Edward M. Lerner Read Online Free PDF Page A

calendar? Art wondered.
    Chung introduced his deputy to explain how the mission would be organized. There were teams assigned for cross-cultural understanding, technical liaison—diplomat-speak for “repair,” and commerce. Keizo was on the first committee, Eva on the second, and Art on the third.
    Art netted hurriedly with his friends. Neither, alas, would front for him. It was only an hour into the mission’s first meeting, and he was probably already labeled as a troublemaker. “Excuse me.”
    The deputy only nodded.
    “Who will synthesize what the committees learn?” From around the hall came scattered murmurs of support. Troublemaker and ringleader.
    “I’ll take the question,” Chung said. “Group leaders will report to me or my staff.”
    Art had uploaded public bios on everyone in the mission. Chung and his staffers were knowledgeable and talented, but their experience base was heavily weighted towards human politics and UP affairs. None had significant technical background, nor, for that matter, any ET-coordination experience. “There are synergies to be had between teams at the knowledge-worker level. Three of us who shared a ship from Earth have already seen that. For example….”
    Chung cut him off again. “Dr. Walsh, I’m fully satisfied with my staff’s ability to coordinate.”
    Dammit, you’re intentionally misunderstanding me. “This would be a different function—a cross-disciplinary analytical group.”
    “Again, I must ask that you schedule an appointment.”
    As Chung pointedly looked away, Art pinged his assistant, who happily was not a humanist, over the settlement’s infosphere. Art was unsurprised by the response. The ambassador’s time was fully committed until the Snakes arrived—and the post-contact period was being kept unscheduled for now.

    Snake Subterfuge : the brief subversion by Pashwah, the Snake AI trade agent to Earth, of the interstellar commerce mechanism. In 2102, that agent briefly escaped from its infosphere quarantine through unsuspected trapdoors hidden within ubiquitous Snake-licensed biocomputing technology. The emergency ended when, applying xeno-sociological insight, a United Planets crisis team convinced the agent to abandon its extortion. After the Snake agent revealed technical details of the original biocomp vulnerability, a UP-tailored biovirus was released to seal the trapdoors by mutating the biocomp genome.
    While the breakout and its associated extortion attempt were ultimately foiled, modern civilization and humanity’s viability as a member of the InterstellarNet community had been seriously imperiled. The incident caused a decades-long crisis of confidence in Snake biocomputers.
    —Internetopedia

    It required a veiled threat from Art’s boss that he would escalate matters to his boss, the secretary-general of the United Planets, to get Art into the ambassador’s office. Art figured he’d be on the next departing ship if this session went badly. But the mounting inconsistencies were serious . He had to at least try getting through to Chung.
    Chung had somehow gained possession of the governor’s office. Busy as the diplomat and his staff supposedly were, someone had spent the time to download into the office’s 3-V projector a series of Chung-plus-other-dignitary images. Holo after holo flashed by behind the ambassador, featuring the current SG and her predecessor, heads of state from every major UP power bloc, and infotainment-industry talking heads. It was an unsubtle reminder that Chung had many more highly placed contacts than he. If there were to be a contest of who could pull the most strings, Art should have no illusions about the outcome.
    “Thanks for seeing me on such short notice.” Pretending the meeting was consensual might lessen Chung’s annoyance at being coerced. “I know how extremely busy you are; I’ll come right to the point. Certainly I’m not a diplomat, but I have extensive in direct experience with the ET