EFFECTS OF SECRECY / CH. 7: SIGNIFICANT DECISIONS.
EMBASSY COMPOUND, SATURSOL, 14TH FEB, 10AM
“It's going to be pretty odd, without Harry around,” James said, as Simon drove Harry to the spaceport with his cabin baggage. Since he had practically no baggage, he'd been able to stay even longer than most tourists did, but Earth was getting further and further away. Every day he delayed meant more travel time.
“Not to mention a bit more work for you,” Alice agreed.
“Only a bit?”
“Yes. You'll see. Now, since it's valentine's day, a status report please. How are you and Margaret getting on?”
“Margaret is a lovely woman who's being very patient with me.”
“What does that mean?” Alice asked.
“It means that I expect we'll be going out, she expects we'll be going out, but so far we're not officially going out.”
“Because?”
“Because she's being patient with me; she hasn't asked me and I haven't asked her.”
“Well, don't keep her waiting for ever.”
“I'll try not to, maam.”
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MARS SPACEPORT, SATURSOL, 14TH FEB, 2PM
“Dr Findhorn-Bunting?” Horrace asked, just before going through the departure gate.
“Urm, yes,”
“Hi, I'm Horrace from the Institute. Kate says hello.”
“Oh, hello.”
“I've just got in from the University. I was supposed to make contact as soon as the scanner was fully functional, but that was 2am this morning, I thought maybe I shouldn't.”
“Oh, right. What was the problem?”
“Basically it comes down to shielding and radiation mangling signals. I'm sure you're aware of the issues.”
“Oh, yes. On the list of impossible terraforming projects is giving this planet a nice Earth-like magnetic field. My own experiment still gets the odd strange effects from stray signals on the control leads.”
“Oh? Well, I think we've managed to crack the nut on the head by transmitting the signals down any long leads as an F.M. signal, and demodulating at the other end. It's a bit messy, but it seems to work. Feel free to talk to the guys in our lab about details.”
“Thank you, that sounds a useful lead. If I could get a perfectly clean control signal, I might get a better handle on what exactly is causing the effects.”
“Then there's optical fibres, of course.”
“I know, but consumer grade is just too temperature sensitive. The experiment gets pretty warm and everything goes out of alignment after a few cycles, I've found. Research grade optical fibre is a special import from Earth. and the university has steadfastly refused to let me get a drum of it when I'd only need a few metres.”
“Oh, I know the problem with the consumer grade stuff, it's rubbish. But the analyser unit's full of research grade for data interconnects. There's a half kilometre drum in the scanner lab in case of repairs, and the guys there have got pretty good at jointing it properly. Tell them I sent you, given the kilometers in the analyser a few metres is neither here nor there.”
“Thank you.”
“And I'm sure they'd love to get a chance to document what happens in your brain, you know when.”
“I can't really escape that, can I? Not after you going to all the trouble of setting up just next door, as it were.”
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EMBASSY COMPOUND, FRISOL, 20TH FEB, 8.30AM
“Morning James, off to bed?” Alice asked as James finished his night shift.
“Sometime before noon, yes.”
“Margaret said, when I collared her yesterday, that she thought you still needed more time to make up your mind if you liked her enough to date.”
“No, I like her enough.”
“Or if you trusted her enough.”
“That's probably closer to the problem. I think it's also whether I trust myself enough.”
“Self-confidence issues?” Alice asked.
“Maybe.”
“She also wonders if her role in intel is hurting things between you.”
“Urm, maybe.”
“She told me that you jokingly, or at least she hopes it was joking, called her a spy, when you first introduced her to Ruth, and that you've not asked her about her work since, as if you have either been told you need to not know anything about it, or you're not interested. Therefore, I'm going to give you a word of advice: it doesn't hurt to ask, and it might hurt not to.”
“Maam, is any part of her intel role related to identifying or reporting on my place of origin?”
“No. There are some things about you she'd like to be able to report on, but I think she's afraid of asking you about them. But in no way are they intended to put at risk anything protected by your vow.”
“Am I allowed to ask her about them and other aspects of her work?”
“Of course. Just not in the middle of a crowded room. There may be some peripheral things she's not allowed to discuss with you, but if there's any of them that cause you concern you may ask me about them.”
