That evening he met his friend Tim for a drink in their local café/bar. It was a bar. The word café was over the door but that was akin to writing gentlemen’s club over the door of a strip joint. They had become friends quickly when John first arrived. Tim was on the engineering side of things during the project, his contract was coming to an end and he already had his flights to Dublin booked for next month. All parts of his life seemed to be in movement at once, but as Tim had pointed out to him, all parts of life are always in movement, we only notice it when we need to. They both drank a lot that night, aware that such moments together were now precious, and with each drink the future became clearer at a rate inversely proportional to the clarity of their speech. Tim’s future was clear. He had a contract in Ireland to work on a new gas fired power station in the south of the country, but he know that once ITER was ready to roll out on an industrial scale, and judging by the first results that was looking more and more likely, he would be one of the few people in the world with experience in the construction of fusion based power plants. If he kept his finger in the pie he was set for life. So was John in the long term, but that would involve another ten to fifteen years of waiting. There would be challenges in the scaling up phase but none as exciting as building an immense project from scratch. Graham had let him use his initiative and imagination; his new boss probably wouldn’t want a subordinate who is more experienced than them so that was sure not to go well. There was the money, but as the boredom had begun to teach him, there are more important things than money, just as long as you have enough, and Graham had guaranteed him that he would have enough. There would be the move of course, they did have the option of working from Cadarache but experience won out over comfort, and if they wanted to do a good job then they needed to be able to meet the right people face to face. Houston was supposed to be a nice city.
As John walked home, the drink kicked in and the remembrance that he was lonely came back to him. More obsessive work, is that what he needed right now? Surely the quiet life that lay ahead of him if he stayed here would be perfect for a wife and family. But where was he going to meet the woman of his dreams around here? There would be more opportunities to meet someone in Texas and a change is supposed to be as good a rest.
Two days later, once the hangover was well rid of, John Peeters had made his decision, and he had chosen well.
Chapter 3: 2027
Xhu loved his little office. It was so unassuming, and to him that was perfect. The walls were a plain cream colour with varnished yellow pine panels which ran halfway up it. A soft simple tan carpet upon which rested a sturdy oak desk with a chrome lamp and a soft 1950’s style leather high backed swivel chair. Even the ceiling light had a plain art deco shade bathing the room in a soft opalescent glow. There were no shelves or cupboards, no stray pieces of paper, not a single indication that anything was out of place. Yet it was used every day by Xhu, he felt comfortable here. There were two pictures hanging on the wall, both simple portraits, one of Mao Tse-tung and one of Deng Xiaoping. Some people didn’t like having a portrait of Mao. Most party officials who had his portrait on their walls never gave it a second glance after their secretaries hung it there, but Xhu, when inspiration seemed to elude him, would lie back in his seat, fold his hands under his chin, and stare intently at the Chairman’s reassuring smile.
Before he joined the party, Xhu had an eventful life. Born into rural poverty he should now be an old man with many grandchildren on a farm too small to make a living from. However he had been generously bestowed with extraordinary intelligence which had driven him his entire life. In his youth it fuelled his curiosity to the extent that one day, at the age of three, he disappeared and was found in the local library looking at communist propaganda. The librarian, while waiting for the police to come and collect this lost child, had begun to teach him some characters and the sounds associated with them. After one hour Xhu had read and understood his first sentences and he wanted more. His parents had always noticed his intelligence. Xhu had learned to walk early and already had a substantial vocabulary by two years old. When the librarian offered to teach Xhu his parents didn’t hesitate to say yes; they were poor and knew to take opportunities the on the rare occasion that life offered them. At the age of twelve he was sent to live with his aunt in Beijing and by the time he was fifteen he had already graduated top of his class in Peking University and was secretary of the Youth section of the communist party there. From there it was a two year climb up the greasy pole to becoming a junior office worker for the Chairman.
His current job title was “Senior Controller”, at least that what it said on his door. In reality job titles were meaningless to him. The last real job title he had held was “Junior Office Worker”, it was in this job that the Party, or rather the Chairman himself, had recognised Xhu’s extraordinary talent to predict the future. At least that was what they thought he did. Xhu could no more read the future than he could walk on water. What he did have though was an unnaturally good talent for reading vast amounts of news and intelligence reports, sitting back in his chair, staring at a point in space and working out the most likely path current events were going to take. He loved to do this, he felt it was some sort of spiritual calling rather than a job, and all it required was an uncluttered space in which to unclutter his substantial capacity to store information. He had predicted most economic bubbles and crashes, rather than applying economics he applied psychology and managed to come up with fairly accurate time lines for stock market crashes. He had helped chart the economic rise of The People’s Republic of China by advising when to apply economic stimulus and when not to, he had foreseen the rise of the computer age when most commentators thought they were too large and too expensive to ever be of commercial interest, and he knew the internet would become the dominant means of communication and begin to evolve into a trading platform, after all, what was more natural for human beings than to communicate and trade with each other, and what was the internet other than a human tool. He didn’t advise the President and Prime Minister on every little thing, but his reputation was such that when he called them, they listened, and he only called them when he had information of use to give them. He really felt like the luckiest man in the world, how many people get to sit and think for a living, and are good at it.
