Far-out Show (9781465735829) (29 page)

“They don't have more ready to go?” Gopgop
asked, concern in his tone now too.

“We don't know,” Carpan answered. “They
haven't announced any new episodes but did say they're having
technical difficulties
getting the transmissions from deep
space.”

“Which we're supposed to think means because
the signals have to travel so far,” Uldene said.

“Those claims haven't convinced the audience
who seem to think this show is special. My latest poll finds much
discontent and muttering,” Carpan warned.

Elfwip whispered, mostly to himself,
“Muttering is always bad. Bad things happen when guys mutter.”

“Does anyone have a feel for whether A.D.U.
is simply using the delay to increase audience interest? That'd be
a clever tactic,” Gopgop commented with a nod of approval.

“But a dangerous one.” Uldene slapped his
feet together as he said, “The audience can lose interest like
that.”

“Delmus and Ackack have a history of taking
risks but coming out ahead. That's a big part of why we back
A.D.U.,” Gopgop admitted.

“Entertainment companies can be a success one
day and gone like that,” Elfwip muttered and weakly slapped his
feet together.

“What's different in this case, Carpan? Why
do the audience think
The Far-Out Show
is special?” Gopgop
asked.

“Fifty-two percent believe it is for truly
real happening on a far away planet it occupants call Earth,”
Carpan reported.

“Which it is,” Uldene pointed out.

“Exactly,” Carpan agreed. “They accept that
most of what they're pacified with each day is faked but there's
nothing else to watch. In this case they believe it's happening in
real time so they want to know what's happening in something close
to that. They're not content to be spoon fed bits of what happened
in an hour spread out over days and weeks.”

“Could this mean the audience is becoming
sophisticated after all these years?” Elfwip gasped as the horror
of that idea washed over him.

“That's unlikely, Elfwip, but thanks for
bringing it up,” Uldene said. “This may be a flaw in the off-planet
competition show concept we haven't thought about. If the
excitement is real, the demand for more of it may overcome the
audiences' typical stupor state and require that enough material be
ready in short order to complete the story lines. This is a
paradox. What usually keeps the masses quiet can arouse them when
it's done too well. We could warn A.D.U. and others about this but
what's in it for us that we should help them avoid problems?”

“If the masses get out of control, the
Pacification By Distraction With Entertainment industry could
disappear like that,” Elfwip whined. Again he slapped his feet
together but so feebly it was hardly worth the effort except for
its symbolic signal value.

“Are they getting violent?” Gopgop asked with
real concern.

“The latest-most figures find there's more
restlessness than ever recorded - with violent muttering at scary
levels,” Carpan cautioned.

“Be very afraid of violent muttering,” Elfwip
warning in a ghost-story-threat tone.

“Okay, that's all. You two can go,” Uldene
said with a dismissive gesture of his feet.

When Elfwip and Carpan were gone Uldene
pushed buttons on his chair arm and a shimmering bubble appeared
around it.

He gestured for Gopgop to do the same. Then
they slid closer and the bubbles fused. Uldene said, “We pay to get
every whisper and move of whoever's important to us for any reason
secretly recorded for us so we'd be fools not to assume there are
guys being paid to try to record us too. That's business but we can
take precautions – and at some moments extra ones. We've set things
in motion to grab control of A.D.U. but if their new show is likely
to be a disaster even if it is a short-term moneymaker maybe we
need to reconsider.”

“We've hidden our true intentions until now
so we could back off and confuse those who think they know what
we're planning so they can get a cut of the profits to be made,”
Gopgop said. “But if we don't move on taking control of A.D.U. soon
we won't have the option to do that if this fuss blows over and
they do become the hottest company on the planet with no down
side.”

“So do we risk a bad mess by grabbing for the
money?”

“Don’t forget the political influence too.
That's a big part of our interest here because of the governors'
program of exploration.”

