CHAPTER 49
Tau Ceti. Year five.
The young Venture League had acquired an old building in Argosy for its headquarters. Its academy occupied one suite on the seventh floor. But then, that school for starfarers was still unborn, little more than a dream and some experimental programs. It would not want a campus until the starships that were themselves, as yet, little more than plans in computers began to be built.
If ever they did.
The room where Ricardo Nansen and Chandor Barak sat was light and spacious. Opalescence swirled like slow smoke in walls and ceilings, except for the fourth wall, which stood open on a balcony. There flowers glowed in planters — geraniums, marigolds, forget-me-nots, because Harbor had never evolved much in the way of blossoms. Air flowed warm, bearing murmurs of the city. Though it was summer in this hemisphere, to Earthside eyes the sunshine spilling from the blue would have had a mellow, autumnal quality. By now Nansen was used to it, and Chandor’s people had been on the planet almost since Envoy first departed from Sol.
Like many of them, the director and prospective commander of the academy was medium tall, with tan complexion and features that bore memories of northern Asia. However, his eyes were green and the mustache and bobbed hair dark blond. Somewhat of a dandy, today he wore a purple blouse with upward-flaring red collar, rainbow-striped kilt, and gold trim on his floppy half-boots. Otherwise there was nothing foppish about him, and the fact that his mother, Chandor Lia, was president of the Duncanian continent had not been decisive in choosing him for this post It hadn’t hurt, but what counted was that he had proved himself an able administrator who shared the dream.
“Yes, we have to ride the comet,” he was saying. Nansen, who had gained fluency in the language but hadn’t encountered all its idioms, was momentarily puzzled, then translated from context, “catch the tide” or “strike while the iron is hot.”
How much else don’t I know yet? The question pierced him daily. And he hadn’t even been very active in public affairs. Steering from Sol to Tau Ceti . . . tumultuous welcome … appearances, interviews, celebrations … lectures, conferences, helping interpret the torrent of data downloaded from his ship . . . getting Hanny and himself established, the whole crew, and that handful of Earthlings who threw everything away that they might go with him to an unknown destiny…. The years stormed through memory.
He hauled his attention back to Chandor. If his influence — and, yes, the substantial sum he became able to contribute — had made the founding of the League possible, then it behooved him to answer this appeal for his help.
The director leaned forward, intent and intense. “Our beginning may have been too successful,” he said. “We’re in danger of being overwhelmed. Hundreds of youngsters are applying, clamoring, to us. If we can organize them into a nucleus, something active, actually taking the first steps forward, we’ll recruit thousands, around the globe and throughout the system. But if we don’t show any real accomplishment soon, I’m afraid the excitement, the support, will die.”
“That fast?”
“There’ll be forces working to quench it. Are you aware, sir, what powerful interests are against us? They look on our goal as insane. They don’t believe a serious revival of starfaring is possible. They want the capabilities you’ve brought developed and used at home for undertakings they know will be profitable.”
Nansen scowled. “This is a free society, isn’t it? How can they forbid us applying our knowledge to make money and spending the money as we see fit?”
“They have funds, resources, and influence of their own, more than we’ll have for years. They can undercut our fledgling businesses, put pressure on those who’d help us with financing, and flood the world with disparaging, discouraging propaganda. I’ve reason to think they’re already subsidizing the Seladorian missionaries.”
“Can a few evangelists make any difference in the time span that concerns us?”
“If the eloquent preaching the laser beams carry from Earth gets featured regularly in major news media, perhaps yes. What you have revealed is so new. How many people have understood the implications? For millennia we’ve been resigned to — the stars only lights in the sky, a few threads of communication, a rare ship with an alien, clannish crew.”