Far-out Show (9781465735829) (32 page)

“You guys need to trust us,” Ackack said.
“Uh, we're all in this together. Your success is our success and
your failure...”

“Is our problem alone,” Hasley said with a
sad shake of his head. “Like who gets the blame for your company
messing up the translation of messages from here long before we
brought this show proposal to your company?”

“How do you know that? Oh right, you saw the
contestant's transmission,” Delmus said making a gesture of
frustration.

“Let me consider this. What might persuade me
to keep quiet about this when I see a clear duty to the governors?”
Hasley asked as if thinking aloud.

“Oh, it's that kind of thing,” Delmus said.
“Okay, what will it...?”

Ackack made a vigorous gesture and the image
of the producers disappeared. The hovering zerpy that has been
sending their responses revolved away from them. “Not in a
transmission, Delmus! We know anything we say that could be used
against us will come back to haunt us. We got their message and
we'll find a way to answer them.”

“Can they be faking the whole thing?”

“It’s possible but my guess is that there are
real problems that they’re exaggerating to see how much they can
squeeze out of us. That's what I'd do in their position so I assume
they think the same way.”

“True. They won't succeed as producers of
entertainments if they don't know to use everything that comes
along to help improve their bottom-most lineage.”

“But it is far better for us if they don't
find ways to keep us from using them. We cherish our role as users,
not as those used by anyone else,” Ackack said.

* * *

When he entered the office later and found
Ackack at the console wearing an unhappy expression, Delmus quickly
asked, “Is something more happening?”

“More than we know and definitely more than
we’re supposed to know. We’ve received more show material with this
Nerber’s activities but we’re still getting only bits of what his
zerpy should be sending continuously. The techs guess that means
somebody has tampered with the zerpy Wilburps. They suspect that
what should be raw feed has in fact been edited. Like it has been
reviewed and only bits sent on. That could mean the good stuff, if
there is any, is being kept back for use by whoever has messed with
the zerpy. But from this distance without direct access to Wilburps
they can’t be sure.”

“At least that gives us enough material for
new episodes to calm the audience demand. We can deal with the rest
of it later.”

Ackack said, “The interference on the
total-listening-in-on-their-every-word system we had secretly
arranged for has stopped. Before you say that’s good, it stopped
because the whole system has shut down. We could have done that but
we didn’t. That has to mean that the crew found out how to do
so.”

“If the system wasn’t giving us useful stuff
what difference does it make what they did to it?”

“It’s one more indication that they’re
learning all the twists and turns of what we made sure was an
almost ridiculously over-complicated operational system. Sooner or
later they seem determined to get to a point where we have only
those remote controls that they agree to allow. That’s a formula
for dealing with equals, not for being in control. I don’t like
this erosion of our advantages over them,” Ackack admitted.

“Maybe it’s time for us to turn Zink loose in
there.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing. We had
that zerpy slipped onboard
Whizybeam
exactly in case this
kind of problem developed. We’re the masters of this operation and
of that big piece of hardware so we have the right to know
everything that’s happening and the right to have the last say in
what gets done.”

“We’re prudent guys so we accept that with
changes they’ve made in the operating systems what was programmed
into our secret servant might now mess things up, so we’ll only
turn it on long enough to see if that happens,” Delmus said.
“Analysis of the ship’s recent records suggests they lost power and
controls several times in a short period. They got things back on
with different fixes each time but they may be vulnerable to any
signal disturbance.”

“We need to be practical. It’s more important
for us to stay in control than for them to survive,” Ackack
said.

“We just don’t say that too openly.”

Ackack’s fingers flew across his keyboard.
“I’m sending out the activation code now.” He sat back. “The
experiment code named ‘Zink snoops’ has begun.”

“Should we have done that while we were still
talking to them? Maybe that way we could judge by their reactions
if their sensors noticed any change.”

“If they do but those don’t seriously disable
them they’ll try to keep us from knowing they’ve noticed. They’ll
be contacting us soon again to continue their program of
complaining about the equipment and pretending that they’re worried
about being captured or killed by the inhabitants though. They
don’t realize how obvious their strategy is.”

“Also we’ll hear about it if they complain to
the Power Players so that’s a backup way for us to check,” Delmus
said.

“Our guy inside the Peepees’ operation says
Gopgop and Uldene are very interested in some cutting edge
technology company but he couldn’t learn which company.”

“
Bips fump
! If they’re going to make a
move for P.D.Q. we won’t have a chance to buy in at a good
price.”

“He’s trying to get more details. Maybe it’ll
be another company and that’ll distract them and tie up their ready
money and make it easier for us. See, I can dream.”

“Did you get an untraceable message saying to
visit the ground level souvenir store in this building at about
this time?” Delmus asked.

“Yeah. I’m not sure what it means but it’s
mysterious enough to tweak my curiosity.”

“Why would someone want us to go down there
among the common workers and the routine visitors?”

* * *

Several minutes later Delmus, Ackack, and
Parbam stood off to the side of the A.D.U. souvenir store, a room
cluttered with racks, tables, and wall displays of junk items with
the names and faces of major characters in the company’s programs
on them.

Parbam said, “There’s not much chance anyone
will notice me talking to you here. I have a reminder from the
governors. If you let out word of their involvement in your
Far-Out Show
there will be unpleasant consequences for a lot
of guys but especially for you. The program to assess the
inhabitability of the distant Earth isn’t something that can be
discussed in public. Also they depended on the signals your zerpies
collected over the years about how things are and how things work
on that planet. Their predecessors told the public your
interpretations were accurate and credible. If they’re embarrassed
because of bad information that came from your company even in the
past they may feel it necessary to create a distraction. You would
likely be feature attractions in that. I won’t spell it out but I’m
sure you’ve seen some of the earlier events. Think about this and
be very careful about everything you say to others and be
completely honest in what you tell my bosses about how truly
hospitable that planet is for Ormelexians.” She walked away.

