The search for serenity is a journey, and sometimes journeys take unexpected turns …
Canadian Space Agency HQ, St. Hubert, QC, Contract Day 26
Dr. Chen Chao was at his desk in the Canadian Space Agency HQ building in St. Hubert, Quebec, working late on the latest data from SciSat. It was a small Canadian satellite that did quietly useful work, even if it did not get the benefit of NASA’s relentless PR machine. Over two decades of hard data collected on the constituents of Earth’s atmosphere was no small accomplishment.
Chen had his own list of accomplishments based on those data. His specialty was paleoclimatology, but the data of the present was the building stones for the models he was building to understand the history of the planet. Wistful fantasies about data and models from the PortalNet he classed as one with Santa Claus and the Stork.
A flag came up on his computer screen, a text from the receptionist for this block of offices, given over to the SciSat researchers. It was still necessary to filter visitors, even in the post-Portal world where climate science was back to its roots as a field of scientific inquiry instead of a political football for activists and politicians.
“Dr. Chao, an Evan Carlsen wishes to speak to you. He does not have an appointment. He does say he wishes to discuss a grant opportunity.” That was certainly enough to get his attention. Such opportunities were a lot harder to come by these days, and they had never been easy to find. He frowned, as a second thought occurred to him. Opportunity from out of the clear blue sky. Is it perched on the tail of a dragon?
He typed briefly. “Please, send him up.”
“Very well, Dr. Chao.” Nancy Cunningham managed to imbue plain text with prim disapproval. She was a very orderly person who liked appointments to be planned and organized, not just walk in the door.
The man who walked in his office door a few minutes later was medium height, white, with a forgettable face and an Ivy League look. He was immaculately turned out in a business suit. Unlike many of his colleagues, Chen kept his office neat, so he could simply shake hands and wave his visitor to a chair.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Carlsen?” Chen studied his visitor, wondering just who he might work for. He didn’t look like a US Federal agent, but then some of them didn’t, which Chen had learned the hard way. He took comfort from the thought that they had no jurisdiction in Canada.
Carlsen smiled briefly, then brought out his cell phone, which had a case with a wallet. “Let’s clear the air a little, first. I’m not an agent of any US Government agency, and I don’t work for the US Government in any capacity.”
“Who do you work for, Mr. Carlsen?” Chen wasn’t going to take a stranger at face value.
Carlsen flipped open the phone’s wallet to show an ID. “I work for Risk Enterprises, Dr. Chao, so it is more a case of what I can do for you. Professor Sandusky sends his regards. He spoke very highly of you, right back to the day when the glacier crumbled under both of you in Antarctica.”
“Kind of him.” Risk Enterprises? Chen studied his visitor much more closely as he realized just how much Carlsen knew about him, as revealed by those two casually thrown out statements.
“You know quite a lot about me, Mr. Carlsen. I would like to know just how and why you gained that knowledge.” Chen was now fully alert. Risk Enterprises was a US corporation, when it was all said and done.
Carlsen chuckled. “We have an extensive dossier on you, Doctor Chao, but none of it came from the US Government.”
“I didn’t hear anything about that.” Chen had a pretty good network about such things, developed from necessity.
Carlsen turned serious. “When Arms Investigations looks into your background, Dr. Chao, that is what you may expect to hear.”
Chen didn’t know the name. “So what have they unearthed about me and my rather boring life?”
“You are not affiliated with any agency of the PRC Government, and in fact you have been a thorn in their side once or twice when you had the opportunity. Your criminal record is non-existent and your academic record stellar. You have led two expeditions to Antarctica in the course of your research, and were part of two more led by Professor Sandusky. You have no use for the US Government and have as little to do with them as possible. Hardly surprising, considering you were forced out of NASA and Columbia University by the attention of the FBI over groundless accusations of espionage.” Carlsen could have been reciting the alphabet.
“Which brings me to your attention precisely how?” Chen asked, warily.
Carlsen smiled enigmatically, reached into his suit jacket and drew out a folded sheet of paper, putting it on the desk. “I can only discuss that, and other matters, if you sign this.”
