“Tahiti Air Traffic Control, this is hyperspace shuttle Hyper-3, inbound from colony planet Arcadia. Estimating arrival in twenty-two hours. Request instructions. Over.”
“Roger, Hyper-3. Maintain profile. Radio when two hours out for landing clearance.”
“Did that guy say what I thought he said?”
“Yeah.”
“So what did you do?”
“Remember that part in the ATC training manual where it said if an alien spaceship comes on your screens and asks for landing instructions, what do you do?”
“Yeah. ‘Give him a landing clearance within the parameters of existing traffic.’ But that was a joke.”
“It’s not anymore.”
“No shit.”
Tyler Massey knocked once on the door of the president’s office then opened it.
“Sir, we just got a message from Tahiti Air Traffic Control that they received an incoming arrival announcement of a ship from Arcadia.”
“Arcadia? That’s a colony planet, isn’t it?” asked Henry Wang, the President of Tahiti.
“Yes, sir.”
“A ship?”
“They call themselves hyperspace shuttle Hyper-3, sir.”
“Well, well, well. Someone has finally done it. Created an interstellar drive.”
“Apparently so, sir.”
“Make sure the prime minister knows. I would be interested in his take on all this.”
“I’m sure he knows, sir. Is he not in authority over this matter?”
“No, Tyler. Do not forget that the Constitution of Tahiti establishes foreign policy as the province of the head of state.”
“But we’ve never had need of a foreign policy, sir.”
“Yes, and that situation has now abruptly come to an end.”
Massey’s eyes grew wide.
Wang called Prime Minister Jacob Keller half an hour later.
“Hi, Jake.”
“Hi, Hank. What’s going on?”
“I wanted your input on what I should do with regard to this hyperspace shuttle that has come calling.”
“What you should do?”
“Of course. Foreign policy is the sole discretion of the presidency under the Constitution.”
“Hank, the presidency has been a purely ceremonial role for over a century.”
“Yes, that’s correct. Until now. But I wanted to get your input before I contacted this shuttle.”
“Hank –“
“Do not fight me on this, Jake. I’ll fight back, and I’ll win. You have parliamentary elections coming up, whereas I’m in mid-term. Now let’s just abide by the Constitution, shall we? I won’t act without your input – that’s why I’m calling – but I will by God act. And I can make it stick.”
Keller had always had a good relationship with Wang, and had never seen him so assertive. He held up his hands in a warding-off gesture.
“All right, Hank. All right. No reason to get pushy about it. I was going to contact them and see if they had some sort of background information for us. Whether this is an exploration mission or a diplomatic mission, they ought to have some materials along.”
“That’s a good idea, Jake. I’ll contact them and ask them. And whatever materials they share with me, I’ll copy them to you and then we can talk about them. We good with that?”
“Yes, Hank. I’m good with that.”
“All right, Jake. I’ll let you know.”
“Would he really do that, sir? Cause a stink?” asked Frank Janko, Keller’s chief of staff.
“Yes, he would,” Keller said. “Don’t ever underestimate Henry Wang. He didn’t get to be president without having lots of friends in high places. And he can sidestep most of the heavy lifting that goes along with day-to-day political wrangling, which means his popularity is always going to be much higher than mine. If he wants to cause trouble, he can.”
“But, sir, the presidency has always been a man without a job, in some sense.”
“Yes, Frank, but that’s not how it was designed. The writers of the Constitution always thought there would be contact with other human planets. They just thought it would come about much sooner than it did. Earth had interstellar transport, after all. The president was to be outwardly focused, and the prime minister inwardly focused. It just didn’t ever happen.”
“Until now,” Janko said.
“Until now, which Hank just reminded me of.”
Keller sighed before continuing.
“And we’re going to have to play it his way. For now, at least.”
“And then, sir?”
“We’ll see how it goes, Frank. If we don’t win the parliamentary elections, I’m out of a job, and I’m not willing to risk that by taking on Henry Wang right now.”
Keller drummed his fingers on his desk for several seconds.
“And, when you get right down to it, he’s right, you know.”
“They’re requesting the transmission of any background materials we may have.”
“Transmit the video and its attachments, Mr. Belsky,” JuPing said.
“Yes, Ma’am. Transmitting.”
“Did you get a chance to view that video, Jake?”
“Yes, Hank. Thanks for sending it on. And I’ve taken a look through the attachments as well. One question for you. You’re Chinese, ethnically at least. What do zufu and zumu mean?”
“My Wang ancestors were in North America for generations, so I looked it up to be sure I remembered correctly. But zufu means ‘honored grandfather’ and zumu means ‘honored grandmother.’”
“The biographies implied those were important positions.”
