The Long Mars

‘Before we convened I consulted some colleagues here, including representatives of the National Science Foundation, NASA, and also some members of the President’s Science Advisory Committee.’ DARPA nodded to other wise heads present. ‘And we all agree there are potentially great scientific benefits to be derived from this situation. If there is some kind of speciation event going on here – and that very much remains to be demonstrated – well, consider how much we might learn of humanity, our common genetic heritage, the nature of natural selection.

‘And if these “Next” individuals do indeed have intellectual capacities considerably above the norm, then who knows what we might learn from them directly? I don’t just mean new technologies and so forth, advanced mathematical techniques maybe . . . I mean ideas. Remember, even human history shows that what may seem an “obvious” discovery to one culture may bypass another altogether, such as the discovery of writing, or the use of the wheel. As an example, think about this. With open mind and simple but systematic observations of the natural world, one of the ancient Greeks or Romans, Pliny for example, could easily have come upon the theory of natural selection – a simple but brilliant idea. Instead we had to wait two mille

A representative of the Department of Defense grunted at that. ‘Pliny? Who the hell was he? I always said you guys in DARPA are a waste of money. Listen, I’ll tell you the only thing we’ll learn from these screwed-up wiseacres, if we give them a chance. And that’s how to serve them.’

A CIA chief responded, ‘Well, that’s not necessarily true, General. Not if we can control them. Imagine the defence applications of super-brains.’

‘If we can control them.’

‘Granted,’ said CIA. ‘And there are options to achieve that. They’ve already been chipped. I mean, implanted with trackers.’

Nelson stiffened; he hadn’t known that, and he was sure the inmates hadn’t known either.

DoD gri

CIA looked faintly disgusted. Then he went on, ‘But we need to think of the wider picture. This is an issue for humanity, not just America. The Chinese are going to have their own “Next” too. The Russians. The rising nations of the equatorial belt on the Datum. We need our Next to counter theirs.’

The DoD laughed out loud. ‘So what are we getting into, an arms race of the Brainiacs?’

The Science Adviser intervened. ‘We seem to persist in describing these young people as a danger, a threat. Is that necessarily so?’

That generated a buzz of conversation. On the anti-Next side, delegates pointed to their private, non-decipherable languages. The fact that they had already been making money by producing investment-analysis algorithms that defied existing market safeguards. The fact that they looked like us, that they were an insidious, insider threat, cuckoos in the nest, like an alien invasion from within our own DNA . . .

And then there was the inarguable fact that a handful of young, unarmed, untrained Next had been able to bamboozle experienced Navy officers, capture a twain, and slaughter many of its crew and abandon the survivors. That incident proved that these Next could be a real and present danger, the military officers argued. There had even been some incidents on Hawaii, attempts at manipulation by the imprisoned children here. Some of the marine guards had had to be rotated; others were in counselling. ‘Real Ha

Protests to counter that perception, such as the assertion from the Homelands Security representative that individuals later proven to have Next characteristics had quietly, una

Nelson felt increasingly uncomfortable as he listened. ‘I don’t like the subtext to all this. What’s been said beneath the words: they aren’t like us, and that’s why we need to destroy them. That’s what they’re really saying. My own background—’

‘South African,’ Roberta murmured. ‘I know. You are sensitive to such undertones. And you are right to be. America, indeed mankind, has undergone revolutions of the spirit in the last generation, from the discovery of the Long Earth to Yellowstone – and now this. People retreat to default positions in such circumstances. Protect what they have.’

‘“People.” Dim-bulbs, you mean?’

She didn’t respond to that. ‘Within the administration itself there has been a kind of emotional coup. Everybody knows that it was the undercurrent of resentment against steppers cresting in the Humanity First movement that gave President Cowley his power base in the first place.’

‘It seems to me Cowley himself has grown beyond that. He reaches for the centre ground. He wouldn’t have got re-elected otherwise.’

‘True. But behind the scenes, some of the President’s closest aides and advisers from those days are still around. Perhaps the stain lingers even in the President’s own soul. And that darkness has come to the fore, in this different context, under the pressure of events. There is a gathering mood to do something. To strike. It is nothing to do, really, with questions of national security, and still less the survival of the species. Such a policy is believed to accord with the perceived public mood. And perhaps it does. People need scapegoats. Ah, the conference may be coming to its conclusion . . .’

The President’s Science Adviser summed up the position, the options, and the mood in the room. ‘This place “Happy Landings”. This is the source, you say?’

‘The nest,’ growled the CIA. ‘The genetics confirms it.’

‘One source,’ said the FBI. ‘No doubt there are others. But many genetic linkages trace back to Happy Landings. Right now it is a primary hub.’

‘OK.’ The Adviser turned to Davidson. ‘And our relevant assets, Hiram? USLONGCOM is your domain.’

‘The Armstrong II and Cernan are the best ships we got. They can be out there in days.’

The DoD grunted. ‘Those ships carry some serious weaponry; we made sure of that before they went off into the dark. Admiral, just make sure your troll-lover Captain Kauffman is forced to ship out Ed Cutler too. Then we might have a serious card to play . . .’

Nelson said, ‘What kind of weaponry? . . . Good Lord. They’re actually considering a military response, aren’t they?’

Roberta said evenly, ‘The conclusion is as I anticipated. The game is nearly played out.’

‘And what of the inmates here? What will be done with them? Nothing good, I imagine. Certainly they will never be freed.’

She turned to him, her face serious, intent. ‘They are young, you know. For all their arrogance, their difficulty. I am like them – I know you see it.’

He did see it now. He thought that she must need iron self-control to keep up camouflaging behaviour in the high-intensity hothouse of Madison West 5, the new DC.

‘I was once enough like them to understand. How it is to be different, how it is to be surrounded by blank faces and empty heads, to know there is nobody you can talk to, no parent, no teacher, no way you can empty your head of the insights rattling inside it. And to be frightened, almost all the time.’

‘Frightened?’

‘The Next can read people, remember, with an acuity you dim-bulbs lack. They look at an adult and it is as if they are reading that person’s mind. They can clearly see the indifference, the malevolence, the lust, the calculation, behind the smile. All this is very visible even to the smallest, most helpless child. We see the world clearly. We have no illusions,’ said Roberta bleakly. ‘We are too intelligent to be comforted by any of your stories, your gods and heavens.’