Kinsella (Kinsella Universe Book 1) (24 page)

“Another oversight?”

“Yes.  Undoubtedly you’ve heard the moans and groans from my State Department about how I’ve been treading on their turf, negotiating without them, coming up with this draft proposal.  You were told the proposal came from the White House, from someone on my staff.”

The PM nodded at Stephanie.  “I assume that it really came from Professor Kinsella?  I must say, I find that hard to believe.”

“You’ve read the proposal — but that was the version that really did come from my staff, based on Professor Kinsella’s ideas.  Nothing significant was changed, but if we hadn’t done that it would have been recognizably her work.  I’ll give you a copy of her original memo, but you’ll have to promise not to copy it and to keep it to yourself.”

“No problem.”

The Prime Minister stared at Stephanie for a long minute.  “Usually we work with people who would be furious — to put it mildly — if they weren’t listed as the author of a plan like this.”

“Like I said, I’d rather be on a starship.  That’s my bottom line.  But, on the other hand, if something isn’t done and done right now, what’s going to happen in the next couple hundred years doesn’t bear thinking about.  Think of it as covering my flanks.”

Prime Minister Campbell nodded.  “My advisors said the only way that I can survive politically is to walk out of this meeting.  Except that this is much more important than my personal political survival.  I do think my party will survive, but it’s going to be touch and go for a long time.”

“Having another entity will serve to take some of the heat off, sir,” Stephanie said levelly.  “If events give us a decade before things go seriously south, people will associate events with the new entity.  No one, for instance, blames either FDR or Churchill for how the UN turned out.”

The Prime Minister turned to the President.  “I assume by wanting to include Professor Kinsella in our meetings, you think she will be of some value.”

The President laughed.  It was a rather hollow and embarrassed laugh.  “A couple of times I’ve gone against her advice.  I’ve learned my lesson, I assure you and her.  Professor Kinsella doesn’t come at problems like you or I do.  Or any of those on our staffs.  They contemplate political ramifications, they look at how they’ll look to their masters and above all, how not to get blamed if something goes wrong.

“Professor Kinsella looks at problems like you or I looked at exam questions back when we were university students.  A problem that we have various tools and knowledge to deal with.  She works on solving those problems.  Then, because she’s much brighter than the rest of us and she knows she lives in a political ocean, she goes about figuring out how to make her solution work politically.  It doesn’t sound that different, but you do have to admire her results.”

“I saw the films the
Ad Astra
brought back.  I have to agree.”

The President nodded.  “And now we have a spot of business, two of them, actually.  Obviously, Bob, you’ve given some thought to the Russian and Chinese requests for observer status at the meeting.”

“My Foreign Secretary nearly fainted when you suggested saying ‘No’ to them,” the Prime Minister elucidated.

The Australian grinned at Stephanie.  “And you have an idea?”

“An approach, anyway.  We give the head of the Chinese delegation a single visitor gallery pass for the conference.  He, and he alone from their delegation, can watch from the bleachers.  Under no circumstances should China have a seat at the table, even if they can’t talk or vote.

“The Russians are a tougher problem.  In 2008 Putin nominally stepped down after Presidential elections were held and one of his cronies was elected to the job with 87% of the vote.

“Now it’s clear that in the recent election, the job of President will once again be that of a figurehead, or maybe, if Putin is feeling a little cautious, head of state... with all the same powers that the Queen of England wields.  Putin is once again top dog.

“Still, they have had elections, they have had a peaceful succession and if you look at what’s happened and hold your nose, you can call it ‘democratic’ even though it’s anything but.

“I would say let the Russians have observer status.  They can watch from the table, but they can’t vote and they can’t talk.  And, when the conference is over, let it be known that the Russians will be able to apply for membership just like any other country.  That the membership committee of the Federation will take up their application.  For the time being that membership committee is going to consist of the US, Australia, the U.K., Japan and I would hope, Poland.”

The Prime Minister jerked in surprise.  “Poland?”

“Yes, a former Soviet-occupied country, with its own fledgling democracy.  It’s a pretty tough democracy, I might add; a country that’s not likely to cut the Russians any slack.”

“And what would you have us tell the Russians?” the PM asked.

Stephanie grinned.  “None of us here will tell them anything.  The membership committee is going to look at the way political parties are allowed to form and say ‘Russia doesn’t qualify.’  They will look at the state control of media in Russia and will say ‘Russia doesn’t qualify’ and above all, they’ll observe the elections there.  You couldn’t get me to bet against them finding that ‘Russian elections are rigged and are unacceptable.’”

She looked at the President who nodded and spoke, “Professor Kinsella thinks that Russia might be convinced to ease up on the restrictions that allow creation of political parties.  A few years later, they might be convinced to ease up on the control of the media.  Break those two loose and the odds are the elections will be less and less rigged.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it happening any time soon,” the PM replied.

Stephanie grinned again.  “It might, if the alternative is no off-world exploration.”

“I thought the idea that Caltech would enforce their patent with deadly force a little far-fetched,” the Prime Minister expounded.

“Believe it,” Stephanie told him.  “Fourteen months ago the chair of the Caltech physics department announced his retirement.  One of the deans quit.  Caltech has blackballed them and a half dozen other full professors.  Quietly, they put bullets into more than a half dozen careers.”

“I don’t think professional blackballing is the same thing as blowing up a vehicle filled with people whose government cheated on license payments.”

“You might, but they’ll still be talking about those ruined careers a thousand years from now in physics and the rest of academia, long after the deaths of patent cheaters are forgotten.  Caltech was really, really upset.”

