Chapter 22 : Wise men

On the Greenshoot clock it was now two in the morning. Jack was with some of the colony’s top people, men who worked twenty-five hour days, men on whom the lives of thousands now depended. They gathered around a table in a dimly-lit office for a late-night crisis meeting. There were seven of them : the President, Hogin Astrith; by his side the diplomat Irwin Canterbury; Alan Pont, newly promoted to Chief Engineer following the death of the previous incumbent; Dr Hoi Cho, now Surgeon General; Max Towerbridge who was Attorney General and Hogin’s deputy; and Cyrus the SSS chief. Jack, representing the Fleet, sat between Tom and Alan. When a colony found itself in serious trouble, StarFleet, often regarded by colonists as merely a shuttle service, became of crucial importance. Inevitably many colonists would want to be evacuated, and the Fleet would decide who and what to save; and who to leave behind.

The president spoke first.

“I have to make an announcement.”

The President drew breath sharply, as if gripped by something inside, and struggled to speak clearly. He coughed and spluttered. An assistant came from the shadows and spoke discreetly in his ear.

“It’s all right”, he said to the assistant with a weak smile. “My friends, colleagues, I must tell you … uh …”.

Hogin took some time clearing his throat. The wait was becoming unbearable and it showed on the faces of those gathered, wondering what the President was going to do in this moment of crisis.

“I must tell you all, that I am no longer strong enough to carry out my duties as President. Like many of us on Greenshoot, my health is failing. So one of you must take my place. That is the first business of our meeting.”

Some around the table seemed genuinely upset. Perhaps, Jack thought, Hogin was a great man, an inspiring leader; or perhaps the others sensed that their own death might be close too.

“Well, I hold the position of Vice-President”, Max Towerbridge said. He looked somewhat peeved that the choice of Hogin’s successor might be up for discussion. Younger than Hogin, with a full head of dark hair parted neatly at the side, he had the symmetrical and unobtrusive good looks of a news anchorman. “Under the constitution it is my …”

“I am suspending the constitution”, Hogin announced abruptly.

“You’re doing what ?”, asked Max.

“This course of action has been agreed and the new President has already been chosen”, Cyrus said nodding. “This is not a direct result of the recent violence, it’s the result of a public health situation that has been deteriorating for a while now. I opened a high-speed line to the UN two hours ago, and I have their reply. I have the authority to declare Stability Condition Blue.”

“What ?”, asked Max. He looked confused.

Jack had never heard of condition Blue, and suspected the others hadn’t either, but the announcement from the UN sounded decisive.

“Doctor Hoi will now give us a short presentation which you will find useful”, Tom said.

A presentation screen lit up on a far wall, and Dr Hoi slowly made his way over and stood in front of it. It was a dazzlingly bright screen for the tired eyes in the room, bright enough to glow through the doctor’s fine hair and though his lightweight cream-colored suit. He stood bathed in this light for a while as graphs flashed up behind him.

“You all know that we are part of an experiment on this colony”, Dr Hoi said. “And I am glad to report to you that the results of this experiment are now becoming clear. I believe I do not over-simplify the data when I say that in terms of health we fall into three distinct groups. From your medical records I know which of these groups you are in; and you probably do too.”

“The first group, type 1, suffers from toxic overload due to the agents and contaminants present in this environment. They are a complex set of substances built on heavy metals that are rare on the earth. Some of us cannot metabolize them and we die from multiple organ failure within eight to ten earth years. My good friend Hogin Astrith is in this group. I am also in the group although I will most likely die from another condition first.”

“How do we know these stats are correct ?”, Max interrupted.

“Please, Max”, Hogin said weakly.

“I feel fine right now. Are you going to tell me what group I’m in ?”, Max asked.

“Yes”, the doctor replied. “Max is type 2, he is in the second group.” The Attorney-General smiled nervously.

“The second group is infected with Gremec, unlike the first group which have natural antibodies. The virus metabolizes these substances and stores them within the brain, building structures which alter brain function. They develop some telepathic ability. After a few years the energy input becomes more than the brain can handle and the patient shows increasingly erratic behaviour. Put simply, those in group 2 survive but they slowly go mad. The development of the disease is retarded by VIBE but not stopped. The behavioral problems we see now in some of our fellow colonists are part of this syndrome.”

“Well I don’t have behavioral problems either”, Max said.

Jack wondered if challenging medical science might be the first sign of madness. Dr Hoi continued.

“The third group, type 3, have P36 genes and are able to excrete most of the contaminants. There is some development of the new brain structures, but these stabilise, and there is no interference with cognition. Anyone will pre-war ancestry is likely to be in this group. Their disease rates are comparable to populations on earth; and so is the rate of birth defects if one parent is in group three. They will be the survivors here; and so they will be the leaders from now on. That is the advice that my department is giving. To choose leaders that are dying or prone to irrational behaviour, would place the colony in even greater jeopardy than it is now; we may become unable even to organize an orderly evacuation.”

“How are you so sure which group we are all in ?”, Max asked testily.

“We have identified the genetic markers that characterize each group”, the doctor replied. “And of course we have your DNA in our database.”

“Where is this communication from the UN ?”, Max asked. “I want proof, Tom.”