Chen unfolded the paper, a heavy parchment with the logo of Risk Enterprises at the top. The heading was “Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement”. He took the time to read it thoroughly. The penalties for breaking the silence signing it bound him to were — impressive, but it was only that and confined to this conversation. There were two copies.
Chen took a pen from his desk set and signed both copies. He was willing to go that far on the invocation of his old mentor and thesis adviser’s name, confirmed by mention of the incident that few others knew about or remembered after all these years.
He put the pen down. “Risk Enterprises is a very large empire, Mr. Carlsen. Do you represent a particular province of that empire?”
Carlsen folded one of the copies away into his suit jacket and left the other on the desk. “I represent Master Blasters, Dr. Chao.”
“There is a world in peril out among the stars?” Chen was a movie buff, and “Fire In The Hole” was already a classic.
“Well, part of one. A problem has come up with an ongoing Contract. We have a Variance.” Carlsen replied, his easy manner giving way to focused attention.
“Variance.” There should be a drumbeat.
Carlsen took a small tablet out of the side pocket of his suit, thumb-printed it on. “Read.”
Chen did. He went cold all over. A continental disaster now had planetary implications. A sudden release of that much methane had happened in Earth’s history, and the effects had been significant, as he had gone to some pains to prove in a controversial paper which had nevertheless stood hostile scrutiny.
“There are a number of questions which need to be addressed as a Contract requirement. How stable are these deposits? What are the effects if the gas escapes? What can be done to mitigate those effects?” Carlsen’s voice was quiet but relentless.
Another line from the movie ran through Chen’s mind. There are three levels of urgency in the Company. ASAP, RFN, and Contract Requirement.
“You would expect me to just walk away from my work, devote myself full time to this project indefinitely.” Chen said, still trying to regain his serenity.
“That’s the Contract, Doctor. I dislike having to come back with second best, and Arnold Jansen is definitely that, but time presses. In or out.” Carlsen said.
Jansen. He knows. Chen avoided academic feuds. They did not accord with the Way of Tao. Jansen was an exception to that rule. There was a small ignoble part of him which would cut off a hand sooner than see an opportunity like this go to him.
Chen closed his eyes briefly, sought for serenity, opened them again. “In, Mr. Carlsen.”
“Good. Professor Sandusky has already agreed to intercede with the Rector of McMaster University to cover your teaching duties, and Elroy Risk will deal with the President of the CSA over your duties here. Let’s go.” Carlsen got up and headed for the door.
Chen snapped his laptop shut, yanked out the power cable and stuck it in the case along with the computer, then hurried to catch up with Carlsen’s long stride. Carlsen was already on his phone. “This is Carlsen. Dr. Chao is on board. Activate him on the network, please. Standard Contract, consultant to Contract Variance, access to Risk Enterprises resources.”
Chen lost a little ground as he stopped to talk to Nancy Cunningham. “Nancy, I will be out of the office and unavailable indefinitely.”
He hurried to catch up with Carlsen, leaving Nancy looking shocked and disapproving behind him.
As he caught up again, Carlsen handed him a phone. The titanium case had the logo of Risk Enterprises on it. He held it up, and it opened to his face. Going through the rest of the login, registering his irises and fingerprints, he managed to do in the rental car on the way to the airport.
“Do I need my passport?” Chen belatedly realized that the sleek executive jet with the Risk Enterprises logo could take him out of the country to a lot of places.
“Not for now, Doctor Chao. You will be working in Vancouver, at PortalNet Liaison.” They boarded the luxuriously appointed private jet, and the engines began to spool up as soon as they were on board. Carlson pointed him to a computer workstation. Chen took the hint and got to work.
The NASA ROCKE-3D program would do for a start, and, yes, it was on the Risk Enterprises network. He pulled up the files for the rundeck and started building the planet.
He was in that rare Nirvana for a scientist of being unable to complain about limitations of his data. The data set attached to the Survey Report from SS Jonas Stone was massive.
Chen hardly noticed when the jet taxied out for its takeoff. He had taken Contract.
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