“Thank you, Maam. I find myself... relieved.”
“James, some time, please refresh your memory on the subject of unfortunate oaths, as applicable to officers of the crown, and then discuss with Margaret as appropriate.”
“Unfortunate oaths, maam?” James was confused. They were oaths such as an oath someone was forced to take when held as a captive. “I know the area, but I don't see the relevance.”
“You'd better re-read the law and discuss it with Margaret, then. Some time when you're off duty and she's on-duty.”
“Urm, like now, Maam?”
“Precisely,” Alice said.
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EMBASSY OFFICE, 9AM, FRISOL 20TH FEB.
Margaret was surprised to see James waiting for her as she returned to the outer office after sending a message. “Hello, are you here officially?”
“I have a question which I'm informed counts as work for you and not for me,” James answered.
“Oh yes?”
“I've been told to refresh my memory of the laws related to unfortunate oaths, and I have, but I don't understand why.”
“Oh, well, you'd better have a seat, and I'd better educate you, hadn't I?”
“Please.”
“How do you regard your oath, James?” she asked, when he had done so.
“My oath to the crown?”
“No, the one to your home.”
“Urm, part of who I am, I guess.”
“That's probably why you don't see the link. It is on your file as an unfortunate oath.”
James sat back, stunned. It... it made sense, and a lot of things fell into place. “I didn't realise that at all.”
“Well, now you know.”
“Sorry.”
“Sorry? Why?”
“Because for some reason I'd assumed all the protections built around unfortunate oaths didn't apply to mine. And that, urm, you were under orders to report back anything I let slip.”
“I'm not a spy, James.”
“I guess I need more educating then, but that probably comes later.”
“Probably.”
He thought a bit, “I thought the unfortunate oaths rules only applied when someone was already an officer.”
“Well, that's the main section of it yes. But you made it known as part of your application process, didn't you?”
“Yes.”
“So, it's always been on your record. Obviously someone decided it counted as such, I mean, what else could it be classed as? No don't answer that, I can, you've been assuming it was somewhere in the defector aware of an enemy secret category, haven't you?”
“Yes, I guess so.”
“Oh, James, why didn't you ask?”
“Sorry. I guess.... I guess I couldn't imagine my oath being protected like that. You can't report on things it covers, can you?”
“Of course not. You thought I would?”
James hung his head in shame, “sorry.”
“Well, does that explain why you've been getting so nervous around me?”
“Probably.”
“So, got any more duty-related questions?”
“Yes. When do you get off duty?”
“I'm working normal office hours today. You?”
“Night duty, starting at eight.”
“Why are you awake at this time of day then?”
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He shrugged, “I couldn't fall asleep yet, too much on my mind.”
“And now?”
“Now I'd love to stop you working some more, but that's not allowed is it?”
“No.”
“Could I cook something for you, for six?”
“Of course. I'll dig up some veg during lunch time.”
“Don't, let me treat you, OK? By way of apology for being such a jit?”
“Are you going to insist?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, all right then. Just as long as you get some sleep.”
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EMBASSY BARRACKS
James woke at 5.30pm, which was later than he'd planned. He wasn't sure why he'd slept through his main alarm, the secondary one had woken him. But he'd still have time to get the meal ready, anyway. It was all prepared. He dressed quickly and went to the kitchen, and stopped, stunned. The kitchen had been ... transformed. The bare walls had been covered with wall-hangings, and the normally bare table had a thick cloth on it, and candles.
“Hello James,” Margaret was there, looking stunning, there was no other word to describe her. She had a beautiful dress on, and had her hair in a complicated style.
“You're beautiful,” he said. It was all his brain could be persuaded to say first.
“Glad you think so,” she blushed slightly, “You can blame Alice for giving me ideas. She gave me the afternoon off and also disabled your main alarm clock, when I told her I needed a bit more time to get ready.”
“Why?” he indicated the candles and everything.
“Because I told her how stunned you'd been at the oath thing. I also let it slip that you'd said you wanted to cook for me. She suggested I make the evening a bit special.”
“This is a bit special?”
“OK, so I got carried away,” she grinned infectiously.
