved I am to hear you say that,” Winterfelt sighed wearily.
A long shot on Bara Dorothy standing beside the gray hull of the Femocrat starship. To her left, arranged in rows like graduating students posing for a final class picture, are about thirty Femocrats, including Mary Maria but not Cynda Elizabeth.
Bara Dorothy (woodenly, awkwardly): “My name is Bara Dorothy, sisters, and I’m speaking to you as spokeswoman for all the unsung heroines who have labored so tirelessly and selflessly for a Femocrat Pacifica.”
The camera moves in for a closeup on Bara Dorothy. Bara Dorothy: “It now seems certain that Pacifica will shortly elect a Parliament that will expel us from your planet. Will all our efforts have been for nothing? In the long run, I hope not. For that same Parliament will also banish Transcendental Science forever.”
She permits herself a small smile. “Judging from the bellows of outrage emanating from the Heisenberg, Roger Falkenstein hardly considers this outcome a smashing victory either. And within his defeated ranting is a small but telling truth.”
The camera pulls back for a wider shot, including the rows of Femocrats, who stare into the camera with fixed expressions of dogged determination.
Bara Dorothy: “I too believe an independent Pacifican Institute will be a fraud and a sham, if not exactly for the same reasons. Need I point out that all the teaching personnel of the new Pacifican Institute will be male? No doubt there will be some female students for cosmetic purposes. But since the male Pacifican staff will control the technology stolen from the Heisenberg, the end result will be a male faschochauvinist elitist clique using its secret advanced technology like a priestly caste to dominate Pacifican society.”
A closeup on Bara Dorothy.
Bara Dorothy: “When this faschochauvinist elite reveals its true face, I believe that the sisters of Pacifica will remember what Femocracy tried to do for this planet, and they will see the outcome of the forthcoming election as a tragic mistake, the right road not taken. On that day, you will realize that the struggle, far from being over, is only just beginning.”
Cut to a series of shots dissolving rapidly into each other: a Femocratic League of Pacifica demonstration; ranks of marching women; a street scene on Earth where confident women bustle about their business; shots of four planets seen from space with marching women superimposed over them; and finally a spaceship much like the B-3I moving toward Pacifica.
Bara Dorothy’s voiceover. “You may be turning your backs on us now, but Femocracy will never turn its back on you. Know that your comrades on all liberated planets will never abandon their Pacifican sisters! Summon us once more to your aid, and we shall return! Sisterhood is powerful, Sisterhood remembers, and Sisterhood is forever! Long live Sisterhood and long live our undying solidarity with those Pacifican sisters who will keep the faith through the long night of faschochauvinism that is now descending.”
A vague sense of unease soured what should have been Carlotta Madigan’s impending moment of triumph as she sat in her office reviewing the depth poll figures two days before the Parliamentary election.
The figures were encouraging, to say the least. Bucko Power and Femocratic candidates were contesting less than half the seats, and even these were trying to disassociate themselves from off-worlder connections in an effort to survive the impending landslide. Both off-worlder fronts were finished as coherent political forces. The total vote against them should top 70 percent.
And yet, Carlotta thought, there is that hard-core 25 percent, and anyone who still votes Femocratic or Bucko Power has to be intransigent indeed! When they’re crushed in the election, they’ll disappear as an overt political force, bitter and intransigent, to nurse their festering wounds in secret. And if our Institute is as slow to produce results as Winterfelt says it will be, the Bucko Power remnants will brood upon Falkenstein’s parting shot. And the remaining Femocrat fanatics will remember their promise to return, maybe turn it into a filthy little cult. And the Pink and Blue War could return, perhaps this time outside the democratic process...
Carlotta sighed. Maybe you’re asking too much, she thought. You want to win without anyone being left to feel like the vanquished? You expect some magical balm to heal all the wounds of these many months without leaving noticeable scars? Not even Transcendental Science has medicine like that...
Her broodings were interrupted by her secretary’s face on the intercom screen.
“What is it, Bill?”
“You’ve got a visitor.”
“Is it important?”
“I think so... it’s Maria Falkenstein.”
“Maria Falkenstein?” Carlotta exclaimed. “But I thought they were all recalled to the Heisenberg? What’s she doing here? What’s she want?”
“I don’t know, but she says it’s important... should... . ?”
“For sure, send her in,” Carlotta said. Great grunting godzillas, what’s this all about? she thought. What now?
Maria Falkenstein wore a tan pants suit that might have been bought in any store in Gotham. There were slight bags under her eyes, and although her face was much more tanned than Carlotta had remembered, there was a gray pallor beneath it. She looks like she’s been under tremendous stress, Carlotta thought.
“May I sit down?”
Carlotta nodded silently at a chair, steepled her hands as Maria Falkenstein sat down, and waited for her to begin whatever-it-was.
