Brave New World Ch. 03

"So you see," Roy explained two days later to the elderly gentleman sitting across from him, "By the time I finished school, the army was pretty much the only option. My mother had died two years before of one of those many weird diseases that were becoming more and more common by then, and dad never quite recovered. He would just sit and stare at the wall all day long. And as time went by, I saw more and more of that around me."

"Could you elaborate on that?" The man, who had introduced himself as Gan, had been asking him questions since early that morning. He was obviously a natural and, Roy guessed, somewhere in his seventies. Still his body bore the traces of what must have been an impressive physique in his younger years. Although his hair was gray and his skin wrinkled and spotted, his body was wiry and sinewy. His eyes were incisive, his mind sharp, his voice strong, his speech precise. He seemed an odd combination of a detective, a scholar, a surfer past his prime, and something else, something that Roy couldn't quite put his finger on. Yet the man's obvious signs of age did not seem to bother him, and he carried himself as one oblivious of his nudity, something that still struck Roy as slightly incongruous, although he realized that that was merely his four hundred year old attitude talking, and that its outdated ideas had no place in the domed garden in space in which they were currently sitting.

"Well," Roy answered, "A lot of people seemed to suffer from this... lethargy. Apathy, almost." He thought for a moment. "The skyrocketing unemployment is a good example, I guess. Food and fuel were getting hard to come by. More and more people got sick. More and more stories made the rounds about the air and water being toxic... And everything just seemed to slow down, somehow. Factories and shops closed because fewer and fewer people seemed interested in working there. I can't really explain it."

Gan nodded, his eyes thoughtful. "Yes. Apathy. A pervasive lack of drive. Interesting. So it did indeed start well before the war..." His voice trailed off, and he seemed deep in thought.

"Why is that interesting?" Roy asked.

Gan looked up. "Hm?"

"Why is that interesting?" Roy repeated.

Gan pursed his lips. "Lieutenant Beaumont," he said, "I understand that you have seen a fair amount of this habitat in the past several days and met a number of people. How does life in this environment strike you?"

"Well..." Roy said, taken aback somewhat. "To be quite honest, it seems a little humdrum to me. Routine, mostly, now that I think of it. There doesn't seem to be much change or excitement going on..."

"Dull, would you say?" Gan asked.

"Not precisely... But not... stimulating, I guess the word is."

Gan nodded. "In other words, if you will forgive me my asking you a leading question, few if any people appear to be pursuing specific goals, making any progress or undergoing any significant advancement?"

Roy nodded. "Now that you put it that way..." he mused. "Yeah, I guess that's exactly it."

"Indeed. Lack of drive, lack of impulse, and a complete satisfaction with the status quo?"

"Hmm... Yes. In a way, it reminds me a bit of a small Midwestern hick town. One of those cultural backwaters where nothing ever changes, and where change gets frowned upon when it does."

"Odd that you should put it that way," Gan said. "You are essentially right where it comes to lack of progress, of course, and your comparison with the decline of a rural locale is also quite relevant. However, I personally would prefer to compare our modern society to that in the Roman empire during its most rapid decline. The most important similarity that I can see is that of a people merely striving for pleasure and comfort in a way that in many respects could be called decadent, if not Dionysian, taking place on the ruins of a greater civilization."

Roy thought about that. "Decline?" he asked after a while.

Gan sighed. "Yes, lieutenant Beaumont. Because that is indeed our problem. To be blunt and completely honest with you, the matter is this: the human race is failing."

Roy raised his eyebrows. "Failing?"

"Yes. Failing." Gan looked grim. "In short, since the cataclysmic sequence of events now popularly known as Nuke Day we have been merely surviving. Interestingly, though, and based on what you have told me, this pervasive ennui appears to have been an increasing trend that predated the war by years, perhaps by as much as a decade. In actual fact, that little datum alone has made it worth my while to come here to meet you. It even might have made your retrieval and revival worthwhile..." His voice trailed off.

"Ehm... And?" Roy said gently.

"I am thinking of the lovely young lady I met this morning. What was her name? Chia? Yes, Chia..."

"You mean Reesh' daughter?" Roy interjected.

