Mission Zero (Fourth Fleet Irregulars) (25 page)

He looked sympathetically at the inspector.  ‘I know, high impact,’ he said.  ‘This is why spacers tend not to tell groundsiders this stuff.  Quite apart from the fact that it does freak them out, there’s a feeling that it’s, as I once heard a skipper tell a group of shoreleavers who’d had some fun with that, rather unsporting.  Not fair.  I mean, just look at the position that it’s put you in.  If you go home telling people you work with, then your professional credibility is going to take a hit.  People will think you’ve turned into a conspiracy theory nutter.  But keeping it to yourself has its issues too, particularly if you feel you have a duty to tell the LPA what you know now about what is really under the prison.’ 

As the inspector looked stricken, the skipper gave him a reassuring look.  ‘Our advice on that, the Fleet’s official policy advice to civilians who find themselves in your position, is to report it if you feel you have a duty to do so, but in neutral voice, as ‘this is what I was told’ rather than ‘this is what I believe’.’

Mako considered that.  ‘But then
your
credibility takes a hit!’ he realised.  ‘If they go to the Admiralty and are told that you were winding me up, what does that do to the credibility of other things you’ve told me?’

‘Well, it isn’t straightforward.’  Alex conceded.  ‘But we are very used to taking the credibility hit on this one, Mr Ireson, believe me, it just goes with the territory.  And it isn’t something, of course, that you need to make decisions on right now.  You know your employers, and once you’ve given it some thought, I’m sure, you’ll come to a decision on who you feel you want to tell, and what, and how.  And if you want anyone there, like your boss, to be brought in on this officially, we can make application for that when we get back to port.  That involves offering them positive vetting and security clearance so that we will be in a position to be able to have this kind of off-the-record conversation with them.  You may want to consider that as an option so you know you have someone in a position of authority there who knows you haven’t gone nuts.’

‘But that just puts the burden on to them then,’ he realised, slowly.  ‘And there’s… well, there’s no going back from this, is there?  Once you know, you
know
.’

Alex smiled.  ‘Oh, I don’t think you need to worry about that,’ he said.  ‘Human beings are a very elastic species.  We bounce back remarkably quickly into what we define as ‘normal’.  This is a very
well understood phenomenon, really is.  Once you get home, normal life will resume.  You will be able to process this, put it in a mental file marked ‘bonkers space stuff’, and it just won’t be an important thing in your life.’

Mako looked a little comforted by that. 

‘I suppose you do this all the time,’ he observed wryly, realising that he could hardly be the first civilian ever to be told this information.

‘I have had the conversation a few times, yes.’  Alex said.  ‘And have supported crew many times in dealing with their families.  I had to deal with a case once, as a Sub-Lt, where a family was so concerned by the ‘wild tales’ their son was telling them that they wanted to have him psychiatrically assessed.’  He grinned, with a little easy shrug.  ‘Again, goes with the territory for spacers.  And is a complex issue in itself, because of the very blurred line there is between wildly incredible truth and spacer mythology. 

‘The space monster of sector seventeen, for instance, is a classic example of that.  Spacers know for a fact that there is
something
going on in that sector.  It’s been an area of high incidence of sightings of something very large and very strange for nearly four hundred years, now.  There is enough evidence in that for us to know that not all of those incidents can be dismissed as pranks or hoaxes.  Some kind of alien ship is, for reasons unfathomable to us, visiting that sector on a pretty frequent basis.

‘But spacers often make sense of and cope with things with humour, so instead of just saying that there’s an unknown exo-vessel visiting sector seventeen, we’ve constructed this huge mythology about a space monster, with stories and debate over whether giant space-dwelling life is scientifically possible or not.  So when groundsiders hear us telling spacer yarns about giant amoeba out in sector seventeen, they think its so ludicrous, even when you tell them there
is
evidence for some exo-vessel visiting the area, they don’t believe that either.’

