by M. D. Cooper
The debate was due to begin soon. The agent walked quickly up the avenue.
Passing the security checks to enter the public gallery at Government House was easy. The agent carried no weapons, and an identity check would return crystal clear results. No underhand dealings or suspicious activities marred the agent’s history. The act of maintaining the squeaky-clean public persona had required considerable effort, but it had been essential, and now it was doubly paying off.
Myrrdan’s agent took a seat at the front of the gallery and, while waiting for the proceedings to begin, checked out the layout of the chamber to see where and how it might be possible to closely approach the targets.
The Trojan People’s Party was currently in power. Their representatives occupied the right-hand side of the room on serried benches. On the left-hand side, two political parties took up the seating, though the majority of the spaces were filled by members of the Alliance Party of Troy. In the remaining space sat a party whose formation had been the agent’s doing: the Trojan Independence Party.
Myrrdan’s agent smiled grimly. Prompting the formation of the new party had only been a case of giving a voice and a platform to the underlying discontent in Trojan society; no mind control had been necessary. It had been as if the malcontents on Troy were happy to work in Myrrdan’s favor. They were fools, of course. There was nothing special about their home planet that gave it an advantage over the others. Without bargaining power to secure advantageous trade deals, Troy would quickly become the weakest and poorest world of the four.
The agent felt the gentle nudge of an elbow.
“Would you like one?”
A woman in the next seat was holding out a bag of candies, but eating was the last thing on the agent’s mind at that moment. However, as always, the maintenance of a pleasant persona was paramount.
“Yes, thank you,” the agent said, taking a candy. “These debates can go on for some time, can’t they? What brings you here?”
“A vested interest, unfortunately,” the woman said. “I run a sim center. I’m hoping the bill doesn’t go through. Off-planet visitors aren’t going to react well to being charged more than Trojans.”
“Maybe nothing will come of it.”
Taxes on tourists was the subject for the debate that was about to begin. Someone had proposed that a small tax for non-residents should apply to hotels, tours, entrance fees to attractions, and other tourist venues and activities. The reason given was that the Trojan government subsidized the tourist industry in many areas, so it was only fair that it should draw back some of those credits to reduce the burden of taxation on the local population.
To Myrrdan’s agent, these were petty concerns. Only small-minded individuals argued over such minor details in the operation of worlds and planetary systems. The only aspect of the debate that held any interest was the inclusion of the marine safari park that was currently under construction.
The agent’s interest in the marine park lay in the picotech that would be used there in the near future. It was an odd coincidence that the debate should center around the park that day.
The proposer of the bill continued to speak. Ignoring the woman’s words, the agent carefully assessed the security situation in the room. The armed personnel comprised one guard at each doorway into the areas that were off-limits to the public. The agent would have to secure control of at least one or two of the guards and rely on them to rally others to the cause.
How to do it?
The agent wasn’t without influence in New Canaan. Perhaps directly approaching one of the representatives wouldn’t seem odd.
The debaters droned on. The agent watched and brooded. Just a few weeks more, and the years of waiting and scheming would be over. Then it would be possible to leave this walled-off system.
The neighboring woman was offering candies again. Drowning the scowl that rose in response, the agent smiled and took another one.
After a length of time that seemed interminable, but in reality was less than two hours, there was an intermission. The members of the public gallery rose at the same time as the politicians, and everyone lined up to file out. Deftly, the agent eased through the queue and slipped down the steps that led to the floor of the debating chamber. The guard at the bottom was facing into the chamber, which gave the agent the opportunity to ‘accidentally’ bump into her.
“Oh, sorry,” said the agent. “I tripped on that last step.”
The guard turned, her expression hidden behind an opaque visor. “No members of the public are allowed into the debating chamber.”
“I know,” replied the agent. “I just…. There she is. Representative Strong! Representative Strong!”
“Step back,” the guard warned. “This area is off limits.
The woman the agent had called was the proposer of the tourist tax bill. When she heard her name, she turned and walked over.
“I wondered if I could talk to you about your proposal,” said the agent.
At first, Representative Strong looked as if she was about to curtly refuse, but then, with relief, the agent saw recognition in her eyes.
“Aren’t you—”
“That’s right,” said the agent. “I have a couple of suggestions you might be interested to hear. It’ll only take a few minutes.”
“Sure, I’m interested,” said the representative, adding to the guard, “It’s fine. Let this person through.”
In three steps, the agent was at Representative Strong’s side and immediately touched her arm.
One guard, one representative, and now the chance to make physical contact with several more key figures in the plan.
The picotech was as good as won.
