The Project Manager

by Terry Connolly

  Back in the translation booth Xhu put on his own headset. “Congratulations ambassador, you got a reaction.”

  “Thank you sir. Should we be speaking like this?” replied the Ambassador.

  “I had the placed swept for listening devices, the only ones here are ours, no matter though, we shall proceed with caution as if someone is listening.”

  “Very well. How long should the discussion last do you think?”

  “As long as is needed ambassador, several weeks perhaps, and it will test all your patience and diplomatic skill, though I imagine there will be a pause for an early lunch now, a long pause, long enough for the other nations to begin formulating first responses and amendments.”

  As if on cue the United States proposed such a pause which several countries rushed to second.

  Xhu smiled to himself, he still loved being right even though it was a frequent enough occurrence. “Let us have lunch Ambassador, we have plans to discuss. The dancers have caught up to our tune now we must compose the next movement.” They all quietly got up and left.

  The restaurant was a typical New York Chinese, though outside Chinatown. It was empty save for Xhu, Bin and the Ambassador, all three of them sat at a table in the centre of the room while the staff waited by the walls, keeping a safe distance until summoned. Xhu and Bin tried to avoid people, particularly other Chinese people, when possible. By minimising their interactions they minimised the opportunities for recognition. The heavy curtains had been pulled giving the restaurant an evening atmosphere. Black carved panelling on a red background lined the walls with over the top paintings of Confucius and stylised mountainous landscapes filling in the larger gaps. There was a slight haze in the air, a mixture of steam from the dumplings cooking nearby mixed with a slight wisp of incense. Some generic traditional stringed music played softly over the speakers just loud enough to make sure there would be no prying ears. The electronic menus cast a dull glow as they chose what to fill their bellies and their afternoon with. Xhu looked positively contented. “I have to admit, the food in the United States is much better than I expected,” said Xhu, “It almost makes me wish I had come here sooner. I had the most delightful steak last night for just a few dollars.”

  “In that case, may I take you to an excellent place I know in Queens this week? In my opinion it has the best American cuisine you can find,” replied the ambassador.

  “Certainly,” said Xhu, “I am not getting younger and must experience as many pleasures as I can in what time I have left.”

  Bin laughed, “There you go again, you had a perfect health check last month. His doctors told him he has the body of a 50 year old.”

  “And the mind of a 30 year old, that’s the part that I care about, as long as my brain is fine I can keep myself from boredom,” said Xhu.

  The ambassador decided to get straight to the point, “so, why all the secrecy?” as he indicated the empty room, “I’ve eaten here before, it’s where some of our secret service come.”

  Xhu nodded, “in that case the CIA know about it too. Well, they may know we are here but they probably don’t know who I am and they won’t know what we are discussing. Both of us have altered our appearances enough not to be recognisable. Worst case scenario, I am sure that if they have an agent in our Ministry for Science and Technology, just as we have an agent in theirs, then they will have this information already. Bin, how about you introduce, I am still choosing my entrée.”

  Bin put down his menu. “Maybe some dumplings to go with it though, I’m starving”, within an instant of putting his hand in the air the dumplings were ordered. The staff had recognised the ambassador and knew that he tipped well. “So, ambassador Wang, the government were impressed by your work here during the negotiations for building our lunar base. The United States may have arrived first but we are planning on staying a while longer.”

  The ambassador nodded, “Thank you Mr. Li, but it wasn’t difficult, we had a common problem with a common solution. Many people at home feel our ventures into space are a waste of money, this way we can still have a presence there at half the cost. The US government has had the same problem since the 1970’s.”

  “Or as a certain senator said, ‘whitey’s on the moon, but this time he’s not alone,’” replied Bin.

  “Indeed. Though there are variations on that quote that I have heard that don’t bear repeating, some from my own staff,” said the ambassador, “but you’re not here to flatter me I assume.”

  “No,” interrupted Xhu, “we are here to take advantage of this experience and perhaps help your career along in the process.”

  “I’m listening,” replied the ambassador.

  Bin continued “The United States, and indeed Europe, have been sending probes to Mars relatively frequently for the past forty years. As you well know, we have been focused on the Moon and have very little Martian experience. Well, rather than reinvent the wheel and send lots of our own probes there, we would like to build on their experience and we think the time is right.”

  The Ambassador tapped his chin thoughtfully, “You us to go there you mean?”

  “Yes,” said Bin.

  A pretty young waitress set the dumplings on the table in front of them, with Xhu initiating the usual small talk about where she was from and did she miss her family. It turned out she was from right there in New York. There was no indication from anyone at the table that anything interesting had just taken place and she returned to her position standing to attention at the edge of the room as ignorant of what was happening as before. While munching on half a pork dumpling and gesticulating with the other half, Xhu smiled and continued, “of course you know all this already.”

