I went to the office early. Talla was dusting the shelves and the mineral specimens in my office when I arrived.
"You don't have to do this Talla," I said.
"The cleaners don't do a very good job," she said. "Talla makes sure everything is first class. Would you like Talla to make you some coffee?"
"That would be lovely, Darling. Thank you."
I was on my second cup when Talla told me Al Dalrymple wanted to talk to me. I took the call.
He told me that, as expected, his superiors were not prepared to authorise the weapons I had asked for, but would allow the hand guns.
"Look, Al," I said, "why don't we meet tomorrow at twelve in the dining room and discuss the matter over a meal and a couple of drinks like the civilised gentlemen we are."
I knew he wasn't going to miss out on this. As expected he told me he would be there.
I had hardly put the phone down when Feng turned up. I told him what Al had said.
"Are you going to accept their offer?"
"Not on you life, Feng. When I was talking to him I had an idea. I need your help."
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to find me a film clip of some soldiers fighting a very large ferocious creature. You are the computer genius, if anyone can find something like this, you can."
"This will be fun. I know just where to start looking."
Feng went to his office to start work. I did not want to interrupt him and busied myself with some of the space probe pictures of the planet we were to go to. It didn't have a name yet, only the number the astronomers had assigned. The majestic mountains and the Mediterranean like sea reminded me of something out of Greek mythology. I decided to call the planet Olympus. The abode of the Gods. It seemed a good name for this world.
I was still playing around with my images when I heard Feng laugh out loud.
"Just come over here and have a look at this," he yelled.
I went to his office and Feng started the clip. It showed a group of soldiers fighting a dragon like creature the size of a house. The special effects were excellent, especially the scene where the dragon ripped apart a human body with his claws, dripping blood, gore and guts everywhere. The acting and dialogue was wooden and unconvincing. The sound track consisted mainly of screaming, shooting and explosions. I judged it to be a scene from an old Chinese horror movie.
"You cant show them this," I said. "They'll know it's fake. It has B-grade movie written all over it."
"It's perfect," said Feng. "By the time I'm finished with it even you will believe it's real. I can't do it here, I don't have the gear."
"So what are you going to do?"
Feng was already on the phone. He spoke for a while in Chinese and hung up.
"I just spoke to a friend of mine. He creates video games. All the gear I need is in his studio. I should know, I got it for him. He owes me a few favours. If I go over there now we'll have the whole thing in the bag by this afternoon."
Feng left brimming with excitement like a schoolboy on his way to a football match.
I couldn't get back into what I had been doing and left for an early lunch. I couldn't bring myself to share Feng's enthusiasm. To me he was going completely overboard. I would have preferred something a little less spectacular like perhaps a tiger or a rogue elephant. If it didn't work out what he was doing we'd have trouble coming up with an alternative. I realised I was worrying and went for a brisk walk through the dismal streets of Okton4 space port after I had finished my meal. It didn't help much.
I returned to the hotel and had a few drinks with some spacers in the bar. At four o'clock Feng rang. He said he was in his office and that the clip was ready.
Half an hour later I sat in Feng's office in front of the big screen. The show was about to start. Feng screened the original clip first.
"This is what we started off with," he said. "And now, without further ado, cast your eyes on this marvel of inspiration and technology."
It started off with the logo and jingle of some news service followed by a female newsreader introducing the lead story of the day. The set, costume and language was mid 25th century. She spoke of an ill fated exploratory expedition to Danos, a planet in the Arcturus system. After stating that there were a number of casualties and that what was left of the explorers were lucky to have left the planet alive she finished off with a warning that the images were extremely graphic and were likely to upset some viewers. What followed was the footage Feng had pinched from the movie, but what a change had come over it. Feng had cut out all the ham acting and close ups of the actors, he had dimmed the scene somewhat to give a twilight impression. The film was unsteady, slightly out of focus in places and askew at times, as if taken by a terrified camera man with a hand-held camera. The newsreader gave a running commentary explaining what the audience was seeing. The clip closed off with the news service logo and part of an advertisement introducing some laundry detergent. The whole thing looked and felt like a genuine 25th century news broadcast. It would scare the living daylights out of Alfred Dalrymple and his masters.
