“She’s cagey,” Ivy said. “As long as all she’s doing is talking to people, there’s not much I can or should do.”
“Agreed,” Luisa said. “She is building a political base among the Arkies. If you take some action against her, with your sole pretext being that she’s talking to a lot of people, then you’ve given her just what she wants. But some outreach on your part to the Arkies might be a good idea.”
Ivy sighed. “The only answer to politics is more politics,” she said, “and that’s where I’m most useless.”
“Deeds, not words,” Zeke said. “That’s what really matters. And when Ymir pulls in, you and Markus will have accomplished something that’s going to make J.B.F. and her clique look puny.”
“I MAY BE OUT OF MY DEPTH HERE,” JULIA SAID, AFTER A LONG AND thoughtful pause, “but we seem to have a striking coincidence that is staring us right in the face.”
“Go on, Madam President,” Camila urged her. “It might be obvious to you, but I for one cannot see it.”
Julia looked at Katherine Quine. “As I understand it, the key elements of the proposed Mars ship are a heptad, for the humans to live in during the voyage, and a triad, for bulk storage of propellants and whatnot. And this matches up quite neatly with our strengths.” She managed a self-deprecating chuckle. “I say ‘our.’ What do I mean by that? I suppose I’m going out on a limb by imagining that there might be some sort of a natural alliance between the Arkie Community and the Martians. A sort of ragtag rebel coalition, if you will. Here in this heptad we have rapidly assembled a social hub for advocacy of concerns relevant to the AC. In a sense we have our own heptad now. And in a like sense, you, Ravi and Jianyu, have developed your triad into an intense focus of Martian advocacy. You have your own triad. So the two largest components of the Mars expedition have already been acquired. They just need to be put together.”
Ravi was nodding. “Two of the engineers on the MIV team are keen on it. They helped build New Caird and are eager to tackle a new problem. Of the two, one might even come with us. Paul Freel. He has been a strong advocate of Mars colonization since long before Zero.”
Katherine had been listening intently, and now broke in: “I don’t mean to sound a skeptical note, Madam President, but in what sense do you really ‘have’ this heptad, or do our friends here ‘have’ the triad where they live? It might be true in the sense of having majority rule. But—”
“But what does ownership really mean in this context? Hmm, yes, it is a very profound question, Dr. Quine, and I’m glad you raised it. So many things we took for granted before, such as property rights and individual liberty, are clouded by Markus’s declaration of PSAPS. Or martial law, if we want to call a spade a spade. But as a first step toward answering your question, I would suggest that the ability to come and go at will is inextricable from ownership—that’s what it would really mean to ‘have’ an arklet, or a triad, or a heptad.”
“Well, in that sense we’re really all subject to the collective dictates of the swarm,” Katherine said. “Parambulator is what decides where we go when.”
“It truly is one of the most insidious instruments of social control ever devised,” Julia said.
Katherine looked mildly aghast. “But without it, we have a disaster.”
“That is what makes it so insidious,” Julia said. “One can always justify it by making the safety argument. We will all be slaves of Parambulator until and unless someone decides that some things are more important.”
Jianyu was looking alert and curious. “If someone did decide that,” he said, “it would change nothing unless the arklet in question was switched over to manual control.”
“It’s my understanding that this can be done at any time,” Julia said. “Was I misinformed?”
“No,” Jianyu answered, “but it would show up very prominently on Parambulator. It would set off alarms all over the Situational Awareness Network.”