Quiet Invasion(26)

“I’m doing my part down here, and we’re making progress. You will all get what you want, but you’ve got to keep quiet.” She paused again, tapping her fingernails against the glass of iced tea sitting on her desk. “I know this isn’t easy, Helen, but believe me, it’s the only way. You also need to keep your security chief on the alert. Every single cracker on three planets is going to be trying to get into Venera’s systems, trying to get ‘the real story.’” She made quotation marks with her fingertips. “The rumors in-stream are bad enough without that.” She sighed softly. “Take care of yourself Helen. You’ve inherited quite a situation.”

A quick keystroke faded the recording out and shunted the message into the queue for the next com burst out to Venus. Helen would receive the message in an hour or two.

Su finished her iced tea and rattled the ice cubes a couple of times as she stared at the sunlight on the distant snowy peaks. God, how long until she’d see the real thing again? She felt certain there would be nothing in her life but Venera and its Discovery at least until the “investigative team” came home, and maybe not even then. A lot would depend on how well Helen was able to handle her people and her sudden fame.

Su remembered the first time Helen Failia sailed into her office. Forty years ago, no, forty-five years ago, and she still remembered.

It had been a long day of in-stream meetings and screen-work. A headache was just beginning to press against her temples. None of this had left Su in the best of moods.

“Thank you for agreeing to see me, Ms. Yan.” Helen Failia was not yet forty then. She wore her chestnut hair bundled up under a scarf of dusky-rose silk. Her handshake was firm, her smile genuine, and her movements calm and confident. Despite that, Su got the strong impression of restless energy brimming just below the surface of this woman.

“Now, what can I do for you, Dr. Failia?” Su asked as she handed Helen the cup of black coffee she’d requested. The woman was a very traditional American on that score.

“I’m building a research colony on Venus,” said Helen, taking the seat Su waved her toward. “I want to know what governmental permissions I need.”

Just like that. Not “I’m exploring the possibilities of…” or “I’m part of a consortium considering building…”

“You’re building on Venus?” Su raised both eyebrows. “With what?”

She hadn’t been able to get another word out for thirty minutes. Helen had brought scroll after scroll of blueprints, encyclopedic budget projections, and lists of potential donors. Everything was planned out, down to which construction facilities could supply which frame sections for the huge, floating city she had designed.

When Dr. Failia finally subsided, Su was ready to admit, privately, she was impressed. In an ideal world, Dr. Failia’s proposal would be quite feasible. Unfortunately, Su had already been on the C.A.C. long enough to know this was not an ideal world.

Perhaps a gentle hint in that direction. “Wouldn’t it be more practical, Dr. Failia, to start with a temporary facility funded by perhaps one or two universities?”

“No,” said Helen at once. Su raised her eyebrows again, and Helen actually looked abashed. “I’m sorry, but no. Venus is a vast, complex world. It’s active in many of the basic ways that Earth is active. It has an atmosphere, weather, and volcanic activity.” Dr. Failia’s eyes shone. At that, Su remembered where she’d heard Dr. Failia’s name before. Helen Failia had been a member of the Icarus Expedition that had gone out, what was it? Two? No, three years ago. She was now one of the four people who had actually walked on the Venusian surface.

It also looked as though she had fallen in love down there.

“In a temporary facility,” Dr. Failia was saying, “a few researchers could study a few aspects of the planet for a few months at a time. But in a real facility, such as Venera”—she tapped the screen roll—“people could specialize. Careers could be dedicated to the study of Earth’s sister without requiring people to remove themselves from their families. The work could be made practical and comfortable for years at a time. We would not be limited to snapshots; we could take in the entire panorama.”

Earth’s sister. It is love. Su shook her head. “And the industrial applications? Are there any commercial possibilities?”

Helen didn’t even blink. “In all probability, industrial and commercial applications would be limited. Mining or other exploitive surface operations would remain prohibitively expensive due to the harsh conditions.”