Chapter 24

Harold sat at the front of the conference room. There was a table with two chairs, one for him and one for John Thomas. They had their brief cases in front of them, a pitcher of water, two glasses, and ten microphones. In front of their desk on a raised platform there was a long table with about ten chairs. The Senator sat facing the people testifying. Behind Harold's chair there was a series of seats bolted to the floor. About fifteen rows. Many filled with the news media, some had people that looked like citizens, a few school children, and in the back three guys. The news people all had pads and tape recorders. In one corner the video cameras had been set up to be able to pan between the Senator and Harold. There was a festive atmosphere among the news people. They each were looking for that special angle but doubted they would find it. They talked, joked, and every once in a while looked over at Harold.

At about nine the Senators started to filter in. They looked obviously pleased that the press had made such a turn out. Much better than the response for a new bill to change a bill that used to favor but now favored a special interest. This was not quite as good as the turn out for the pillorying of a public official but it was good enough. If any of them could come up with a poignant sound bite it would certainly make it to the local and probably the national news. They had all cleaned up their appearance when C-SPAN came on the stage, some even gave speeches to empty halls if the cameras were turned on. The glory of constant TV had quickly faded. The glory of these special TV coverages had not. Every toupee was in place and every tattered suit retired. They were ready.

There was always someone weird in Washington. The news crews didn't even bother to look at the three guys in back. All in blue suit coats with little epaulets, blue pants, blue socks, blue plastic Berkenstocks, and blue pancake makeup, even their hands were blue. They had little blue plastic balls on the end of springs on their heads that danced around like whirling dervishes. Someone had topped the ensemble with a sprinkling of light blue sparkles lightly doused on their hair, faces and hands. In the middle of their faces each had a plastic nose held on by an elastic strap. It wasn't really a nose but rather the head of a bluish green fish. It complemented the ensemble. It wasn't clear if they were frozen door men from the Ritz Calton, advance men for Mrs. Paul's Fish Sticks, or ex Michael Jackson's body guards.

The meeting was called to order and Senator Knophf, the chairman was the first to speak. He was a man of about 60, slightly graying hair, and a powerful speaker. He had been chairman of the Space Development committee for five years. He had seen projects come and go. The sixth shuttle had died here. The Halley's Comet Project had rotted here. The space station had been nurtured, neutered, gutted, and finally embalmed here. Senator Knophf was tired of it. He loved technology, he loved computers, rockets, planes, space, gizmos, anything with a gee whiz sense to it was all right with him. He wanted to approve something.

Knophf didn't see the three guys in back and he probably would have assumed they were AIDS protesters in the wrong committee room. He certainly didn't notice when the middle one opened his coat and pulled out a cellular phone. He punched in an eleven digit number and then touched send; after a few seconds it connected. "Cantalope, Cranshaw, and Casaba in place." He then touched the end button. The cellular phone receiver in the Capitol picked it up and transmitted the call to both California and the National Security Administration. The nature of the call and the origin immediately set off a reaction.

The rest of the committee was the problem. The social spenders were gone, extinct, downsized. The big spenders were gone. Now everbody wanted to eviscerate every program and make the money into an untrackable, lump block grant to each state. Which of course the locals loved because they could do whatever they wanted. You know every program that used to deliver twenty cents on the dollar to a needy person. It was now under state control still delivering twenty cents but nobody knew where the other eighty cents had gone. The local politicians took the blank check and delivered the votes to keep the money flowing. Knophf was sympathetic to the needy but he wanted to help them by helping the country expand and create jobs naturally. He was tired of writing checks for locals to create work. He wanted to fund national programs that created jobs to do something real, build something, develop something. Those jobs provided real opportunity and real growth he would say in his speeches.

He liked what he had heard about the Venus Project. It did seem a tad bit far fetched but it would not cost very much. It would provide a big boom for biotechnologies, and it might provide the excitement and adventure the country needed to get out of its intellectual slump. That was his other favorite speech. He would rale on and on about the intellectual slump. He wasn't implying that people weren't as smart as before. He was descrying the move toward a service oriented society that thought of investment banking as a noble profession. A society that thought the rate of increase of increased profits was the only important indicator of a company's health. The short term solution, the next quarter, why couldn't they look five or ten years down line and think about long term growth. The rate of increasing of increased profits - what a load of huey! But this Venusian thing, it was a long term project. It was an idea that had sprung into the mind of some nobody from San Francisco. It would take years to develop and the pay off would be decades from now, not next quarter. Perfect, perfect as a model of his idea of growth for the county, perfect as a metaphor for change. He should run for public office on this stump, wait he was in public office. He should campaign on this platform. Yeah.

