{"id":1260,"date":"2017-11-04T16:18:36","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T21:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/?p=1260"},"modified":"2017-11-04T16:18:36","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T21:18:36","slug":"rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/04\/rumors\/","title":{"rendered":"Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 2, 2184<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling you, Boss, my brother-in-law says he saw the pictures himself. They are prepping missiles for launch.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMarty, the Terrans are not going to nuke the Colonies.\u201d \u00a0Edgar Wallace, senior supervisor of Industrial Platform (Low Orbit) 380A\/X, shook his head and silently wished his assistant would stop listening to conspiracy theories. \u201cIf the newsnets had pictures like that, they\u2019d be shouting it at the top of every broadcast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re keeping it quiet,\u201d Marty Cooper answered. \u201cThe Terran government has them all under control. But they have the pictures, believe me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot even Monroe would want to go down in history for killing forty-six million civilians. He\u2019s a jackass but he\u2019s not that kind of crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The console pinged and Marty checked the screen. He punched up the intercom and in a level tone said, \u201cTransport on final approach, piloting control now transferred to our systems. Docking crew, confirm green lights on all receiving cradles. Estimate docking in fifteen minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He watched the screen as the various flags filled in green. Not just the dock itself, and the machinery that would immediately begin offloading its cargo, but the system of conveyors that would carry the materials throughout the platform, to the various factories waiting for their supplies.<\/p>\n

380A\/X was a midsized industrial platform, hosting 47 factories, technically separate though they shared both a common purpose and a common owner: EarthArc Shipping, which also owned the platform itself. 380A\/X was half a shipyard: it couldn\u2019t quite make every component of a commercial ship, but it could come close\u2014 and could probably do the whole job with a little refitting. The only step 380A\/X didn\u2019t attempt was final assembly: it could have, but EarthArc dispersed its products to around a half dozen other shipyards, some of them even down on the planet: there were still some things better done on the ground, such as assembling ships that couldn\u2019t fly but were too big to carry inside ships that could. EarthArc produced a line of seagoing as well as orbital and suborbital container ships.<\/p>\n

About half of 380A\/X\u2019s raw materials now came from the Moon, from the mines at Copernicus. But today\u2019s transport came up from the ground and would be returning there after its cargo of raw materials got replaced by a shipment of parts to build a tourist cruise ship.<\/p>\n

The screens now showed all green, and if Wallace had hoped his assistant would be diverted from his rumors, the hope was dashed when Marty returned immediately to the subject. \u201cYou don\u2019t listen to Monroe\u2019s speeches. The way he talks about the Colonies, I think he\u2019s exactly that kind of crazy. I\u2019ve got family on Galileo, you know, and I\u2019ve been talking to my wife about her and the kids getting out. She\u2019s got relatives at Paris Township, they could go stay with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd why would that be any safer, if the Terrans are planning to nuke all the offworlders?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEarth\u2019s going to leave the factory platforms alone, it needs them. Paris has the biggest pharmaceuticals plant in the system, they can\u2019t hit that. Anyway, it\u2019s the O\u2019Neill Colonies Monroe is obsessed with. Those are what he\u2019ll target.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re crazy, just listen to yourself. One alleged image of activity around a planetside missile site, and you\u2019ve got the Terrans\u2019 whole strategy mapped out. It\u2019s just conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marty shook his head. \u201cYour family\u2019s on Uplift, right? That\u2019s the lowest-orbit Colony, it\u2019ll be the first one hit. You ought to pay attention to those theories, and get them out while you can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losing patience, Wallace snapped, \u201cAnd you<\/em> ought to pay attention to your screens. You\u2019ve got a twenty thousand TU container ship docking in ten minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

#\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 #\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 #<\/p>\n

Linda Ryder\u2019s first thought was that Jenny looked frightened.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I guess you made it to graduation before Star City University closed down after all,\u201d Jenny said. She smiled, but fiddled with her hair in a nervous gesture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd starting grad school in a couple of weeks,\u201d Linda said. \u201cI\u2019ll still be working with Professor Schaller. Not so great for broadening my experience, I suppose, but since there\u2019s really only one university up here I didn\u2019t have that many choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could have come down,\u201d Jenny said. \u201cI miss you, you could have come down to MIT like I did.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah.\u201d Linda kept her voice neutral. There were reasons other than academics for not heading planetside during the past year. Linda wished Jenny hadn\u2019t been frightened into doing it last year. Maybe back then it seemed like the Colonies really might get shut down, but not any more. Jenny had to be regretting her decision.<\/p>\n

