Earth Below, Sky Above

  “Available in what way?” Wilson asked.

  “Whatever way they want,” Abumwe said. “If they want you to talk to them about life in the CDF, do that. If they want to talk about CDF military strength and tactics, you can do that as well, so long as you don’t reveal any classified information. If they want to drink beer and arm wrestle, do that.”

  “And while I’m doing that, am I drawing out information from them as well?” Wilson asked.

  “If you can,” Abumwe said. “You’re of low enough rank that the members of that military detail should be comfortable with you as a person. Capitalize on that.”

  “What’s the second part of the assignment?” Wilson asked.

  Abumwe smiled. “The CDF wants you to go skydiving.”

  “Come again?” Wilson said.

  “The U.S. military brass heard rumors that the CDF will occasionally drop soldiers onto a planet from a low orbit,” Abumwe said. “They want to see it happen.”

  “Swell,” Wilson said.

  “You’ve done it before,” Abumwe said. “At least, when I got the assignment for you, it noted that you had done it before.”

  Wilson nodded. “I did it once,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I liked it. Falling into an atmosphere at supersonic speeds and trusting a thin, fluid layer of nanobots to keep you from turning into a smeary black friction burn across half the sky is not my idea of a fun time.”

  “I sympathize,” Abumwe said. “But inasmuch as it’s an actual order, I don’t think you have much of a choice.”

  “There is the minor problem that while I have a standard-issue CDF combat unitard, I don’t have the getup for a skyfall,” Wilson said.

  “The CDF is sending a cargo drone with two,” Abumwe said. “One for you and one for whoever jumps with you.”

  “Someone’s jumping with me?” Wilson asked.

  “Apparently one of the military detail at the summit has experience with aerial drops and wants to try something more exotic,” Abumwe said.

  “They understand that the drop suits are controlled by a BrainPal, right?” Wilson said. “Which this other guy won’t have. First he’ll asphyxiate, then he’ll burn up, and then the tiny parts of him will eventually fall to earth as raindrop nuclei. It’s not a good plan.”

  “You will be controlling the deployment of both suits,” Abumwe said.

  “So if he dies during the jump, it’ll be my fault,” Wilson said.

  “If he dies during the jump, I would suggest it would be politic for you to follow him,” Abumwe said.

  “I liked this assignment better when all I had to do was drink beer and arm wrestle,” Wilson said.

  “There is the fact that when you complete your skydive, you will be on Earth once again,” Abumwe pointed out. “Which is something you were told would never happen.”

  “There is that,” Wilson admitted. “I can’t say I’m not looking forward to that. On the other hand, Earth Station is connected to the planet by way of a space elevator. I would much rather go that way. Much less dramatic, but also much safer.”

  Abumwe smiled. “The good news is that you will indeed be taking the beanstalk,” she said, referring to the space elevator by its less formal name. “The bad news is that you’ll be taking it up, back from Earth, almost immediately after you land.”

  “I’ll try to enjoy it until then,” Wilson said. “What about you, Ambassador? You’re originally from Earth. Any interest in going down to the surface?”

  Abumwe shook her head. “I have almost no memory of Earth,” she said. “My family left because of civil war in Nigeria. It had lasted the entire span of my parents’ lives on Earth. My mother and father’s memories of the planet are not pleasant ones. We were lucky to have left, and lucky that there was a place to leave to. We were lucky that the Colonial Union existed.”

  “These negotiations matter to you,” Wilson said.

  “Yes,” Abumwe said. “They would anyway. This is my job. But I remember my mother’s stories and my father’s scars. I remember that for all of the sins of the Colonial Union—and it has sins, Lieutenant Wilson—the Earth would always have its wars and its refugees, and the Colonial Union kept its doors open to them. Gave them lives where they didn’t have to fear their neighbors, at the very least. I think of the wars and refugees on Earth right now. I think of how many of those refugees who have died might have lived if the Colonial Union was able to take them.”