Tom fiddled with his communicator and an email appeared on the screen. It said something about condition blue; the appointment of Ambassador Canterbury to head a new administration; and the overriding importance of the VIBE antiviral. ”Alan, can you confirm our systems received this two hours ago ?”

“Yes I can”, Alan replied. “You may have noticed a power outage at the time. I diverted almost all our power to a deep transmission tunnel. We were watching the feed carefully, because we can‘t leave hydroponics off line for any longer.”

Alan looked harmless and sounded honest; he did not seem like a man with political ambitions. Max didn’t bother challenging him. “OK, thanks for confirming that Alan”, Max said.

Those assembled scanned the communication from earth, and having digested it they turned one by one to Irwin.

“You will see from this“, Irwin said, “that I am to take charge here under the authority of the President of the United Nations; and that the overriding mission of the colony is now to obtain the VIBE serum. I hope that the colony will understand the logic of this, that people understand the wider picture. Because there is a plan of great sensitivity that I must explain to you. Groups 1 and 2 will been evacuated back to Earth and this will be compulsory. The habitat will be abandoned. And the few of us in group 3, plus the leadership team, will move to the Starbase and work on the procurement of VIBE.”

Alan shook his head. There was look of disbelief from Max. The room contemplated for a moment this humiliating end to their endeavour.

“This is to be kept in strict confidence. For now, we need the cooperation of the colonists to maintain the habitat, and to provide us with a base of operation. They do not need to know about the evacuation until they are individually called to the StarBase for boarding. Is that clear to you all ?”

“It is time for me to step aside”, Hogin said. “Thankyou all for your loyalty and support. I am officially handing my powers to Irwin.”

“No - you - will - not”, Max said slowly and decisively. He looked at the ailing President with menace, and gave Irwin a sly glance. “This is a coup d’etat by the triple-S and by the people they are backing to usurp our elected officials. Do you think that as vice-president, with my President too ill to defend our rights under the constitution, I am going to put up with that ? What kind of people do they think we are ?”

Max drew breath and stood up. He was a tall, lean, proud figure. He kept himself in good shape, Jack thought, and this contest was not over yet. Max paced slowly around the table.

“We have a constitution here, and no-one has the power to take it away. Not even the President. As Attorney General I can tell you that is the legal position. But I am not appealing to you on legal grounds. I want you to think about the people who came here with us to start a new life. Think about them. They know all about the problems we have, because they live with those problems every day; but they go on and they work together and they keep the colony alive. How do they find the strength to do that ? How do we all find the strength we need ? Where do we draw it from ? The answer, my friends, is simple. We believe in what we are trying to do here, to give birth to a new civilization; and in the way we do it, which is democratically. You are going to take away their democracy, and in the process you will undermine the whole enterprise; you undermine the sense of responsibility we all feel to each other. You replace it with lies, because that is the way of all dictatorships. We are not going down that path. Our president, duly elected, will negotiate with the United Nations. Someone must represent us in this and protect our interests. Now, before we listen any more to Cyrus and this condition Blue of his, I want a vote around this table, those who are in favour of democracy and those who are against it.”

With this Max completed a neatly timed circuit of the room and sat down. He had not noticed the growing distress of the President, who was quietly and politely struggling to breathe. An assistant wheeled him out of the room. Just six men remained.

“We know that the President wanted to suspend the constitution, so I will cast a vote on his behalf”, Cyrus said.

“No you will not”, Max replied. “I want a vote of those around the table tonight, so we all know where we stand.”

“All right then Max”, Cyrus replied. “I am proposing that we accept Ambassador Canterbury as our new President with full executive powers.”

“I accept the responsibility”, Irwin said.

“Reluctantly”, said Dr Hoi, ”I have to agree with Cyrus. It is really the only option the colony has. We are too weak to determine our own destiny. But I hope that some of us, at least, can stay here on Greenshoot to continue our work.”

“I support the vice-president”, Alan said, looking rigidly at his own fidgeting fingers.

“What do you think, Jack ?”, Cyrus asked.

Jack didn’t have to think about it much. His chain of command went up to the President of the United Nations and he wasn’t going to defy an order. He looked suspiciously at Max, a resourceful man with a strong ally in Alan; if those two took a stand they might unleash chaos. Jack‘s authority over the Beluga would be questioned. He might never get out of this crazy colony alive. Then there would be no hope for Crystal either. Jack wanted to do more than cast a vote, he wanted to crush Max and put the matter beyond doubt. Keen to make an impact, he stood up as Max had done, and before he had worked out what to say, started to pace around portentously. In a dim corner of the room he noticed the blue flag of the United Nations. On the wall beside it were two pictures. One was the serenely smiling face of Bo Zhou. The picture was out-of-date, he was the previous UN President. The other picture was Hogin Astrith on his inauguration, looking a good deal younger and fitter than he did now. Jack picked up the flag with its flimsy plastic pole and threw it onto the table.

“Folks who have been out here a while might have forgotten about this. This is my flag. Where's your's Max?”

Max laughed. His elbows stayed confidently planted on the table; but his eyes shifted warily around the room. The only man smiling was Irwin.