  Ambassador Wang nodded to the affirmative, “I have seen some foreign office documents that would indicate some background work is being done, though we can’t afford it?”

  Xhu laughed, “Money is just paper with numbers on it, more can always be printed and if not then you can change the number. We can afford it monetarily but not politically. The Chinese people and by extension the Party support the Zheng He. Thanks to its name they are willing to pay whatever is necessary. They won’t however pay for two projects. So we need a partner.”

  The ambassador put down his chopsticks and rested his hands on his lap.

  “Well, the US won’t pay for another project, they’re happy enough with the Moon. Neither will Europe, you know what they’re like with their penny pinching and they are making up for everybody else’s shortfalls on the Zheng He. Russia, or India maybe? They’ll drive a hard bargain. How do I sell it to them? Indeed, how do we sell it to our own people?”

  “Let us worry about that,” said Bin, “Thanks to the Zheng He, people now see us as natural leaders in space.”

  “Why do we want to go there though, what has Mars to offer?”

  “Room to move Mr. ambassador, a life boat, increased chances of survival. Of course we will tell people it’s for rare earth metals, but you are on the climate change committee, you know what the future holds.”

  Ambassador Wang nodded once more “Yes, I see. You know a future on Earth is more than survivable don’t you? Already the new forest planting is ahead of schedule, and fossil fuel cars are banned in most developed countries.”

  “Yes,” said Bin, “it is survivable, but not without droughts and famine first, and with over a billion people that will suffer, it is our society and our culture that will need saving.”

  “Not to mention Australia, most of Africa, Southern Europe and parts of America.”

  “Indeed, but they are beyond our remit and will have to deal with their own problems. I feel sorry for Africa, I am sure the world will continue to send aid, but it is like putting a plaster on a slit throat. Russia is your target. We will offer them resources here on Earth in return for their support to go to Mars. We have areas to the north of the country which will be desert in twenty years, we will give them the mining rights to it now, we have proven reserves of copper the
re that they will want, mainly so they can sell it back to us.”

  “You want me to open negotiations in private with them?”

  “Yes. Offer them this to start; I am sure they will bargain up, we will have other offers prepared for you.”

  “I guess I will be receiving a directive from the Foreign Ministry?”

  “Naturally, your ass will be covered.” All three of them laughed at this.

  “What will we offer them on Mars?”

  “Shared resources. We want to terraform Mars, it will take generations but we have always been a people who think in terms of generations.”

  “We have detailed plans for this?”

  “No. We have some outlines, but remember the Zheng He was just an outline once and now it orbits above our heads, in preparation to sail to the stars. If we can get agreement it will boost both of our economies.”

  Xhu summoned the pretty waitress over once more and gave her his best grandfatherly smile. As they ordered their meal, ambassador Wang seemed distracted at first and then suddenly alert. He jovially put in his order for a pork curry, laughing with her about his new western tastes and then waited tentatively for her to leave. He leaned in over the table and lowered his voice.

  “Russia is the only option isn’t it?”

  Xhu looked up, his grandfatherly smile gone; “One should always get on well with one’s neighbours, especially when you may need to live with them later. You have a bright future ahead of you ambassador Wang, manage to get this deal done and perhaps you will find yourself being the one issuing directives to diplomatic staff.”

  “So when do I start bargaining for land from them? Enough for a few hundred million people I guess?”

  “Let’s start small and work from there ambassador. Mars first, we have a good relationship with Mother Russia but it will need to be stronger before we ask her to give so much.”

  “I live to serve my country sir.”

  “As do we Your Excellency. One last thing, Bin, do you have that letter?”

  Bin took a folded piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to the ambassador who opened it. It was in German and on headed paper, paper from a now famous company called Ephrem Resources.

  Xhu took a sip of water. “You might see that this letter finds its way into the hands of the German ambassador here at the UN. It appears one of their upstanding citizens might be declaring their profits inaccurately. About one hundred million euro in tax inaccurately.”

  Chapter 16: 2047

  Fiscally it had been a tough few years for Ephrem resources. Scandal after scandal had broken in the media about their financial dealings and each time their stock price took a tumble. Already Harry Smith had been forced to stand down from the board but somehow Leon Braun had managed to hang on with 50.1% of the shares which day by day were worth less and less. Physically it had also been a tough few years on John, Hong and Alex. They had breaks back on Earth, normally two months long. Now that artificial gravity was in place muscle wastage had stopped, really the breaks were to catch up with friends and family. This time John and Hong would be spending most of their holiday together with Abby for the first time. John had a sense of belonging once more as he thought about how much he and Hong were alike, he felt comfortable with her. As the deadline for the holidays approached he could see she was terrified of this next landmark in their relationship and her response was just the same as his would have been, she kept busy. Her excuse was that several deadlines had to be met before she left but in reality she had an assistant just like John had Alex.