  “I’m not sure the Colonial Union has the same priorities that you have, Ambassador,” Wilson said.

  Abumwe gave Wilson a bitter smile. “I’m aware that the Colonial Union’s main purpose in reestablishing relations with Earth is to renew its supply of soldiers,” she said. “And I understand we’re no longer able to colonize because of the Conclave threatening to wipe out any new settlements we make. But the planets we have still have room, and still need people. So my priorities will still be served. So long as we all do our jobs. Including you.”

  “I will fall out of the sky as best I can for you,” Wilson said.

  “See that you do,” Abumwe said. She picked up her PDA to turn to other business. “Incidentally, I’ve assigned you Hart Schmidt, in case you need an assistant for anything. You two seem to work together well. You can tell him I assigned him to you not because he’s unimportant, but because your assignment is a priority for the Colonial Union.”

  “I will,” Wilson said. “Is it really?”

  “That will depend on you, Lieutenant,” Abumwe said. She was fully engrossed in her PDA.

  Wilson opened the door to find Hart Schmidt on the other side of it.

  “Stalker,” Wilson said.

  “Cut it out, Harry,” Schmidt said. “I’m the only one of the team without an assignment and you just had a ten-minute one-on-one with Abumwe. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out who’s going to be your monkey boy for this trip.”

  III.

  “It doesn’t seem like much, does it?” Neva Balla said to Captain Sophia Coloma.

  “You’re referring to Earth Station,” Coloma said to her executive officer.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Balla said. The two of them were on the bridge of the Clarke, stationed a safe distance from Earth Station, while the Clarke’s shuttle ferried diplomats back and forth.

  “You grew up on Phoenix,” Coloma said to Balla. “You’re used to looking up and seeing Phoenix Station hanging there in your sky. Compared to that, any other station looks small.”

  “I grew up on the other side of the planet,” Balla said. “I didn’t see Phoenix Station with my own eyes until I was a teenager.”

  “My point is that Phoenix Station is your point of reference,” Coloma said. “Earth Station is on the smaller side, but it’s no smaller than stations over most of the colonies.”

  “The space elevator is interesting,” Balla said, shifting the subject slightly. “Wonder why it’s not used elsewhere.”

  “It’s mostly political,” Coloma said, and pointed at the beanstalk in the display. “The physics of the beanstalk are all wrong, according to standard physics. It should just drop out of the sky. The fact it doesn’t is a reminder to the people of Earth how much more technologically advanced we are, so they avoid trying to get into it with us.”

  Balla snorted. “Doesn’t seem to be working very well,” she observed.

  “Now they understand the physics of it,” Coloma said. “The Perry incident solved that problem. Now they have a wealth and organization problem. They can’t afford to build another beanstalk or a large enough space station, and if any one nation tried, the rest of them would scream their heads off.”

  “It’s a mess,” Balla said.

  Coloma was about to agree when her PDA sounded. She glanced down at it; the flashing red-and-green banner indicated a confidential, high-priority message for her. Coloma stepped back to read the message. Balla, noting her captain’s actions, focused on other tasks.

  Coloma read the message, punched in her personal code
to acknowledge receipt of it and then turned to her executive officer. “I need you to clear out the shuttle bay,” she told Balla. “All crew out, no crew back in until I say so.”

  Balla raised her eyebrows at this but did not question the order. “The shuttle is scheduled to return in twenty-five minutes,” she said.

  “If I’m not done before then, have it hold ten klicks out until I clear it for docking,” Coloma said.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Balla said.

  “You have the bridge,” Coloma said, and walked out.

  Minutes later, Coloma eased herself into the chair in front of the command panel of the shuttle bay’s control room and began the bay’s purge cycle. The air in the bay sucked into compressed storage; the doors of the bay opened silently in the vacuum.

  An unmanned cargo drone the size of a small personal vehicle slipped into the bay and settled onto the deck. Coloma closed the doors and repressurized the bay, then walked out of the control room toward the cargo drone.

