The Meeting: Never Too Late

    "So," said Drachir. "The media are calling the thing that's supposed to hit the Earth tonight a 'giant dust bunny.'"
    Rex winced.
    "Dust bunnies in space!" Jerry intoned theatrically.
    "It's a lot less dense than anything you'd find under Jerry's bed," said Rex. Or on it, added Rex mentally.
    "Or on it," said Benny out loud.
    "Basically," Rex continued, "some of the zodiacal dust has risen above and below the disk, possibly propelled by electrostatic forces, and it's headed our way. I predict it will consist of the special kind of dust." He waved the little sample of museum dust.
    "They say if you're someplace really dark you might be able to see a faint glow in the sky," said Drachir.
    "If it's a natural phenomenon, that's probably all we'll see," said Rex. "However, if it's not, if it's Them, well, it's pretty big. It'd be the biggest thing we've ever seen Them do."
    "By far," said Drachir.
    "The Aerospace Force will have stratosphere drones collecting samples," said Rex. "But I think it'd be good to have a few of us positioned where we can observe. Just in case something happens. I was thinking of camping out in that big meadow on the south face of Mt. Shaovar."
    "Where the university observatory is?" said Drachir.
    "Yeah. Down the slope from there. The cloud is too diffuse to really see much with a telescope. If it's the sort of thing we've been...," anticipating/dreading/hoping for all these years, thought Rex, "considering might happen," he continued out loud, "it'll probably be an eyeball event."
    "Okay," said Drachir. "You and who else?"
    "I'd like Ronnie to be there with me," said Rex
    "Oo, how romantic," said Ronnie.
    "Ronnie? What do you need Ronnie for?" said Drachir.
    Rex paused, a little flustered by Ronnie's comment. He hadn't realized he was being that obvious. Then he decided he didn't like the tone of Drachir's question. Of them all, Ronnie had the least actual data to work with in her specialty. Ronnie was a xenologist, basically a sociologist/anthropologist specializing in Their society. Unfortunately, they had next to no information on how the They behaved among themselves. Even Harmony, a xenolinguist, had recorded samples of the Their writing to work with. Ronnie's work was almost entirely speculative.
    "Um, in case, if there's some kind of interaction, Ronnie could help me. Us," Rex stammered.
    "Okay, you, Ronnie, who else?" said Drachir.
    Rex hadn't been intending that anyone else be assigned to Mt. Shaovar. He'd been going to suggest that other members of Mal's team be posted at strategic locations elsewhere. Now, he didn't want it to look too much like he was trying to get alone with Ronnie. However, he didn't really want the others there, either. He hesitated.
    "We might want some Intelligence on hand, especially if there might be some kind of interaction," said Mal the Intel Op, grinning maliciously. He looked at Ronnie, and she returned his grin.
    "Okay, Rex, Ronnie, Mal, anyone else?" said Drachir.
    "How about Harmony, since she's not going to Washington? If there's going to be some kind of interaction, we might need somebody to translate," said Mal. He exchanged another smile with Harmony, his more tender this time, hers shy but pleased.
    "How about Justin?" said Ronnie, watching Rex.
    "Er...whu...Ju...," said Rex. Ronnie looked amused.
    "Sure," said Justin. "I didn't have anything planned for midnight."
    "It's never too late for Company work," said Drachir.
    "I know," said Justin resignedly.
    "What do we need Justin for?" said Rex, more to Ronnie than anyone else.
    "You said the circuitry was organic. He could be more use to you than I am," said Ronnie.
    "No he isn't!" said Rex. Ronnie, Mal, Jerry and Benny laughed out loud. Rex felt his face getting hot.
    "So, we've got Rex, Ronnie, Mal, Harm, and Justin on Mt. Shaovar at midnight, unless Rex has any objections," said Drachir. More laughter.
    "No. Fine," Rex gasped.
    "Jerry's group are going to Washington. Harmony's staying here to research those break-ins. Ronnie, you mind helping her with that?"
    "Not at all. It's actually the biggest clue to Their behavior I've gotten in a while," said Ronnie.
    "Thanks. Mal and Rex are at the university with me this morning. Rex is at Long Ley this afternoon. Mal, you mind going back out to the construction site this afternoon, see if you get any follow-ups on those rumors?" said Drachir, referring to Mal's "day job," working for the construction company that served as a cover for one of the Company's pet street gangs -- a cover for the cover's cover.
    "I suppose. I hope there aren't going to be any accidents today," said Mal.
    "Not in twenty years. We'll discuss insurance policies later," said Drachir. Mal perked up. "Justin..." Drachir began. He glanced back at the museum dust sample Rex still held. "That dust is older than two days, isn't it?" Drachir asked.
    "I said in the report a couple weeks ago...," Rex began.
    "Yeah, I remember now," said Drachir. Nearly all the samples of Their technology the Company had recovered to date had broken down into their component atoms after about two days. That was one reason the Company had never gone public with their findings. "Justin, want to see what you can find out about it? It might help with your observations tonight."
    "Sure," said Justin.
    "Okay, I think we've all got enough to keep us busy until tomorrow. Let's go," said Drachir.
=== ===
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Next: Sealed for Our Protection
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The Meeting: Space Dustup

