Far-out Show (9781465735829)

by Hanna, Thomas

  Ritrup keyed some code into the zerpy and indicated that it was ready for Gopgop’s input. That was done and soon a single beep sounded, the screen and keyboard disappeared, and the device moved toward Ritrup’s waiting hand.

  “The transfer went through so it’s yours,” Ritrup said as he moved the hovering zerpy closer to Gopgop. “One thing you should know though...”

  “Uh oh,” Uldene muttered.

  “I acquired this but I haven’t used it until now,” Ritrup said. “There’s no reason to believe the rumor that the governors had this class modified to leave a traceable message every time they’re used – but also no proof that it’s not true.

  “So we could be shouting out ‘pay attention, I’m ignoring your ban on having this thing’ to some unseen, unknown watcher just by turning it on?” Gopgop asked.

  “That’s the rumor but it’s probably just a scare tactic.”

  “Coming from the governors it sounds pretty scary. But thanks, we’ll make good use of this,” Uldene said and waved Ritrup on his way.

  Ritrup was relieved and happy to get out of there.

  “We should try it right here since it may take some playing around with it to figure out how to make it do all it can do. It’s annoying that they don’t give you good instructions with these things.”

  Uldene held out his hand and Gopgop gave him the zerpy.

  Gopgop said, “We should designate it but since we can’t admit we have it we shouldn’t use a giveaway eight-letter name.” He looked away as he focused on another item that was protruding partway from his pants pocket.

  As he touched a standardized control spot on the zerpy Uldene said, “We can call it...”

  The device fell apart in his palm and then fizzed a bit as it reduced itself to a pile of dust. He stared in terror and disbelief, then almost as a reflex dumped the dust on the floor and put his hand behind him when Gopgop started to look up. Then he screamed and shook his hand and looked around for a way to make this all not have happened.

  The scream got Gopgop’s attention. He stared around, expecting to see the zerpy hovering here somewhere. “What happened? Did you get a shock from it?”

  “It did the thing it does but to itself and in my hand,” Uldene babbled. “Not my bad, I did it good. This is right, what went wrong?”

  Gopgop stared at his partner as he worked through all that, the words, the gestures, and the new pile of dust on the floor.

  Finally Gopgop said, “Did Ritrup rip us off?”

  “Cling to that idea,” Uldene said. “It helps to hold off the thought that we are now in big trouble with the governors who know what we did and just let us know we didn’t get away with anything. That off-limits means off-limits even for special guys like us.”

  “That hardly seems fair though.”

  “Please don’t make things worse by saying that to them.”

  Chapter 28

  The agreed on meeting place was a different nondescript small building on the edge of Ormelex City. The unfurnished basic office inside hadn’t been used for a long time. The only ones present were Delmus, Ackack, Gopgop, and Uldene. They all stood and walked around since there were no chairs or other furniture or fixtures they could sit on. A floor-to-ceiling barrier at one side blended so well with the wall that it was almost undetectable without a careful look around.

  “Is all this really necessary?” Delmus asked, looking around the place. “Why meet in a run-down place where none of us, in fact from the looks of things literally no one, works.”

  Gopgop asked by way of a reply, “Would anyone notice if we called you to our offices for a little chat, Delmus? Oh yeah, lots of guys would, so there'd be lots of questions we might prefer not to answer.”

  “I get it now,” Delmus said. “This place isn't likely to have snooping workers or hidden recording devices or to be routinely used for secret meetings so the masses won't find out that we met unless we tell them about it.”

  “In fact this location was randomly chosen from a list of seldom used spots by a low level worker who had no idea why she was asked to do that,” Uldene explained.

  “Couldn't we at least have chairs?” Delmus complained.

  “I'll contact my guys and have them deliver some right away,” Uldene said, almost burning his clothes with the sarcasm dripping from his words.

  “Oh yeah, then I'll worry that there are recording devices inside them or that the deliver-the-goods guys are listening at the door,” Delmus said, finally understanding the precautions.

  “Let's get to it then. Why did you want to meet secretly with us?” Ackack asked. “We heard Gopgop's address to the masses.”

  “We did what we could to slow down the muttering and doubts,” Uldene said.

  “Assure us that the show is from far away or then let us help you cover up the lie to protect our interests too,” Gopgop said.

  “Do you have serious doubts about it?” Ackack asked.

  “We have a huge audience getting more agitated by the hour,” Gopgop replied. “A rumor like this could be an excuse for some to take the violence off the view-screens and into the streets.”

  Delmus placed one hand on top of his head and the other flat against his midsection and attested, “By the Twitchels and the honored Twees I swear that it is absolutely true that one or more contestants of our show are sending back reports from the surface of a far planet.”

  “Okay, I'm reassured. Suggestions on how to calm the masses?” Uldene asked.

  Why bother calming them? Gopgop thought. Let them get the blood lust out of their systems by tearing all you second-bests to pieces while we top-of-the-heaps watch and record it all to rebroadcast as audience pleasing entertainments.