“I suppose you’re surprised to see me here,” Maria said, wringing her hands nervously.
Carlotta nodded silently, not knowing how to react, or indeed what she was supposed to be reacting to. There was a haunted look in Maria Falkenstein’s eyes, a great sadness, but behind that there seemed to be a strange tranquility that went beyond mere resignation.
“I’ve left Roger, you know...”
“No, I didn’t,” Carlotta said inanely, arching an eyebrow.
Maria nodded. “I have,” she said. “Weeks ago. I’ve been in Gotham ever since, trying to understand your people, and what we’ve done here.” There was absolutely none of that Transcendental Science arrogance; indeed, she seemed almost humbled, and quite contrite.
“And just what cosmic conclusions did you reach?” Carlotta asked, somewhat sarcastically.
That seemed to get a small rise out of Maria; her eyes sharpened a bit and her voice hardened slightly. “I’m here, not there ” she said. “When Roger ordered us all back to the Heisenberg, I couldn’t bring myself to go. I felt I had to stay behind.”
“Why?” Carlotta said sharply. “To what end? Soon enough, Parliament will vote to expel all Transcenden
tal Scientists from Pacifica, and that will mean you ”
Maria Falkenstein looked down into her lap. “I...I hope not...” she said softly.
“What?”
Maria looked up at Carlotta, and now there seemed to be pleading in her eyes. “I’m not your enemy,” she said.
“You’re not?”
“Not any more...aria sighed. “You know, this is pretty difficult for me, and you’re not exactly making it any easier.”
“Under the circumstances, I don’t feel exactly relaxed either,” Carlota said somewhat less harshly. “Especially since I have no idea what this is about. Would you mind explaining why you’re here?”
Maria shrugged. “You could call it a new understanding, if you could feel some kindness toward me. Or just a guilty conscience if you can’t.”
“A guilty conscience?” Carlotta said softly. By now she was convinced this was no Falkenstein. ploy. This woman had really left her husband, she really was here against his orders, and whatever emotion was gripping her, she was sincere, and it was costing her.
“You have to understand who I am and where I come from,” Maria said plaintively. “I’m a woman of the Arkologies, that’s common enough, but I’m also a female Institute graduate, and that’s quite rare.” She frowned crookedly. “A great source of pride to my husband— to have an Institute graduate for a wife. So you see, I was an anomaly to begin with; I had a much easier time of it than most of our women—an Institute graduate and the wife of a Managing Director of an Arkology.
Most of our women are... well, just wives—because of the genetic differentiation between the sexes, or so we’re told. And our society functions smoothly and optimally, so one didn’t question this until... until...aria paused and studied Carlotta speculatively. “Do you understand what I’m trying to say?” she asked.
“I think I’m beginning to,” Carlotta said, feeling sympathy for the woman growing within her.
“And then we came here,” Maria said. “And I saw that things could be different and still work. Femocracy repelled me, but it also forced me to take another look at my own culture, to see that there was a subtle male chauvinism at work within it, and not merely a logical application of the scientific principles of psychobiology.”
She looked Carlotta straight in the eye, and what Carlotta saw in her face seemed like affection, an affection directed toward her. “And I saw you,” Maria said. “You and Royce. A woman who ruled a whole planet and a man who stood by her side in strength, not weakness. A whole planet like that. An alternative to both male and female faschochauvinism. Scientifically backward, maybe, but on another level so far beyond what we—”
Carlotta laughed good-naturedly. “We’re neither as simple nor as perfect as we may seem,” she said. “As witness the events of the past half-year,” she added more darkly. “Events in which you people played no small parti”
Maria Falkenstein hung her head in rather touching contrition. “I know,” she said softly. “We took* something that worked and tried to change it for our own ends. And so we meddled and schemed and we used all the techniques of our superior science...” She looked up at Carlotta and shook her head. “And we almost succeeded, didn’t we?” she said. “We almost destroyed the harmony of Pacifica forever.”
“You came reasonably close,” Carlotta admitted dryly. “And I’m not so sure at least some of the damage isn’t permanent.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Maria blurted. “Maybe you won’t believe this, but my mind was divided from that first day when I saw how you and Royce could be with each other. I believed in the future Transcendental Science is building, and I think I still do. But I saw that Pacifica had something that we lacked, even as we had a vision that you lacked. How far did we have a right to go in the service of our vision? Roger and the others saw no limit, but I...I felt we had no right to destroy what worked so well here and so badly in our own society.”
She shrugged. She grimaced. “How pious and selfserving all this sounds now, after the fact!” she said. “But please understand, I was a dedicated Transcendental Scientist, I believed in what we were doing, I loved my husband, I trusted in his wisdom ... it was no straight and easy path for me from there to here.”
“And just where is here?” Carlotta asked.
