The Coming

  Suzy Q.

  Now she knows how to treat somebody. She has so much pain herself she sees other people's pain clear. I remember when she had the fire and that thing in her throat, she had to use a crutch to come out but she come out with my coffee. Wish I could kill someone for her, there must be someone she needs killed, I could do them like old Jock and put them in the swamp. But it's not a swamp no more, no, it's all apartments on top of old Jock, would he be pissed? Always carrying on about so many people come to Florida, and himself come down from Wisconsin. The Big Cheese, he used to work in some Kraft plant up there, but he got too cold and come down here to pick at me until I couldn't take no more and had to hit him, hit him four times with that frying pan, till the brains come out his ears. More brains than you'd think he had, the way he carried on.

  My lordy lord, this coffee is good. I do miss old Jock sometimes, I should have wrote down the date the year, so I'd know how long he's been gone. I told people he just run away with some little girl from Café Risque, and they say sure, Suzy Q., he always was that way, and by the time they get around to building on the swamp I guess there's not much left. I did go out there once to check and he was all white and wormy and popping out of his clothes. I found a big piece of old plywood to put on top of him. He did smell something fierce. But I guess nobody went out to the swamp back then.

  I could use a tomato. I got six paper dollars and some change. The Lord provides for this believer but he don't provide tomatoes in this town, just coffee. I could chop up a tomato in that rice, and a little sugar.

  Sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy. Seems like everyone talking about aliens from outer space today. I try not to listen but there it is.

  Bet I can get a tomato for two dollars, I don't mind a few spots. And who's in my way but Normal Norman.

  Norman

  He had a small bouquet of flowers. "Suzy Q. How's by you?" He handed her a blossom.

  She took it, sniffed it, and stuck it in her scraggly hair. "The usual. Except for the aliens. You know anything about the aliens?"

  "Nope. Just that they're coming."

  "Everybody wants to come to Florida." She waggled a hand at him. "You're in the way of my tomatoes."

  "Sorry." He stepped aside and she pushed her grocery cart past him. It held about a dollar's worth of bottles and cans, and some random newspaper sections, neatly folded.

  The old lady was really only one year older than Norman. In high school she had been the quintessential cheerleader, always there if you had a football or basketball letter. Norman was band and orchestra, no letters. Alien Boston accent.

  They used to call her Snowflake. It had snowed in Gainesville the day she was born.

  She'd started to go crazy with her first husband, didn't do too well with the second, and when the third ran away she just popped. Had she ever gone to a shrink? Norman didn't know; he'd stopped going to reunions and didn't have any other source of gossip about his generation.

  He looked up at Hermanos and considered going in to have a cup with Sara. No, better get on home and record the theme that was building in his head.

  He unlocked the bike and loaded the groceries and pedaled slowly back across campus, humming the new melody as he went. It was between classes, a lot of attractive undergraduate bodies hurrying, but he wasn't distracted. This might turn out to be something interesting.

  He left the bicycle in the atrium and set the produce bag next to the refrigerator; sort it out later. He hurried into the music room and snapped on the antique Roland and slipped a blank crystal in the recorder, labeling it Alien concerto/1st pass.

  He chorded out the twelve-bar opening with the screen off, and then turned it on to review what he'd done. He played a second version, looking at the screen, simplifying here, elaborating there. But he wasn't happy with his changes; they were moving the piece toward a conventional kind of drama, almost like a march.

  Should not have had that ouzo. Booze in the morning wasn't conducive to work. He left the keyboard on but stretched out on the couch, asking the room for Hermancina's rendition of the second movement of Beethoven's Pathétique. He closed his eyes and let the slow, stately passage fill him.

  The phone chimed, of course. He asked the music to hold and picked up the wand. "Buenos."

  The voice at the other end identified itself as People magazoid and asked whether Professor Bell was in.

  Norman didn't bother to point out that he was Professor Bell, too. "She's at work. She doesn't want to be disturbed."

  They asked for her number at work. "It's unlisted," he said, and hung up. Of course it wasn't unlisted, but a reporter ought to be able to figure that out.