  The drone required identification to unlock. Coloma pressed her right hand against the lock and waited for it to scan her prints and blood vessel configuration. After a few seconds, it unlocked.

  The first thing Coloma saw was the package for Lieutenant Harry Wilson, containing a pair of suits and ’bot canisters for his upcoming dive—for which, Coloma noted sourly, he would need her shuttle again. She disapproved of what happened to her shuttles when Wilson was involved.

  Coloma pushed the thought, and Wilson’s package, aside. She wasn’t really there for them.

  She was there for the other package, nestled alongside Wilson’s. The one with her name on it.

  “I’m supposed to be assisting you,” Schmidt said to Wilson.

  “You are assisting me,” Wilson said. “By bringing me beer.”

  “Which is not going to happen again, by the way,” Schmidt said, handing Wilson the IPA he’d gotten him from the bar. “I’m your assistant, not your beer boy.”

  “Thank you,” Wilson said, taking the beer. He looked around the place. “The last time I was here, in this mess area, and I think at this very table, I saw my first alien. It was a Gehaar. It was a big day for me.”

  “You’re not likely to see another Gehaar here,” Schmidt said. “They’re charter members of the Conclave.”

  “A shame,” Wilson said. “They seemed like nice people. Messy eaters. But nice.” He took a drink from his beer. “This is excellent. You can’t get a good IPA in the Colonial Union. I have no idea why.”

  “Shall I fetch you some pretzels, O my master?” Schmidt asked.

  “Not with that attitude,” Wilson said. “Tell me what you found out about the state of the summit instead.”

  “It’s madness, of course,” Schmidt said. “They barely got through the welcome session before they ended up throwing out the agenda for the entire summit. The fact the Colonial Union is shopping around a lease on this station has disrupted things before they could even begin.”

  “Which is exactly what the Colonial Union wants,” Wilson said. “Nobody’s talking anymore about reparations to the Earth for keeping them down for so long.”

  “They’re still talking about it, but nobody really cares,” Schmidt said.

  “So who are the early contenders?” Wilson asked. He took another sip from his beer.

  “The United States, which is not entirely surprising,” Schmidt said. “Although to cover their unilateral tracks, they’re talking about roping in Canada, Japan and Australia for a coalition bid. The Europeans are putting their chips together, and so are China and the Siberian States. India is going it alone at the moment. After that it’s a mess. Ambassador Abumwe has had most of Africa and Southeast Asia at her door, trying to schedule time with her in groups of three or four.”

  “So we’ll have four or five days of this, at which point we’ll suggest that the Earth diplomats should go back to their home countries, formalize their proposals and present them at a new round of negotiations,” Wilson said. “They’ll do a first round of eliminations, which will cause a shifting of alliances and proposals, each progressively more advantageous to the Colonial Union, until at the end of it we get most of the planet doing what we want, which is supplying us with soldiers and the occasional colonist.”

  “That does seem to be the plan,” Schmidt said.

  “Well done, Colonial Union,” Wilson said. “I mean that in a realpolitik way, mind you.”

  “I got that,” Schmidt said. “And what about you?”

  “Me? I’ve been here,” Wilson said, waving a hand to encompass the bar.

  “I thought you were supposed to be meeting with the U.S. military guys,” Schmidt said.

  “Already met with them here,” Wilson said. “Except for the one who’ll be skydiving with me. Apparently he was delayed and will meet up with me later.”

  “How did it go?” Schmidt said.

  “It was a bunch of soldiers drinking and telling war stories,” Wilson said. “Boring, but comfortable and easy to navigate. Then they left, I stayed and now I’m listening to everyone who’s come in here talk about the events of the day.”

  “It’s a little loud for that,” Schmidt said.

  “Ah, but you don’t have superhuman, genetically-engineered ears, now, do you,” Wilson said. “And a computer in your head that can filter down anything you don’t want to focus on.”

  Schmidt smiled. “All right, then,” he said. “What are you hearing right now?”