Gan nodded. "Yes. Reesh was on the team that revived you, as I'm sure you know. That is how I met her. And that is why I came up here to meet with you. You understand... But I digress. Where were we?"

"You mentioned Chia."

"Oh yes," Gan continued. "Such a lovely young lady. Not even out of her teenage years yet, and already an accomplished agricultural technician. And perfectly content to remain one for the rest of her life, as far as I can tell on the basis of meeting her this morning. Which is why I mentioned her, because this illustrates exactly the lack of drive, the lack of ambition and the resulting lack of progress currently exhibited by the human race as a whole. In short, we have made sufficient technical progress to facilitate our survival in relative comfort and happiness, and to provide us more and more comfort as time goes by, but very little else. Whatever real progress has occurred has solely been driven by the necessity to survive, as has invariably been the case in human history in times of great stress. However, now that we believe that we have assured our immediate survival, progress has essentially ground to a halt."

Roy looked at him. "I can't help noticing the way you phrase that... 'We believe that we have assured our immediate survival.' What exactly are you saying here?"

"Just that, lieutenant Beaumont. In spite of what most people believe at this point in time, our survival is certainly not assured, especially in the long run. It's quite the opposite, actually. Our numbers continue to dwindle. We have less and less in the way of functional government. Our attitude toward technological and social infrastructures has degraded to one of unquestioning acceptance, one of mere maintenance, and theoretical and abstract research have become practically unheard of. To the best of my knowledge, there is no longer any research being performed on subjects such as history, sociology and cultural anthropology, not to mention military archaeology, my own efforts being the sole exception."

"The last of the Mohicans?" Roy asked, smiling.

Gan chuckled mirthlessly. "Yes, in a manner. Although I do rather doubt that anyone else these days would understand that reference." He thought for a moment. "Our society is not doing well, lieutenant Beaumont. Think of it as a dying tree, if you will. It still sprouts a leaf or two in spring, but rot from within has made it hollow. Appearances notwithstanding, a simple push would be enough to topple it."

"So... Who's doing the pushing?"

"Well," Gan said slowly, "It could be anything or anyone, really. It could be a random event. It could be me. It could even be you."

Roy looked skeptical. "Me?"

"Why, yes, Lieutenant Beaumont. Oh, certainly not intentionally, I hasten to add, and in all probability not even involving actions taken by you personally. In this context it is not so much about who you are as a person, lieutenant. It rather has to do with what you represent. Which, in fact, brings us to the subject of the attempt on your life."

Roy sat up. "How do you know about that? And what do you know about it?"

"Well, lieutenant Beaumont..."

"Call me Roy."

"Alright... Roy. If you wish. Ehm... Where was I?"

Roy smiled. "Sorry for the interruption. I believe you were about to explain who tried to murder me."

"Oh, hardly that. I wish I could. Where was I? Oh yes. Lieutenant Beaumont, I do not believe that any aspect of the attempt on your life had anything to do with you personally. Look at it, rather, from a standpoint of what you represent."

"I'm not sure I follow you."

Gan leaned back in his chair. "When you were brought back into the world, so to speak, and essentially were dropped out of suspended animation into the present, what did you bring with you?"

Roy shrugged. "Nothing."

Gan shook his head. "You are incorrect, lieutenant. You brought with you at least two things which you have already begun to introduce into our society: your DNA and your memories. I hope you will forgive me for oversimplifying a bit at this point, as your memories manifest themselves in many different ways, most importantly as your sense of identity, your cultural values and your actions taken on the basis of your moral decisions. But for the moment let us just consider these two: DNA and memory. As to the first, I cannot see your DNA being relevant in this case. Your medical team will have taken from you numerous blood and tissue samples, among other things, in the process of reviving you, and your genes will have been mapped extensively. Of course I mean no disrespect, but if your genetic makeup had contained anything of great importance, it would have been apparent at this point in time. Absent spectacular news in this regard, I believe we can safely assume that your genes present little or nothing that can be called remarkable. Also, your genetic material will already have been available for some time in other forms. By now, although you probably won't have fathered any children yet, you will have begun to spread your germ plasm, not so? Or have you been sexually abstinent since your revival?"

Roy smiled sheepishly and shook his head.