  “Start right away to add a sworn assurance to each program,” Delmus announced. “Sadly, for the moment we do have technical difficulties so we can't tell anyone when we'll have new material.”

  “We have to change gears and think longer term,” Uldene said. “We need to have plans ready to distract and fascinate the populace if there are riots. It’s prudent business sense to sacrifice the short-term profits for our personal and company survival. We have to maintain the peace at almost any cost.”

  What a dumb idea and how totally crilmentzee but I have to go along until I can make a clean break from all these losers and claw my way to the top, the only appropriate place for me, Delmus thought.

  “We could distract them with new material from that planet that our techs have finally made something of. It's almost all visuals which are the hard part to reconstruct,” Ackack said.

  “This sounds promising,” Uldene said. He thought, At least if there’s talk-talk like this they’re not proposing things that will make it even harder for me to beat them all to the profit in spite of the confusion.

  “Well, you see there’s this thing about it. It's their pornography. Let's just say they don't do things the way we do so it might create its own controversies,” Delmus said.

  “Will it grab the audience's attention?” Gopgop asked.

  “Almost guaranteed if we advertise what it’s going to be at least a day before we show it,” Ackack answered. “Whether they’ll want to see more or sit through reruns is less certain since what the alien creatures do isn’t really that exciting.” But it might buy me enough time to empty the bank accounts and disappear before the mobs come for the rest of you. When they’ve removed you from the scene I’ll breathe a sigh of relief and come back to build a new and better company from the ashes.

  “Have it ready to show on short notice,” Gopgop ordered.

  “Am I intruding? Too bad if I am,” Parbam said as she stepped into view from behind the barrier at the side of the room.

  Uldene glared at Gopgop and whispered, “You said you scanned this place.”

  “He did but I have ways to distort the functions of zerpies and have other resources at my disposal. Guys, it’s convenient to keep you unaware about it but the governors know a lot more than you think
they do about what’s said and done even in your private offices.”

  “Snooping is hardly good governance,” Ackack snapped.

  “Whatever gets the job done and keeps the peace qualifies as good governance, Ackack. For some, not having to distract the masses with public executions is a relief. Others of course are eager to petition for exclusive rights to show those executions or distractions while they try not to think about themselves being the center of the doings.”

  “Are you threatening us?” Uldene asked.

  “Only in the bigger picture for some of you. More immediately and definitely for those who went where you were all warned not to. The governors want this to resolve well for all but they want me to remind everyone that they won’t hesitate to punish both companies. Especially you boss guys, if that seems called for. Some transgressions might even be overlooked if you guys do an effective job of keeping the masses calm and docile. If you’re not effective, maybe you’ll be the centerpieces of a few short distractions.” She walked calmly to and out the only door from the room.

  For a long moment the others stood still and silent.

  Finally Delmus asked, “Is anyone else feeling a strange something in the air now?”

  “That’s condensed paranoia,” Uldene said. “But maybe a useful warning. Definitely an unpleasant reminder that we four pride ourselves on being idea and starter guys so we’d better come up with some good ideas and get offsetting stuff started – fast.”

  “Try not to think about it obsessively now but apparently in spite of all our efforts, we have little if any privacy from the governors,” Ackack said.

  “If that’s not bad news I can’t imagine what is,” Gopgop said.

  * * *

  Shortly after that Delmus and Ackack hurried into the A.D.U. office, out of breath from exertion and agitation.

  “We didn’t even get here to our comfort space where we control what we find out and what we want to do even if we can’t always make it happen before we ran into bad news piling up on top of bad news or at least the claims and potential for it,” Delmus whined.

  “Better to know sooner when things should be changed and you still have to chance to do that,” Ackack said, feigning being more relaxed that he felt. “We know the Bang-Boom guys want to rattle us so we can’t believe everything they tell us in messages from far away where there’s no independent verification but we can’t ignore them either. My rule is to take their claims as being part true.”

  “How much true? Fifty parts per hundred? Ninety per hundred?”

  “That’s where it becomes guess work. They say they may be about to be detected. That may be true but none of us knows how likely it is to happen so I favor a low out of a hundred number for how much is true. This is business, not a social pairing. Not that I’m in favor of much truthiness in social encounterings either of course,” Ackack said with a shrug.

  “So we won’t call it what we know, only what we’ve been told something about. But what it that? They say they may have been detected and may be about to be attacked by the inhabitants,” Delmus said. His tone made it clear he hoped to prompt his partner to join in the listing.

  “We’ve had the secret coded contact signal sent. Our Minx didn’t respond. We’ve asked subtle questions and searched all the feeds we get from them but there are no clear hints that they know of anything about an unidentified zerpy onboard. What can that mean? That they found and disabled it or it shut itself down because it detected one of them nearby. I wanted to have it made so it would send us a signal if it did that but Foxpat said that would give it away for sure.”

  “I agreed with him that it would.”

  “At least if it was active and is now shut down, if it was causing the interference with the signals from the ship that should have stopped. We need to check with the techs to find out if that has happened.”