But it would do no good to make her feel worse. \u201cSo how are things going at MIT?\u201d Linda asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, good, good,\u201d Jenny said quickly. \u201cIt\u2019s really amazing. Right at the front of research, you know, but at the same time it\u2019s so old, it\u2019s got all this history, it\u2019s a fascinating place to study. You really should think about transferring down here, you know. You should… you should maybe look into that right away.\u201d On the com screen, her eyes darted briefly to one side.<\/p>\n

Linda frowned, suddenly intent. \u201cWhat do you mean? What\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing, just… well, there\u2019s a lot of resentment down here, you know, and worse since the secession\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIndependence,\u201d Linda corrected automatically. She knew the ground-based newsnets had been calling it \u201csecession\u201d in order to taint the Colonies with historical associations, and the habit of correcting the term had become almost automatic among offworlders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s understandable, you know, coming on top of all the harm the Colonies have done, getting rich by ruining the ecosystem\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJenny, what are you talking about? You know as well as anyone what pseudo-scientific nonsense that Born to the Earth stuff is, and you\u2019re from<\/em> here, you sure as dust know we\u2019re not rich. Why are you saying that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny glanced off to the side again. \u201cI\u2019m just saying you should come down. You\u2019re going to have to sooner or later, you know the Colonies can\u2019t win. The Earth\u2019s too big and the Colonies are\u2014 the Colonies are too fragile.<\/em> If you know what I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Linda said, starting to feel oddly stubborn. \u201cI don\u2019t know what you mean. Tell me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t\u2014\u201d Jenny broke off, hesitated, then went on, \u201cI mean you ought to come down. Transfer to MIT, or to somewhere else, but come down. And do it quickly, before\u2014\u201d She broke off again, this time with a visible start and another look off to the side, then finished in a softer tone, \u201c\u2014before it\u2019s too far into the academic year, is all I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho do you keep looking at?\u201d Linda said. \u201cWho\u2019s there with you? Are you sure you\u2019re all right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Jenny shook her head. \u201cI\u2019m fine. I\u2019m fine here. I did what I was supposed to do, I came down, no one here\u2019s got any reason to\u2014 wait, let me show you something I\u2019ve been working on. This is really interesting, I could maybe base a thesis project on it, it\u2019s fascinating.\u201d She fumbled offscreen for a moment, then held up a handscreen displaying a set of equations. She held it out to the camera, filling Linda\u2019s screen. \u201cI really should link the screens, you\u2019d see better, but can you see it? This should let you know the kind of research we\u2019re doing here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linda frowned. It was a mass of nonsense. But before she could ask what Jenny was talking about, the screen suddenly blanked, only a Call Ended<\/em> message left behind.<\/p>\n

She tried calling back, but no one answered. She called into her screen\u2019s video buffer and grabbed a freeze of the equations Jenny had shown her, and stared at them, baffled. They made no sense at all, just a jumble. What in the world was this about?<\/p>\n

It took about a half hour of staring before it clicked into place. It was like a brainteaser, so obvious once she saw it that it was hard to believe she hadn\u2019t seen it from the start, but it was actually very cleverly hidden. But Linda didn\u2019t think until later of Jenny\u2019s cleverness in hiding the message, at that moment she could only feel sudden, burning anger.<\/p>\n

In the middle of the mass of fake math, Jenny had said:<\/p>\n

Prison camp. Don\u2019t come down.<\/em><\/p>\n

#\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 #\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 #<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to know who leaked it,\u201d Safreth said.<\/p>\n