The satellite beepers on the waist of each of the three guys vibrated in sequence. They touched the button but did not look at the little screens to see the word CONFIRMED. The NRSA computer system picked up the transmission but could never link it to the fruit call. The computer did pick up a similar transmission from another cellular phone transmitting from in front of the Capitol. "Honey Dew Ready." They didn't pick up the "CONFIRMED" for that pager either. The phone in the secret service office in the capital immediately rang. Twenty men in gray wool pants, blue suit coats, each with a microphone in his ear and a lump under his breast pocket left the office. One dispatched to each committee room and two to each House of Congress.

"I hereby call this meeting of the Space Development Committee to order. Let the minutes read that all persons testifying before this committee are under oath to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help them."

A man in a sport coat and woolen pants entered the committee room. He surveyed the scene and mumbled into his lapel. He took a seat next to the blue guys in Berkenstocks. The guy in the middle reached into his coat and touched the redial button on the cellular phone. He then touched the send, followed by the end button. The four beepers each received the same call in sequence. "SCRUBBED." The NRSA picked up the cellular phone connection to the same number in California but of course could only guess at the meaning.

"I would like to thank Dr. MacAnish from taking the time out of his schedule to testify before us today. Dr. MacAnish I understand you have a few prepared remarks."

"Thank you Mr. Chairman and Members of Congress. The BioAtmospherics project is a program developed with NASA for the development of Venus. The main thrust of this program is cooling the temperature of the planet Venus to allow life to exist on the surface. The method of cooling the planet is based on changing the composition of the atmosphere from a 99% carbon dioxide atmosphere to one containing nitrogen and oxygen and a low composition of carbon dioxide. The change in composition of the atmosphere would reduce the retention of infrared energy from the sun and allow natural cooling. The atmospheric conversion process would be accomplished by the metabolism of the carbon dioxide into organic material by a biologic process based on bacteria, algae, and lichens. These organisms would be introduced into the Venusian atmosphere by orbiting high altitude robotic aircraft. The process of atmospheric conversion would be slow and limited by the water content of the atmosphere which is quite low. It is felt that as the atmosphere cools the process would accelerate as more water was released from the planet's rock burden. Computer simulations of the conversion process indicate that after approximately ten years the surface temperature would drop from the present 700oK to 318oK or 45oC. This drop in surface temperature and change in composition would accompany a drop in atmospheric pressure from the present 90 atmospheres to approximately 1 atmosphere. This would allow life as we know it to inhabit the surface of Venus without space suits or life support systems." As Harold was speaking a staff member was handing out booklets of documents to the Senators.

Linda Grange was sitting by the phone in her home in San Francisco. The TV set was on C-SPAN. She was getting more and more furious as Harold's testimony went on. She hated the man. She could see the man in the suit coat and slacks as the TV paned the room. She knew it wasn't time but she still hated him for it.

"The cost of the initial phases of the project would be approximately $500 million dollars as outlined in the cost projection booklets just handed to you. This number has been projected by NASA and confirmed by GAO, CBO, OMB, and BO. I know this committee has seen cost projections increase by an order of magnitude during planning stages of some projects but the technology for this project is off the shelf and is already available. This initial investment would pay for one rocket, ten orbiting high altitude robotic aircraft which have the incubators and dispensing systems on board, and an orbiting base relay satellite for communication with earth." Harold felt good. He had made it through the initial stages of his presentation and had not stuttered, choked, drooled, or lost his place. He was in high form.

Linda began shredding little pieces of newspaper as she watched Harold speak.

