Charles Sheffield - The Mind Pool

“I’m sure of it. Bleeds liquid helium. But let me get right to business. Do you know what actions it would take to reverse the decision of the Ambassadors — to provide me with at least an equality of rank with Mondrian?”

“Suppose I did know. Why should I discuss it with you?”

“Still the same sweetheart.” Luther Brachis pulled a slender pencil from his pocket. “Take a look at this, Lotos, and then let’s continue the conversation.”

Sheldrake dimmed the lights and pointed the viewer away from her. When she turned it on, a three-dimensional image sprang into existence. At its center hovered a silver-blue cylinder with a tripod of stubby legs and a lattice of shining wing panels.

“Shahh-sh!” Sheldrake hissed. “Commander Brachis, I hope for your sake this is an old holograph. If you have located an intact Morgan Construct, and failed to reveal that fact to us … remember, we do not share the rest of the Stellar Group’s softness of heart regarding death as punishment. Assure me that this is an old holograph or a computer simulation, Luther — for your own sake.”

“To the best of my knowledge, the only functioning Morgan Construct is the one that got away. On the other hand, what you are looking at was recorded less than one week ago, and it is not a computer simulation.” He waited, until her hand was no more than an inch or two from a button set into the top of her desk. “A few moments more before you call the guards, Lotos. You don’t want to make a fool of yourself.”

“Speak, Luther. Quickly.” The tiny hand hovered over the button.

“What you are looking at is not a Construct. You will have proof of that. What it is, as I can readily prove, is an Artefact from one of Earth’s Needler labs. But examine it as closely as you like, and I am sure that you will be unable to detect any difference — except, of course, that this is completely safe, without a Construct’s destructive potential.”

The hand hesitated, then withdrew from the button. “Artefacts are not allowed anywhere except on Earth. You’re still in trouble, Luther, if that thing is anywhere up here.”

“You don’t have it quite right. Artefacts are not allowed into space unless the situation involves a Stellar Group emergency. That’s the catch-all clause applying to just about everything that’s normally forbidden.”

“And the Anabasis is operating within a condition of Stellar Group emergency? Clever so far, Commander. But nothing to do with me. Two more minutes.”

“Lotos, you’re still missing the point. I’m here to help you.”

“And the Sargasso Dump guards are going to win this year’s Mastermind contest. What’s the pitch?”

“One minute will be enough.” Brachis put his pencil viewer back in his pocket. “Mondrian and I have the responsibility for training the Pursuit Teams. If we do a bad job, and the Morgan Construct wipes out the teams, we get the blame. But not just us — all humans, in the minds of the Stellar Group. The training responsibility will not really be Dougal MacDougal’s fault, or yours. But as ambassador, he’ll feel the worst heat, and you are next in line. Do you want that?”

“You’re sneaky as Mondrian.”

“I take that as a compliment.”

“It wasn’t one.”

“And my two minutes are up.” Brachis was glancing at his watch. “I guess I have to stop and get out.”

“Don’t bait me, Luther. Get on with it. You’ve never seen me nasty.”

“I dread the day. The big problem is this. How do you train a group to seek out and destroy a Morgan Construct, when you don’t have one and they’ve never seen anything like one? Build another, to use for training?”

“Never. That idea would be vetoed by the Ambassadors instantly.”

“Right. Even if we knew the complete construction methods, which we don’t. So we have to go with the next best thing. We use some other form, something that looks and acts like a Morgan Construct, but isn’t one.”

“Logical. But still nothing to do with me.”

“Suppose that you, and you alone, were in possession of such a thing? An Artefact, or rather, a set of ten identical ones, for use in Pursuit Team training. Unable to harm a human or other intelligent life form.”

“Now you sound like Livia Morgan.”

“And she was wrong. I know that. But there is really no comparison. She was working right at the frontier of what can be done, while the rules and technology for manufacture of Artefacts are well-established even if they are restricted to Earth. And we can run these creatures through every environment we like, for as long as we like, until you are convinced that they are perfectly safe. Then you tell Ambassador MacDougal that you — and you alone — have the answer to all the problems of practical Pursuit Team training. You get all the credit. That’s my pitch.”

“No. It’s less than half of it. Do you have these Artefacts?”

“I would not be here otherwise. They are available now, packed away in suspended storage.’

“Where?”

“I didn’t hear that, Lotos. But if you could arrange for me to be reinstated at the same level as Mondrian, with equal authority in the Anabasis, my hearing might improve.”

“ That’s what I was waiting for. That’s the second half of your pitch. It can’t be done.”

“No?” Brachis stood up. “Then I guess I’m on my way.”

“Sit down, Luther. I’m interested, but you have to realize what you’re asking. You know Dougal MacDougal as well as I do. So I’m supposed to make him persuade the other three Stellar Group ambassadors to change their minds, when he can’t even look at the Angel Ambassador without having a nervous breakdown? How do you propose I do that?

“MacDougal doesn’t have to talk them into anything. All he has to do is send them a message, revealing that I had a bigger hand than he thought in the original fiasco. According to their crazy logic, if I’m as guilty as Mondrian we’ll share equal responsibility for clearing up the mess.”

“That’s the most stupid thing I ever heard.”

“Almost as stupid as the original decision to put Mondrian in charge. It will work.”

“Suppose it does. How do I know I’ll get credit for the Artefacts?”

“No one else will be asking for credit. I’ll deny involvement if I’m asked.”

“And how do I deal with Esro Mondrian when he finds out he’s not top dog any more?”

“He won’t blame you, he’ll blame the Stellar Group. You sound like you’re afraid of him.”

“Of course I am. I’m not a fool, Luther.” Lotos showed an even display of pearly teeth — a smile, to anyone who did not know her. “You are a simpler soul, Luther. When you don’t like somebody, you do your best to kill them on the spot. With friend Esro, people who get in his way die smiling and never feel the wound. If he has six different agendas going, I can never guess more than four or five of them. He manipulates you, he manipulates me, he manipulates everybody. You and Mondrian are both dangerous men. But I like you a lot better.”

“You’re too kind.”

“I mean it. You are ambitious. He is driven. You are dangerous like a bear. He is like a snake.”

“And what kind of animal are you?”

“Need you ask?” The innocent eyes widened. “I’m a sweet little honey-bee. All I ask is a little nectar from each flower, with no harm to anyone.”

“You’ll get lots of nectar from this one.”

“Perhaps. I like what I’ve heard, but I have to take routine precautions. For example, what’s to stop Mondrian from arranging for a supply of these same Artefacts, once he knows that they exist? He knows Earth well, better than either you or I. For that matter, what’s to stop you from doing the same thing? You know the source, and I don’t, and once I’ve done my part of the deal I have no protection.”