  He pushed a button on the wand. "Rory's office," he said.

  Aurora

  Rory sighed and picked up the wand. "Yeah?" She smiled at her husband's voice. "Oh, hi." He told her about the People magazoid call. "Well, if they don't track me down in the next half hour, this number won't work. At eleven-thirty they're going to start routing everything through some publicity office."

  He asked whether she was getting any work done. "No, we're just killing time before the big meeting. Barrett and Whittier live." University chancellor and dean of sciences, respectively. "Some government people beaming in." She checked her watch. "Five minutes. Anything interesting at the market?" He described the dinner menu and told her about meeting Suzy Q. and giving her a flower.

  "Poor damned thing. She's been on the street since I was a kid … yeah, I'll give you a call if I'm going to be late … 'dios."

  Pepe looked up from his work. "Who's on the street?"

  "Poor old woman named Suzy Q. Pushes a grocery cart around?"

  "I've seen a few of those."

  "She went to high school here with Norman. You don't remember Bolivia."

  "Rory. I was two years old then."

  "Sorry … anyhow, her first husband was a marine, went down there and won the war. But he came back with a time-bomb virus. She woke up one morning and he was dead, melted in a puddle around his own skeleton. She just came undone."

  "Jesus. I didn't know people brought it home with them."

  "It was rare. He must have gotten it right at the end of the war." She paused. "Pepe, what happens if there's a war now?"

  "To me?" She nodded. "Well, I'm still a Cuban citizen, even though I've been away for seven years. You know I've only got a blue card."

  "I know. Could they call you up? Cuba's not going to be neutral."

  "You know, I'm not sure?" He took off his glasses and polished them with a tissue. "When I left I was reservado, like inactive reserves here. You stay that way until age forty, or until you do active service. Or until they change the law, which they might have done without telling me."

  "But as a reservado you'd be safe. Especially living over here."

  "Truthfully, I don't know. But they'd have a hard time finding me. I'd be in Mexico mañana." He blinked through his glasses and imitated a broad Mexican accent: "¿Cuba? ¿Dónde está esta isla Cuba? Soy campesino mexicano solamente."

  "Sure. You sound like a campesino with a Ph.D."

  "Seriously, I'd go home and fight if the island herself was in danger. But I don't care about Europe."

  "Good. You know how Norman and I feel. I'd hate to lose you, but if you need help disappearing…"

  He held up a hand. "Gracias. Best not to talk about such things."

  "I suppose." Her wall chimed. "Meeting in two minutes, Room 301." Today it had the voice of Melissa Mercurio, a thirties movie personality. A seating diagram came up on the screen:

  "Oh, the governor," Rory said. "This will be a feast for the intellect."

  "I should know who Pauling is," Pepe said. "Sounds familiar. NSA?"

  "No, cabinet. He's the president's new science adviser. "Science and technology.'" She pushed a button and got a paper printout. "I don't know anything about him. Life sciences, I think. More politician than scientist, I'd imagine."

  "Buena suerte."

/>   "Yeah." She opened a few drawers and found a notebook. "Maybe we can get away for lunch? Go down to Sara's and get a beer?" Dos Hermanos was the department's official bar.

  "Love it."

  Rory walked down a floor and went to 301, a room usually reserved for first-Friday get-togethers and holiday parties. They'd put in a round table that was too large for six people, holo flats in place for the governor and Grayson Pauling.

  The holos were dark and the chancellor hadn't shown up yet. She said hello to the two deans and took her place to the right of Bacharach.

  She suppressed a smile at his sour "buenos." They had been at odds for three years, ever since Bacharach had inherited the "Dean of Research" title. Some people would covet the job, but to Bacharach it was a necessary evil—five years of afternoons spent in argument and analysis and the annual excruciation of presenting the budget to the board and trying to explain science to them.

  Rory suspected that he didn't like teaching any more than he liked committee work; he'd really prefer to be left alone with his particle physics. It was more than delicious that her astrophysics budget had slowly climbed under his tenure, while particle had to eat a major cut in spite of his arguments.