“I want to help,” Maria said. “I want to make amends. I want to do my part to repair whatever damage we’ve done, damage that I admit I’ve collaborated in.”
“You mean you’re telling me you want to defect?” Carlotta exclaimed. “Is that what this is all about?”
Maria nodded silently, avoiding her eyes.
“Could get difficult...” Carlotta said uncertainly. But in her heart, she had already decided.
How difficult it must have been for this woman to have reached this decision! she thought. To put her world, her past, what she had been, and the man she had loved behind her for the sake of.... what? Principle? Contrition? A new awareness of herself? The small-minded might call this treason, Carlotta thought, but there was an elusive and touching loyalty here that went beyond planet or ideology, treason or defection. Home is where the heart is, however you get there.
“I could be of great assistance to you...” Maria suggested. “Believe me, I could more than justify the political risk...”
Carlotta studied her speculatively for a moment. She thought of that potential embittered 25 percent of the voters. She thought of Roger Falkenstein’s prediction of failure for the Pacifican Institute of Transcendental Science. Perhaps Transcendental Science does have a medicine to heal our wounds without leaving scars, she thought.
“I believe you, Maria,” she said, reaching out and taking her hand. “Welcome aboard.” Maria looked up. She smiled wanly. She nodded silently.
“So Sisterhood does turn out to be powerful after all, doesn’t it?” Carlotta said. She laughed. “But not quite the way the Femocrats mean it,” she said. “You could twist semantics a little closer to the truth and call it the Sisterhood of man*”
A very long aerial shot of the silvery disc of the abandoned Godzillaland Institute of Transcendental Science. As the camera zooms in on the Institute, six helicopters parked in front of the building become visible. Tiny figures scamper from the helicopters toward the Institute as the camera zooms in closer: men and women carrying crates, chests, and items of equipment into the empty building.
The shot centers on a stationary female figure standing just in front of the entrance to the Institute, and the camera zooms in much more rapidly now into a closeup on this woman, who is revealed as Maria Palkenstein. Her face is calm, determined, perhaps a bit contrite.
Maria Falkenstein: “Citizens of Pacifica ... or I should say my fellow Pacificans, for I’m going to have to get used to that ... as you no doubt know, I am Dr. Maria Falkenstein, Institute graduate, late of the Arkology Heisenberg. Pending Parliamentary approval of a permanent position, I have accepted a provisional appointment as acting Provost of the Pacifican Institute of Transcendental Science, contingent upon approval of my application for Pacifican citizenship. As you see, the Institute is now being reopened under my direction, and applications for admission will now be accepted by the Ministry of Science.”
She pauses, staring at the camera, as if waiting for the enormity of her announcement to sink in.
Maria Falkenstein: “My people came here with a vision of a transcendent human future and a dedication to spreading our advanced knowledge throughout all human worlds. Unfortunately, we also came with a righteous conviction that this end justified any means. Even more unfortunately, a Femocrat mission arrived with an even more ruthless dedication to thwarting that goal, and soon we were all caught up in a conflict that strained Pacifican society to the breaking point.”
She becomes openly humble, painfully apologetic.
Maria Falkenstein: “For my part in what happened, I can only humbly beg your forgiveness. But despite the efforts of Femocracy and Transcendental Science, it was you who in the end
prevailed. And for that, I can only offer my heartfelt thanks to you for what you have taught me.”
She pauses and smiles ruefully. “I learned how men and women could live together in justice and equality. I learned that it takes more than logic and knowledge to make a people whole. I learned how a free and democratic people could retain control over its own destiny despite overwhelming odds against them, I am learning from you still...”
The camera pulls back for a longer shot, including the entrance to the Institute as Pacificans pass back and forth through the shimmer-screen.
Maria Falkenstein: “Now I offer my own knowledge in return. You have been told that without guidance from a true Institute graduate, your native Pacifican Institute can only be a pale shadow of the real thing, and I must tell you that this is true. The Femocrats have told you that a male faschochauvinist scientific elite will in time come to dominate Pacifica, and I say this shall not be, and I am here to prove it.”
The camera moves in for a closeup on Maria Falkenstein; determined, resolute, some of her old pride regained.
Maria Falkenstein: “I stand before you now as Provost of a truly Pacifican Institute of Transcendental Science, as an Institute graduate capable of guiding that Institute to scientific parity within decades, not centuries, and as a woman. To the Femocrats, I say, here is the leader of your male faschochauvinist scientific elite! To my former colleagues, I say here is an Institute graduate and a Pacifican, who will share our knowledge with all mankind as knowledge was meant to be shared. To you, my fellow Pacificans, I promise to dedicate the rest of my life to the great adventure we are now embarking upon as fellow Pacificans and human beings.”
The camera pulls back abruptly as her composure cracks and tears well up in her eyes.
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