Lauren Cummings replied, \u201cAdd to the list of things my new Defense Department is going to have to invent: spooks. An intelligence agency. We haven\u2019t really got anyone equipped to investigate this sort of thing, not yet. It could be the newsnets, they\u2019ve got plenty of cameras of their own, and this isn\u2019t one of the images we took so it wasn\u2019t leaked from our office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Press Secretary Carol Tolbert said, \u201cIf one of the newsnets took the picture, they\u2019d be posting it as their own, accompanied by loud blasts of a proud publicity trumpet, not calling it an \u2018unverified image prompting wild rumors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more likely possibility,\u201d Cummings continued, \u201cis the Terran government itself. They\u2019re trying to scare us, or scare our population, by starting these rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safreth stared at the satellite image of a planetside missile site. \u201cWell it\u2019s not a fake, it matches our own pictures, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings nodded. \u201cYes. But we don\u2019t believe it means what it looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIncreased activity around a dozen planetside missile sites, that can\u2019t mean anything good,\u201d Safreth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey aren\u2019t nuclear, if that helps,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cDespite the rumors flying around, there aren\u2019t any nukes left on Earth, haven\u2019t been for a hundred years, and if Monroe wants to build new ones it\u2019ll take longer than this, and won\u2019t look like immediate launch prep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t have to be nuclear,\u201d Arthur Norris, Chief of Staff, observed. \u201cConventional warheads would be plenty to shred the Colonies, they weren\u2019t built to withstand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone sit down and stop pacing,\u201d Cummings said. \u201cMr. President, with respect that includes you. We don\u2019t have an intelligence agency yet, but I\u2019ve been talking this over with my team and we don\u2019t believe there\u2019s any threat of a missile attack from Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Safreth reluctantly settled himself down behind his desk. He still wasn\u2019t used to the new office, which the newsnets hadn\u2019t even come up with a shorthand name for yet, but in a strange way just sitting behind the desk suddenly made him feel more… well, presidential. Just knowing what the new office, and the administrative complex around it, had been set aside for.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right,\u201d he said. \u201cConvince me of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings nodded. \u201cLook at what happened when the Terran commander, Armstrong, proposed destroying our lifesystems to force us to evacuate. Monroe denied the plan because it would mean losing those lifesystem materials to space, and he was adamant that it all had to be returned to Earth to restore the planet\u2019s ecosystems. Now we all know that\u2019s nonsense, but it\u2019s consistent with everything the Born to the Earth party has said from the beginning. Either Monroe believes it, or else his real motive is to create a stalemate for ongoing propaganda. Either way, it doesn\u2019t serve his goals to blow the Colonies to pieces and see all those materials, along with us, vented into space.\u201d She looked around, making sure everyone was following the point. \u201cWhat does<\/em> serve his interest, especially if he really is a true believe, is a campaign to scare us\u2014 scare our people\u2014 into abandoning the Colonies and heading for the planet. My team believes that\u2019s what this is. He\u2019s got the military doing busy work around the missile sites, making it look like they\u2019re prepping for launch, knowing the work will be easily seen from up here, and start just these kind of rumors.\u201d<\/p>\n

She leaned forward. \u201cThere\u2019s more. This is only anecdotal, from my staff, but I\u2019ve been hearing that people on planetside calls are getting fed carefully crafted hints that something like that is coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been hearing some of that, too,\u201d Carol said. \u201cSome of my staff, people I\u2019ve got taking calls from concerned citizens and the like, are getting questions. I put it down to just part of the same rumors that are going around.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe common pattern,\u201d Cummings said, \u201cis that people say their planetside friends or family are acting like they\u2019re trying to give a warning, but that someone\u2019s preventing them from speaking freely. Since there\u2019s been no such threat or announcement from the Terran government, that seems very unlikely to me: that a large number of people, with no connection to each other except for having offworld relatives, would all have gained access to some classified information that\u2019s not generally known, and would all try to pass on the exact same sort of hints. No, that\u2019s unlikely.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think they\u2019re being coerced into it?\u201d Arthur asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoerced, or deceived\u2014 a coordinated intelligence operation of exactly the sort we don\u2019t have right now,\u201d Cummings said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot a very skillful one,\u201d said Safreth, \u201cif it\u2019s so easy to see through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we wouldn\u2019t be the target,\u201d Cummings answered. \u201cIt\u2019s all about starting rumors, conspiracy theories, circulating among our population. If we try to deny it, say by having Carol here issue a statement, it just lends it credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPropaganda has always been Monroe\u2019s one undeniable skill,\u201d Arthur said. \u201cIt could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if you\u2019re wrong?\u201d asked Safreth. \u201cWhat if they are prepping a missile strike against us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Cummings hesitated. \u201cThen, Mr. President, I\u2019m afraid there\u2019s nothing we can do about it. Not in the short term, anyway. A missile doesn\u2019t have to limit its acceleration to keep a pilot alive, and it doesn\u2019t have to match orbits and dock with its target\u2014 just intercept it, at any relative velocity. Without those limits, a missile launch from Earth could hit the Colonies in Earth orbit within minutes, those at the Lagrange points or Lunar orbit in hours. And we have zero anti-missile capacity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChange that,\u201d Safreth said. \u201cAnd Carol, get me a plan for counteracting rumors. We\u2019ve got too many problems already to add a panicked population to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

TO BE CONTINUED<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August 2, 2184 \u201cI\u2019m telling you, Boss, my brother-in-law says he saw the pictures himself. They are prepping missiles for launch.\u201d \u201cMarty, the Terrans are not going to nuke the Colonies.\u201d \u00a0Edgar Wallace, senior supervisor of Industrial Platform (Low Orbit)…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The early history of the United Colonies continues with \"Rumors\"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thehistory"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3BJaJ-rumors","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1260"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1261,"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1260\/revisions\/1261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keithgoodnight.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}