L Modesitt - Empress of Eternity

"Assistant Minister Tidok, sir."

Tidok Bienn, physician and Assistant Minister for Medical Research, was close to the last person in the Ministry that Maertyn wanted to see, especially at the moment. He walked over and stood behind the desk that was his only temporarily. "Have him come in."

The angular physician stepped into the office. Behind him, Marcent closed the door.

"What can I do for you, Tidok?" With a smile, Maertyn gestured toward the chairs in front of the desk and seated himself.

The angular physician laughed ironically as he took the center chair. "Not much of anything. I just stopped by to pay a friendly visit. In your position, there?s not too much you can do, even if you were inclined to do so. I?m sure you know how I feel. It?s too bad that we?re wasting such vast sums on environmental research, especially on climate. For all the rhetoric, there?s no such thing as an anthropocentric impact on global climate. It?s all a scientific illusion."

"Those are rather strong words. What about all the geologic evidence…the ice core samples…the seabed samples…the measured drop in heat-retaining atmospheric gases?"

Tidok?s gesture waved away Maertyn?s words. "Most of it?s mere coincidence or largely irrelevant. Fluctuations in methane and CO2 have been around as long as there?s been a biosphere on Earth. Human beings just don?t have the ability to make the kind of impact all the theoreticians postulate. The ancients didn?t create global warming, and the reactions of later cultures didn?t create the cycles of global cooling and warming. We just have to adapt to it."

"You seem to be ignoring a fair amount of data…"

"It?s all modeled data based on too few verified historical points. You know as well as I do that you can manipulate any data set to get the results or trends that you want." Tidok smiled more broadly. "The midcontinent canal?s a bit of a fraud, too. You and I both know that it?s not what?s been claimed for it."

"How so?" asked Maertyn smoothly, wondering exactly where Tidok was headed. "The canal exists. It?s been examined. It?s been measured. How can that be a fraud?"

"Oh…I?m not denying the canal?s existence. I?m just highly skeptical of the idea that it contains anything unusual or valuable. It?s clearly an artifact, but an anomalous one. Call it the great accident of the ancients. They did something. It didn?t turn out the way they expected, and the backlash hardened a massive but primitive waterway into the canal. After all, what civilization, what true civilization, would expend the resources for a highway for water-borne vessels? Totally anachronistic. Anachronisms don?t happen, not in high-tech cultures. Therefore, it was an accident, nothing more, that people have been reading more into for eons." Tidok laughed.

"I find a two-thousand-kay-long accident extraordinarily unlikely," Maertyn replied.

"Not any more unlikely than human manipulation of climate, certainly. Or the idea that human intelligence just evolved from microorganisms or the like."

"A physician who recognizes genetic coding and who has reviewed his share of recoding, but who denies evolution?"

"Genetic codes of great complexity require a coder. They don?t happen by chance. Manipulating and using those codes merely recognizes the codes."

Maertyn attempted a thoughtful nod.

"Some manipulation, of course, verges on the attempted creation of life," Tidok continued. "There are ancient legends about the dangers of that. We recognize the validity of what lies behind those legends, of course, in the legal structure. That is why the use of cloning is so restricted and why full-body cloning cannot be used for medical purposes, or for any purposes without the consent of both the Council and the Judiciary. But then, I?m certain you?re most aware of the legalities there."

"That?s a very interesting point."

"I thought you might find it so."

Maertyn managed a laugh. "I?m certain you didn?t trek over here merely to lecture me on the validity of ancient legends and their application to current law. What did you have in mind?"

What indeed?

"Actually, I had forgotten that Josef was on an extended tour of various universities. I was almost here when I recalled that. So I thought I?d say hello. I?d come to discuss the matter of transferring any funds that might be left in the Environment Research bud get at the end of the year to Medical Research. Such decisions do have to be made before long."

"You obviously know where there might be such funds…" Maertyn raised his eyebrows.

"Climate research is one area. With the closure of the northern ice laboratory, it would appear unlikely that all those funds would be spent."

"No, but I wouldn?t be surprised if Josef had plans for transferring the funds elsewhere within the subministry."

"That is true. But the preliminary transfer recommendations are due this coming threeday. They?re not binding, needless to say, but…" Tidok shrugged.

Maertyn understood fully. If he, as acting assistant minister, recommended a transfer of some of those "excess" funds to Medical Research, Josef would have to provide a detailed rationale for any subsequent change and argue to Minister Hlaansk for a change in reallocation already proposed by his own subministry because the latter change was a better use of funding. Given some of Josef?s priorities and his known association with Tauzn, doing so publicly would definitely create some difficulties.

"I haven?t looked into it, I?d have to say. I?ve just received the current accounts with potential unspent funds. Those are on my schedule, but I will consider your advice when we go over accounts redirection then."

Tidok rose. "I couldn?t ask for more. Thank you, and do give my best to your wife."

"I will." Maertyn held the smile until the door closed behind Tidok.

Had Hlaansk any part in Tidok?s scheme? Maertyn shook his head. Hlaansk would have known what Tidok wanted. There wasn?t any reason for the Minister of Science to say anything to Tidok. If Maertyn wanted to thwart both Tauzn and Josef, he well might have to consider reallocating funds to Medical Research, if only to keep some funds from falling under Tauzn?s control, however indirectly.

Was there some aspect of Medical Research that Maertyn could support that went against Tidok?s predilections? Anything at all?

Maertyn hated the thought of providing Tidok with even the smallest increase in funding. More than anything, he needed to read what Hlaansk had sent him on the reallocation earlier that day, but, what with one thing and another, he hadn?t gotten to it. He sat down at the desk.

He might as well start, interruptions or no interruptions.

Once he returned home that evening, he needed to write Maarlyna again. The fact that there was no direct comm access to the station had been fine when the two of them had been there together, but with her there alone, he worried about her. A hundred years earlier, it wouldn?t have been a problem, because broadcast radios had still been common, but geosat frequencies were monitored and controlled…and comparatively scarce, by Unity design.

He took a slow deep breath and began to read through the accounts projected on the desk screen.

30 Quad 2471 R.E.

Once she searched and buried the dead RF "inspectors," Rhyana came up with a combination of netting and fabric that approximated the color of the canal stone and moved the RF wheeler so that it was next to the east side of the station. She reported to Eltyn what she had found on the bodies and in the wheeler. None of it was unique or even particularly useful, except for the additional stunners and their charge packs.

A high-flying minidrone would show the apparent longer length of the station, but Eltyn doubted that the RF minions of The Twenty had immediate access to the image archives of MetCom for a comparison. That assumed the archives still existed. Since there was no one sending on broadcomm at all, there was a high probability that the MetCom records were currently inaccessible, if they hadn?t been destroyed as a result of The Twenty?s power grab.