  “There is the maybe that Minx is active and is what’s making the interference that kept it from answering our signal. Maybe we should send the definite ‘shut down’ signal in case that’s causing the problem. At this point it’s probably better to sacrifice some feed from there for adequate reception of the other signals,” Delmus said.

  “I say let’s not rush to give up even maybe-controls though. If an extra zerpy is making the problem it might not be our extra zerpy. Our part of the extra zerpy. You know what I mean.”

  “Yeah. With two or more separate but connected systems things could seem like our doing but be out of our control,” Delmus agreed. “What can we do about that? How can we check?”

  “It’d work best for us if we didn’t have to tell the guys on the Whizybeam the thing’s even there. That means we can’t ask them if they know that’s the problem or if they’ll go find it and call us back to let us know whether or not it’s on,” Ackack said. “The best way to deal with this is for both groups that control parts of it to shut them down.”

  “If there are only two groups.”

  “Right, but I’m strongly expecting that. Who else would have any interest in being involved? Don’t go too far digging for maybes about that, I’m looking for reassurance, not the most realistic response ever.”

  After the harsh tone sounded Ackack touched a button and Techim appeared on the view-screen. As usual she showed no emotion. She said, “They’re gone. We’ve lost contact with Whizybeam.”

  “All contact?” Ackack asked.

  “Yes. The signals in the open and the ones they possibly didn’t know they were sending. All lost.”

  “Did they maybe self-destruct?” Delmus asked.

  “Nothing is known at this point,” Techim said. “The last we heard from them they thought they were detected by an orbiting device of the inhabitants, then garbled bits that could mean they were destroyed or taken prisoner. There were talk-talk bits about what the inhabitants apparently call a laser targeted on Whizybeam but we can’t even tell who sent those signals. It’s all mixed together and unreliable.”

  “Keep us informed,” Ackack said and disconnected.

  “We can hope they did self-destruct rather than be captured. The inhabitants weren’t supposed to be able to do that in orbit but so much of what we thought we knew about them turned out to be wrong so why not that?” Delmus said.

  Ackack keyed in code at the console, then sat back to wait for a response with an expression of resignation and determination.

  “What did you do?” Delmus asked.

  “I sent the code to initiate Whizybeam’s self-destruct unit. If we get back a response we know the ship is still intact and that unit is working so we can use it at the right time.”

  “Good thinking. We can’t ask them what’s happening but we can find out... Wait, if no signals are getting through...”

  “It doesn’t cost us anything to run the test.”

  The harsh tone sounded so Ackack made the connection. Techim appeared on the view-screen, her expression and demeanor impassive.

  “More bad news?” Ackack asked.

  “That’s yours to call. Following the lead of an overheard concern at the Bang-Boom Shows home office, we’ve discovered that contestant Nerber doesn’t exist.”

  “Not true. We saw him in the episodes,” Delmus said.

  “Explain, Techim,” Ackack said.

  “The contestant calling himself Nerber is someone else but we have not yet learned who because a search of the hatch records finds there is currently no living individual recorded by the name Nerber. That is an alias. He is a fake.”

  “A highly effective and successful fake though,” Ackack said. “How is this possible?”

  “There are no definite answers to that yet. There are hints that he is connected though,” Techim said.

  “He’s like a zerpy-type-thing?” Delmus was confused.

  “Tracing who he might be and how he came to be allowed on the list of show contestants, the Bang-Boom guys ended up at a site that contains officially secured information and were immediately turned away with a warni
ng from the governors. They are probably now under close official scrutiny,” Techim said. “Our A.D.U. investigator learned about this just before she tried to tap into the same not-clearly-marked-as-taboo site. So we are probably not on the extra close scrutiny list - yet. But of course we can’t know for sure.”

  “Do our analysts have any thoughts about Nerber based on what they do know about him?” Ackack asked.

  “He is probably knowledgeable about zerpies and other technical systems. Maybe highly so. He bears a resemblance to a top guy in secret zerpy design who was forced out of the company by jealous rivals but we can’t be sure about that. Information about the personnel and internal politics of those secret development groups is almost as tightly held as the latest zerpy designs. There are a few hints among the stuff traced out that the governors may have had some involvement with him or with his ouster or with his choice to be a contestant but there are no clear and definite answers.”

  “Okay. Keep us informed,” Delmus said and disconnected

  Ackack was focused on the small monitor on the console. He said, “We have a response from Whizybeam’s self-destruct unit. It is operable and now activated.”

  He then keyed in some commands.

  “That’s good news then. They’re still intact. Uh, what did you just do?” Delmus wasn’t sure whether to let how concerned he was show.

  “I sent the signal to deactivate the self-destruct unit. We know it’s working but it’s more stable when it’s inactive. Oh, you were afraid I had detonated it?”

  “I couldn’t be sure. With all that’s been going on it didn’t seem out of the question that you were ending the worry.”

  “No, they could still be valuable so I won’t send that signal until I’m very sure we can’t exploit them any further.”

  “What should we do about the Nerber thing?” Delmus asked.

  “One more complication piled on top of confusions.”