  “Aside from you complaining about having to fetch me beer,” Wilson said, “there’s a Dutch diplomat and a French diplomat behind me wondering whether the Europeans should let the Russians into their bid for the station, or whether the Russians will let bygones be bygones and join up with the Siberian States and China. Also behind me and to the left, an American diplomat has been hitting on an Indonesian diplomat for the last twenty minutes and appears to be entirely clueless that he’s not going to be getting anything from anyone tonight, because he’s a complete twit. And directly across from me, four soldiers from the Union of South African States have been drinking for an hour and wondering for the last ten minutes how to pick a fight with me and make it look like I started it.”

  “Wait, what?” Schmidt said.

  “It’s true,” Wilson said. “To be fair, I am green. I do stand out in a crowd. Apparently these fellows have heard that Colonial Defense Forces soldiers are supposed to be incredibly bad-ass, but they’re looking at me and they don’t see it. No, sir, they don’t see it at all. So they want to pick a fight with me and see how tough I really am. Purely for the sake of inquiry, I’m sure.”

  “What are you going to do about it?” Schmidt asked, looking over at the soldiers Wilson was speaking of.

  “I’m going to sit here and drink my beer and keep listening to conversations,” Wilson said. “I’m not worried, Hart.”

  “There are four of them,” Schmidt said. “And they don’t look like nice people.”

  “They’re harmless enough,” Wilson said. He swallowed a large portion of his IPA and set the glass down, then appeared to listen to something for a minute. “Oh, okay. They’ve just decided to do it. Here they come.”

  “Great,” Schmidt said, watching as the four men stood up from their table.

  “Relax, Hart,” Wilson said. “It’s not you they want to punch out.”

  “I can still be collateral damage,” Schmidt said.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you,” Wilson said.

  “My hero,” Schmidt said, sarcastically.

  “Hey,” one of the soldiers said, to Wilson. “Are you one of those Colonial Defense Forces soldiers?”

  “No, I just like the color green,” Wilson said. He finished the rest of his beer and looked regretfully at the empty glass.

  “It’s a fair question,” the soldier said.

  “You’re Kruger, right?” Wilson said, setting down the glass.

  “What?” said the soldier, momentarily confused.
r />   “Sure you are,” Wilson said. “I recognize the voice.” He pointed to another one. “That would make you Goosen, I’d guess. You’re probably Mothudi”—he pointed at another, and then at the final one—“and that would make you Pandit. Did I get everyone right?”

  “How did you know that?” Kruger asked.

  “I was listening in to your conversation,” Wilson said, standing up. “You know, the one where you were trying to figure out how to make it look like I started swinging at you first, so you could all try to kick the shit out of me.”

  “We never said that,” said Pandit.

  “Sure you did,” Wilson said. He turned and gave Schmidt his glass. “Would you get me another?” he asked.

  “Okay,” Schmidt said, taking the glass but not taking his eyes off the four soldiers.

  Wilson turned back to the soldiers. “You guys want anything? I’m buying.”

  “I said, we didn’t say that,” Pandit said.

  “You did, actually,” Wilson said.

  “Are you calling me a liar?” Pandit asked, agitated.

  “It’s pretty clear I am, now, isn’t it?” Wilson said. “So: Drinks?…Anyone?…No?” He turned back to Schmidt. “Just me, then. But, you know, get something for yourself.”

  “I’ll take my time,” Schmidt said.

  “Eh,” Wilson said. “This won’t take long.”

  Pandit grabbed Wilson’s shoulder, and Wilson let himself be spun around. “I don’t appreciate being called a liar in front of my friends,” Pandit said. He took his hand off Wilson’s shoulder.

  “Then don’t lie in front of your friends,” Wilson said. “It’s pretty simple, actually.”

  “I think you owe Pandit here an apology,” Kruger said.

  “For what?” Wilson said. “For accurately representing what he said? I don’t think so.”

  “Mate, you’re going to find it in your best interest to apologize,” Goosen said.