"The second folder in the package is an analysis of the effects of this project on the planet Venus. It includes a description of the planet at the present time. A list of the limitations now placed upon exploration of the surface secondary to the high temperatures, pressures, and corrosive atmosphere. It then lists the effects of the atmospheric conversion process on the composition of the atmosphere. It then projects the surface conditions after ten and one hundred years. Then there is a worst case analysis of potential problems including - death of all the organisms before any conversion process, lack of sufficient water supply for the organic fixation of carbon dioxide, combustion of the hydrocarbons on the surface and reaccumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, evolution of a species of organism pathogenic to human life, and the emotional cost of changing a planet. Each of these worst case analyses have a brief background description and an estimated relative likelihood has been provided." Harold was a scientist. He had a long experience in the scientific world. His presentation was quick, too the point, and not full of the usual hedging, parrying, and political back scratching they were used to. He was asking for $500 million dollars and a planet to experiment on and his discussion was over in five minutes. John Thomas had tried to get him to expand it. Waffle a bit. Tell about the social aspects of the project. Harold had brushed him off. Now was the time of reckoning.

By this point, Linda had clumps of paper on the table before her and was wadding them into larger and larger clumps.

Knophf was the first to speak. "Thank you for that brief... if to the point description, Dr. MacAnish. I am surprised by the cost estimates. Just guessing from past experience here on the committee an interplanetary orbiter costs almost ten times that amount." He was trying to steer the committee away from the discussion of whether it was OK to do such a thing to the mundane details of the cost. This tack had a risk if the spend nothing on science contingent took over.

Linda began with twisting motions as if to strangle the paper. Oooh! It felt so good. Just the memory of having his throat in her hands was wonderful.

"Previous interplanetary probes have required long development cycles and the development of ground based controlling systems. We are using an installed ground based controller, an already developed rocket, an off the shelf orbiting relay satellite left over from the Haley's Comet Project, and a set of aircraft developed for high altitude surveillance of drug smugglers. We have cut the development time to three years and have cut the cost to ten percent of the anticipated project cost. Surprisingly, both the GAO, CBO, and NASA agree on the numbers. OMB and BO don't. BO says they are a bit under."

Senator Derwin was the next to speak. He was from the northeast somewhere. Harold had seen him on TV but couldn't remember which state he was from. Harold leaned over and poked John Thomas to try and get a hint but John didn't even shift his glance. "Dr. MacAnish, what kind of doctor are you?" He didn't stop for Harold to speak. "Where in the world do you get the right to change the atmosphere of Venus as an experiment? Who do you think you are, GOD?" He didn't want an answer he wanted a sound bite and the pace was important to get it all in, in the five seconds required for the national evening news. "You come before Congress asking for 500 million dollars to spray some algae over a planet when you aren't sure what is going to happen. What about the poor people of this country that don't have enough to eat? What about the deplorable state of our nation's schools? What about our national debt? Why should we spend taxpayers hard earned money on your cock-a-mainie project?" The chairman rapped his gavel.

"Get him, Derwin!" Linda was jumping up at down and yelling at the TV.

"Senator Derwin, we are not here to address the relative merits of projects and my honorable colleague from New Hampshire knows this. Please allow Dr. MacAnish to answer the questions. Which would you like to hear him answer first?"

"Shut up Knophf. How can you support such a despicable man?!" Linda dropped back into her chair, despondent.

Harold open his mouth and began. "Yes, no right, no. It may help them. The development of a planet for the extension of man's inhabitable world is not a cock-a- mainie project. Does that answer your questions?" Harold looked smug. Fortunately, as the temper rose in Derwin, Knophf dropped his gavel again. John Thomas was about to explode but instead he elbowed Harold. Harold ignored it and sat up a bit straighter.

The rest of the committee stuck to details. They wanted facts. They wanted to be on record as evaluating it and reviewing it. By lunch time the atmosphere was getting friendly. Harold had brought along a portable computer with a graphical display of the atmospheric composition. As he got to the questions about specific bacteria he ran a few simulations of the reactions and answered their questions. A few of the senators even asked for the software. They adjourned for lunch.

The three guys in blue were picked up by a fourth one in front of the Capitol. All were videotaped by the Secret Service but they weren't quite sure what to make of it. Harold, John Thomas, and Senator Knophf ate in a restaurant near the Capitol. By the end of the afternoon, Derwin was forgotten and the check was, as they say, in the mail. Harold left for the airport followed by a car full of blue guys and a car full of secret service agents. Harold was, as usual, oblivious to all.

Linda looked at the last item on here scrub list. Remove call diverter. She grabbed her car keys and headed for the pay phone that was the link to it all. She would move it just in case. So many pay phones, so many chances.

Chapter 25

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