Charles Sheffield: Starfire

More likely, lobbyists for the Sniffers’ manufacturer were behind the political moves. The game never ended. If Sol were guaranteed to go nova tomorrow, today she would hear from lobbyists for sunscreen.

Meanwhile, closer to home, the Cabinet officer in charge of energy allocation did not seem to know the differences between fossil fuel, nuclear, and solar power plants, or be able to estimate the country’s base load capacity of each. The head of the United States census had just informed Celine that “sampling errors” were responsible for the obvious and grotesque inaccuracies in the population count of the West Coast states. The chief of health services offered no explanation for the rise in the infant mortality rate in the rural South, except to suggest “unusual weather.” They didn’t know it yet, but all three men were out of a job. Incompetence was something you might be able to tolerate in easy times. These were not easy times. There had been no easy times in the twenty-seven years since Alpha Centauri improbably went supernova.

The good news was that Celine had only two more meetings on her schedule. Returning to the White House through the overcast heat of a July afternoon, she reflected on the bad news: that her two final encounters were likely to be the worst of all. She went straight to the Oval Office, sat down in her specially designed orthopedic chair, and told the autocom: “All right, send Mr. Glover in.”

The armored door slid silently open and Milton Glover marched into the office. He stood before her and inclined his head. “Ma’am.”

He was a great one for offering every respect due to the presidency. His inner feelings were another matter. “Sit down, Milton. It’s good to see you.”

The smile he gave her was that of a man without a care in the world. He remained standing and took a long look around the sparsely decorated office. His eyes lingered on the side table with its vase of Oceanus roses. He nodded appreciatively and sat down. “I’ve been here many times over many years, Madam President. And I must say, I’ve never known this place to look so good.”

Beneath the compliment lay the second message: Presidents come and Presidents go. I was here long before your time, ma’am, and I’ll be here long after you leave.

Milton Glover was of medium height and build, with blond hair, a fair moustache, and innocent eyes of pale blue. He was in his late seventies, but the telomod treatment gave him the appearance and bearing of a man in his forties. He laughed loudly, frequently, and in Celine’s opinion wholly insincerely. He was also not nearly so smart as he thought he was.

“Thank you, Milton.” Take all compliments at face value. “ How can I help you?”

She had learned the quickest way to bring a meeting to the point. Nothing could be more polite than the simple question “How can I help you?” but it cut through all flowery courtesies. Of course, it was based on a cynical assumption: No one requested a meeting with the President who didn’t want something. So far that premise had seldom been wrong.

“I won’t take much of your time, Madam President.” Glover spread his hands wide. “For myself, I want absolutely nothing. I am here on behalf of a group of concerned citizens.”

“How can I help them}”

“The Trust In Government coalition is unhappy with this nation’s most recent policy statements and budget proposals. It is not too strong to say that many of them — of us — feel betrayed.”

“How so?” Advice from her political mentor: Let the visitor do the talking.

Glover pulled an envelope from an inside pocket. “Last year, an unprecedented thirty percent of our national resources went to the global protection project. That was already far more than can be justified. Now we see from this — your budget, signed with your own hand — that you propose to increase our contribution to the World Protection Federation to almost thirty-four percent. More than a third of the country’s expenditures will vanish into space.”

“Where it will be used to protect our citizens. All our citizens — including the members of the Trust In Government coalition.”

Celine could see nothing remotely humorous in her statement, but Glover laughed heartily. “Madam President, you know as well as I do that there are less expensive ways of protecting our people. Particularly when you recognize that the bulk of the funds you are proposing to give away is drawn from the members of the TIG coalition. And our members will not be the primary beneficiaries of such gross expenditures.”

Their meeting was being recorded. Milton Glover knew it. His statement was as close as he would come to what he really meant: Lots of foreigners don’t contribute a dime, so screw ’em. Why should my friends and I build a space shield to protect a bunch of gooks? And why pay here at home, either, to save no-hope welfare trash and idlers who don’t pull their weight?

TIG. Trust In Government. An old political principle, to give your organization a name that’s the opposite of what you mean. As Vice President Auden Travis had said to Celine, “TIG doesn’t really stand for Trust In Government. It stands for Troglodytes In the Ground. They want to dig holes to hide away from the particle storm, and to hell with everybody who has to stay outside.”

Celine agreed with Travis, but Milton Glover and his friends controlled too much wealth and had too much influence to be ignored. They insisted that the mockery of language was with the World Protection Federation. WPF, their literature said, stood for Wasters, Paupers, and Foreigners.

“Milton, you give me credit for power I don’t have.

Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t pull us out of the WPF. Remember, this country started the organization.”

“Yes. Twenty-seven years ago, when you were still an astronaut. I know it was nothing to do with you. I don’t even blame President Steinmetz.” He saw her expression. Saul Steinmetz had brought her into politics, and he was her idol. Hale and hearty, though long retired, he was rich and powerful enough to be a TIG member. In fact, he was the one who had first warned Celine that the TIG consisted of a bunch of self-serving hogs.

Glover knew that Celine and Steinmetz were friends. He hurried on. “Old Saul did what seemed right at the time, starting a global effort to make the space shield. But now it looks dumber and dumber. The project is way behind schedule.” (How did he know that? It was supposed to be secret information.) “A shield that’s only half built when the particle storm hits is like a paper umbrella in a thunderstorm. Worse than nothing, because you don’t know you have to run for cover.”

“Milton, this year’s budget is signed and sealed. I ask again, how can I help you?”

“I’ll tell you, Madam President. It’s something simple, and something you have the authority to do. The Nevada federal properties have been deserted and ignored for more than a quarter of a century. You could make them available for leasing by private interests.”

Celine had been expecting another plea for reduced international support by the United States. Glover’s request threw her completely. He was right; the Alpha Centauri supernova and the resulting population dip had emptied the Nevada federal lands. She had seen no mention of those lands in official reports during her five years in office. A proposal to open them to private leases would surely sail through without opposition.

But why was the TIG coalition — or anyone else — interested in Nevada? The whole state was barren desert.

Glover was not about to tell her. He was smiling smugly, waiting.

“I’ll see what I can do, Milton. On the face of it, I see no reason why a request like that couldn’t be granted.”