Gan nodded. "I didn't think so. Celibacy does not suit your profile. So we can say with a measure of certainty that both your rather unremarkable genetic makeup and the irreversible distribution of your germ plasm discredit any scenario involving someone wanting to have you killed in order to prevent your DNA from being available. Thus, by process of simple elimination, that leaves the contents of your memory and the various manifestations thereof."

Roy looked a bit bewildered.

"When I say memory," Gan continued his lecture, "I do not only refer to your knowledge of the world you left behind, which, incidentally, will include information of a military nature. I also address your attitudes, your character, your personality, your motivations, your morals, your drive, in point of fact everything that makes you a unique individual. And while all individuals are of course unique, your particular situation makes you more unique than most. Either that fact appears to pose a threat to someone, or, and this is also a distinct possibility, it presents enough of a specter of social disruption to motivate a larger group with the desire to eliminate you."

Roy sighed. "Great. So what's in my head that anyone would want to kill me for?"

"That is difficult to say. Keeping in mind, of course, that it is not the contents of your memory, as you put it, but the effect it might have on the world around you and those who find themselves in it."

Roy looked at the scholar in front of him, not sure how to take all this. "What effect?"

Gan nodded gravely. "That, lieutenant Beaumont, is indeed the most important question before us, and finding the answer to it must be our prime concern. Let us start, therefore, with your military background..."

* * *

"Nothing. Nothing but just a big load of plain old nothing," Jaru said that evening, his frustration clearly echoing in his voice. "I've got what I already had from the sensor logs two days ago, but there simply is no information at all about where the transmission originated."

The four of them were sitting in Kyo's floor-sunk tub: Jaru, Kyo, Tami and Roy. Kyo had her arm around Jaru and her head on his shoulder. She had that happy, relaxed, satisfied and glowing look in her eyes that clearly spoke of what the two of them had been doing before they invited Roy and Tami to join them.

"Hmm..." Roy frowned. "Maybe we're going about this all wrong. Have you just been looking at transfer logs so far?"

Jaru nodded. "That's all I have to work with."

"Poring over transfer logs..." Roy said with a smile. "So at least some things haven't changed. Anyway... Is there a relay tag in those logs?"

Jaru nodded.

That tells us that whatever the signal was, it came through the old military comsat network. Right?"

"Right."

"Okay," Roy went on. "Now, for every transmission through any of those sats there was always a lot of operational procedure involved. The uplink, as far as I had clearance to know, was an omni-directional signal. Quantum spread spectrum. I'm not sure what that means, but-"

"That I can tell you," Kyo said. "It was basically a wide spectrum modulation and frequency hopping scheme based on quantum level statistic probability. Practically impossible to intercept and decode at the time, and still pretty hard today. Offhand I'd say that if we have to find the uplink source and tap into it, we're screwed."

Roy smiled. "Maybe not. You see, the uplink was omni-directional, but the downlink wasn't. The downlink was highly directional. In fact the downlink beam was so tight that the uplink commands to initiate a point-to-point link always involved a lot of positional information. And based on orbital data we usually had to correct for the sat's progression during the transmission, too."

Jaru shrugged. "So what are you saying?"

"Well," Roy continued, "Those sats are in a relatively high orbit, aren't they?"

"Yes," Kyo said. "Well outside geosynchronous orbit. Why?"

"Because we aren't," Roy said. "The hab is in a low earth orbit, right?"

Kyo nodded, a thoughtful look on her face. "I think I see where you're going," she said slowly. "But carry on."

Roy smiled. "Yes, you would," he said. "Yes. If the sat's downlink is directional, we might be able to find the one that the transmission came through. We'd start from the orbital data and the time when the transmission came through. Then we find out which sats were in view, and have a look at which way their antenna's are pointing."

"That's assuming nothing has changed since then," Jaru said.

Roy nodded. "Yes. I know. Still... I think it's worth a try. Because the transmission would have to be bi-directional, right?"

Jaru nodded. "Yes. It was an interactive session."

"Good," Roy said. "Because in that case, at least one other antenna on that sat should be pointing to the other end of the data link."

Kyo smiled. "I like it," she said. "How many sats are still operational? Do we know that?"