At 8:30 pm, he took three sheets of paper from the top drawer of this desk and laid them in front of three chairs that had been placed opposite him. The chairs looked a little uncomfortable; they were supposed to be, yet were still in keeping with the general simple décor. There were three soft knocks on his door:
“Come in.”
His secretary, a well-dressed young man of twenty two whom he had handpicked from the university himself, showed three slightly over-confident looking middle-aged men into the room. All three uttered greetings, smiling at this short old man who looked like just another party hack they had to deal with, greetings which were not returned but were rather met with uncomfortable seconds of silence.
“Gentlemen, be seated. Thank you Bin, you may leave us.”
As the young man who had shown them in closed the door behind himself, the three of them glanced at each other, suddenly a little unsure of themselves, and sat down. They had met each other in the reception area fifteen minutes earlier, and being the old acquaintances they were, they settled quickly into small talk. They were the head civil servants from the Ministry of Science and Engineering, the Ministry of Labour, and the Ministry of Finance. None of them had ever met Xhu before because they were only in their jobs three months. Senior civil servants like these came and went with their ministers, which is precisely why they were now sitting in front of Xhu, he needed practical people close to their ministers, and he needed them to do as he said.
“In front of you is a very short report of a meeting that was held yesterday in Houston, Texas, in the United States. Please read it”.
Xhu turned his back on them and stared out the window at the night. He list
ened to the sheets of paper slide across the desk as they reached for them, the noise as they shifted about in their chairs, the silence. Like anybody he didn’t enjoy the silence, but it was a necessary tool. Silence meant they didn’t know how to deal with him and had instantly accepted his authority. He had designed both his office and his style of dress to do just this, and each time it worked, very well. Inwardly he did enjoy the satisfaction that this brought him though he was careful never to let it show on his face, there was no honour in gloating. Soon they would ask questions, and at that point he needed words to reinforce his authority, pretence can only get one so far. He turned back to them:
“Thank you gentlemen for accepting the invitation from the Prime Minister’s office to be here, I know you have very busy schedules and we appreciate your attention. Unfortunately the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not be here…..it is also unfortunate that he will be demoted in a months’ time.”
Yes, that got their attention, but the head of the Ministry of Finance managed to find the courage to speak up. This was a good sign about the man.
“My comrades from the other ministries I know, but from your door I see you are a Senior Controller…who…who are you exactly?”
“I will not tell you my name comrade, and I encourage you not to try and find out what it is. I am a part of the party machine like you. If China was a car Comrade, like your Audi, you three would be part of the engine and I would be a ball-bearing in the steering wheel, we each have different functions as part of a formidable machine, but without any of us the car would be pretty useless.”
Xhu reached into his pocket and took out three simple white business cards. On each was printed a different phone number and the words “Senior Controller”, he handed one to each civil servant.
“While I cannot tell you my name, I can assure you that my role is benign and for the good of the party and of the country. I too have superiors, and no I am not part of the Ministry of State Security. You will find me very pleasant to work with and you may find that your cooperation can work in your favour. You can call me on this number whenever you like, when you can no longer reach me then you know your part in this endeavour is over. Do you understand these instructions?”
All three of them nodded nervously. For men who had reached such high positions, Xhu was a little disappointed that they appeared so eager to please. Is this what currently passed for men of decision? He was not surprised though, he had predicted a weakening in the character of senior party officials as capitalism skimmed off the cream of the crop to work in other sectors. At least the head of the finance ministry seemed to have a little courage:
“Senior Controller, the document we just read, I, like everyone else have heard about the planet thirty light years away, and because I read western newspapers I have heard of this starship project, but surely they cannot be as far along as this suggests, they don’t have any funds? What has this to do with the People’s Republic of China?”
“Again comrade, your question is worthy of response and I appreciate your frankness. No, they are not as far along as this document suggests, at least not materially. That meeting in Houston was internal in the office of the 100 Year Starship, when it began to receive western news coverage eighteen months ago I had a listening device placed there. We often believe that as a nation we are the greatest in the world and that we can achieve anything. We have been the largest economy for some time now. We point to our skyscrapers, our high-speed rail, even our ancient great wall as symbols of what can be achieved by the Chinese spirit. It has nothing to do with spirit comrades; it has to do with vision, and the will to achieve that vision. This small office in Texas has that, and in the past twelve months they have achieved more in their planning phase than a company a hundred times their size could achieve. Their senior planner, Graham Hutchinson and his assistant John Peeters were project managers on ITER. They know how to plan the building of a huge complicated machine with components from across the globe, they eat planning charts and breathe spread sheets for a living, and once they have done the planning they know who to call to get what they need”.