  "Okay Rex," said Drachir. "Go. Space dust."
  "Well, first, let me talk about some Earth dust," said Rex. He took a small plastic sample bag out of his pocket. The bag contained a quantity of what looked like ordinary household dust. "This is something the Tech department recently whipped up. I believe Charles helped." Charles made a little mock-bow in his seat. Rex continued, "It may not look like much, but this is a surveillance camera, recorder, and transmitter. The thing about it that I'm interested in is the optical properties." Using his Blacknet cell phone, Rex put some displays up on the big screen. "Here's the spectroscopic analysis of the index of refraction at various wavelengths. This diagram uses the refraction data to ray-trace the internal path of the incident light. As you can see, it's focused internally on the phototransistor grid."
  Rex took another sample bag out of his pocket. This one contained just a pinch of dust, darker than the first sample. "This was recovered in the BSU museum after the recent bogey sighting," said Rex. He flash more displays on the big screen. "The optical properties are very interesting. Even though the index of refraction is higher than in our dust..."
  "That's pretty high," said Charles. "It looks like...is it diamond?"
  "I believe it is high-quality synthetic diamond. Flawless, as near as I can tell. As you can see, the ray-tracing diagram shows that in the museum sample the light is also focused internally, on something that just might be an image raster. The image raster is composed of and is connected to a complex of organic compounds that may represent some kind of organic circuitry. Justin, you've looked into that. Do you concur?"
  "I can give you a definite maybe," said Justin. "It could be some kind of circuitry."
  "I can't show you the third sample," said Rex. "It was collected in aerogel by a stratospheric drone. Most of it looks like ordinary space dust, but one grain in ten thousand matches our possible surveillance dust here. Spectroscopic analysis of grains in space suggests that a similar ratio matches the museum dust sample."
  "Wasn't there supposed to be a space probe that was going to take samples of the dust orbiting the sun?" asked Benny. "Whatever happened to that?"
  Rex glanced down, dreading what would come next. He would have to answer Benny's question, then he and Charles would get into it..
  Drachir shifted irritably in his seat. He saw it coming, too.
  "It was canceled because NSA needed the funds for the Mars mission," said Rex.
  "You know...," Charles began. Drachir folded his arms and gave a small, impatient grunt. "...for what we're spending on the manned Mars mission, we could cover the planet with rovers and flying drones."
  "We need to learn how to survive in space," said Rex. "All our eggs are in one basket -- the Earth. If something happens to the Earth, the human race is doomed."
  The lights flickered briefly, and the surge protectors in the building bleeped as they registered a power glitch.
  "That's been happening a lot lately," said Mal, frowning.
  "Power distribution on the East Coast has pretty much been taken over by Plenty, Incorporated," said Charles.
  "That's the AmCap subsidiary?" said Drachir. AmCap was somewhat notorious for dealing with quality issues by arranging for big campaign donations to be given to interested politicians.
  "Yeah," said Charles. "They're pretty big in the Midwest, too."
  "I thought deregulation was supposed to foster competition," said Mal.
  "Plenty's pretty much out-competed everyone else," said Charles.
  "We're getting well beyond the scope of this meeting," said Drachir. "Can we get back to the topic at hand?"
  "I don't think we're ready for a manned mission to Mars," said Charles. Drachir put his hand over his eyes. "I think we should go in with the Russians on their space resort project."
  "That's just for a bunch of rich fat cats who think the Mile High Club isn't exclusive enough any more!" said Rex. "There isn't going to be any science being done there!"
  "I have to admit, the only space science I've seen recently that actually required humans to be in space involved studying humans in space," said Benny.
  "You're not helping," said Rex.
  "Rex, why don't you drop by Long Ley this afternoon and see how the mission planning is coming along," said Drachir. "You can take the tilt-rotor and be back here tonight for the light show."
  Rex bit back an intemperate reply. Long Ley Aerospace Force Base was all the way out on the coast, three hundred miles away. Even with the Company tilt-rotor, that was an hour out and an hour back. Plus, while he was intensely interested in the mission itself, he hated talking to the bureaucrats in charge. They didn't really understand what was at stake. "Do you still want me at the university this morning?" he asked.
  "Of course," said Drachir with what surely wasn't a sadistic little smile.
  Damn busy day, Rex thought. However, the thing with Dr. Reimer's lab intrigued him. Up until now it had seemed that Drachir had been keeping Rex away from the stasis field investigation, which was odd, since of all the operatives he knew about, Rex had the most relevant knowledge second only to Reimer himself. Now that Drachir was letting him in on it, Rex really couldn't say no. So he decided not to complain about the day's workload.
=== ===
Author's note: Wikipedia on optical lens design, digital cameras, the stratosphere.
Using aerogel to collect space dust.
Surveillance dust. A more advanced and paranoid version. If this guy's right the transparent society is already here, at least for some people.
Best argument for manned space flight that I could find. If you think that's lame, you should have seen the others. On the other hand, this critique of the US space shuttle and the ISS raises some pretty damning points.
Electricity deregulation -- the energy corporations are all for it, of course, but other people have found the results disappointing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/11/AR2006031101603.html
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0425/p02s01-usec.html
This may be because power generation and distribution may be natural monopolies. If one company can supply power for a lower price than two companies can, then competition can never get started. The results achieved by electricity deregulation -- the failure of meaningful competition to arise -- suggest that electricity is indeed a natural monopoly, as economists have long suspected.
=== ===
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Next: The Meeting: Never Too Late
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The Meeting: Mission Creep

