But they admire me, Eberly told himself as he strolled down from the center of Athens to the lovely little lake at the village’s edge on his morning constitutional. They voted for me overwhelmingly. As long as I don’t saddle them with too many restrictions, they ought to keep on voting for me.
That business a few days ago with Pancho Lane troubled him, though. She certainly surprised me. Eberly touched his jaw where Pancho had hit him. It still felt slightly swollen but the teeth weren’t loose, thank goodness. The people are all buzzing about it: Pancho Lane knocked down the chief administrator and he just laughed it off. Does it make me look noble, forgiving? Or weak and cowardly?
He ambled once around the lake, passing people afoot or on electrobikes. They all gave him respectful hellos or smiled their greetings at him. He nodded and smiled back automatically. Normally he would bask in their admiration, but this morning his mind was on Pancho Lane. Why did she come here? A woman of her wealth and power doesn’t travel to the edge of civilization merely to see her sister. She could talk to Holly electronically any time she wishes. There must be something more to it. There’s got to be.
He barely noticed that the sunlight didn’t seem as bright as usual as he finished his morning’s walk and started back up the slight rise of Athens’s main street, heading for the administration headquarters at the top of the hill. Once in his office, he leaned back in his desk chair and steepled his fingers before his face, considering this new aspect of his situation. What are Pancho’s intentions? Does she plan to stay in this habitat indefinitely? Will she apply for citizenship? She was the CEO of a huge corporation until she retired. What if she’s come to take control of this habitat? Will she run against me in next year’s election? Could she throw me out of office?
His face clenching into a worried scowl, Eberly regretted allowing the habitat’s constitution to call for elections every year. His original reasoning had been clear enough: Give the population the illusion that they have control over their government by allowing them to vote every year. They’ll think their leaders will be responsive to their wishes because there’s always a new election coming up. In actuality, Eberly had figured, the more often they have to vote the fewer of them will bother. Most of our so-called citizens are lazy and complacent. As long as they don’t have any major grievances with their government they’ll allow me to stay in office.
And I’ll be a good ruler for them. I’ll be just and fair. I’ll do what is needed. I’ll use my power for good, he told himself. Leaning back in his desk chair, Eberly pictured an endless future of power and happiness. Power brings respect, he knew. After two or three elections everyone will admire me so much that I’ll be able to do away with elections altogether. And with life-extension therapies I can be the head of this habitat indefinitely. Me, Malcolm Eberly. They’ll all look up to me. They’ll have to.
But Pancho Lane is a force to be reckoned with, he told himself, simmering resentment clenching his teeth. She made me look like a fool. That can’t go unavenged, unanswered. I’ve got to deal with her. I’ve got to get even with her.
His decision made, Eberly told his computer to display his morning’s appointments. The list appeared immediately on the smart wall to his left. He found it easier to read off the flat wall screen than to peer at a three-dimensional image hovering in the air above his desk.
The chief of the maintenance department wanted to see him. Frowning, he returned the call. The engineer’s image appeared on the wall opposite the appointments list.
“We’re having a problem with one of the solar mirrors,” said Felix Aaronson, the maintenance chief. His round, fleshy face looked nettled, more irritated than worried. Something about his complexion seemed different, as if he’d been sunning himself and had acquired a light golden tan. How can he do his job and have time for sunbathing? Eberly asked himself.
Eberly did not particularly like Aaronson. The man was a paranoid, always full of anxiety. Still, he put a smile on his face as he replied, “A problem?”
“One of the mirror segments’s out of alignment. Not much, but we might have to send a crew outside to set it right again.”
So why bother me? Eberly complained to himself. But he kept his smile in place and replied, “If the mirror needs to be fixed, fix it.”
Stubbornly, the maintenance chief shook his head. “But it shouldn’t be out of alignment, man. All the diagnostics check out. Nothing’s hit it and nobody’s given a command to shift its position.”
“It’s a piece of machinery,” said Eberly. “Machinery doesn’t always work the way it should, does it?”
“You don’t get it. We’ve got all the diagnostics and the computer extrapolations and this shouldn’t have happened.”
“But it did.”
“Yeah, it did,” Aaronson answered sullenly.
“Then please fix it and stop bothering me with your responsibilities. I have other things to do.”
The maintenance chief mumbled an apology and promised to get right onto the problem.
“Good,” Eberly snapped. As soon as the man’s face winked off his wall screen Eberly told his phone, “Call Holly Lane. Tell her I want to see her at”—he studied his appointments list for a moment—“ten-fifteen this morning.”
Precisely at ten-fifteen Holly appeared at his office door, dressed in a sleeveless pale green blouse and darker green slacks that emphasized her long legs. Tasteful hints of jewelry at her wrists and earlobes. No tattoos or piercings, Eberly noted thankfully. Holly had outgrown those fads. Yet even though she nominally followed the dress code he had set down more than a year ago, her blouse was cut off to reveal her flat midriff. Others did such things, too, he knew. They obeyed the letter of the code but wore mesh see-throughs or snipped strategic cutouts in their tunics or wore skintight outfits that left little to the imagination.
“You wanted to see me?” Holly asked from the doorway. Once, when they had first started on the journey to Saturn, she had been like an eager little puppy whenever Eberly deigned to notice her. Now she was more adult, more sure of herself, less worshipful.
“Have a seat, Holly,” Eberly said, pointing.
She went to the minimalist Scandinavian chrome-and-leather chair before his immaculately clear desk and perched on its front six centimeters.
“I’ve got a meeting in fifteen minutes,” Holly informed him. “Water allotment committee.”
“This won’t take long. I was just wondering about your sister.”
Holly frowned. “I’m sorry Pancho socked you. She can be a real wrecking crew sometimes.”
“Tell me about it,” Eberly said ruefully, rubbing his jaw.
An uncomfortable silence stretched between them for several moments. Then Holly asked, “So what do you want to know about Panch?”
Eberly hesitated a heartbeat. “Why is she here? Does she intend to stay, or will she return to Earth?”
Shrugging, Holly replied, “She says she came here to spend the holidays with me. As for how long she’ll stay, you’ll have to ask her.”
“I was hoping that you could ask her,” said Eberly. “My one meeting with your sister wasn’t all that friendly.” He rubbed his jaw again.
Holly suppressed a giggle, just barely. “Okay, sure. I click. I’ll ask her, no prob.”
“Good,” Eberly said. “Thank you, Holly.”
“No prob,” she repeated, as she got up and left his office.
Briefly, Eberly thought of calling Aaronson back to soothe his ruffled feathers. Then he decided against it. He’ll be calling me for every little piece of equipment that goes out of whack, Eberly said to himself. Fixing machinery is his job, not mine.
On the other side of the village called Athens, Nadia Wunderly sat in her laboratory and stared disconsolately at the video imagery hovering before her eyes. It was as if the lab’s far wall had disappeared, to be replaced by the black depths of space—and the glittering splendor of Saturn’s rings.