CHAPTER TWELVE
STELLAR DATE: 04.18.8941 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Marine Park, Ithaca
REGION: Troy, New Canaan System
Martin had always prided himself on being a fast, efficient, dedicated worker, but even he was finding Lindsey’s pace demanding. He guessed the excessive speed she wanted everyone to work at was partly because the sinkhole’s appearance had seriously set back her timetable. Yet he had a feeling that pushing herself and everyone around her to the limits of their endurance was also normal for her. Both Pietr and Margot had confessed to him separately that they’d been relieved when he joined the project. Lindsey wouldn’t hear of taking on any more workers, though.
“No one else is available who has the specialist knowledge or skills we need,” she said, “and I don’t have time to train anyone.”
Martin sympathized with her viewpoint. He saw something of himself in her attitude and had begun to realize that he possibly had problems with letting go, too. But he also worried that despite everyone’s best efforts, the park wouldn’t be ready in time for its scheduled grand opening. Lindsey needed to accept that possibility and give everyone a break. He decided to try to talk some sense into her.
“You know what, Linds?” he said after arriving at work not long after sunup. “I haven’t had the chance to take a tour of the site yet. Why don’t we do that this morning? I feel like I need to see the place as a whole to get a proper handle on what we’re doing here.”
“I’m sorry,” she replied, “we don’t have time. We were going to work on the diatoms today, remember?”
“Pietr and I can do that, Lindsey,” Margot said. “We’re ahead on the deep-sea crustaceans, aren’t we?” She looked toward her workmate for confirmation.
He gave a brief nod and looked away. She was telling a white lie, as agreed upon by Martin the day before.
“Come on,” Martin said. “Take a couple hours’ break and show me around. You know you want to.”
Shy pride broke through his friend’s tired features. “All right. I’ll send you the steps for the diatoms,” she said to Margot.
“We know the steps,” Pietr said in response.
“Let’s take the Torpedo,” suggested Martin.
* * * * *
Martin l
et Lindsey decide where to take him first. The reason for the one-on-one outing wasn’t entirely made up. He really did want to see the entire site. He was tired of working like a dog in the labs and then nipping out to seed an area before rushing back to the lab again. If it hadn’t been for the opportunity for a swim before and after work, he might have had to put his foot down.
Lindsey pushed the Torpedo to its top speed, explaining that she would take Martin to the far side of the park at the Syracuse coast so they could work their way back, visiting all the sectors as they went.
“Actually,” she said, “this is a really good idea. I should complete an overall evaluation of our progress. This will help.”
Great, Martin thought. She’s managed to turn the excursion into another work exercise. He focused his attention inward, to his AI.
Martin tutted.
“Did you say something?” Lindsey asked.
“No. What’s at the Syracuse coast? I haven’t been that far out yet.”
“The octopus garden. I thought of creating another coral reef in the shallow water, but I wanted to do something a little different.”
“An octopus garden,” Martin repeated. “Nice.” He was a little jealous that he hadn’t thought of the idea.
“Are you living on Syracuse or Ithaca?” Lindsey asked. “I don’t think you ever mentioned where you’re staying.”
Martin told her about his house on the cliff.
“That’s your place? It’s beautiful. We noticed it being built and wondered whose it was. I never got around to buying a home here. I’ve been staying at a hotel in Heliopolis.”
“Maybe it’s something to think about,” Martin said. “It’s nice to have a home and family waiting for you at the end of the day.”
Lindsey looked pensive. “Yeah, maybe. When I have time.”
She was quiet for the rest of their journey across the Sea of Marmara. Martin assumed she was working on her evaluation.
He thought up several approaches to the subject of her overworking herself and her staff, but then disregarded each of them. Eamon had hit the nail on the head; Martin saw Lindsey’s point of view too well to convincingly persuade her out of it.
The sunlight beaming through the water was strong. It was another hot, sunny day. Isa would either be out somewhere with Jude, recording a landscape, or at home with him, creating an installation. Erin would be at work on the underside of Messene Station in the shadow of Canaan Prime’s brilliant light. Martin had a hankering to cut down on work and spend more time with his family.
“Here we are,” said Lindsey, powering down the engine and turning the submersible one hundred and eighty degrees.
Martin had been too lost in his thoughts to notice they’d arrived at the Syracuse coast. Lindsey had spun their craft to face the way they’d come, and Martin got his first look at the octopus garden she’d mentioned. His mouth fell open.
“When you said ‘octopus garden’, I thought you meant a habitat to suit a range of octopus species. I didn’t realize you meant an actual garden.”
The water was clear and the visibility good. An underwater garden stretched as far as Martin could see. Seaweeds, sea grasses, corals, kelp, algae, shells and pebbles had been arranged into beds and decorative features. Small bridges crossed the spaces between boulders, and the sand beneath had been sculpted to resemble a river. In open areas, the seabed had been swept into elaborate patterns and embellished with shells. A kelp forest rose to the surface in one spot, and fish swam through the branches like birds.
“This is phenomenal,” Martin said. “No wonder you have to do everything else in a rush. This must have taken weeks.”