‘Are these… solarans… the only aliens visiting our worlds, then?’  Mako asked, as he took in the implications of that.

‘To the best of my knowledge, yes.’  Alex said.  ‘I believe there is some knowledge now of another civilisation across the Firewall, on third-party information passed on by the solarans.  But that is very high-powered first contact stuff, you know, way beyond me.  I know there were quarians visiting our worlds for a while not long after first contact.  It was hoped that public reaction would be positive or open enough for them to be introduced.  But it wasn’t, and they don’t come any more. 

‘That’s a relationship which has gone very badly downhill since first contact, it has to be said.  They too are a very peaceful people.  They have no government in terms of a directing authority.  All decisions are made by social consensus and in many ways, their culture is idyllic, with no crime or social issues.  They are significantly more advanced than we are, particularly in the field of bioengineering, and very willing to share their technology.  But they won’t come to our worlds unless they
can
do so openly.  There is no concept of secrecy in their society, you see, and they will not be party to a secret relationship. 

‘Being told that they are not allowed to come to our worlds as ordinary visitors because they fall outside the limits of the Homo Sapiens Identification Act is not making them happy with us at all.  There are rumours that they are considering closing their borders to our ships, on the basis of ‘come back when you’re a bit more grown up and ready to be friends.’ 

‘The Buzzard is over there, now, on exodiplomacy assignment trying to do some relationship repair.  But that’s complicated, of course, by the unfortunate reality that if we were to bring them to our worlds and introduce them on the news, we do know very well that there would be riots, panic and deaths, and no responsible authority can do that.

‘So we are, the League authorities, I mean, working what is called an exposure curve, with very carefully structured release of information to bring the public up to more awareness of the universe beyond their own skies.  We hope to get to a point where people can make a distinction between terrifyingly aggressive Marfikians and peaceful friendly species and not just lump them all together in one panic-driven fear of ‘aliens’.  I hope that I may see that in my lifetime, but seeing how people tend to react even to humans with very different body forms, even on Chartsey which is supposed to be the most cosmopolitan world in the League, I am not holding my breath.’

Mako was acutely aware of how uncomfortable he’d been when he’d first met Martins, and could not deny that if aliens were to be openly going about in his city, he would be amongst those taking time off work.  If they felt scared, he would be taking his family out of the city, too. 

‘But you’re sure,’ he asked the skipper, ‘they’re
not
any threat to us?’

Alex smiled.  ‘Mr Ireson, our ships were able to capture theirs, even hundreds of years ago, despite their phenomenal speed,’ he said.  ‘Because they are not armed.  And they will always, you see, come to an invitation for a meeting, arriving unarmed, unprotected, and unresisting when they are seized.  They may be hugely more advanced than we are technologically but there is no doubt at all which of us is the more dangerous species.  Neither solarans nor quarians present any threat to us whatsoever. 

‘And they do not, I should make it clear, visit our worlds without the knowledge and consent of local authorities.  All League worlds, of course, have an action plan for what to do if any alien ship suddenly arrives there, and policy and procedures for if exo-visits are being requested through diplomatic channels.  But national and city authorities also have a right to a say in that.  Even the smallest town council, you know, will have an exo-policy and action plan for if their town is being visited.  They’re not published, obviously, but there are many sectors of society in which this is common knowledge.  That is gradually trickling into mainstream culture.  It’s low credibility at first but with carefully structured supporting evidence being released, it will gradually become just something everybody knows.’

‘I feel manipulated.’  Mako admitted.  ‘It’s like the government is making fools of us.’

‘Well, what are the alternatives?’  Alex pointed out, reasonably.  ‘Put yourself in the president’s position, okay?  You
can’t
go on holovision doing a public announcement when all experience and every expert is telling you that if you do that, you are going to be dealing with casualties, riots and economic crash.  But at the same time, really, could you say to these amazing, peaceful people who want nothing more than to be our friends, ‘Please go away and come back in a few hundred years when we may be more mature as a society and able to be friends?’ 