“Margaret, you're a very very lovely woman, and I don't think I deserve you. Would you do me the great honour of being known as my girlfriend?”
“Hmm, what do you think?”
“I'd like to hear you say it,” he said, looking into her eyes.
“I'd be very happy to be known as your girlfriend, James. Then maybe we can get our rotas a bit more synchronised. Now, since I'm responsible for delaying your start, can I help cook?”
“In that dress?”
“I came prepared, ta-da!” she said, pulling an apron from a cupboard.
“OK, but beware of spitting fat. There's not much to do, actually. I bring you... stir-fried fake-chicken and crispy vegetables.”
“Where did you get the vegetables?”
“Traded Harry some dried protein-rich journey-food for a sack of potatoes, I took some to he market this morning.”
“Ah! Cunning. Does that mean you're going to be going hungry soon?”
“No, because I think I've only got to wait a few days before I pick my first vegetables.”
“How? You haven't been here that long, surely!”
“Ah well, you see beloved Margaret, my cabin luggage included a few innocent looking plastic boxes, about this big.” he indicated with his hands. “I read the rules very carefully, you see, and checked with the ship owners. We still can't bring plants from Earth, but there's nothing wrong with bringing seeds, or sterilised growing compound, or a small bottle of pre-mixed nutrient solution, or with mixing them all up together on the ship.”
Margaret looked at him in awe: “You landed on Mars with seedlings?”
“Yes. Some didn't survive the re-potting, but most of them did.”
“And you've had your claim improved?”
“Yes, and my field dome arrives tomorrow.”
“Where are you putting it? I forgot to ask.”
“Exactly where you suggested.”
“What, right next to my plot?” He heard the shock in her voice.
“Mistake?”
“James, you do know what everyone will think that means, don't you?”
“That I'm an optimist,” he answered, “and that I don't mind rumours, or that I've got plans for the other end of the plot, which does adjoin the road.”
“Oh, yes? What plans might they be?”
“It's a bit of a dream, but... parking space for visitors, and then another field dome, the tunnel sort. Sunk into the ground, to bed-rock if possible, the regolith isn't really so deep around here, I found out, and then I put in some reinforced insulating walls.”
“And then what?”
“I put water in it.”
“A swimming pool?”
“Too tame, and too much chlorine. I'd put salt water in, and oxygenating plants and plankton and fish in it, and assuming I can get them imported, some of a particular type of squid. And I'd grow certain salt-water tolerant plants around the edges too.”
“Why?”
“Because if I can do all that, then maybe, just maybe, I can make you the vilest drink you've ever tasted.”
“Once described as chilli con mouldy cabbage mixed with old shoe curry?”
“That's the stuff,” he agreed, glad she'd heard of it.
“Don't be silly, James, that can't exist, it's the sort of story an old man makes up for his grand-daughter. Next thing you'll be telling me about a massive dome keeping the water out of a city full of crystal spires.”
“I wasn't actually planning to.”
“No, I'm forcing the issue, and I want to re-learn the songs he taught me too, and one day learn the language. Just in case I ever see an antimatter powered submarine on its way to Mars.”
“Sorry, they don't exist.”
“Shame, I'd love to see your home, but that's only going to happen if we could do the trip to Earth and back in a sensible amount of time.”
“I suppose if home stops being a secret, then I could return to Earth and we could visit there, and I could show you all my old haunts.”
“It's OK, James. I'll settle for your sea-on-Mars dream. It sounds more realistic.”
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CHURCH HALL, SUNSOL, 1ST MARCH, 12.45PM
“Simon,” James asked, during the coffee time after church, “I've been meaning to ask you. Your hedgehogs, are they always the same size and shape?”
“No. Why?”
“Is it, like, predictable or unknown causes?”
“Unpredictable, so far. We think it's related to other signals.”
“That sounds scary.”
“Why scary?”
“I was just thinking how bad it might be if instead of a hedgehog you got a spear, poking its way through your dome, or a researcher for that matter, just because someone's wrist unit got a call or someone's visiting toddler fiddled with the tuning dial.”
“James helpful” Heather pronounced. He smiled at her, he certainly wanted to be. There had been some very nasty accidents amongst the mer as they were learning to use the things Simon was playing with.