“Right. Do we risk a mess grabbing for the
money and the clout with the governors or do we step back and decoy
others into maybe making that grab but ending up with that
mess?”

“We have to make these tough choices because
we're the bosses. So what do we do?” Gopgop asked.

“We check on what all the other parties of
interest are planning and expecting since we're paying good money
to find that out. Then we decide what to do with fewer unknowns to
cloud our view,” Uldene said. “What will the A.D.U. guys do?”

A musical tone rang through the room, hard to
miss or ignore but not totally upsetting. They popped the
extra-secure bubbles.

Uldene said, “I told them to let us know
right way whenever new stuff arrived. Knowing that most techs are
on some interest group's payroll it's likely it's been reviewed by
them but you can only buy so much honesty and loyalty.”

“We started out as techs so we know how
things work at all the levels. What's new?” Gopgop asked.

“Transmissions intended for the top guys at
A.D.U.
The Bang-Boom Show
’s producers talking among
themselves when they think they're secure. This may tell us about
problems we can use to squeeze A.D.U. or can exploit to go around
them to make a deal directly with the
Bang-Boom
guys.”

“Or it might confirm our fears that the show
seemed like a great idea but has so many unanticipated problems
that there's no future for any like it so we should stay
clear.”

Uldene nodded agreement and tapped a button
on the console that brought up the image on the view-screen of
Hasley, Feedle, and Lacrat sitting in a circle in their office on
the studio ship.

Lacrat said almost in a whisper, “We probably
must tell each of the contestants on the planet about the problems
soon but they don't seem to be in imminent danger.”

“The ship's remotely controlled upload system
should be able to snatch them and the zerpies back on a moment's
notice,” Feedle said, sounding like she was trying to convince
herself as well as her associates.

“If that works,” Hasley said, letting doubt
color his tone. “So much of the ship's equipment isn't reliable
that I'm worried about their safety. We agreed to do everything we
could to keep our contestants and equipment from being closely
examined by the planet's inhabitants but that seems more likely to
happen every time we check on them.”

“But of course it'll all be reported by
A.D.U. as our fault,” Feedle noted. “We already know they've filed
claims to make us pay for the damage to this ship that they
provided as part of our deal.”

“They control what the others at home see and
hear so in effect they control the version of the truth that
decisions there are based on,” Lacrat said, unhappy with it but
that was the reality.

“I get ferocious thinking about the great
entertainments we planned to make only to have to scale the ideas
way back because A.D.U. wants to make the big money from them but
won't fund them properly up front,” Hasley complained.

“We were naive when we signed contracts with
them. But it's too late now to realize that sneakily worded clauses
let them short-change us right and left and too bad for us. We
stand to end up owing them money while they make a pile from our
show,” Feedle said with a
beechens
sigh.

“There'd be a fuss if the facts got out but
we won't survive if they opt to silence us for their profit. The
governors could own them with these facts but we don't dare contact
them,” Lacrat said angrily.

“Okay, we need to check right away on how
much danger those on the planet are in,” Feedle said to bring them
back to practical matters.

The image went blank and the audio volume
dropped rapidly but not to silence before Hasley said, “Zerpy, end
recording.”

Gopgop and Uldene exchanged
maybe this is
useful for us to know so what should we do about it looks
.

The same musical tone sounded. Gopgop checked
a console monitor. “More from those same guys but this time it’s
live and actually intended for us.” He tapped a button and Hasley
appeared on the screen.

“What’s going on, Hasley? You’re under
contract to A.D.U., you don’t report directly to us,” Gopgop
said.

“Sometimes it’s essential to be sure where
the news stops – or doesn’t,” Hasley replied. “We want to be
certain that word of the loss of one of the contestants due to
faulty equipment doesn’t get conveniently lost in the shuffle.”

“What happened?” Uldene asked.

“Contestant Zipper was lost during transfer
to the planet. The transport device failed to reassemble him so
he’s gone and irretrievable. So far he’s the only one killed by the
defective equipment but there have been other problems,” Hasley
said.

