Shoshone Station: The Galactic Consortium season 2

Episode 9: Asha-Tanga #8

Davas's big Asha-Tanga speech was held in one of the coliseum-sized lecture halls at Saras University. It was a Who's Who of the important players from both the Consortium and Earth.

Davas's speech would have a little something for everyone, or so the diplomatic rumor mill said. He would speak about their terraforming plans for Mars and Venus, their new deep-space station, Vaisada, and further exploration. He would also talk about some of the remaining difficult political issues with Earth and reaffirm the Consortium's commitment to the "lost citizens" of Earth.

Which would only create further political issues with Earth, Jack reflected. He wondered if the Consortium was unaware of that, just didn't care, or had some other motive going on. But that summed up how they saw Earthsiders—as long-lost members of their own Consortium, with the same rights and responsibility.

Liberals and the oppressed in many parts of the world would read it as having rights of Consortium membership and protection. Conservatives would read it as another attack on the notion of sovereignty.

Diplomats and scientists would parse through this speech for months. Rumors would rise and fall based on hints Darvas may drop, the language he used.

As Jack approached the university campus, he spied a huge party of young people in a side courtyard. The drums were playing a wild rhythm, and in the center of the courtyard was a seething throng of partygoers. He was left wondering if the average citizen cared much about speeches or the official events of Asha-Tanga.

"They seem to be having fun down there," Blumenthal commented as if reading Jack's mind.

"Indeed." Jack looked at their group, which consisted of Blumenthal and some other diplomats from the US or allied states. A few had looks of longing as they watched the partygoers. Who wouldn't prefer dancing and laughing over listening to some speech?

The campus was impressive, but everything on Saras was built on such a grand scale it was difficult for any one place to really stand out. Ahead of them, two massive statues flanked a wide staircase that lead up to the auditorium. Jack recognized both sculptures: Durgana, the woman who had discovered potentiality physics was on the right, and Shaiva, Princess Sarasvat's uncle, was on the left. Both were seated in what on Earth would be seen as meditative poses, twenty feet tall and in bronze. Jack couldn't read the inscriptions under them and made a note to ask what they were at some point.

As they mounted the steps, he caught site of Zeta with a group of Consortium diplomats near the top. She glanced once in his direction, but didn't see him in the crowd.

What Jack wanted suddenly was to be somewhere quiet, sitting on a couch, drinking cocoa, and talking to Zeta. Did that make him old? Sappy? Both? He shrugged it off. There would be many nights for that, but not this week.

He looked around the auditorium as they found their seats. The Consortium Diplomatic Corp was down front, where Zeta sat among them. The majority of the crowd was Consortium—people he didn't know. Here and there were diplomatic crews from various Earth countries—some he knew; more he didn't.

The US president was notably absent. He was finished, a lame duck since the midterm election. But he had his party to look out for, and the conservatives were stirring up anti-Consortium sentiments across the country, so it wouldn't look good for him to be too cozy with Sarasvat and her team.

Meanwhile, the Russian premier was here, even though his country was still mostly on the outs with the Consortium. But he needed to show that he was important enough to be invited to such events, Jack guessed. Funny how politics worked.

Davas took the stage, and the crowd fell into a hush. He had a commanding stage presence and was a brilliant speaker; Jack was willing to give him that. Still, Jack's attention came and went. He spoke about politics, and Jack was all ears, but much of his speech was about terraforming projects and scientific discoveries that awaited in the galaxy, which went right over Jack's head.

"I would be remiss if I didn't mention the recent decision of the bioethics commission in Sharasana Province," Davas said, and Jack's head swiveled. He could feel the tension ripple through the Consortium crowd, and several people leaned forward to listen. Sharasana was the source of the new regulations restricting medical eggs, not that any of the Consortium listeners needed to be reminded of the context. "I don't need to tell the Consortium audience about Reysata, but perhaps our long-lost cousins on Earth don't know the story. A bio-genetic plague that drove men mad. An entire planet dead, a place rendered inhabitable. By what? Genetic experiments in mixing races, mixing alien DNA types.

"After the Reysata disaster, scientists closed the door on mixing DNA. Others, outside the mainstream community, would like to see that door stay open. To what end?"

Jack watched the top of Zeta's head, wishing he could see her expression.

"The new regulations seem justified in light of the dangers," Davas said. "I don't speak for the local bioethics committee or for Sarasvat personally, but it's my hope that similar regulations can be enacted here as well. Indeed, over the entire Consortium over the next few years."

The speech turned to other things, but Jack continued to muse over what Davas had said. He had read about the Reysata disaster. Scientists on Reysata had been trying to mix alien DNA to make a new race; instead they made a plague that wiped out the planet. It explained their fear, their reluctance to undertake such research. But as an argument against the Squid people it was a red herring. The protocol to mix human and C'thon DNA already existed and had proven that it didn't create problems.

He caught Blumenthal watching him out of the corner of his eye. He wondered if the man understood what was going on in regard to the Squid people, the protests or the regulations that Davas had spoken of. Probably not. If it weren't for Zeta, Jack wouldn't have known much about it either.

Davas's speech had one other big reveal. The final subject was "the divine language," which was a series of symbols found in nature. Symbols that Consortium scientists claimed were, in fact, a code that explained underlying workings of the universe. Which would have been fascinating if Jack had the background to understand what was being said. What he could understand was this: Shaiva had discovered a way to use the divine language to create potentiality fields so dense they were almost physical. Fields that could tell an entire planet what sort potential it should develop.

One such crystal had been planted on Earth eons ago, early in Shaiva's research. It had long since dissolved, but it had shaped Earth's evolution to a high degree. It was because of the crystal that the animals on Earth, even the people, were the same as those that existed elsewhere in the Consortium.

"Sarasvat has been studying with her uncle for the last four thousand years," Davas said.

Behind him a display showed the two of them seated on a spinning platform. Their eyes were closed, and they whispered to each other in some language that Jack didn't know and wasn't translated by the system. In the middle, between them, a glowing crystal hung. The words of Earth science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke came to him suddenly: ". . . any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Jack could have easily described what was happening in the video as magic. But Davas was explaining it as science. They were speaking the divine language, the language of the fundamental symbols of the universe. And in so doing, telling the material universe how to be.

"Scientists and technicians at Shaiva's institute have just announced that their first joint project is ready for delivery. Angorak's crystal will be coming to this galaxy within a month's time, to be placed on the surface."

There was a ripple through the crowd at this announcement—that there would be a potentiality crystal on Angorak, the planet Earth knew as Mars. Jack found it interesting, but his mind soon drifted back to the regulations and the eggs. How would Zeta feel and what would she do?