“Yes, Jake. Family is very important among Chinese. This Chen family is a financial and political powerhouse on Arcadia. They’re running the entire hyperspace effort for the government there. If they’ve stuck with Chinese tradition, the zufu and zumu of the family would be the decision makers for the whole clan.”
“Wouldn’t it be important for them to stay on Arcadia then, Hank?”
“If they were the current leaders, yes. But they stepped down over a decade ago.”
“Some sort of scandal?”
Wang chuckled.
“That’s what a politician would think, Hank. But it’s simpler than that. They stepped down due to age.”
“But they’re only in their nineties, Jake.”
“Two things there, Jake. Arcadia’s year is about four percent longer than a solar year. Paul Chen-Jasic – Chen Zumu – is a hundred years old, and his wife Chen JuPing – Chen Zumu – is ninety-seven.
“The second thing is that Arcadia did not have anti-senescence scientists among their original colonists like we did. They probably don’t have juvie.”
Keller’s eyes grew wide. If they didn’t have the juvenalis drugs, that would be their natural age.
“Yeah. That would make a difference. A big difference. But why is someone that old going into hyperspace?”
“One guess, Jake. Arcadia would have the listings of the various colonies’ technical specialties as well.”
“They’re here for treatment, Hank?”
“Not exclusively, I wouldn’t think. But at least partially.”
Keller nodded.
“So what are you going to do?”
“Welcome them. See what they want. Get them treatment as long as they’re here.”
“That all makes sense to me, Hank.”
“All right, Jake. And when we get down to substantive discussions, I’ll include you.”
“Thanks, Hank. I appreciate it.”
“No problem, Jake. You have elections coming up, as I noted before, and, push come to shove, I prefer you – a lot – to the other guy.”
“Hyperspace shuttle Hyper-3 to Tahiti Air Traffic Control.”
“Go ahead, Hyper-3.”
“Tahiti Control, I am declaring a medical emergency. One of my passengers is in medical distress. Over.”
“Roger, Hyper-3. What is your loadout? Over.”
“Tahiti Control, I am four-wide and one high. Over.”
“Roger, Hyper-3. If you can divert, you are cleared directly to shuttlepad H-1. Over.”
Igor Belsky cast a nervous glance over his shoulder, and entered H-1 into the computer.
“Roger, Tahiti Control. Diverting to shuttlepad H-1. Over.”
“Roger, Hyper-3. We will advise to have medical personnel standing by. Tahiti Control out.”
The flight computer modified Hyper-3’s glide path to overfly the shuttleport and head out over downtown Papeete. Hyper-3 came down on the roof of the hospital building, one of the four original buildings delivered with the colony. It was now one of a complex of buildings stretching off to the northwest in the capital’s downtown.
Medical personnel raced up the mobile stairway as it approached the shuttle. Belsky opened the cockpit hatch, and got out. He had rotated the front seats around to give them more room.
Paul Chen-Jasic was laid out on the back seats, Chen JuPing and Stuart Reynolds attending him. She looked up at the first EMT into the shuttle.
“Apparent myocardial infarction. First onset under one hour ago. Powdered aspirin and nitroglycerin three times so far.”
“Excellent. We’re going to move him directly to the cardiac ER unit. Age?”
“One hundred solar years,” JuPing said.
The EMT gave her a quick surprised glance, and then they were moving. The stair had a motorized stretcher on one handrail. They maneuvered the semi-conscious Paul into it, then ran him to the bottom, moved the stretcher to a gurney, and wheeled him into the elevator bay, JuPing and Stuart Reynolds following along behind.
Igor Belsky stood on the platform at the top of the stairs watching the grim procession pass into the hospital’s rooftop elevator bay, unsure of what to do next. He was called back into the cockpit by the radio.
“Tahiti Control to Hyper-3. Come in, please.”
Belsky re-entered the cockpit, swung the pilot seat around to face forward and took the pilot’s position.
“Hyper-3 here, Tahiti Control. Over.”
“Hyper-3, we need you to clear that emergency shuttlepad. Advise when ready for transfer to shuttleport. Over.”
Belsky had left one engine idling, so he had on-board power to restart the others.
“Hyper-3 ready for transfer to shuttleport now, Tahiti Control. Over.”
“Roger, Hyper-3. You are cleared for transfer to shuttlepad one-four at altitude one thousand feet. Over.”
“Transfer to shuttlepad one-four. One thousand feet. In progress. Hyper-3 out.”
Belsky had been restarting engines while he was talking. The stairs had receded when he shut the shuttle’s cockpit door. With all engines nominal, he throttled up and the shuttle rose from the hospital roof.
Hyper-3 came down on shuttlepad 14 at the Papeete Capital Shuttleport. A mobile stairway approached the shuttle, sitting twelve feet off the ground on its payload of four containers. A man walked up the stairs.