  She did like him in spite of his dourness and departmental politics. He was an odd-looking man, very tall, huge hands. A ponytail and beard that reminded Rory of her father's generation.

  Deedee Whittier was Bacharach's opposite. She loved academic infighting; she was a master of finely tuned sarcasm and the art of playing one person against another. Rory approved of her, though. She could have used her position—as Bacharach did—to limit her teaching to intellectually challenging seminars in her specialty. Instead, she took on two huge lecture courses, Life Sciences and Biology I, and the students had twice voted her Teacher of the Year. Rory had eavesdropped on her lectures and envied her charisma. She envied her trim athletic beauty, too; almost as old as Rory, she looked more than ten years younger.

  Chancellor Barrett hurried in, checking his watch. "Damned reporters." He sat down heavily next to Whittier. "So. We're all in our places, with bright shiny faces."

  "Good morning to you, Professor Mal," Rory said.

  He tilted his head toward her. "And to you, Professor. Deedee, Al. Anything new, Aurora?"

  "Not since this morning's broadcast. You saw it?"

  "Yes, twice." He took out a large white handkerchief and rubbed his face with it. He was a big round man who didn't take well to the unseasonal heat. "That fellow on the Moon, that Japanese. Do you know anything about him?"

  "I didn't. I looked him up about an hour ago. He's a radio astronomer doing a project for the University of Kyoto."

  "He's legitimate? He couldn't be part of a hoax?"

  "Mal … how the hell could I know? He might be in the pay of the Mafia."

  The chancellor winced, just as a soft ping warned of an incoming transmission. "Don't say 'Mafia' when the governor's here."

  "Heavens, no. Let's keep relations out of this." The two deans laughed.

  The governor's image faded in and solidified. He smiled broadly. "Good morning, all. Buenos días." Murmur of returned greetings. "So what's the joke? Can I be in on it?"

  "Reporters," Chancellor Barrett said quickly. "Though I suppose they are no joke to a man in your position."

  "Ah, no. No. But we have to live with the little darlin's, don't we? Ha." He studied a prompt screen, which had the disconcerting effect of making it look like he was staring accusingly at Dean Bacharach. "Now. God knows I don't want to interfere with your science work. This is really serious stuff, I know. But it could be a real shot in the arm for the state of Florida, too. Surely you can appreciate my position." He looked around at the holographic ghosts who sat at his table in Tallahassee. Rory suddenly realized that that was why this table was so large; it had to be the same diameter as the governor's.

  "I won't try to kid anybody. Florida has had a couple of bad years." A bad decade or two, actually. The barrier dikes around Miami and the other coastal cities had cut into tourism, even before last April's flood. The southern part of the state was permanently tropical and growing hotter; light industry was moving away because nobody wanted to live there. The long-running sitcom Flying Cockroach Blues had not helped. If it weren't for Disney and the Three Dwarves, the whole state would go Chapter 11 and slide into the sea.

  "This can help change our image. I mean, Florida has always been strong science-wise, but people don't know that. They think about hurricanes and floods and bugs and, uh … cancer. But Florida's a lot more than that, always has been." The chime sounded again and the governor looked at the appropriate blank space. The image of a gaunt, weary man appeared.

  "Good morning, all." Grayson Pauling looked around. "Don't bother with introductions. I've been briefed."

  He looked at Rory. "Dr. Bell. You are on record as being politically, shall we say, agnostic. Can we trust you to cooperate with the government?"

  "Is that a threat?"

  "No. Just reality. If you don't care to work with us, you may get up and leave now. There are 1,549 astronomers in this country. One or two of them must be Republicans."

  "If you're asking whether I can work within the system—of course I can. I'm a department head. Academic politics is so convoluted and smarmy, it makes Washington look like summer camp."

  "Point well taken. Speaking of Washington … please join me." The room shimmered and snapped and suddenly Rory found herself sitting at a round table in the White House, evidently. A large window behind Pauling showed a manicured lawn with a high wall, the Washington Monument beyond.