“It wasn’t me who did it,” Lindsey said.
“So it’s Margot and Pietr’s work?”
Lindsey’s expression was pained. “Wrong again. It was the octopuses.”
“You’re kidding. How?”
Octopuses were incredibly intelligent, but Martin didn’t think they were capable of creating something so complex and pleasing to the human eye. Then he realized the answer to the puzzle.
“Don’t tell me they’re uplifted.”
Lindsey grimaced and nodded.
“Great. Just great. Whose idea was that?” Martin couldn’t believe it was hers.
Octopuses had a weird sense of humor. He hated to think what they would do with extra smarts and the ability to communicate with humans.
“Cameron’s,” she said. “They started causing trouble at his site—”
“Well, duh!”
“So he asked me if he could send them here. I agreed. I felt I owed him, after my urchins were eating all his kelp that time when you came to help him out. Do you remember?”
“I do,” he replied. “But you brought him the sea otters. You made it up to him and then some.”
Lindsey’s eyes widened. “I knew there was something I’d forgotten. Sea otters! I have dolphins, seals, sea lions, walruses, all the usual suspects in the marine mammals section, but I’d totally forgotten about sea otters. The visitors will go crazy over those cute little guys.”
Not a single sign of an octopus was in sight. Not an eye, not a siphon, not a limb moved anywhere in the garden.
“You don’t think they’re…watching us, do you?” Lindsey asked.
“I don’t know, but let’s leave, huh? And don’t take us over the garden again. Go that way, toward the drop-off.”
Lindsey drove the submersible along the edge of the garden.
“You think accepting Cameron’s uplifted octopuses was a mistake, don’t you?” she asked. “When I saw what they were creating here, I thought I’d made a good decision. But you’re right. Uplifted octopuses could mean trouble.”
Martin didn’t want to add to his friend’s problems. “Let’s worry about the octopuses later. I’m sure they won’t hurt anyone.”
They were approaching the ocean shelf. The strait between Ithaca and Syracuse was a shallow sea, but beyond both continents lay a wide, deep ocean. It was at the point where the sea ended and the ocean began next to a deep underwater cliff that Lindsey had set her ‘monsters of the deep’ attraction.
Martin hadn’t been to this area before. He was curious to see the creatures, some of which he had never personally attempted to create. Leviathans like gigantic squid, whale sharks, spider crabs, lion’s mane jellyfish, and archelons would roam within the invisible boundaries of their home.
The work creating the massive sea creatures had been the first part of the project, which Lindsey had begun alone months previously. Genetically enhanced growth rates in the animals would ensure that they reached imposing sizes much faster than nature originally dictated.
“How are things coming along with the ‘monsters of the deep’?” Martin asked.
“I’m not sure. I haven’t had time to go out there recently. I set it all in motion, but Connor monitors everything for me. He hasn’t reported any problems.”
Connor was Lindsey’s AI.
n.
They were nearing the drop-off. The current was stronger, and the water above more turbulent. Instead of the bright, shallow water of the sea, the ocean depths were a dark blue deepening to black.
“Will visitors be allowed to swim in this sector?” Martin asked.
“Not sure yet. What do you think? I’m reluctant to make any part of the park out of bounds for one-on-one interactions with the animals. On the other hand….”
“I know what you mean. Accidents could happen.”
It wouldn’t be hard for an inexperienced diver to become entangled in the tentacles of a gigantic squid or find themselves in the mouth of a whale shark. Then if the creature decided to dive with their find…. Not all the visitors would be modded to survive at deep depths.
“I might ask visitors to sign a waiver if they want to go out there,” Lindsey said. “I’ve included a viewing platform all the way along the edge of the drop-off, so there isn’t much of a need to swim out to see them. Animals like that are better viewed from a distance anyway.”
She turned the Torpedo around to face Ithaca. Martin looked out into the inky water where the leviathans were lurking. He expected to see a few of them as they traveled along.
“Remind me to take you to see the whirlpool on the way back,” said Lindsey. “Margot started it up yesterday. Said it’s working perfectly, but I’d like to check on it.”
Martin was also interested to see the never-ending whirlpool that would pull visitors through the swirls to the bottom of the spiral and then spit them out so they could swim up to the beginning again. He planned on trying it out himself when he had a spare moment, though that didn’t look to be arriving anytime soon.
“Look,” said Lindsey. “Something’s coming.”
Martin looked in the direction of her gaze and saw it too. A dark shape in the surrounding blackness was growing rapidly larger. The animal’s head was facing them, making it difficult to recognize it from the shape of its body. Martin guessed it was a whale shark.
He was a tiny bit disappointed. Whale sharks were a little meh. He’d been hoping to see a plesiosaur, which he knew Lindsey had also bred for the park. The long-necked aquatic dinosaurs were notoriously tricky to create, and it was a testament to Lindsey’s skill that she’d generated several.