  There were about thirty such apprentices aboard, all of them in their early twenties, selected by Ephrem to be the first permanent crew members and future first generation colonists of the Zheng He. They were apprentices in the most vital areas of the ship once it would be under way, areas such as the bridge, engineering, repairs and maintenance, life support, supplies and medical. They had fourteen years to shadow their bosses, fourteen years to watch the construction of the various parts of the Zheng He they would be in charge of, fourteen years to learn to run things on their own. They were all very intelligent and very charming, but just like John had felt with Alex, they all seemed a little too straight laced and self-controlled. It had been no surprise to John to learn that all of them had been on the list the Chinese had managed to decrypt amongst Alex’s files. Hong’s assistant in what was now called “life support” was Borislav; a farmer’s son from the Ukraine who Hong struggled to keep ahead of as she taught him what he needed to know. He was learning everything from how to harvest corn in half gravity to treating lice on fish. The workload in the central cavern was as large as the cavern itself. About a quarter of it had successfully been prepared and planted, mainly with enough trees to someday recycle all the carbon dioxide aboard and provide fruit and nuts for the colonists. For now they were still saplings and the carbon dioxide scrubbers still had to work all day every day. Some crops had been planted for testing such as wheat and oats, and so far they were thriving. There had even been a few weeks of fresh bread in the morning for the construction crew. The rest of the cavern remained in various states of construction. About another quarter looked like a dirty beach, a layer of sand had patches of wormy topsoil piled on it ready to be spread around and then fertilized with the sewage they had been storing. The smell in the cavern had been barely tolerable at the beginning but the decision was taken to turn back on the air filters that had been used to remove dust during construction. It was also decided to inject the sewage into the topsoil rather than spread it on the surface. With the first plantings the media started to change their language somewhat, they were beginning to call it “the garden”. With some plants growing it had taken on a more earthly form and calling it “the cavern” somehow didn’t feel right anymore.

  Roughly another quarter of the garden under construction contained gravel and stones. The clever thing about the garden was that not only would it be the source of fresh food and fresh air for the colonists, it would be a source of fresh water too as the soil would filter large particulates from waste water before it would be purified back into drinking water. The last quarter was largely still bedrock. It was expensive getting topsoil up to the ship and they had managed as best they could with what they had, but it would take a few more years before it would resemble its final form. One or two private companies had offered to pay for the rights to samples of alien plants to be sent back from Amrita but some governments had wisely vetoed it in case of accidentally sending back an invasive species. At the furthest end there would be a small farm built to house rabbits, chickens and fish, particularly shell-fish. The colonists needed protein but beef, mutton, and other meat people on Earth took for granted would be too resource intensive for the Zheng He. Sure, there were freezers being built that would store extra provisions before setting out, but that would only be a fraction of what was needed over the lifetime of the ship. In the event of crop failures or disease it would tie them over.

  Hong really didn’t have too many loose ends to worry about leaving behind before this holiday, it would be mainly routine work for her assistant Borislav while she was away. Somehow she had managed to work right up to the end, right up to the point that she met John at the airlock changing room sweating and out of breath after running most of the way from the garden. Bicycles were the preferred mode of transport on every level, but it was strictly forbidden to cycle in the direction from the centre to the exterior. The change in artificial gravity meant it people found it too difficult to control their speed and it had resulted in a couple of bruised heads in the first weeks. She planted a big kiss on his lips as she went to her locker.

  “I’m sorry I’m late, I didn’t realise the time.”

  “At least you haven’t missed it, the next shuttle isn’t leaving until next week. Have you brought your gifts?”

  Hong reached into her pocket and removed a handful of stones.

  “Yep. Strange when I think of it, to us it’s just gravel, recy
cled material from the mining phase, but to our family and friends it’s a piece of history.”

  Pieces of rock from the Zheng He were collectors’ items. They weren’t valuable as there were so many of them, but they meant a lot to people. John had remembered wanting moon rock as a child, a piece of the unobtainable, coveting something you could see nearly every night but could never touch. For most people this would be as close as they would get to the Zheng He. Hong took an especially colourful piece from another pocket and tossed it to John. “This gift is particularly special, what do you think?”

  John felt the smooth polished surface of the egg sized stone. It had been ground down to a shining finish, the multi-coloured grains sparkling in the white light of the changing room. On one side the Chinese character for luck was engraved and highlighted in silver paint, on the other it said “Abby, when you are far from home, remember us”.

  John walked over to Hong and kissed her just as shamelessly as she had kissed him. They had long ago given up on caring what others around them thought at moments like this. “It’s beautiful; Abby will love it, just as much as she will love you.”

  Hong shuddered and pulled away so she could manage her arms into the suit, “love has to be earned, you know that.”