Author's note:
Thank you for your patience and sticking with my story. There has been a huge gap due to work commitments and slight problems with the structure of the story, which has demanded another chapter. As I see it, there are now two chapters left.
Alert readers will do me a favour by not looking too closely at chronology, nor wondering how some events can appear to be contemporaneous when they are clearly aren't.
For this chapter, recall that Ezra, Annela, Yael, Freya and Madam Gloria are on Celetaris attending a conference on the future of Samothea, which has just ended with Outworld Ventures (the settler company) making a claim for full ownership of Samothea, rejecting its own favourable compromise with the population of Samothea.
Also recall that Annela has been cured of a brain-tumour and that Freya's favourite word is 'norgasm'.
There isn't much sex in this chapter.
1 After the conference
On the morning after the Samothea Conference, the core members of the Samothea Project Team currently on Celetaris gathered for a meeting in the office of Joan Mayfield, Vice-Principal of the Celetaris Institute for Science.
Doctor Mayfield sat behind her large cluttered desk in her office in The Needle, the faculty tower on the Institute campus. A petite busy middle-aged woman with a short bob of dirty-blonde hair, she wore one of her trademark blue business suits, whose expensive cut subtly showcased her slim trim figure and good legs. Joan made a final scribble on a computer tab before attending to her guests, who sat around her in a semi-circle on uncomfortable office chairs.
Her guests were Danielle Goldrick, Rosa Silverstein, Herman, the mathematician (and Rosa's boyfriend), Paul Kessler, the lawyer, and Danielle's husband, Roger Harcourt, the historian. Delayed videocasts were going out to two physicists on Earth: Jonathan Wright and Li Qu Yuan.
It was a warm spring morning. With a command to the office computer, Joan set the plasti-glass windows to a porous setting, to allow a fresh breeze to infiltrate the spacious office. She sat back and invited Danielle to address the meeting.
"I have a report from Oakshott Industries and HyperStar Japan on the latest versions of the hyperspace drive, beacons, communication satellites and shuttlecrafts," Danielle said.
"HyperStar Japan has a factory tooled up and almost ready for full production of the drives. Oakshott Industries has engineers and space-riggers fully trained to configure the beacons. Four-seat, eight-seat and twelve-seat versions of the shuttlecraft designed by Rosa are being tested. It won't be that long until they're ready to be sold on the open market."
"Of the new hyperspace links planned, the link from Earth to the Beltway system will make the biggest profits, I think, but the one from the Beltway to Celetaris will be easiest. To convert the whole Beltway to the new hyperdrive technology is the goal, but it is a logistical problem for the future and for a huge consortium of businesses, maybe every hyperspace engineering firm in the Anglosphere."
"This is good news," Joan said, not being a woman to baulk before the enormity of a problem, "but how much pressure does it put on us to commit to full production of the hyperspace technology?"
"I feel the obligation keenly," Danielle answered. "I want my friends and partners to benefit from their work but I also want to know that the people of Samothea will be safe."
In fact, it was only Danielle's power of persuasion over the team, supported by an indulgent Stephen Oakshott, that so far prevented the partners from pursuing the commercial opportunities of the hyperdrive system, regardless what consequences it would have for the population of Samothea.
"I understand your concerns, Danielle, and I agree with them somewhat," Joan said; "yet I think it's time to change our approach toward the colony of Samothea. The people of Samothea just rejected a perfectly good compromise with Outworld Ventures, leaving the status of the planet to be decided by a court-case."
"Paul, do you know when will that be?" Danielle asked.
"Not for six months, at least," Paul replied. "The clerk of the Beltway circuit court told me there's a long backlog of cases."
"We must wait for Stephen Oakshott's reply, of course," Joan said, "but I'm guessing our commercial partners will want to start selling the technology as soon as possible."
Danielle acknowledged that this was true but she repeated the argument she had used so often:
"If we open hyperspace pathways to Samothea," Danielle said, "then the population there will be vulnerable to all the chancers, claim-jumpers, illegal miners and other undesirables who want to exploit the uninhabited parts of the planet, or even the inhabited part. The women of Samothea are not equipped to protect themselves, nor do they have any money to pay an outside agency to protect them."
"Under the compromise just rejected," Joan replied, "it would have been the settler company's problem - and financial incentive - to police the hyperspace pathways and protect the planet from exploitation."
Danielle was not convinced.
"If Outworld Ventures wins the court-case and sells land on Samothea willy-nilly," she said, "then the exploitation of the planet (and, perhaps, also the women on the planet) would happen anyway."
"True, Danielle," Joan agreed, "and if the women of Samothea win the court-case, then they would be in the same position. So why should the Samothea Project and its commercial partners lose out on huge dividends in a hopeless attempt to defend a doomed society on Samothea?"
This question was the heart of the matter. Danielle felt the need to protect the women of Samothea, thirty-five of whom (and counting) were her nieces; but she also wanted the commercial partners of the Samothea Project to reap their justly-earned profits. It was a matter of striking the right balance.
A lively discussion naturally followed, evenly matched between Joan and Danielle, respectively for and against selling the hyperdrive technology on the open market. Soon, however, the argument was interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Come in," Joan invited.
Madam Gloria, Prefect of Samothea, modestly entered. The men politely stood.
"Please excuse my intrusion," Gloria said, "but I have something to say to you all. May I have five minutes to address the meeting?"
There were no objections. Roger offered Gloria his chair, but she preferred to stand.
"I understand that you must be blaming the women of Samothea for the failure of the conference to reach an agreement," Gloria said. "You have all worked so hard on our behalf, it must seem to you that we are very foolish and ungrateful."
"We don't blame you," said Roger.
"I do," said Joan. "I understand how important the principle of self-determination is, Gloria; but you have rejected the only compromise that was available. You may end up in a worse position."