“James, I don't think you need to worry, we've never got one of them bigger than three centimeters yet.”
“I do need to worry, Simon,” James insisted, “unless you can assure me you're looking at every single configuration and not turning on the ones that look dangerous, or you're carrying out the experiments almost as far from others as you'd like to be from an uncontrolled fission reaction.”
“They're not that dangerous, James.”
“Simon, some people might say I shouldn't be telling you even this, but you're my brother in Christ, and you're wrong. They are that dangerous.”
“They don't work outside a vacuum, James.”
James shook his head, and noticed Alice. He decided he wanted her to scan him carefully. “Alice, without details, can you convince your husband I'm not just scared of shadows?”
[Sure?] she was shocked at James suggesting such a thing.
[No. Not at all.]
[Would it help if I got Margaret over to help you think it through?]
[Probably.]
[Then you go hold hands with Margaret, for no other reason than you like doing it, and I'll convince Simon, because you've convinced me you've got a moral dilemma.]
“Simon,” James heard Alice say as he left “Please consider just how serious James must have been to ask me to intervene.”
“Pardon, love?” Simon asked, confused.
“Listen to the guy, OK?”
“But they're safe.”
“No, I said listen to the guy, Simon. He's in a moral dilemma about trying to protect you from something he can't admit to knowing about.”
“He told you that?”
“Of course not, he can't admit to being in that moral dilemma, can he? He asked me to help and then decided against it. Doesn't that sound like a dilemma to you?”
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CHURCH HALL, SUNSOL, 1ST MARCH, 12.55PM
“Hi, Margaret, I'm under instructions to hold your hand.”
“Excuses, excuses,” she said, then thought [Why?]
[Simon's just told me he's got three centimeter hedgehog spikes, so I'm glad I decided I needed to give some warning, but then he decided I've no idea what I'm talking about. I've no idea how to make an atom bomb either, that doesn't mean I want my friends playing with critical masses of plutonium.]
[James, are you saying your people know about these things?]
[I'm trying to walk the fine line between keeping my friends and people nearby safe and not say anything about what my people know or don't know, but it's hard. I almost got Alice to scan me, but I think she understood without doing it.]
[Are they really that dangerous?]
[There was an experiment at school. I never did it, but you know, it was talked about among the kids. First make a one millimeter sea-urchin, or hedgehog if you prefer, and then tune it so the spikes grow together to make a disk and when you'd proved you could do that you got to jump up and down on the disk. But there were big warnings about not tuning it the wrong way and making a cone or a five meter long needle, and it was in this special room carved out of solid granite, and the experiment was carefully positioned so the disk wouldn't cut anyone in half, and if a kid did break things and somehow make the cone or the needle then the equipment would be smashed before it did real damage, and so on. In other words they did everything they could to make it safe and they knew how to limit any damage, because they'd studied the theory of the thing and everything, and even then there was a risk of things going wrong and people dying. Simon doesn't know the theory, he hasn't worked it out yet. He doesn't know the risks, he's just blindly fiddling around in the middle of a busy campus with a field strong enough to decapitate everyone in, I don't know, three hundred meters or something. And I'm vowed to secrecy and I'm only telling you because you're similarly bound and I'm deeply deeply troubled by hearing he's got a three centimeter urchin, and because I love you too much to believe you'd break my vow for me.]
[I won't break your vow, James. And thank you for trusting me, but yes, we can't let him kill everyone on campus, can we? What do we do?]
[Unless I get formally told by someone in the ruling council at home I can say more, I don't know what else I can do, without breaking my vow. Surely that's not what I need to do?]
[We don't know there's going to be an accident. Simon's been working on those hedgehogs for years. Let's pray for that discussion to happen before anyone is hurt, and let God be in charge.]
“When young couples go standing in corners holding hands,” Anna Durrel interrupted, “then they get invited over for lunch.”
“Oooh, Anna, what a thing to promise! Maybe we should do it more often, then,” Margaret said, “But we don't want to get an invitation under false pretenses.”
“Oh? You're not going to tell me you've just spent the last few minutes holding hands because of a dare, are you?”