Uldene touched a button on the Power Players
office control console and Techim disappeared off the view-screen.
Then he and Gopgop swiveled nervously side-to-side in their
chairs.

Uldene said, “So the ship’s back in operation
which means A.D.U. still has a show to promote and air but the crew
won’t admit how they tried to undo the company’s remote controls of
all the systems. We get good information for what we pay Techim.
She’s an ideal spy. Well placed to know at least most of what
they’re doing over there; tech savvy enough to be able to send us
untraceable update messages; and greedy enough to have no loyalty
to them.”

“Now we have to be good enough actors that
when we talk-talk with the A.D.U. guys or the governors we don’t
give away how much we know although we’re not supposed to.”

“While not outright denying what we know so
that would come back on us as a lie to those guys later.”

“It’s encouraging to know that they’ve
received more new show material from the far place. That should
reduce the immediate danger of a civil disturbance,” Gopgop said.
He thought,
Now if I were more certain that you’re not the
reason I’m getting so little useful information from our paid
sources I wouldn’t be so worried about what’s going on behind my
back
.

“We still don’t know why information sources
that should be keeping us better informed aren’t helping but there
are so many things we don’t know about and no clear paths to
answers.” Uldene went on, thinking,
Which doesn’t rule out you
messing things up behind my back to keep me in the dark while you
set yourself up for the payoff. I can’t prove anything against you
yet but if I find hard evidence there will be some shouting at the
least.

Gopgop brought up the image of a naked earth
couple in the opening part of a sexual encounter. “The A.D.U. guys
have invited our opinions about whether and when to show the public
some strange material from the far planet. It’s earth inhabitant
pornography. What do you think?”

The two said nothing and showed little
reaction as they watched the sequence for several minutes, through
to his full spouting climax and her gasping, writhing, faked
orgasm.

“It’s weird. Like watching a lesson in how to
assemble furniture or to open a closed door. If there were nothing
else to watch I might be bored enough to turn it on but after a
first time I wouldn’t be searching it out or recommending it to
others,” Uldene said.

“Something exciting would be a crowd pleaser,
this is only a last resort distraction. With enough promotional
buildup it might get an audience but on its own it wouldn’t hold
them. My recommendation is that they don’t advertise it and they
tuck it away for an emergency.”

“If they can get their creative guys to
alter, edit, and enhance it, including adding a voice-over
commentary to suggest that what you see is actually what we’d do,
it might have some limited use. I agree, tell them to save it for a
disaster.”

Gopgop blanked the screen and they sat in
silence for a long minute, each revolving his chair a bit and
pondering how to broach the subject that was uppermost in his mind
right now.

Finally Gopgop said, “We should use Minx to
find out what’s happening and why we’re not getting better
information.”

“I agree. I didn’t know if you’d agree but it
seems like a sensible thing for us to do. We paid to have that
secret zerpy sneaked onto
Whizybeam
so it makes sense to use
it when things are so confusing.”

“With the changes the crew are reported to
have made, it may for surely true cause problems but the only way
to know is to try it. We activate it and if Techim reports that
things suddenly went crazy we turn it back off. They should never
know what we did, only that the problem resolved itself,” Gopgop
said.

“Techim did say some new signal source kicked
in very recently making a few complications but the crew were able
to adjust things so it didn’t make a disaster. They’ll be trying to
locate that source so it’s a good time to slip in another that
we’re assured they can’t identify.”

Uldene entered code via his keyboard then sat
back. “Done. The secret snoop code-named Minx is on the job
analyzing all that’s going on aboard
Whizybeam
.”

“The governors are edgy. That’s never good
news for us. If the unexpectedly hostile conditions on this planet
Earth spook them they might declare the concept of off-planet
adventure shows too risky and ban them. We put our reputations on
the line by vigorously supporting such shows. Our best bet would be
to start to distance ourselves from the whole idea before the
governors say anything publicly.”

“But reacting too vigorously too soon will
put us in the center of the fuss. We have to make sure the
governors get the most accurate information we hear and remind the
A.D.U. guys of the order not to leave bodies or equipment behind to
be examined by the inhabitants. Beyond that it’s a wait, see, and
look for others to push the blame on situation,” Uldene said.

“At least the personal warning from the
governors gave us an opening – if we can go anywhere with it. Have
you found anything about the device their rep called her
Sproingy?”

“I’ve been using every resource I know of. I
can’t find any leads. Of course I’m not using that name or any
reference to the governors in my searches.”

“It’s possible that a tech presently working
in the field of zerpy development might know something but we can’t
trust even our regular workers. Parbam’s warning scared me.”

“From most sources ‘Don’t even try to find
out about this topic’ is a hard to pass up challenge; from the
governors it could be for truly real life-saving advice,” Uldene
agreed.

Gopgop said, “Being a power player is
exciting and for surely true has big rewards but it's scary when
you don't know all you need to know to be sure of what you should
know. Wow, what did I just say?”

“I didn't try to follow it closely so it's
okay. You often get that loopy way when you're stressed,” Uldene
said.

“This could be such a big opportunity but it
could all fall apart in a slap of your feet and ruin years of dirty
tricks and underhanded deals.”

“I personally went to the tech room
unannounced and checked things. I couldn't find anybody's recorded
talk, secret or in official open sessions, that makes the situation
more certain.”

They slid their chairs into position and
circular ceiling portals opened so each was sitting in a strong
light beam. They quickly relaxed.