‘Could you do that, Mr Ireson?  With all the benefits that that relationship may bring for us as a species?  We have, at least, moved beyond the policy of ‘capture them, find out everything we can about them by taking their ship apart and studying them in secret labs’.  But things are still obviously very sensitive.  So if the president, in some hypothetical reality, was to be facing that decision and asked you what you would advise, what would you say?’

Mako considered.  There was quiet in the cabin for what seemed like a very long time before realisation dawned.

‘I’d say,’ he replied, slowly, ‘that we should try to make friends with them while educating people so they
wouldn’t
panic.  And that’s it, isn’t it?  I see it.  That’s what the exposure curve is, pushing it out into public domain without triggering a panic.  And I suppose I’m part of that process, too, in a way, taking that information into the LPA.’

‘Yes, though don’t get into thinking that that was planned or that this is in any way structured or controlled at that kind of level.’  Alex said.  ‘That’s where conspiracy theorists get it wrong.  They’re often convinced that governments are targeting them and up to all kinds of wild shenanigans when in fact, the control is always a policy one between the government and the media.  There is just nobody, at any level, doing things like deciding it’s time to clue in the LPA so picking out someone to tell about this.  It’s far more random than that, just a general policy of social osmosis.  So, you know,
try
not to get paranoid about it.’

‘It does make you feel kind of paranoid.’  Mako admitted.  ‘And quite a shock to the system, too, to realise that the kind of people I’ve always dismissed as total nutters are actually right.  I mean, I remember having a conversation with my son when he was in high school and there was some thing going about that aliens were on Chartsey.  I told him not to get caught up in that kind of lunatic fringe.  Now I know they were actually right, and where does that leave me, now, with him?  Do I tell him, and my wife and daughter?  And risk
them
being seen as conspiracy nutters?’

‘Yes, you see, that’s what the socio-psychs call a contra-pressure to disclosure.’  Alex said.  ‘The very natural human desire not to make social fools of ourselves.  Which, along with the astoundingly widespread belief that something can not be true if it isn’t on the news, are the resistance that means word of mouth disclosure never goes very far.  You have to make your own decision on that, of course.  You may find it helpful to talk either to Buzz or Dr Tekawa on a personal counselling basis if you find you’re feeling troubled about it.  But you should also be aware that you are, if you don’t mind me saying so, also experiencing something spacers call the Telmar Dip.  Has Dr Tekawa talked to you about that, at all?’

Mako suppressed a desire to say that Dr Tekawa never
stopped
telling him about things.  In fact, even as he thought that, memory and realisation were arising.

The ship’s medic had told him about this not long after they’d left Chartsey.  It was a very common phenomenon, he’d been assured, even amongst experienced spacers, but was of particular concern with first voyagers.  The Telmar Dip, so named after the first ship’s medic to identify and write it up as a space ‘condition’, was the tendency for people to become depressed and anxious, typically after being on a starship for two or three weeks.  Psychologically, up to that point, Rangi Tekawa had explained, you felt yourself to be almost on holiday.  Everything was new and exciting and you were having fun.  Then the novelty would wear off and something would happen which would upset you a little and there you’d be, suddenly, aware that you couldn’t just go home the way you would after a tough day at work, that you were stuck with these people.  You would also become aware of how very far from home you were, with pangs of homesickness very common, and because you were still heading away with no immediate prospect of heading home, either, you felt yourself to be trapped in a kind of limbo.  The medic had told him to be alert to that, and had given good advice on how to deal with it when it arose, but Mako had forgotten.

‘I’m familiar with the same kind of thing in new prisoners,’ he observed.  ‘That, often two to three weeks in, is when it really hits them, that this is
it
, now, this is going to be their life for the next so many months or years.  Dr Tekawa told me to look out for it, too.  And you’re right, that was how I was feeling, even before the alien thing.  I just didn’t recognise it in myself.’