  "Now, I know Rex is all excited about his space dust, but something more urgent has come up at the University," said Drachir. "Dr. Reimer has locked himself in his laboratory and won't come out."
  "So?" said Rex. "Get somebody to bust the door down."
  "They tried. It won't budge. They tried a sledgehammer on the door and on the wall -- didn't even dent it. They even got some demolitions experts from Military Science..."
  "Oh. Heck. Maybe he got that stasis field thing to work," said Rex.
  "That's what we're thinking. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to be able to turn it off. It's attracting attention. We don't want anyone paying attention to it just yet. I'd like Rex to accompany me to the University later this morning. Mal, I'd like you there too -- maybe you could help us with damage control."
  Mal agreed. Rex seemed to chafe a little but he said "Okay."
  "Now, before we get into what is likely to be a long and detailed discussion...," said Drachir, glancing at Rex. Rex returned his glace with a glower. "...does anyone else have anything requiring our near-term attention?"
  Mal shifted uneasily. He glanced at Rex, then turned his eyes to the floor.
  "Yes, Mal?" said Drachir.
  "One of my street contacts mentioned the possibility of a large shipment of 'heavy metal' coming into Baltimore within the next week or so," said Mal to the floor. "I nosed around a bit and got some confirming noises."
  "Thanks, Mal. I'll make sure hints are dropped into the appropriate ears," said Drachir.
  "Excuse me, but how is that our problem?" exclaimed Rex.
  Drachir smiled a small, rueful smile. "Mission creep," he said.
  "I can't help what I hear on the street," said Mal. "You wanna just hand a bunch of assault rifles over to the Vast Right Wing or whoever?"
  "What are you supposed to be accomplishing on the street, anyway? I've never been clear on that," said Rex.
  "Primarily, I'm looking for evidence that They might be manipulating human affairs through clandestine activity. Secondly, a lot of contraband is produced in out-of-the-way wilderness areas. That's also the sort of place where the most anomalous sightings occur. Sometimes people in the business see things of interest to us. And sometimes I turn up things that our buddies in Homeland Security are interested in."
  "I'd guess that's most of what you turn up."
  "Well, yeah. There's a lot more of that kind of thing than what we're interested in."
  "Why don't we let Homeland Security take care of the Earth? We've got the rest of the universe to worry about."
  "Homeland Security is aware that there's a fair-sized off-the-books operation going on," said Drachir. "They even know some of the people and organizations involved." He looked around the room. "They know that a lot of the people who hang out here at the Engineering Technology building have jobs that don't have much to do with engineering. If we keep feeding them nibbles, they'll remain convinced that we're on their side, and they'll keep looking the other way."
  Rex sighed. "Okay," he said. He looked at Drachir with raised eyebrows.
=== ===
Author's note:
The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: http://www.vastrightwingconspiracy.com/. There seem to be a number of competing versions -- try googling "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy." The Vast Right Wing in the story is a militant splinter group that is ticked off about War-on-Terror-related gun control measures that have been enacted ten years into the future.
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The Meeting: Culture Glob