Igor Belsky opened the cockpit hatch and stepped out through the door to the platform.
“Hello, I’m Tyler Massey. I’m President Henry Wang’s aide.”
“Igor Belsky. Pilot of Hyper-3. Good to meet you.”
Massey craned his head to look into the shuttle cockpit.
“I was under the impression there were passengers,” he said.
“I had to drop all my passengers at the hospital. Medical emergency.”
“Is everyone OK?” Massey asked.
“I don’t know. They wheeled the ambassador into the hospital. His wife and caregiver are with him.”
“Oh, my. I do hope he’ll be OK.”
Massey looked helpless for a moment.
“Um, I’m supposed to take everyone to meet the president.”
“I’ll be happy to go talk with him if I can have a chance at a quick shower and change first.”
Massey looked Belsky up and down. His six-week growth of beard, the fleece lounger and booties – and his six-week accumulation of body odor was becoming more than apparent.
“Yes. Yes, perhaps that’s best. This way, Mr. Belsky.”
Belsky grabbed his small bag and followed Massey down the stairs.
In less than an hour, fate had whittled down the four-man Arcadian delegation to Tahiti to one middle-aged shuttle pilot.
Tyler Massey showed Igor Belsky into the president’s office in the administrative building in downtown Papeete.
“Ah. Mr. Belsky,” Henry Wang said, coming around from behind his desk. “It’s good to meet you.”
“It’s good to meet you, too, Mr. President.”
Wang waved to a side seating arrangement in his office.
“Please, have a seat, Mr. Belsky.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
They all sat, including Massey, who sat off to one side.
“The first thing I have to tell you is that I have made inquiries at the hospital. Mr. Chen-Jasic is doing well. They have stabilized him, and he is resting comfortably pending further treatment. Madam Chen JuPing has also been admitted for treatment.”
“That’s excellent news, Mr. President.”
Wang nodded.
“Indeed, Mr. Belsky. But it leaves us with something of a quandary. It is clearly not yet time to engage the ambassadors with business discussions, so it is up to you and I to continue as best we can.”
“Well, I’m just a shuttle pilot, but I’ll do the best I can.”
“Excellent, Mr. Belsky. Excellent. So I have some questions, and have made some surmises, and let’s start with those.”
“Of course, Mr. President.”
“Clearly Arcadia has developed interstellar travel, and you know something about that.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How does it work, generally speaking, Mr. Belsky?”
“We get a certain distance away from the planet, Mr. President, then we transfer into hyperspace. We travel in hyperspace until we get to within a certain distance from our destination, then we drop out of hyperspace and make the last bit of the journey in normal space.”
“And how fast do you go in hyperspace, Mr. Belsky?”
“It’s about three light-years per hour, Mr. President.”
“And how far did you come to get here, Mr. Belsky?”
“Thirty-one hundred light-years from Arcadia to Earthsea, Mr. President, and then another thirty-two hundred light-years or so from Earthsea to here.”
“So you did it in two trips, Mr. Belsky?”
“Yes, Mr. President. We stayed over on Earthsea for three weeks so Mr. Chen-Jasic and Madam Chen could have recovery time.”
“Recovery time, Mr. Belsky?”
“Yes, Mr. President. Each leg was about six weeks, and it was all in zero gravity.”
“I see.”
Wang thought back over the video that they had sent him from the shuttle on its way to the planet.
“So your trip in this shuttle was to set up a relationship between Arcadia and Tahiti, Mr. Belsky?”
“Well, that and to bring QE radios along, Mr. President.”
“You have QE radios with you, Mr. Belsky?”
“Yes, Mr. President. The shuttle itself has an onboard QE radio system for itself back to the network hub on Earthsea, and we brought two multi-channel planetary radios that are paired with QE radios on the network hub on Earthsea and the secondary network hub on Arcadia.”
“So you can contact Earthsea from here in real time with the shuttle’s radio, Mr. Belsky?”
“Yes, Mr. President. With any of the planets, actually. They’re all linked already, and I can contact anyone on Earthsea, Arcadia, or Amber. I’ve also had training on how to hook up and start the big planetary radios, which would give Tahiti redundant interconnectivity to the other colonies.”
Wang sat back and thought about that. With the radios in place, he could contact the Arcadian prime minister directly, and not disturb the Arcadian ambassadors during their hospitalization. Belsky, though, was clearly fatigued, both from the trip and, Wang surmised, from the adrenaline crash from his handling of the recent emergency.
“Can you patch me through to Arcadia now, Mr. Belsky? From here, using the shuttle’s QE radio?”
“Yes, Mr. President. I can do that.”
“Please do that, Mr. Belsky, and then I can have Mr. Massey here show you to a hotel room where you can get dinner and some sleep.”
“I would appreciate that a great deal, Mr. President.”