  She didn't know you could do that, without setting it up beforehand. It was an impressive demonstration.

  Even the governor was caught off guard. "Nice … uh…" He cleared his throat. "Nice place you have here."

  "It's the people's place, of course," Pauling said, deadpan. "It belongs to you more than to me."

  "What sort of cooperation are you talking about?" Bacharach asked, not hiding his hostility. "You want Professor Bell to keep the facts from the public, the press?"

  "Under some extreme circumstances, yes." He put his elbows on the table and looked at Bacharach over steepled fingers. "And under such circumstances, I think you would agree with me."

  "Being?"

  "Panic. When Dr. Bell mentioned a million megatons this morning, and the possible destruction of the planet … that was unfortunate."

  "A calculation anyone could make," Rory said. "Any student computer would give you the answer immediately."

  "Ah, but only if you asked the questions. And the student asking that question wouldn't have a hundred million people watching her on cube." He shook his head. "You're right, though. It's not a good example. A sufficiently bright college student could make the calculation."

  "A sufficiently bright junior-high-school student, Dr. Pauling," Bacharach said, almost hissing. "Do you actually have a doctorate in science?"

  "Al…" Chancellor Barrett said.

  "Political science, Dr. Bacharach. And a bachelor's degree in life science."

  "Dean Bacharach does not mean to imply—"

  "Of course he did," Pauling said. To Bacharach: "I trust you are satisfied with my credentials … to be a politician?"

  "Eminently satisfied."

  "I think we'll get along together splendidly. For as long as you stay on the project." He sat back slowly. "Now. The Department of Defense is assembling a task force to deal with the military aspects of this problem. They'll be in touch with you, Governor."

  "What military aspects?" Rory said. "Do they plan to attack this thing?"

  "Not so long as its intentions are peaceful."

  She laughed. "Do you have any idea of how much energy a million megatons represents?"

  "Of course I do. Our largest Peace Reserve weapon is a hundred megatons. That would be ten thousand times as large."

  "So isn't it rather like ants plotting to destroy an elephant?"
r />   He smiled at her. "An interesting analogy, Dr. Bell. If the ants worked together, they could sting the elephant, and make it change course."

  Deedee Whittier spoke for the first time. "Rory, would you be practical for once in your life? Do you think we'll get a nickel of federal money if we don't let the generals come in and play their games? This is going to be an expensive project, and the state is flat broke. Is it not, Governor?"

  "Well, I wouldn't actually say we were, uh, broke."

  "I like your directness," Pauling said to Whittier. "Let me return it: your state's worse than broke; it's in debt up to its panhandle. Largely because of a government so corrupt it makes my fragrant city seem honest by comparison."

  "Corrupt?" the governor said. "Young man, that's simply not the case."

  "Not your office, Governor." He made a placating gesture with one hand. "Lower down, though, surely you're aware…"

  "Yes, well, yes. Government attracts both good and bad." Tierny's administration hadn't attracted a surplus of good people. He was the kind of governor only a newspaper cartoonist could love, and he would have long since been impeached if his machine hadn't owned the senate and judiciary before he came into office.

  "I suspect you won't have much to do with the Defense people," Pauling said. "Most of the resources that come into Florida will come through Cape Kennedy."

  "More good news," Rory said. "No surprise, though."

  "The NASA can get things done when they're allowed to," Deedee said. "Your own gamma-ray satellite, didn't it go up ahead of schedule?"

  "My one gamma-ray satellite. The backup is rusting away in some shed down at the Cape."

  "Perhaps something can be done about that," Pauling said smoothly. "Gamma-ray astronomy seems a little more important than it was yesterday. I'll have my office look into it." Rory just nodded.

  The governor cleared his throat loudly. "One reason I wanted to be in on this meeting was to ask you educated folks a simple question. I don't think it has a simple answer, though." He paused dramatically, looking around the table. "Have you given any thought to the possibility that the thing what's behind this thing … is God?"