Xhu went silent for a moment of reflection. “You know, in many ways I envy them. My entire life I have successfully predicted trends and I have guided our leaders along the right paths to return China to its former glory, while these two men are part of something that is more than a trend, it is something that will fundamentally alter what it means to be human. Yet they do not fully realise it, they are so engrossed in one of the greatest thought experiments in history. I don’t often digress from a point Comrade, I apologise, but alas to answer your question, no they are not that far along materially, but conceptually yes. If they had the resources to build a starship they could start tomorrow and be so far ahead within one year that we could never catch up. For the second part of your question, no, this has nothing to do with the People’s Republic of China, given enough time nations come and go, even one as ancient as ours. Ideas though, they can last a while longer, and children, well, with enough of them they can last forever. If that ship is never built we as a species will sit on this rock orbiting the sun and one day we will all become extinct together. If it is built, and it travels to the new planet, its passengers will populate that new world, yet on Earth we will still go extinct, but the species would survive. If this ship is full of western passengers then they will survive. The People’s Republic of China may not live for ever, but her children can. Gentlemen, this must be a Chinese ship, but despite our wealth and our industriousness, we cannot afford to build it alone”.
∆∆∆
The Premier read his notes again. He had to learn this speech off by heart; it would be the most important of his life and would make him a giant of history. This was his legacy making moment, and as a politician, nothing mattered more than legacy. Normally on trips to New York his wife would be shopping as her absence a UN speech would be nothing worth writing about. This time though she had walked him to the entrance of the assembly room, gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, and retired with his staff to the viewing gallery. The UN Secretary General was speaking and in just a few minutes he would be invited to address the room. It had been years since he had butterflies in his stomach like this, in many ways it made him feel alive and young again. One last gulp of water, one last look at his notes, he wasn’t going to bring them with him to the podium, but he was confident he knew what to say. Still he waited to be introduced, not that he needed to be introduced, but formalities must always be observed in international meetings. Finally the moment arrived, and as expected, to thunderous applause he arose from his chair, smiling and waving to the room as he took his place in front of the microphone. He had been doing this so long his public acting was no longer a conscious action; he smiled and waved as a reflex.
“Mr. President, Mr. Secretary-General, Excellency’s, Ladies and Gentlemen, on behalf of the Citizens of the People’s Republic of China I thank you for the opportunity to address the assembly. The UN, despite all its flaws, has maintained the world in a relative state of peace and harmony for just over eighty two years, which when looked at through the lens of history is an extraordinary achievement, an achievement of diplomacy and of international cooperation.
One again we are gathered to discuss some of the major challenges we face together such as energy supply, climate change, economic stagnation, and mass unemployment. I say once again, because we have heard the same promises being made, the same goals being set, time and time again and still in reality we do nothing. A year ago, the people of our great nation opened their hearts to the people of the Maldives and we took them in as their homes disappeared into the sea forever. This was unavoidable, but we ignore their warning at our peril, we can be certain that what has happened to the Maldives will happen to Venice, Miami, Tokyo, Shanghai unless we spend billions on coastal defences these cities will drown. What about the cities that will die of thirst? Again we need billions to either pipe water to them or we
need to resettle their populations. What kind of paralysis has led us to this situation? Why can we not find work for our millions of unemployed, surely there are still great things for humanity to achieve? Why can we not get our industries to function? What is so difficult about reducing our carbon dioxide emissions? Yes, China has its share of guilt in this situation, but we have been rapidly developing, and the western nations do not have the moral authority to ask other countries to remain underdeveloped, but together we can develop in new and sustainable ways. China is the world's fastest country in developing new energy and our afforestation programmes have been a huge success, this is something we are already teaching to emerging economies.
My fellow citizens of the world, my brothers and sisters, for the past ten years we have been promising new industrial revolutions or new green economies, we have not delivered on those promises. Some economists have said that policy cannot bring about such change and that private industry must deliver. Well, in our opinion, private industry has had 20 years to deliver and all we have to show for it is that our phones are a little smarter. I have yet to see a phone so smart that it can write a poem, paint a picture or imagine its own future. Are we to watch the triumphs of human ingenuity, the hopes of our children, and the cultures we have developed over thousands of years evaporate into nothing as we sit and wait for a miracle from private enterprise? The People’s Republic of China says no. The People’s Republic of China says enough!”
The Project Manager Page 3