“What did those men do?  Cheat on license fees?”

“More or less,” Stephanie said, agreeing with what the Prime Minister had undoubtedly assumed to be a facetious comment.  “They assured the university that the Benko-Chang patent wasn’t going to amount to much.  Their lawyers allowed mine to convince the university it would be okay to give me my share of the patent proceeds from the university’s share... they were told that the total license proceeds might amount to a million or so dollars over ten years.

“They paid me more than that in license fees the first two months.  Each month.  Every penny coming from their share, not Benko and Chang’s.  If they had a do-over, they’d have their fifty percent, Benko and Chang twenty percent each, and me with my ten.

“When
Ad Astra
’s itinerary changed, and it became clear it was covered in the basic patent, they told those men they were out and assured them that every physics department on the planet would know what they’d let slip past them.

“Already license cheating is costing Caltech a hundred million dollars a year and the loss is doubling every year.  Unless they do something, the patent will become unenforceable.

“They have petitioned the US government for relief, and the attorney general has agreed that any vehicle may be stopped for inspection for license documents, outside earth’s atmosphere.  The vehicle will be interned if the documents aren’t in order.  If the vehicle attempts to flee...”

She spread her hands.  “I don’t like it; no sane or reasonable person would.  Still, that’s tens of thousands of dollars in intellectual property theft per vehicle.  Vehicles that won’t stop will be targeted.  Officially, the Space Service is directed to try to disable any such vessel.”

Stephanie looked bleak.  “In a way, it’s a hollow bluff today, because the Space Service has nothing to intercept ships with — but that’ll change in a few months.  They are under new management.  But when they can, they will try.  And the odds of them disabling a ship without killing it are very, very low.”

“Professor Kinsella, are you trying to avoid having your name tied to the killing that might have to be done?” the PM asked.

“No.”  She ran her fingers over the rings on the cuff of her jumpsuit.  “To my surprise, when I first put on this uniform and looked at the people expecting me to keep them alive, I sobered up.  Before then it had all been theory, planning... even the construction of
Ad Astra
wasn’t the same thing.  People weren’t going to be at risk based on my decisions like they were when I commanded the expedition.

“I realized I’d been too proud, too stupid, before then.  My plan had assumed I wouldn’t be given the command of the
Ad Astra
initially.  It was — simple and easy — to plan on how to get command back, without any fuss or muss, if the commanding officer sent along wasn’t competent.  He wasn’t competent, Mr. Prime Minister.  Did you know we had a casualty while we were still in the solar system, stemming from our short sojourn on Mars?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Technically, I suppose he wasn’t considered a casualty; he certainly wasn’t reported as a casualty.  But his boss permitted a half dozen men a foot race in the Martian desert, and one of them didn’t finish because he sprained his ankle.  Nothing serious, the man was back to full duty before we made our next landing.  But that was luck, you understand?”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“When we settled into orbit around Earth when we got back, I looked down at the globe that’s the mother of us all and realized that it was as much at risk as any member of my crew from the scientific work I’d advanced.

“Until then, all this was theory to me, even the plan for this conference and what I pray comes out of it.

“Mr. Prime Minister, this is for all the marbles.  With rational government, governments that a lot of people already enjoy today, we can move forward and do great things as a species.  If we let the bigots, the crooks, and above all, the power mad, move into space, we’ll never be safe, just like the Secretary of Defense said so long ago.

“I would hate to have to shoot.  But, sir, if I had my finger on the trigger, I would.  To enforce Caltech’s patent, to protect a city in the path of a madman breaking the speed limit... and to keep their ilk planet-bound.  Without hesitation.  And the next morning, sir, I’d wake up and look at myself in the mirror and congratulate myself on a job that had to be done.”

An aide poked her head into the room.  “The welcoming ceremony, sir, is due to start in ten minutes.”

The Prime Minister turned to the American President.  “After the ceremony we have the first of our working breakfasts.  I’d like to toss out the aides and leave it just at the three of us.”

“No problem,” the President agreed.

After the opening hoopla, Stephanie sat down at the breakfast table with the two men.  “Prime Minister Campbell,” Stephanie started.

He nodded at the President.  “Earlier, Howie and I agreed on ‘Bob’ and ‘Howie’ when we’re by ourselves and being informal.  If it’s all the same to you, Stephanie, how would you like to be informally addressed?”

“Steph, sir,” she said at once.  She laughed then and gestured at the President.  “Until now, I thought I’d ruin everything if I got jocular with Howie.”

“It’s just something you do at this level,” the President said.  “Peer-to-peer.”

“You understand that it’s my devout hope that I never sit where either of you is sitting today?”

Howie chuckled.  “There are those who’d think you were dissembling.  But I remind myself about the admiral who showed up for the launch of the
Ad Astra
wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  You really, really didn’t want to give a speech.”

“Yes, sir.”  Stephanie blushed at the last word from her mouth.  “It’s going to take me a while to break my speech habits, please bear with me.”

She turned to the Prime Minister.  “Bob, I used a great deal of leverage on Howie so I could come and talk to you.  If necessary I’m willing to spend time with selected world leaders, one to one, if you think it will help.

“I want to make some points clear; the points I think that absolutely must come from this meeting if what we all hope is to be possible.”

She steepled her fingers.  “First and foremost, colonial sovereignty.  That’s the big one.  We simply must set it up so that the advantages of going with monitored elections, open communications and open political processes are worthwhile.  If each colony starts off with a stable political process, it’s going to take a lot to change that.”