  Mal was the last one to reach the meeting room. There wasn't any table, just a collection of comfortable chairs. Laptops were actually perched on laps; books and papers stood in handy piles near people's feet. Mal missed having a table. He liked having something to prop his feet up on. He made do with the arm of Harmony's chair instead. She smiled shyly at him. The other operatives on Jerry's team -- Benny, Charles, Ginger, and Jerry himself -- were already there, along with the rest of Mal's team -- Justin, Rex, and Ronnie. Drachir, their sort of not-supervisor, was there too.
  Drachir waved what appeared to be a cell phone around the meeting room. "Okay. This room appears to be secure. We don't have to speak plainly for the duration of this meeting."
  "Good!" said Rex. "I hate that not-absolutely-not-total-not-fucking-not-shit."
  "Your opinion of standard Company procedure has been noted. Since about ten minutes after you were recruited, actually."
  "The plain-talk translator is active," said Ginger. "Rex will really hate any recording of this meeting made on Company equipment."
  "Thank you, Ginger," said Drachir. "As you should already know, the hottest topic this morning is the so-called anomaly supposedly sighted in the Library of Congress last night. Well, it appears that it was actually recorded by one of their security cameras."
  "Yeah," said Mal. "The video has already been uploaded to the Internet."
  "I trust you will apply your skills to making sure the Internet version is accurate."
  "Already on it," said Mal, tapping away at his notebook.
  "I thought we didn't have to talk like that," said Rex.
  "Old habit," said Drachir. "I haven't been talking like this for less than twenty years."
  "I haven't seen the video yet," said Benny.
  "Maybe you should spend less time investigating the .xxx sites," said Drachir. "Here, I'll put it on the big screen."
  The twelve-foot, high-definition, digital screen just made the crummy security-camera footage look even worse than it was. It showed a dimly-lit hallway, with crates of books and papers stacked sloppily against one wall, all the way down the hall. A small, round, floating, glowing thing came around the boxes and advanced toward the camera at a walking pace. No detail could be seen, just a glow.
  "Swamp gas," said Rex sourly. "That could be just a defect in the recording system."
  "No…" said Mal, tapping. The video on the screen changed, with some kind of light-amplification effect applied. "See, it's lighting up the wall next to it."
  "It could be friggin' Tinkerbell after you get done with it, Mal," said Rex.
  "This version's good," said Mal. As the glowing whatever approached, it appeared to rise toward the camera. Then it passed out of the bottom of the frame. The picture began to jump and distort. Washes of color, like oil on water, played across the image.
  "Mal, do you think that's some form of electronic intrusion?" asked Drachir.
  "Yeah, that's pretty classic. We've seen that kind of interference in other cases where They appeared to be involved."
  "The security camera's recording was tampered with," said Drachir. "The recording of the bogey was replaced by several minutes of empty hallway. We're looking at a backup recording that was relayed to a remote location. There appears to have been an effort to tamper with that, too, but the remote backup didn't have an erase function. This isn't the first time they've had trouble with the security cameras -- that's why they installed the backup system."
  "There seems to be a pattern," said Ginger. "In the past month we've had anomalous sightings at the university, too -- the library, the bookstore, and the museum."
  "Sounds like They've joined the culture club," said Benny.
  "The recent sightings have been in or near records of rare languages," said Harmony. "That may be significant."
  "Well, we can't be having an unknown entity loose in the Library of Congress where everyone can see it," said Drachir. "Jerry, I need your team to go to Washington and get the situation under control."
  "Okay," said Jerry. "Should I round up the usual suspects to go with me?"
  "Take Benny, Charles, and Ginger. Harmony, I'd like you to stay here and research cases prior to the last month -- see if They've shown an interest in rare languages before then," said Drachir.
  The named parties murmured their assent.
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Jerry Hawker