"Hmm..." Jaru mused. "I think it was seven or eight, last time I heard about it, which is years ago. Not bad, anyway, considering that the damn things are over four hundred years old. Built to last."

"Built to withstand enemy threats, more likely," Kyo said. They're in a high orbit so they're not as easy to shoot down, which also means no need for nuclear power, because there's no issues with visibility or atmospheric drag on large solar panels. Heavy shielding against electromagnetic pulse weapons means that your average solar flare won't do much damage, and a stable orbit requires fewer course corrections because gravitational anomalies are less of factor once you get that far out. The long life span is only a bonus."

"Hmm..." Roy thought about it. "There's one thing though. Whatever batteries those sats have on board will be long gone by now. That means that the sat will switch off as soon as its solar panels are in the earth's shadow. And it will be no clean shutdown, either, which means that the sat will have to be powered up and completely re-initialized whenever it has been in the dark. That's a procedure which takes time and interaction with a ground station, which means someone must have the knowledge on how to set up an antique comsat. That might help to narrow it down even further."

Tami put her arms around him. "Well, that's your job cut out for you, Roy," she said. "You're our resident expert on legacy technology."

Roy made a face. "Thanks, Tami," he said.

Jaru sat up. "I'd better get started then."

Kyo put her hand on his chest and pushed him back down. "No way, lover," she said firmly. "First thing tomorrow, if you want to. But tonight you're staying with me."

Jaru smiled and leaned back. "Well, if you put it that way..."

"I do. So don't get any ideas." She reached under water. Jaru gasped and a smile began to form on his lips.

Tami chuckled. "Roy, I think it's time we left these two alone."

"You're both more than welcome to stay, Tams. Why not join us?" Kyo said.

Tami smiled and shook her head. "Thanks all the same, Kyo." She looked at Roy. "But not right now. Maybe some other time. I'm going to take Roy home." She stood up, water dripping off her body. She stretched, looking beautiful, then held her hand out to Roy. He took it and stood.

"Have fun, you two," Roy said.

Tami smiled mischievously. "I think we'll have some fun too, Roy."

Roy chuckled. "I may die from sexual exhaustion before this is over."

"Hardly, dear man," Tami said. "We all did our best to get you in prime condition, especially Reesh and Vard. So you're healthy and vigorous now, and full of stamina. Oh, and speaking of Reesh, one of these days you really should give her what she's been wanting all this time."

"Which is?" Roy asked.

Tami just gave him a long, level look.

"Oh. I see," Roy said sheepishly.

"Indeed," Tami said. "But not tonight." She smiled. "Coming, Roy?"

"I guess I will," Roy said dryly, "And more than once."

Tami giggled and poked him in the side. "Home. Now." Her voice was very insistent.

Roy smiled and surrendered.

* * *

Later that night, when she lay on her back with her thighs spread wide, and he aimed the tip of his cock between the engorged, wetly glistening lips of her waiting pussy, he realized that something had changed. The mutual orgasm they'd shared a little earlier had been an intense, urgent thing, brought about by his tongue on the exposed tip of her hard clit and by her lips around the swollen head of his cock, and he'd felt her pussy contract against his face as her thighs clamped the sides of his head, while his cock spurted into her mouth and her hands pumped his hot, hard shaft.

But now there was a slower, more relaxed quality to their lovemaking, a new sense of closeness, a feeling of comfort and familiarity. They both moaned softly as the head of his cock slid past the slick entrance of her pussy, and together they relished that wonderful moment of first penetration. He paused for a moment, savoring the feeling, before sliding his hard shaft into her, slowly, further and further, the head of him parting her hot, wet inner folds until he was buried inside her to the hilt. Then he took her in his arms and kissed her. Her mouth opened beneath his, and their tongues played lazily with one another as he slowly began to move in and out of her, easy and gently, grinding the base of his cock into her clit as he moved. She moaned softly.

"Oh yes, Roy... Yes... That feels so good... A little higher... Yes, there. Right there... "

She closed her eyes, a happy smile on her face. He continued to move inside her, taking his time. His slow strokes gradually became longer, and she thrust her hips up to meet him. Together they moved as one, in that easy rhythm that seemed to come so naturally to both of them.