Quiet Invasion(25)
She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.
The corridors passed by in a blur. She slapped her audio badge down on the counter at the security station without breaking stride. She saw nothing clearly until she found herself up on the deck in the blazing sunlight, staring out across the blue-gray waters and clenching her hands around the warm metal railing.
Well, Vee, you crashed that one pretty good, didn’t you? She bowed her head until it rested on the backs of her hands. What the hell were you doing? Did you really think they were looking for the dilettante?
Vee was not going to whine about her fate. She had made her choices for money, yes, but also for love. She was good at her art. She understood light and the machines that manipulated it. She could shape light like a potter shaping clay. She knew how to blend it and soften it to create any color and nuance the human eye could detect. She knew how it controlled shadows and reflections. She knew how it scattered and bounced and played mischievous tricks on the senses. She knew nine-and-ninety ways it could be used to transmit messages. The lab had become mind-bogglingly boring right about the time the money from her patents and the resulting holo-scenics had really started to come in. She’d taken off for the artistic life, along with the ability to buy her college debts away from her parents’ bank and keep her brothers and sisters from ever having to go into debt for themselves.
But sometimes she felt she’d missed the chance to do something real, the chance to explore as well as create, to question the nature of the universe in ways art couldn’t reach by itself, to say something that would last, even if it was so obscure only ten other people understood it.
An accomplishment her family back in its naturalist, statist town wouldn’t have to feel ambivalent about.
“You know,” said Rosa’s voice beside her, “there’s this old saying that goes ‘Be careful what you pretend to be; you may become it.’”
Vee lifted her head, blinking back tears of pain as the light assaulted her eyes. “How fast did they throw you out of there?”
“They didn’t, actually.” Rosa leaned her elbows against the railing. The salt breeze caught her silver scarf and sent it fluttering across her face. She pushed it away. “I spread some fertilizer about sensitive geniuses, which they seemed willing to sit still for. They, or at least Ms. Yan and Mr. Hourani, seemed impressed by your strong political neutrality.” The wind plastered her scarf against her cheek again, and she brushed it back impatiently. “I’m less sure about Mr. Waicek, but I do believe he’s leaning in our direction.”
Hope, slow and warm, filled Vee’s mind. “You’re kidding.”
“I have one question.” Rosa rubbed her hands together and studied them. “Do you really want to do this?” She lifted her gaze to Vee’s face. “They were giving you purity in there. This is going to be a political situation. You’ve seen the news. Everybody’s got a position. Everybody wants referendums. You’re going to be quizzed and dissected and watched, and you’re going to have to put up with it. Quietly. No more scenes like that one.” She jerked her chin back toward the glide-walk mouth. “So, I’m asking you, Vee, as your friend and your manager, do you really, honestly, want to be a part of this mission?”
Vee stared out across the blue water under the brilliant sky. Nothing on Venus was blue. It was all orange and gold and blazing red. Yet someone had been there, had set up their base there, and then left. Where had they gone? Who were they? Why had they come in the first place? They might have left the answer behind them. It might be in that laserlike device.
Do I really want to be a part of finding that answer?
“Yes,” she said, to sea and sky, and Rosa. “Oh yes. I want Oris.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rosa nod. “Okay, then. I think you’ll get it.”
Vee’s smile spread across her face. “If I do nothing else real in my life, at least I’ll get to do this,” she said softly.
For a moment, she thought she heard Rosa mutter, “Whatever this is,” but then she decided that she didn’t.
The image of a spring meadow high in the Colorado Rockies surrounded Yan Su as she sat behind her desk. She paid no attention to it. Instead, she focused on the wall screen, which she had set to record her message to Helen Failia on Venera Base.
“Hello, Helen. I just saw the latest commentary from out your way. Now, you know I don’t interfere.” Pause for Helen to insert whatever comment she had on that score. “But you’ve got to sit on Ben Godwin for the duration. I’ve done my best with the investigative team makeup. They are as close to what you asked for as I could manage. But this will not, I repeat, will not, hold up to certain types of scrutiny. Assure Dr. Godwin that if he lets the spinners do their job and is patient, this will all blow over and your people can get back to work.