Jerry Hawker. Brown hair, brown eyes. Dresses in a stereotypical press overcoat and hat. Intel Op. Day job: tabloid reporter, responsible for making sure the general public gets the 'true' story about things the Company is interested in. Favorite weapon: the pen, but he keeps a pistol handy, just in case. Quote: "Bigfoot Scare in Eastern Montana." One of the two team leaders, Jerry's team includes Harm, Benny, Charles, and Ginger. Based on the player character created by Mitch Murry Lee. Used with permission.
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Benny Honto

Benny Honto. Black hair, brown eyes. A skirt-chaser, he'd probably have better luck if he just did something about his hair. And his teeth. And his skin, and clothes, and manners.... Science Op. Day job: professor at Bavarian State University. Favorite weapon: other operatives -- they make good shields. Quote: "Your place or OUCH!" Based on the player character created by Amber Biliouris. Used with permission.
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Rex Strang

Rex Strang. Blond hair, light blue eyes, pale skin, tall, lean, athletic. Wears dataglasses with light-red-tinted lenses to hide the data from bystanders. Science Op, physicist. Day job: professor of astronomy at Bavarian State University, selected to be on the first manned mission to Mars if it ever gets off the ground. Favorite weapon: bare hands -- he's a karate master and expert ground fighter. Quote: "Stupidity is malicious."
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Author's Note: Wikipedia article on ground fighting.
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Justin Moore

Justin Moore. Black hair, black eyes, dark brown skin, runner's build. Science Op, xenobiologist. Day job: hot-shot consultant in the biotech industry. Favorite weapon: natural selection, but sometimes he has help it along with something small, sharp, and toxic. He also has his Tai Kwon Do expertise to fall back on, or jump forward with, as required. Quote: "Careful -- the big circle of life might be getting ready to roll right over your ass."
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Author's Note: Tai Kwon Do
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Charles Cee MacClare

Charles Cee MacClare. Sandy-haired, green eyed, with a big square jaw on a big square face. Often wears monogrammed sweaters. Also wears gold-framed aviator-style data-glasses, which are really a wireless internet display. Tech Op, engineer, "black" helicopter pilot. Thanks to his extensive contacts in the corporate and financial worlds, the Company also calls upon him to do a lot of economic, political, and public-relations "engineering." Day jobs: billionaire playboy, surfing bum (separate identities). Favorite weapon: a Glock he keeps in a shoulder holster, usually hidden under the sweater. Also an expert boxer. Quote: "Greed is good, but a mutually profitable exchange is better. That lets everyone be greedy."
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Author's Note: Glock. Probably a .45 caliber.
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Malcolm Jimenez

Malcolm Jimenez. Black hair, brown eyes, tan skin, short, a little overweight but otherwise in good shape. An excellent cook, unfortunately also an excellent eater, and it shows. A Baltimore baseball fan since childhood, he's often seen wearing his old Orioles hat. Intel Op trained to anticipate global threats. Day jobs: construction worker and gang enforcer under a number of false identities. Favorite weapon: Bunker-busting bombs, but for personal use makes do with an automatic pistol. Quote: "What they don't know won't hurt us." The other team leader, Mal's team includes Justin, Rex, and Veronica.
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Author's note:
Baltimore Orioles. Mal's hat is a replica of the 1988 Cooperstown Clean Up -- image here. What a Long Strange Trip Dept. -- I believe it was 1988 when I selected this to be Mal's hat.
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