“What do you expect us to do about this?”
Uldene asked.

“Be aware of the facts. You Peepees will
likely be listed among those with some responsibility. Now the
governors’ investigation won’t catch you by surprise,” Hasley
said.

“What do you get out of telling us this?”
Gopgop asked.

“The harder it is for others to hide our
complaints and thus the consequences of the untested equipment from
the governors, the safer we are. I’m looking out for myself and the
crew. I’ve had a copy of our report to A.D.U. on what hasn’t worked
on the ship so far sent to you. You can compare the text and all
the routing codes to check on the accuracy of whatever other
information you’re receiving from the crew or the ship’s systems
without most of us knowing about that.”

“Who said we get that kind of information?”
Uldene shouted.

“
The Get To The Top Of The Heap Handbook
For Success
,” Hasley answered simply.

“Don’t you go making accusations you can’t
prove, Hasley. There are severe penalties for doing that,” Gopgop
noted.

“You’re welcome and you owe me,” Hasley said
with a small smile. The screen went blank.

“He’s right but I wouldn’t tell him that,”
Gopgop said.

A different musical tone sounded. Gopgop
checked the monitor and said, “We’re so popular that everybody has
to tell us their news. This time it’s the A.D.U. guys.” He brought
up Ackack on the view-screen.

“Is there news we should know, Ackack?”
Uldene asked with as much innocence as he could fake.

“Only a minor incident but we promised we’d
keep our backers as up to the minute on developments as reasonably
possible. There was a minor malfunction of some equipment on
Whizybeam
but the ship seems okay after corrections were
made.”

“Anything that’ll affect the show material?”
Uldene asked.

“Nothing we can’t work around. Maybe at some
point we can even make what happened part of the story to keep the
audience worried so they’ll be eager for each new episode,” Ackack
said.

“Any details of this incident we should know
about?” Gopgop asked. “Anything that warns us of possible bigger
problems?”

“Nothing I’m worried about enough to think
you ought to be,” Ackack replied. He smiled and the screen went
blank.

“Short and for the record but not
informative,” Gopgop said. “If our positions were switched I’d be
proud of having done it that well.”

“But you’re a Peepee and he’s A.D.U. and he
just failed to tell us about a major problem while saying he was
updating us.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Nicely done. I’d
consider hiring him to handle some communications for me.”

“He never mentioned the loss of contestant
Zipper.”

“But he said there was an equipment
malfunction.”

“You’re okay with this level of evasion?”
Uldene asked.

“I’m okay with it since I know from Hasley
what happened and we recorded Ackack’s statement so if there’s a
problem we have evidence to show the governors that we were
deliberately not informed by A.D.U. which makes them the bad guys
and the ones who get the punishment.”

“But of course. What was I not thinking? For
a moment there I forgot how we got where we are. Play the angles,
play the would-be players, and play for keeps.”

A harsh
beep
sounded. Both looked up
as a head shot of Techim appeared on the central section of the
view-screen.

“This must be important if she’s risking
detection to let us know about it right away,” Uldene said, then
pressed the button that gave them live feed from Techim.

“What’s happening?” Gopgop asked.

“They’ve lost contact with
Whizybeam
,”
Techim reported with no sign of emotion. “The crew probably found
the remote take-control programs and tried to patch around those to
keep them from being used since removing them would require a major
overhaul. That alteration shut down the power on the ship,
including to the life-support systems. The obvious response is for
their techs to reverse what they did but so far the signals haven’t
returned so it’s not certain if they’ve done that.”

“They found the top secret self-destruct
units and the tried to remove them?” Gopgop asked.

“The signals received immediately before they
went silent don’t suggest that. Anyone alert expects the crew know
they all have such self-destructs implanted and are probing to
learn enough to deactivate them since they can’t be removed without
special equipment,” Techim said.

“What are the projected consequences of the
current power shutdown?” Uldene asked.