"We really should show this to your uncle before we hit Mr. Dalrymple with it."
"Already in the mill. I spoke to him earlier. He's got some business here in the hotel as luck would have it. Let's adjourn to your office. He'll be with us in about half an hour or so."
The Tai-pan arrived shortly afterwards. He took one look at my office and laughed.
"The office of a man with muddy boots and dirty fingernails as you so aptly put it, Mister Walters," he said, still chuckling.
"That's the impression I tried to give, Sir."
"Well done, I approve. Now, what do you want to show me."
I offered the Tai-pan a beer, which he accepted. We sat down and I explained the situation we were in.
"I needed something to convince the Oktonians that the weapons we asked for are necessary. This is what we have come up with. I switched the screen on and rolled the footage from the Chinese movie. The Tai-pan was horrified.
"You can't show them this. They'll know it's garbage," he said.
"I have no intention of showing them this."
"Then why are you showing me?"
"I want you to see for yourself what this genius nephew of yours has done with it."
With that I rolled the doctored version. The old man's face lit up. He was grinning from ear to ear.
"I have seen some scams in my time, but you two......." He left the sentence hanging in mid air before he continued. "Remind me to never buy a used space ship from you guys. If that doesn't work I don't know what will. By the way, where did you get the woman newsreader from?"
"It's not a real person. It's a computer generated avatar."
"I didn't know it could be done so realistically. It is the news reader who makes the whole thing so believable. I am impressed Gentlemen."
"We've just made his day," Feng said after the Tai-pan had left. "The old bugger loves a good scam."
Neither of us fancied a lesson today. We cancelled our appointments and decided on an evening at Feng's Chinese restaurant.
***
I sat in my office thinking about my upcoming meeting with Al. It irked me that all my negotiations with the masters had to go through another person. I could not control, or even know, how Al presented my case to his superiors. If only there was some way to talk to them directly. It occurred to me I was trying to do that already in a way.
There was the film clip. Al's bosses would see that.
When Feng arrived I asked him If we had a camera on the premises.
"Well," he said, "our mobile phones have a camera built in. If you need something better I can get Mr. Wu to send us what you need. It can be here within an hour. What do you want it for?"
"I want to explain to the masters directly what I want to do and why. We'll record it and append the film clip. This way I'll be able to present our case without intermediary."
"Way to go," said Feng and made a phone call.
I sat down and made some notes what I wanted to say and when the camera arrived we made the recording.
I started off with introducing myself as the leader of the expedition. I showed some pictures of the planet surface and the analysis of the atmosphere. I pointed out the oxygen content.
"I find the oxygen content far too high for a world as described by the astronomers," I said. "To me that indicates large areas with vigorous vegetation. Where there is vegetation there may be animals and possibly intelligent natives. Some of these may well be dangerous and hostile. We need to be prepared for such an eventuality.
"First contact with an unknown alien world is never without danger. There have been disasters in the past. We have searched the archives and found a record of an ill fated exploratory mission in the Arcturus system. I have appended the newscast to this report.
"I do not expect to find anything as violent as the creature in the recording on the world we are about to visit. Still, I would rather err on the side of caution when it comes to our ability to defend ourselves. There is a lot at stake for both Oktonians and the Chang Corporation with this project. I want to get it right. A failed expedition will help no one.
"My analysis has indicated it might also be feasible to grow rye and produce Pumpernickel on this world. I have engaged one of the best agronomists in the known worlds to investigate such a possibility. He will be member of our expedition. I don't need to point out what it would mean to Okton4 if its most important commodity could be produced only ten light years away.
"The attached footage speaks for itself. Let us hope we won't run into anything even remotely like it"