“No. It was orders,” James said, “well, maybe a strong suggestion that I think something through with Margaret.”
“And I was just thinking you make a lovely couple. And I do notice you're still holding hands.”
“Oh, we are a couple...” Margaret agreed, “but this was more about ethics than emotions.”
“Oh, ethics? You'd better come to lunch then,” Anna said.
“Thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
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DURREL FAMILY COMPLEX. 2PM, 1ST MARCH.
“This is excellent, thank you!” James said,
“Our pleasure.” Anna said, “I won't object to some help washing up, but don't feel you have to if you have to get away.”
“Anna said you were having an ethics discussion?” Tom asked.
“Yes, it's a bit tricky since James is under oath not to talk about lots of things with people who don't know them already. I sort of know them, because of stories my grandad told me when I was little, which he made me promise not to tell anyone except my children. I expect that if grandad hadn't made me promise that, then I'd have told them, say to Alice's Heather, and then I wouldn't be able to talk about them with James.”
“I'm confused already,” Tom said.
“I'd really appreciate it if you didn't spread it around, but it's no great secret that I come from an isolated, secretive group of people.” James said, “Margaret's great grandmother, or maybe great-great grandmother came from there too. We're something like ninety five percent Christian, have more than the average number of thought-hearers, and are collectively paranoid about what'll happen if the outside world discovers too much about us, due to some bad experiences in the past. So, before I left home I took a vow of secrecy, to not talk to outsiders about my past.”
“Which you've just broken?”
“Oh, generic things like that are fine. It's specifics I can't get into, like history, location, too much about our culture, that sort of thing.”
“OK. So what's the ethical issue?”
“This is where it gets complex. I'd value advice, really I would, but I don't see how I can tell you about it without breaking my vow.”
“Could you do it by analogy?” Anna asked.
“Hmm. Maybe. Margaret, what do you think?”
“It's going to be hard.”
“What about the kidney beans?” James suggested.
“It might work, OK. Let me tell it, please?”
“Kidney beans?” Tom was confused.
“OK,” Margaret said, “Let's try to use the kidney bean analogy. Imagine for a moment, Anna and Tom that when hunting... what might you hunt, James?”
“Lesser spotted sabre-toothed-bunnies,” James said.
“James, you're weird, but I love you. While hunting the dangerous beasts known as lesser spotted sabre-toothed-bunnies, James and his tribe use a poison made from kidney beans. James knows kidney beans are dangerous from his upbringing, but the rest of Mars thinks they're a strange new delicacy.”
“Kidney beans?” Anna asked “A delicacy?”
“Humour me, please, it's only an analogy,” Margaret said “Imagine you only heard of them last year.”
“Oh. OK.”
“So, James knows that treated properly they're a useful high protein food, but treated badly they'll land you in hospital. Does he keep quite, protecting his oath but maybe there'll be an accident and people poisoned, or does he warn people breaking his vow about not speaking about his people using them?”
“A third option might be to break into the central bean store and burn them, or something, but that'd be illegal,” James said, “and I'm not sure it would help for long.”
After some talking round in circles about it not being ethical to do any of the options talked about so far, Tom said “It sounds like what you really need, is some alternative source of information you can point at, which doesn't break any secrets.”
“That'd be lovely, yes.” James agreed.
“No such thing?” Tom asked.
“Not that I'm aware of,”
“Hmm, tricky. I don't suppose you've got a friend who'd be in a position to accidentally stumble on the danger, in a not so dangerous sort of way?”
“You mean, eat enough raw beans to get sick but not enough to kill themselves?” Anna asked. “Is that ethical?”
“If they know what they're doing and why, and only they're getting hurt, I guess it would be.” Tom said.
“I think it's got potential. Thank you Tom,” Margaret said.
“I think now all we need is a small miracle, so we can talk to the person who'd be in a position to talk to the person who'd be able to eat dangerous beans in such a way they don't get hurt, before anyone does.”
“Not to mention that we end up with no curiosity about what you're actually hiding.” Tom said.
“Maybe we should just pray that your people decide to come out of hiding,” Anna said.
James saw Margaret looking at him, questioningly. He nodded and said, “Yes, that would make it much, much easier.”
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